Lucas at Daycare...

This is Lucas with his best friend Charlie. Charlie is a week younger than Lucas and they have been together for the last 7 months.

Here are a couple of pictures of Lucas with his friends at daycare...

Dan and Candy (our Daycare) hosted a Valentine's Day party for all the kids from 5pm-9pm on the 14th. It gave all the parents an opportunity to go out for a nice dinner and the kids got to have a special evening. Lucas is so lucky to be in such a fun and loving environment.

Lucas and Dad playing Piano...

Lucas really loves sitting at the piano with his Dad...

Ouch!

Lucas has his first big accident. He went head on to a bookshelf and cut open his forehead! :)

He is fine now, but we spent 6.5 long hours at the Children's Hospital Emergency room -- Lucas was his trooper, as usual. Luckily, no stitches, they just superglued it back together...But he is having fun running around with his batman bandaids on his head

January...(don't forget to read December)

January started off quietly, but then we headed out to Grammy Lois and Grampa Skip's for 4 days. Rich and Jen worked at a function their company was holding in Indian Wells and Lucas vacationed at Grammy and Grandpa's house. He had a great time and due to unfortunate circumstances (their transmission going out on their way home to Tuscon from Disneyland) - Lucas got to play with the Lindstrom cousins. He wanted to be a part of the crowd so much - he finally put together 4-5 steps.

Once we returned home there was no stopping Lucas - he has been walking ever since...



News traveled quickly of Lucas now walking - so Aunt Pamme and Uncle Mike had to see it with their own eyes.



We were gearing up for Lucas' First Birthday when he came down with an ear infection, coupled with vomiting and other wonderful things. So we let him open his present and play with the balloons on his birthday - but reserved the cake and cupcakes for later...Poor little guy.

Hi all - It has been a bit since we have updated the blog. So here is a recap of the last half of December.

Mid-December we took Lucas to have his picture taken with Santa. We weren't sure how he would react to Santa and were even more worried when the 2 kids in front of us were bawling and screaming. But our happy go lucky little guy sat on Santa's lap grinned, giggled and tried to pull Santa's beard.



After the picture the whole family was down with the stomach flu for a week - but we recovered in time for Christmas.

Sue and Bruce came down from Berkeley just before the holiday.



We spent the 23rd with Ted, Sue, Calvin and my Aunt Marilyn at the Quail Botanical Garden's Holiday Lights...Unfortunately the only picture I got was of Lucas and Rich. It was a great evening and fun to see everyone.



We spent Christmas Eve and Day here at the house. Sue, my mom, Lois, Skip and Danny the dog joined us. The house was very full, but everyone had a great time. Lucas was a bit overwhelmed with all the action on Christmas morning.














Nana Janet had Sue search the world to find a wonderful Radio Flyer Fire Engine. Lucas' first set of wheels. He has a great time on it and loves to push the horn over and over again.



The day after Christmas we decided Lucas was ready for his first hair cut. (People kept calling Lucas a girl :() He sat in the little car and was happy the whole time. I think I had a harder time with it.







We said goodbye to this unbelievable year and rang in the new year quietly at home. New year post to come soon! :)

Lucas continues to amaze us. He is standing up on his own now, and he is even perfecting his dunking skills.

Watch out Kobe!

:-)

Jennifer gives Lucas a bath everynight - it's one of his favorite times of day. The other night he got so excited that he forgot to do something....

:-)

Almost forgot...
My favorite picture of Jen and Lucas from our trip to Balboa Park.

A tale of two turkeys…

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying the holiday season. Lucas, Jen and I had a great time over thanksgiving, spending time at my parent’s home in La Quinta and with Jen’s mother and sister, Sue, in Solana Beach.

At my parents we had a big gathering, with about 15 friends and relatives, including Barbara and Bob Coffman, and their daughters and grandchildren: the Lindstroms, Jennie, Tim, and their four daughters, Megan, Kailey, Alexis, and Zoey; the Coopers, Jessie, Corey and their two sons, Jackson and Donovan; plus my parents, Lois and Skip, and Lucas, Jennifer and I. It was quite a crew.

We celebrated Alexis’ fourth birthday while there and we watched some of the celebrity pro-am golf tournament prior to the annual Skins Game at Trilogy golf club. Lucas had a great time with all the other kids – he’s getting quite tall, and is almost walking. He’s quite a climber as well, scaling anything he can hitch his little legs over. Lucas also got to spend some time in the pool with his grandpa – the jury is still out on who had more fun…



At Nana’s we had a great time as well, including a hike with Jen’s sister, Sue, around the San Elijo Lagoon between Cardiff by the Sea and Solana Beach – the jury is still out on who had more fun doing this as well – Lucas or Sue . Jen’s mom cooked us a wonderful meal, as always, and Lucas showed off his skills with a wooden spoon and a tupperware container.

Last weekend we enjoyed a nice night with our friends Jill, Katie and her new man Lou, heading south to Balboa Park in San Diego for “December Nights”, an event held each year in the park where they open all the museums to the public and each of the international houses offer plates of their native cuisine. The event drew hundreds of thousands of people over two days, so it was quite crowded. Lucas wasn’t too sure what to make of all the crowds. He was a little bit tentative at first, but he soon opened up and became his cheerful little self again. He loved looking at all the Christmas lights and getting tons of attention from Jill and Katie.

Below are some videos from Thanksgiving weekend. We hope you all have a joyful holiday season and we hope to see you soon.

All our love,

Jen, Lucas and Rich




Thanksgiving with Nana



Alexis' birthday party



Lucas and Grandpa Skip in the pool





It was a busy weekend, but Lucas still found a way to relax when he had some time to himself...

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I have a ton of pictures and video, and a lot of stuff to write about thanksgiving, but it will take some time - video editing can be time consuming, especially for a perfectionist like yours truly. For all of you Lucas junkies out there, here is the latest video of Lucas playing the piano and a few new pics.

Love
Rich

Hi Everyone,
Well, we finally got around to creating our own blog. Jen has been bugging me for a month to get in here and write some content, but we've been so busy with my new job and Lucas getting really active that I just haven't had the time.

My new job is going very well. For those of you who don't know, I am the marketing manager for By Referral Only. It is a company that trains Realtors and Lenders in building referral-based businesses. I'm enjoying it very much although I travel once a month, which gets tiring after a while. The job is a great opportunity for me to learn some new tricks, since I spend a lot of time with Joe Stumpf, the founder, and other leaders of the company and I soak up as much of their knowledge as possible.

Jen is doing good as well (she also works for By Referral Only - in the HR dept). She is very busy, too, taking care of Lucas (and me!) while working full-time. We are saving money to purchase our first home some time mid next year, and we are hoping to add another member of the family by next year, too.

As I wrote above, Lucas is getting very active. And he is as happy as ever. He is nearly ten months old now - it's hard to believe. He should be walking any time, and he climbs just about everything in the house. He went through a tough ear infection last month, but he finally kicked it...so, mom and dad can now sleep through the night again. :-)

I've attached some pictures and a few you tube videos of Lucas. Enjoy.

Love you all and hope to see you soon.

Rich, Jen and Lucas

Lucas opens a gift from Aunt Sue...




At the pumpkin patch...















Lucas the Lion-Hearted...
















Climbing a mountain...