Our Valentine

What a nasty day - cold, rainy, great for taking a nap, which I might just do after I type this blog. Lukester is sound asleep in his room after a super morning at church and at lunch. I haven't written about our church experiences much on this blog, so, now, with such a good morning behind us would be a great opportunity. We attend a small church in Thomasville - there are only about 30 members. Our church doesn't have a nursery so all the kids (which is a total of 3!) stay upstairs with us. Each Sunday, we load Luke's bag up with puzzles, crayons, markers, dinosaurs, cars, tons of snacks, and any other quiet toys that Luke wants to bring. I usually let Luke help me pack his church bag. Some Sunday mornings, Luke does well for 20 minutes and then has to be taken out, some mornings he makes it 45 minutes (which until today was the record), and then this morning, he stayed upstairs with the grown-ups for 1 hour and a half. I couldn't believe it! His great behavior might have had something to do with the fact that, unlike his normal 5:00am wake up time, he slept until 6:50am!!! We were very proud of Luke's behavior. He was well rested, knew the expectations, and did what he was suppose to! What a big boy! And, then sat through lunch and ate with such good manners! Again...what a big boy! We will continue to take one Sunday at a time, but, for now, we are celebrating this successful one! :)

Now, on to my reason for posting - Valentine's Day! Before Luke, Valentine's Day was all about a romantic dinner, flowers, and gifts. Now, the focus of Valentine's Day has turned to the joy and love that having our sweet Luke brings both of us! Yes, Landis and I still made sure to give each other a small gift and a card, but, most of all, we made sure to take some extra time to snuggle with Luke on this day meant for celebrating love and kindness. Matter of fact, my heart swelled Tuesday morning as I was getting ready for work because in the background I could hear Luke and Landis giggling out loud as Landis tickled Luke and snuggled with him in the "big bed" (as Luke calls it). This laughter reminded me of how blessed I am to have a loving husband and a precious baby boy to share my time with - I cannot put into words how thankful I am to my heavenly Father for providing me all the blessings I have.

You know - Landis and I aren't rich, we don't live in a huge house and drive expensive cars, we don't have the money to travel the world or to buy each other lavish gifts, but we have each other and we have a loving home with the best representation of God's love that we could ever ask for - Our Valentine - Luke!

Here are some pictures of our Bumgarner Valentine's Day celebration!

On Monday night while Luke was asleep, Papaw Donnie brought Luke a ballon, some animal crackers, and his favorite candy - Reese peanut butter cups (shaped like a heart). I sat his gifts on the living room table so Luke would see them when he woke up. As soon as he woke up, Luke went straight to the candy....see???

Nothing like a Reese for breakfast! :)



There's his music playing Valentine card....and a great morning hair do! :)



When mammaw Carolyn arrived, she brought Luke his Valentine present - a huge penguin that Luke later named Pepper. Check him out...



After a few morning gifts for Luke from his mammaw and pappaw, I went on to work and Luke and Mammaw got ready for school. Luke took his Valentine goodies to school for his classmates. And, when I got home from work, I saw that Luke received quite a few goodies himself. They didn't open their Valentines at school, so Luke and I sat in the floor together while he opened his cards and presents from his friends at school. He thought it was Christmas again.

Hannah gave him this little bear cup with a straw. He loves this thing!



I love this face....


I gave his classmates two books and some M and Ms....I saved one goody bag for Luke. Here he is opening up his books from us.

Looking for more presents....(look at the mess surrounding him)
Finally, when Daddy got home, we let Luke open his Valentine presents from us. Here's one of them....a Roary car for the bath tub. It had bubble bath in it. Luke also had a Minnie Mouse Valentine book, some M and Ms, 2 ring pops, and an animal sound card in his treat bag from Mommy and Daddy.
And....one little extra gift....a remote control dump truck that Luke kept asking for at Wal-Mart. Because he was good about understanding that he couldn't have it - I surprised him with it! This is Daddy showing him how to use it.
After the gift opening and some time playing with his toys, Luke and I headed to gymnastics for our regular Tuesday night fun. Gymnastics was extra fun because we were able to jump in the pit and jump on the big trampoline. Luke had a blast and was so very sweet! Once we arrived back home, Luke got ready for bed and I read him his new Minnie Valentine book about 5 times!!! And, then rocked him to sleep, as usual! As we rocked, I thanked the Lord for such a sweet boy and a great day! :) I hope that all of you also had a great Valentine's Day! :)

Keeping with the theme of Valentine's, I should note that I am loving this stage of snuggliness that Luke is in right now. For some reason, Luke is all about snuggling with Mommy lately. He wants a lot of extra hugs and will ask me to crawl in his tunnel to snuggle with him and to play on the big bed with him so we can snuggle. Matter of fact, yesterday morning, Luke woke up at 5:30am and all he wanted to do was stay in bed and snuggle. He wasn't in a hurry to get up - we snuggled and played with his stuffed animals in bed until 6:00am. I enjoy these slow paced times with him and will cherish them one day when he doesn't want to hug anymore. :)

A few other random facts about Luke's recent conversations....the other day, for some reason, Luke called me "Tasha" - probably because he hears Landis say that. I told him, "You don't call me Tasha. You call me Mommy." So, the next day, he yelled out, "Tasha!" I looked at him funny and he giggled and made a silly face and said, "You're not Tasha. You're Mommy!" :)

Along the same lines, yesterday Luke was being silly and I said, "You are being goofy." Luke's response - "I'm not Goofy. I'm Luke Bumgarner." (Well, excuse me, sir!) :)

Here are a few random pictures of some playing times around the house. Even Madi loves Mickey Mouse....

