First of all, for the record book, my delay in posting was NOT my fault. I have been trying to post this blog since last Wednesday, but, on Wednesday, we switched internet services from NorthState to Time Warner with the goal of "bundling and saving." Well, oh my, that was a mistake. Our internet didn't work at all until Saturday and then on Saturday, I started attempting to upload pics for this blog and it took hours!!! So, here, now, at 5:00am on Thursday morning, I finally got everything posted! And, because it took me so long, I had to include pictures from several events from the last two weekends. Just another little FYI about this internet stuff - our Time Warner Cable internet is still EXTREMELY slow - this is after having a maintenance guy from Time Warner come to our house 3 TIMES on 3 different days and after many hours on the phone "trouble shooting" with some ridiculous costumer service person. Needless to say, we are DONE with Time Warner. We are having PLEX from NorthState installed next week. They are reasonably priced and they have to have better service. We only had their internet before and never had a problem so we don't expect any problems from the TV, phone, and internet bundling deal. So....to make a long story short - choose your internet provider wisely and stay away from Time Warner. I will be for the rest of my life the biggest complainer of that company-the public needs to know that they are a rip-off. :)
Okay, okay....I'm off the soapbox. :)
Welcome to anyone who is visiting my blog for the first time. This year on my Christmas cards, I included this web address, so, hopefully, some of you are visiting because now you know where to find us. Normally, I post at least once a week, many times twice a week, so check back often.
Speaking of Christmas cards, the Bumgarner family is in the Christmas spirit. I decorated the house this year earlier than I ever have before. I had the Christmas decorations on the porch BEFORE Thanksgiving and then put up our artificial tree and decorated it Thanksgiving night. Luke is doing great with staying away from the tree. I popped his hand two times on the first day it was up and he has not bothered it since then. Luke is very excited about Christmas too. He talks about Santa and what Santa is going to bring him. He says that Santa is going to bring him a vacuum cleaner (he saw a picture of a toy one in a magazine and told me that he wanted Santa to bring that to him) and he wants Santa to bring him a big lawn mower. I will talk with Santa about those things and maybe, just maybe, they will arrive. :)
Now, because Luke likes to talk about Santa, you might think that he would want to talk with Santa himself. Well, on Sunday, we attempted just that - we took Luke for his first visit with Santa. We had a wonderful time - Santa was just a small piece of the adventure....
On Sunday, we had nothing else to do after church, so Landis and I decided at the last minute to head to Spencer, NC to ride the Santa Train. I didn't buy tickets ahead of time - we just decided to take the chance and hit the highway. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to see only a small crowd there. We bought tickets within 5 minutes of arriving and then only had to wait about 20 minutes for the first train ride. Luke didn't mind the wait at all. He had a ball running and climbing around train depot- he ran up the hills, crawled through the rails, picked up leaves, picked up rocks, and even made him a few friends. :) He was definitely interested in the train because he kept saying, "I ride the train" and when we would ask him who he was going to see, he would say "Santa." So, once again, we were thinking that, yes, Luke would enjoy his visit with Santa. Not so much....I will continue....
We boarded the decorated Christmas train and off we went to the "North Pole." Luke was very excited for the first 5 minutes that we were on the train. He wanted to sing the Christmas songs, look out the window, explore the seats, etc. Then, about 5 minutes into the ride, he was ready to get out of his seat and start walking around to explore. Well, obviously, this wasn't going to work on a moving train, so in order to entertain him, I had to pull out the mommy "tickle monster." We had a blast doing this! That genuine out loud laugh has to be the best sound ever! I tickled, tickled, and tickled some more. I have some super cute pics that Landis took of our tickle session.
Before we knew it, we arrived at the "North Pole" (aka - the roundhouse). We got off the train and headed straight to the Santa line. We only waited about 5 minute and then it was our turn. Daddy had the camera ready, Mommy had explained to Luke what he would do - I even promised him that I would sit beside of him (crouched down on the floor) while he talked with Santa. As we approached Santa, Luke's little hands wrapped around my neck tighter. I showed him the candy canes and I tried to convince him to sit with Santa to get his candy cane. No way dude, this wasn't happening. He wrapped around my neck as tight as he could. He didn't cry or pitch a fit - he just acted like he was nervous. The Santa that was there was super sweet. He didn't push the issue, he just asked Luke to give him a high 5 and showed him that he could shake my hand - I guess he was thinking this would show Luke that he wasn't a scary man. Luke did give Santa the high 5 but he WOULD not sit down on his knee. So, getting a picture was impossible!!:) Landis took some of the struggle to get him on Santa's knee that you will see below. So, to sum it up, Luke's first visit with Santa was limited to a high 5 and a candy cane - no picture and no opportunity for Luke to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. We are going to give it another shot this weekend with another trip to Santa that we have planned. :0
After surviving the visit with Santa, we moved on to explore the rest of the museum. There were several electric train stations set up that the kids could touch the buttons and it would work the train station. Luke enjoyed this, but, what he enjoyed even more was running and climbing in and around the real trains that they had on display. There were a few trains that you could climb steps to and then explore on the inside. Luke loved that! However, on the trains that he couldn't climb into, he did not like that! Matter of fact, he had one toddler "meltdown" after Daddy told him to get away from a certain area that was dangerous. Thank goodness - we got his attention on another train so the meltdown didn't last too long.
There were a few trains that looked like the trains from the cartoon "Chuggington" - these were his favorite. He would call them "Chuggington Trains." As we continued to explore the museum, Luke got wilder and wilder. At one point, he just began running in circles around a huge open area. Then, he would run and climb as quick as he could onto each bench that he passed. For about 30 minutes, he ran and ran and climbed and climbed and only stopped to touch the ground to fill the gravel and to pick up rocks. You could tell by the look on his face that he was having a blast!
