Puke

Well we had our first barf in the car incident yesterday.  We were headed up to Big Bear Lake for a Father's Day picnic.  We had just gotten there and was scoping out a place to eat when all of a sudden I looked back at Dominik and he had puke everywhere!  He then proceeded to puke a few more times.  It was absolutely disgusting.  Luckily there was a parking lot/picnic area pretty close with a bathroom, so we got him washed off and wiped off the car seat as best as possible.  We then ate lunch as Dominik was starving.  Luckily it was only car sickness from the curvy mountain roads.  After lunch we cut our trip short and praised the Lord that there was a Kmart up there.  We purchased a new convertible car seat, as Brooklyn needed one anyways.  Boy did we luck out!  Puke smell is almost gone off of the car seat cover, and we survived!

Easter!

We had a pretty low key Easter as we didn't go anywhere or have family in town. The kids got to meet the Easter Bunny at a MOMS Club Easter party on Thursday. Dominik loved it! He was truly amazed. On Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt for Dominik and we also went on a bike ride/walk. He's getting so good at his bike! Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

 

 

A Christmas Miracle!

Forgive me for being late, I've been working on this post for a week, but I figured it would be worth it!

So, if you haven't heard, the Applegate Christmas Miracle took place between December 21 and Jan 1.  Who knew we could bring joy to pretty much everyone in our families??

It started out with a drive to Canyon, TX to visit Bruce's brother Ben and his family.  They just recently moved there and we figured it would be a good stopping point on our journey.  This leg of the trip was only supposed to take 11 hours, max.  Well, I-40 was closed due to a snow storm, so we had to find a different route.  Thank goodness we knew this before we left!  We ended up driving south through Tucson, over through Las Cruces, and then up into Canyon.  Total trip length:  14 hours.  The kids were pretty good as we drove the majority of it at night, and by "we" I mean Bruce.  haha.  Once we got there, we slept of course and had a great time hanging out with Mullen and Logan, even if it was only for a day!  That night we went to a restaurant that had a food challenge.  Bruce decided to do it. It was a 24 oz Country fried steak, 1 lb of fries, 1 lb of gravy, 1 lb of green beans, 1 roll, and 1 salad. I thought he could, but he just couldn't quite get everything down. 

We also celebrated Christmas with them.  It was nice to get to exchange gifts in person, rather than mail them!

After leaving Texas, we made our way up to Topeka, KS.  Bruce has an aunt and 4 cousins (plus their families) that live there.  We were able to swing in and have dinner with them and hang our for a couple of hours.  We hadn't seen them since our wedding, they are a fun group, especially since we are all fairly close in age.  They really enjoyed meeting the kiddos and Dominik had fun playing with his cousin Harper who is just 2 weeks older than him.

After leaving Topeka, we headed north to Plattsmouth where my parents were anxiously waiting.  Well, kind of.  They were both asleep.  haha.  Friday morning we hung out with my mom and sister.  Friday afternoon we headed to my friend Laura's house for the "6-pack" gift exchange.  This is the first time we had ALL been together in a while and it was nice to hang out and crazy to think that we have been friends since 1st grade.  Dominik had fun trying to get Rylee's shoes on.  Rylee is Laura's daughter.

 Saturday was Christmas Eve and full blown Lucas festivities.  Mom and I went for a run that morning in the freezing cold.  We spent the rest of the day preparing Christmas eve dinner.  Dominik spent the afternoon hanging out with Grandpa on his tractor!

We also attended Christmas eve mass in Plattsmouth and it was fun to see some familiar faces.  After church, we got home and got ready for the Lucas Ugly Sweater Party.  This was the 2nd year we've done it, but the first time we participated.  It was pretty funny to see everyone's sweaters!  We voted and Uncle Mark was the winner!

                        

Christmas day was full of toys and food and relaxing.  Dominik and Brooklyn are definitely spoiled!

The day after Christmas brought friends and extended family to my parent's house to see us all and meet Brooklyn!  It was fun chatting with everyone and I was glad that they were all able to come out, especially since most of the times we are back in Nebraska we only get to see a few people!

Tuesday the 27th we relaxed and then ended the evening at The Crescent Moon.  It is my uncle's bar and I used to work there, and my sister currently does.  You should check it out if you haven't been!  Anyways, my brother and cousin met us there for dinner.  One of Bruce's college friends also came out to have a few drinks.