Friday afternoon was gorgeous and I got off work just a tad bit early so Luke and I played outside for a few hours. Luke wanted to get out his wagon, which we haven't done in a long time so we did. I was able to get some of the cutest pictures....check them out...

These are quite precious....I can't help but say it myself.






Grandaddy stopped by and pulled him for a second. See the house in the background???That's my dad's new house....we have two yards and driveways to play in now.
At one point, Luke tried to pull the wagon all by himself. As he started up a hill, he grunted and tried his best to pull the wagon by himself and then, all of a sudden, he looked at me and said, "I need a Mouse-ka-tool, I mean a Mouse-ka-toodle, I mean"....and giggled. For those of you who don't watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....he was quoting Goofy. :)

We saw a bird in the yard and Luke wanted to go see it so I said we must try to walk very slow and quiet so he doesn't fly off. This is Luke putting his quiet sign up...
And....then....running not so quietly or slowly....
Here he is looking for an airplane that he heard....
And, sitting in Daddy's truck like a big boy.
Yesterday morning Luke and I were sorting his screws into bowls and we pretended to give a different color of screw to me, Luke, Dana the Dinosaur, and Max (the stuffed dog). Luke thought the screws could be like soup so he started stirring them. Here he is stirring his screw soup.


And, giving Dana the Dinosaur a hug....
Daddy bought him this dinosaur at Barnes and Nobles while I had my hair cut the other day....
There are our bowls!
Finally, I know you knew this was coming - because yesterday was so gorgeous and Luke took a very early nap (10:30 to 12:00), we headed to a playground for some outdoor fun. I picked a playground that Luke and I have never gone to - it was on Skeet Club Rd in High Point. It was a great playground - actually, it was the safest playground that we have ever gone to. The stairs and slides were age appropriate for Luke. I didn't have to climb behind him on anything like I usually have to. It was neat and we had a great time! Here are some pictures...



Every time Luke gets ready to go down a slide, he hangs at the top for a second....I think he does this because he enjoys the bars and the rings at gymnastics....check out my strong man!



This picture has a cute story behind it. After we had been playing for about 30 minutes, Luke asked for his juice and then sat down on the end of the slide. I said, "Are you tired?" He grinned real big and jumped toward the camera and said, "No!!" as he laughed out loud. I snapped the camera just in time to catch his silliness....
He played so hard that he said he was hot so he asked me to take his jacket off. Then, he said, "I'm going to go sit down on the rocks. Mommy, come snuggle with me on the rocks." So, I went and sat down right beside of him and snuggled. Here he is in his T-shirt taking a break on the rocks.
Playing peek-a-book with me....


He was talking and being silly just as I snapped a picture....check out this silly face..
He loves to dig in the dirt with sticks. He met another little boy at the park named Shawn and at one point, Shawn and his mom and dad were drawing shapes in the dirt with sticks. Luke saw them and went over to watch. As they drew, Luke named the shapes. Shawn's parents were very impressed with Luke's language skills and the shapes he knew. They decided to challenge him a little and tripped him up on the pentagon and hexagon - he doesn't know those - YET! I enjoyed getting to know this sweet little couple and Shawn was adorable and very smart as well!
Luke playing with the leaves....

Being extra silly!!!


For journaling purposes, here are some more things that Luke and I did together at the park that I didn't take pictures of - believe it or not, I don't take pictures of everything! LOL!

After Luke climbed by himself for quite awhile, he asked me to climb and slide with him, so I did. Luke loves for me to slide down the double slides with him. We will count 1, 2, and 3 and then slide together!

Luke loves to pick up acorns and then roll them down the slide. He counts the acorns as he picks them up.

There was this curvy ladder that looked very difficult to climb. When we first got there, Luke wanted to climb it and I told him that he was too small. Well, Luke watched his friend, Shawn, who was 3 years old, climb it several times and then told me that he would do it "all by himself." I decided to let him try. I stood close behind him and, to my surprise, he climbed right up. As he climbed, he used his gymnastics training by saying, "Hand, hand, foot, foot" (that's what Mrs. Amber tells him). He's such a little monkey! :)

Luke loves to pick up sticks of all sizes, so each time he had a handful of sticks, we talked about which ones were the smallest and biggest.

And, then before we left, I let Luke get out his 4-wheeler that we brought with us and ride it on the paved walkways. Luke loved this! Check him out! :)




It was a super fun day outside together! I'm glad we took advantage of the weather because it looks like we will be playing indoors today and probably tomorrow.

Here are some videos...

1. Luke riding his 4-wheeler at the park.

2. Luke stirring his bowl of screws. Luke has the hardest time saying the "r" sound. It is so cute to hear him say words like "gears", "there", and "stir." As Luke was stirring the screws (before I turned the camera on), he was saying, "Stir, stir, stir." This phrase is so cute because of his "r"'s. As soon as I turned the camera on, he wouldn't say it anymore but I continued to try to coach him too. The video ended up pretty cute anyway.

3. Luke climbing the steps and rolling an acorn down the slide at the park.

4. As Luke and I were going around papaw Dale's yard in the wagon, we saw a squirrel run from one end of the fence to the other and then up a tree. Luke was fascinated by this and kept talking about it. Once again, because of his "r's" being mispronounced, the word squirrel is quite cute coming from his little voice. I tried to get him to talk about the squirrel on camera so you all could hear it. He cooperated - sort of.

That's all for today, folks! Enjoy your family time inside! :) Luke and I have an extra day together tomorrow - NO SCHOOL in celebration of President's Day! I don't know what we will end up doing but I'm sure you will find out next week!

Thanks for reading! See you soon!

Toddy