Finally, 2 hours after our arrival, Luke wanted me to carry him on my shoulders, so I did and we headed to the car. (I should say that we also visited the gift shop and Luke played with the little push cars that they had. When we had to leave the gift shop, I was very proud of Luke, he didn't cry or have a meltdown.) Luke must've been tired because he was asleep within 10 minutes in the car.
This spur of the moment family trip ended up being the perfect way to end our Thanksgiving holiday weekend. What a fun day! Here are the pictures....
These first two were taken around 4:45am on Sunday morning - for some reason, every day on the long weekend, Luke woke up between 4:15 and 4:45 each morning. I had to get creative with what we could play together. In these pictures, Luke and I built a tiny chair out of legos for his Mickey Mouse to sit on. Luke is proud of his chair! See???
This is his cheesy smiling face....
Oh...and I almost forgot....George must've needed some milk....
The day at the Santa Train....waiting on the train...
Another cheesy face...
On the train....
The not so cooperative visit with Santa...
Enjoying his candy cane...
Climbing on benches....
Posing in front of one of the first school buses....
And...next....last Sunday, just Luke and I went to the Christmas festival in downtown Lexington. I am learning that downtown Lexington (or, I think, it's actually called uptown Lexington) has the neatest festivals - not just the BBQ festival. After Luke's nap, Luke and I turned on the Christmas music in the car and headed south....Luke has the cutest Christmas CD that we listen to in the car - Luke's favorites are Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, and All I Want for Christmas is a Hippopotamus! We love to sing together as we ride.
At the festival, we rode the Polar Express train around the uptown streets and then went on a horse and buggy carriage ride. That was very neat! I think Mommy enjoyed that just as much as Luke did.
After the carriage ride, Luke read a story with Mrs. Claus. This was cute! Luke enjoyed that!
Then, Luke's favorite part - after we had ridden everything we could ride and had walked around for awhile, I took Luke to the old fashioned candy store. This place was extremely crowded but that didn't phase Luke. He went straight to the big suckers, so we left the store with one AND with a beanie baby sock puppet AND a cookie for mommy. :)
Luke enjoyed his sucker as you will see in the pictures!!! It was peppermint flavored so he kept telling me that he was eating a "chewing gum sucker" - I guess because I have let him taste peppermint chewing gum this is how he made this connection. Me, Luke, and the big sucker continued our adventure just walking around Lexington. Luke would stop and talk to people, then all of a sudden he would sit down on the edge of a curb or bench and would focus on his sucker. We walked and walked together while listening to the beautiful carolers singing in the distance. At times, Luke would get so excited (for no certain reason), he would just squeeze his little hands and grin so big. And, a few times, he just slowly walked over to me and grabbed my hand with his sticky hand or wrapped his arms around my leg. As we made our way to the car - the Christmas music in the background, Luke's tiny hands on his sucker that he was enjoying so much - just watching him enjoy himself - I just about got emotional - I couldn't help but think how blessed we are to have this little guy in our life. I began to think about how much fun this Christmas season was going to be as we watched Christmas time through his eyes! I guess this is just one reason why I was in the Christmas mood so early - 2 years ago the Lord blessed us with this little man - he just happened to give him to us as a Christmas present and, man oh man, what a gift - besides the birth of Jesus - Luke is the greatest gift we have been given! And, boy, this Christmas season is going to be fun! Enjoy our pictures from our Mommy and Luke Christmas date in Lexington...
The backpack that you will see Luke wearing in some of the pictures is a monkey backpack that also has a long tail that can be used as a safety harness to make sure that Luke doesn't run off. Most of the time (to prevent Luke from looking like he's on a "leash"), I put this backpack on him, keep the tail close to my side, and hold his hand so that he learns to depend on holding my hand, not to depend on using the "leash" to stay near me. Anyway....here are the pictures....
The carriage driver saw me trying to take a picture of Luke in front of the horses, so she offered to let him sit with her....
Luke with Mrs. Claus. The line for Santa was too long....
Luke doing his cheesy smiling face...
His "chewing gum sucker"....
Oh yeah...and I almost forgot I had posted these pictures....last week, we went to Luke's preschool for a Thanksgiving feast - all the parents brought a potluck dish and ate with the kids...it was neat...me, Daddy, and Mammaw went to eat with Luke. The kids wore these pilgrim hats...check it out...
Here is Luke reading a Christmas book....
And...some pictures of Thanksgiving....we ate at my aunt Sonya's house this year and her yard is full of leaves. Luke and his cousins, Sydney and Logan, had a blast playing in these leaves. As you know, Thanksgiving Day was gorgeous and perfect for playing outdoors! The kids would build a large leaf pile and then jump in them and then they tossed leaves everywhere...it was fun just to watch them! See???
Luke looks really grown up in this picture....doesn't he??? :( 
And....here are some pictures of Luke in front of our Christmas tree...
Oh yeah....man, I had a lot to post....on Saturday, it was another beautiful day so Luke and I went to Union Cross park for about 2 hours just to play. Luke played on the playground and also enjoyed playing with the leaves and the rocks on and around the track. We took Thomas the Train and he rode that around the track too. Here he is exploring at the park....
And...some cute videos....
(1) Luke is talking about the Christmas Tree and what he wants for Christmas.
(2) Luke is reading one of his Christmas books and showing me how his belly is big like Santa's....:)
Thank you for your patience in this long delay in posting and the long post - we have some fun plans for late in the weekend so I will aim to post again either Sunday night or Monday night. Check back soon! I hope you, too, are in the Christmas mood!
Toddy
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