Wedneday the 28th was MY BIRTHDAY!!  I didn't do a whole lot but sit in a car all day.  We left Omaha but decided to veer off our original plan of driving straight to Arizona.  Bruce had the rest of the week off so we decided to drive up to Cody to visit his parents!  So we embarked on our 13 hour trip to Wyoming.  We totally surprised his parents by showing up on their doorstep at 8:30 that night. 

 We didn't do a whole lot in Cody, just hung out with his family and wandered around downtown.  Dominik and Brooklyn did get to hang out with their cousin Gabriel.  Gabe is only 3 days younger than Dominik so it's always a good time when you get the two of them together.  Dominik also got to play in the snow for the first time.  We woke up to 5 inches on Saturday morning.  What a surprise!  That was the only snow we really saw the whole trip!

Sunday was New Year's day and we left Cody at 3:57 am.  We arrived back in Goodyear at 8:30 pm.  Quite a long day of driving, but the weather was good, and the kids were good, so we didn't go too crazy!

Oh Christmas tree...

Well I was able to put up our tree yesterday. Despite only being decorated from the middle up (to avoid any Dominik hands destroying ornaments-hopefully!) I think it looks beautiful!
Anyways, while I was decorating the tree I came across these two ornaments that I made in 1991. That would make me a 2nd grader, 7 years old, almost 8. My classmates and I made these at St. John's. Our priest, Father York, always made baptism candles so he had wax readily available. The wax used to smell of pine (green) and cinnamon (red), but of course the scent has disappeared after 20 years! These ornaments made me think of all of the ornaments I've made throughout the years and still have on my tree. I'm very glad my mom kept these and I hope to be hanging these on my tree for years to come!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Applegate cousins minus Gabriel. They had so much fun playing together. Glad they were able to make the drive from Texas!

Crazy busy

So here we are entering the holiday season. I can't believe how fast Thanksgiving snuck up on me! Needless to say we are pretty much booked every weekend until January! Yikes. That means I have to stay organized and with 2 kids and a husband sometimes its quite a chore, but it fuels me to keep going :). Next week for Thanksgiving we are hosting Bruce's bro Ben and his family. They will be here Thurs-Mon as Brooklyn's baptism is Sunday. The following weekend I am hosting a cookie exchange/wine exchange/ugly sweater party called Sweets, Sweaters, and Sauvignon. I like the name I came up with :). The weekend after is Dom's 2nd birthday and of course I'm hosting a party! Weekend after that we are going to a Polar Express party one of my friends is hosting for the kids. Weekend after that is Christmas in Nebraska. Weekend after that is New Years back in Arizona. Whew, I'm exhausted just typing. Guess I better go back to sleep so I can have some energy for all of this!
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This is Halloween

So Bruce is woking nights this week which left me with the task of taking on dinner, costumes, pictures, trick or treating and handing out candy all within a 3 hour time span.  Im glad its over because neither child would cooperate as you can tell by the pics.

Easter

One word. Exhausted. I feel like I have barely been home in the last couple of weeks, and its true, I haven't. We had a fabulous Easter in Albuquerque with all of Bruce's family. It was so nice to get the cousins together. They really do love playing together despite the huge age gaps-Mullen-almost 12, Logan-6, Dominik-17 months, and Gabriel-17 months. Well not such a huge gap between Dom and Gabe, but you get the picture. We surprised the whole family by flying Julie, Mike, and Gabe down from Billings. If you could only see the look on Bruce's mom's face when they arrived at the house. It was priceless!

We were busy doing all sorts of stuff-Friday-took the World's Longest Aerial Tramway up to Sandia Peak http://www.sandiapeak.com/. Bruce and I had done this before when he was working in Albuquerque. I totally recommend it if you ever go. It's pretty cool, but if you get cold easily, I'd wait until summer. we went at 4:30pm and it was 44 degrees at the top with ginormous wind gusts!

After the tramway, we went out to eat at Tucano's Brazilian Grill http://www.tucanos.com/. This was truly an experience. Bruce had been here before (of course) so he knew what it was all about. Pretty much you have a block of wood and one end is painted red and the other is green. When the green side is up, the waiters will keep bringing you over all sorts of meat to try. And they won't stop until you put the red side up. It was kind of overwhelming because you wanted to try so much, but then waiters were at your table ever 30 seconds. I felt like I had to race to eat my food. I finally convinced Bruce to turn it to red for 10 minutes just so I could breathe! haha They also had the most extensive salad bar that I've ever seen.

Saturday we colored eggs and just hung out. We needed it after our exhausting meal on Friday!

Sunday was Easter and of course at more and more food. It was great to spend it with family!

Now that we're done with that, off to trip #3, Omaha on Wednesday!

Oh and on a side note, Dominik's new words are "ow" and "uh-oh." He totally understands that if he hits something it's an "ow" and if he drops something its and "uh-oh." But the uh-oh's are starting to get annoying, especially when he drops he food off of his high chair!

Christmas week!

Well this picture was taken a couple weeks ago at our local grocery store. Who knew you didn't have to fight the crowded malls to see Santa?

We are hosting Christmas this year, and its the first time we will be with family on Christmas since 2006! Ben, Carley, Mullen, and Logan will be arriving Thursday evening. It will be a jam packed weekend of playing outside during the day, and playing board games at night! We can't wait!
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Quick update on our busy lives!

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Albuquerque with Bruce's brother Ben, his wife Carley and their kids, Mullen and Logan. Dominik had a blast playing with his cousins. We are so excited that they are within driving distance (6.5 hrs)!

Now forgive me in advance for no posts the next couple of weeks. Here is our schedule starting with this past Monday-Dentist for me, blood work for Dom. Thursday-Dom's tear duct surgery. Saturday-family and 1 year pictures, and Christmas at the ballpark, Wednesday-mom and dad visit, Friday-Ben, Mullen, and Logan visit, Saturday Dominik's birthday, Sunday-Ben and the kids leave, Monday-mom and dad leave. And somewhere in between I have to make a cake, get ready for the party and decorate for Christmas.

I'm gonna need a vacation.
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Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we ventured out to the pumpkin patch. Needless to say, a pumpkin patch in Arizona is completely different from Nebraska.
We arrived at Tolmachoff Farms in Glendale at approximately 12:45 pm. Well, we drove by it at 12:45 pm. We had to try and find a parking spot first. The place was jammed! Cars were parked on the street for miles, and they had a medium sized parking lot that was just a cluster to get into. Did I mention this place is in a neighborhood? We resorted to the parking lot, as we didn't want to park on the busy street. We did find a fairly sweet parking spot, after some idiot mom finally got the automatic hatch to close on the back of her Escalade. So we walk up to the entrance-HUGE line that is NOT moving. Fabulous. We finally got in, $12 later (with a coupon). Made our way to see some animals-roosters, horses, ostrich, etc. Kind of boring. We got our picture taken on some hay bales (how festive, huh?). Then we decided to try the corn maze. There were two. One was called a 'Family' maze and the other a 'Mini' maze. Logically we head over to the Family maze, since we are a family. The lady at the entrance says it takes 45 minutes. I wasn't sure how long Dom would last, so I asked how long the Mini maze was. 10 minutes. Sweet, just my style. Well the Mini maze, wasn't much of a maze, but just a path cut through a corn field. Oh well. Next, we were off to the "pumpkin patch". You know, the place where pumpkins are placed in the grass, pre-marked with prices? We didn't grab a pumpkin, but I got some cute pics. Check out Facebook for more. We then walked over to the kids play area. Dom walked too. He was wearing his Husker Squeaks shoes, we got so many comments on them, and people wanted to know where we got them! After that we headed back to the car, making sure to avoid the "gift shop" area jammed with people paying for pumpkins. The line to get in when we left was nearly three times the size of the line we waited in. Boy was I glad we got there when we did!
We had fun, and it was a memory, but it's just not like the pumpkin patch in Nebraska.
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Check out my rib cage!

I love this shirt. It glows in the dark too! Dominik got many compliments on it at Baby Time today!
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Happy Halloween!!

Here are some pics from Halloween this year. I was able to dress up at work on Friday, so that was fun. Bruce and I are just staying at home tonight handing out candy. BBA will be here in 6 weeks (or less, hopefully!)

My pumpkin

Bruce with his drill and pumpkin

Bruce's pumpkin me and my "bun in the oven"

updates galore!

I had quite the busy week despite Bruce being in Omaha for work. Wednesday evening I had child birth prep class and my friend Jamie was the lucky one I got to take instead of Bruce! We watched some videos, looked at some items that help break your water, a catheter, an IV bag, and a bunch of other things. It was like show and tell :) After our show and tell session, we went on the hospital tour. I wasn't too thrilled that Bruce was out of town for work this week since the hospital tour is probably one of the most important things, but we had actually been there before when our friends Nik and Melissa had their daughter Savannah. Now the key part is to see if Bruce actually remembers anything about when we visited them....that is yet to be determined. So Jamie and I trek along with our group touring the hospital. We saw where you register/check in (I've already pre-registered for delivery, so that should save us....oh 15 minutes or so). We saw the area where you go first to make sure you are actually in labor which was kind of a strange area, behind a bunch of closed doors. Oh well, hopefully I won't be spending too much time in there. From that room, we went to the labor and delivery suites. Yes suites. These rooms were HUGE! Granted, everything does take place in there and there has to be enough room for everyone, but still. They have a couch/futon thing that turns into a bed for Bruce. And they also have, 40" (I'm guessing) flat screen tvs. Pretty fancy shmancy. Everything was nice and clean and not hospital like at all. From there, we went upstairs to the nursery. The nursery isn't very large because they encourage "rooming in" so your baby will be with you the whole entire time. After the nursery we went to the post partum suites. These were exactly like the labor and delivery suites, just a bit smaller and less equipment in them. It was a good tour and we are going to try and see if our instructor can do a quick overview of one this week so Bruce can check everything out. On Thursday I had a dr. appt. I met with Dr. James. He was kind of strange and I'm glad I didn't choose him as my OB. But for all of those worrying about H1N1 out there, I DID get my vaccine at that appt. So hopefully I should be good now. I've had both the seasonal flu and the H1N1 shot. If I get sick, I will be royally pissed off! haha. On Friday, Bruce came home. It was good to see him after being gone a week. We bottle beer and then went out to eat and then watched a movie. It was a nice little date night before he had to get back to working his 12+ hour shifts. Oh and our friends Anika and John had their baby boy! Congrats to them. Now it's getting me very excited for when it is our turn! Yesterday, I was quite the busy girl. Waking up early, I made pumpkin muffins/mini loaves/regular loaves. Take your pick, I have them all! I bought a can of pumpkin, well the large can and didn't have a recipe for the bread yet, so when I found a recipe, I was able to make it 1 1/2 times! Thank goodness I can freeze them. I was also being crafty yesterday. I finished my Halloween costume. Pictures will be posted after Halloween, I want it to be a surprise. I also made a hat/coat rack for BBA, it's super cute, now I just have to get Bruce to hang it up. Now on to today. Well I slept like crap. I hate being able to only sleep on my sides. My hips are starting to ache and it is just plain hard for me to find a comfortable position. Grrrrr. So I was up early, and ran to Wal-Mart. I've decided that my "nesting" thing is kicking in because I bought more baby hangers (so I could get rid of the crappy plastic ones that the clothes come on). I bought some special laundry detergent for babies. I went with All Free and Clear. I read this is actually supposed to be better for the baby than the Dreft that everyone advertises. I figured I would give it a try. Plus then I can just use it for all of our clothes too! I also picked up some less glorious item for my hospital "to go" bag. I bought some "crappy" (and by crappy I mean not Victoria's Secret) undies since word on the street is that you'll ruin a few pairs and why would I want to ruin my nice ones that I already have?? I also picked up some nightgowns...moomoos if you will. hahaha. No they aren't that bad, but they do have a few buttons at the top so it will be easier to breast feed in the hospital, plus who wants to wear a hospital gown anyways? So I grabbed two. I'm not really attached to them so it will be ok if they get ruined for some reason. After my trip to Walmart, I came home and the nesting has really begun. I've decided to start washing all of the baby clothes/towels/etc. So I snagged everything out of the closet and dumped it on the living room floor. I am being a good mom and I read every label and sorted the clothes into piles depending on how they need to be washed. I came up with 4 piles. Lights-wash warm, Darks-wash warm, Lights-wash cold, Darks-wash cold. I also had to sit and snip off all of the price tags too. So now I'm just sitting here waiting for the laundry to get done so I can then go back and hang everything up. But this time it will be ready for BBA! Going to try and snag a quick nappy. I'm tired.....