Holiday Highlights

Suzanne and Lucas are surprised to see the Stebbings board their plane in Lubbock on the way to ABQ.

Ben waited in the Dallas airport for 5 hours on the way to Albuquerque.

On Christmas morning Suzanne presented Ben with another Beware of Dog sign.

Ben presented Suzanne with a vow to quit burping. (See Video Here)

On Christmas afternoon Lucas followed Lisa to her closet and found the tractor we had previously decided to return to the store. A few minutes later a happy boy came to the living room with his aunt to show Mom his new toy.

We had a cool sunset on Christmas Day.

Best Quote:

Maddie,13, looking at Ben's head, "Why do old people always have red spots on their heads?"

Every time we sit down for dinner Lucas does roll call and says everyone's name at the table. They must respond properly or their name will continue being called.

Best names: LaLi = Lisa, Bonnie = Brian, Gagu = Grandma, Caca = Carrie.

Despite my (and everyone else but Ben's) fear of icy roads, we made it to and from Arizona with no harm or incident... except for a shattered sun roof. Sorry, Mom and Dad!

Lucas didn't get out of his car seat once on either leg of the trip.

Ben, Suzy and Lucas visited Bahama Bucks three times during AZ trip.

Lucas got 2 train sets for Christmas, got to ride a little train in Gilbert, and rode a big train in Albuquerque.

Lucas became infatuated with old school puzzles from the 60's and 70's. He's quite good. Too bad they don't make cool puzzles like them anymore.

Suzanne got her hair dyed back to brown at Style America of all places. She was there for 5 hours. It looks great so far.

Lucas got his hair cut at home by Dad. It looks odd, but will grow out.

On three separate occasions, Lucas got to roll through the mall in a rented red car stroller. Totally worth the money.

Lucas got to play with his cousins, Hunter and Stoney, and for the first time really got to rough play.

Ben and Suzy come to the concusion that the portable DVD purchase was the best decision they ever made.

Suzy extended her stay in ABQ to get the most out of her plane fare.

We hope you and your families had a Merry Christmas and happy new year. We wish you the best in 2009.

Mommy Sad?

Yesterday during nap time I stumbled across a blog that a friend had told me about a few weeks ago, but I had since forgotten. It is the Nie Nie Dialogues by Stephanie Nielson. In August Stephanie and her husband, Christian, were in a private plane crash that killed the pilot and gave them severe burns. They are currently recovering from their burns in Mesa. Stephanie's sister, Courtney, has taken over her blog reposting favorite entries from before, but also has her own blog where she writes about her new life (taking care of her own son, plus Stephanie's children) and updates on Stephanie and Christian's conditions. She uses her blog to raise money for Stephanie and Christian's recoveries. Stephanie will be needing skin grafts for years.

Stephanie has amazing faith. Her love for motherhood and for her Mr. Nielson is inspiring. As I was reading these two blogs, I was crying my brians out thinking about what these families are going through. Lucas came into the office and saw me and suddenly got very worried.
"Mommy Sad?" he said
I explained to him that I read something that made me sad and that I was okay and that I loved him very much.
"Mommy okay." Lucas said.
"Yes, Mommy is okay."
This went on all night. We drove to see Ben at work and have dinner downtown and while we drove Lucas kept saying, "Mommy okay?"
Lucas is such a sweet boy and I'm glad that I can be his mommy. I'm glad that I was the one that had to carry him across busy downtown streets last night while he fought me so he wouldn't get run over, and I'm glad that my husband was there to chase him out of the restaurant when he escaped. I'm glad he has such spirit, which I often blame on Ben's DNA, but it makes him who he is and he is wonderful.

Read about Nie Nie and C Jane if you need to be inspired... or cry.

See ya later alligators!

My heart broke a little bit this morning at approximately 5:00. That's when Tanner and Danielle pulled out of Austin and headed west, towards Mesa.

We had a good last week with them, though. On Saturday we had little going away party for three families moving. Then Danielle made what Ben proclaimed to be the "best dinner he's had in at least two months" on Sunday, then on Tuesday we all gathered at the Hollands for Clay and Andrea's yummy pizza. You might say I was having trouble letting go...

Lucas and Addie even had a fun week together. Lucas taught Addie how to completely destroy the house and make a huge mess.But, for the first time, they really played together and never once fought. It was perfect. They even got a little smooch in.

(notice how they even closed their eyes)

Last night a bunch of people went to help load the truck - a big truck, I might add... no one can figure out how they fit all that stuff into a little apartment. At about 9:15 we said our goodbyes and I made it all the way out to the parking lot before I stuck my lip out and started to cry! I was very proud of myself.

Girls: Andrea, me, Dani, Megan (w/twin boys), Missy, Baby Eli
Boys: Tanner, Jeff, Clay, Ben, Adam, Greg

Anyhow, we love you guys and we'll miss you so much! Have fun in AZ and go to Bahama Bucks for us. AND, come back to Austin after graduation!

PS - maybe I can buy a new black shirt in Buy Lots of Stuff August...

And, here's a video at the Holland's from this week:

I'm still alive, really.

Aloha,

I have officially been away from home for three weeks, one day, and 7 hours. I will go back on Wednesday so Ben can remember who we are and hopefully he will get to eat something besides microwave burritos (aside from what he eats at our friends' houses - thanks!)

Tonight I found out that I have been making a grammatical error (and you know I hate grammatical errors) for the past 16 months. My sister, Lisa, told me that when I write about Lucas and his posessions, I am supposed to use an apostrophe-s, not just an apostrophe. So, I've been saying Lucas' ball, etc. for over a year. Oops. The only case you use just the apostrophe in a first name is in the case of Jesus. Interesting, huh?

She did say that there are probably exceptions in rule books somewhere, so I shouldn't feel too dumb...

That said, if you wish to see some of Lucas's updated pictures, go here.

Lucas has grown and learned so much in the past three weeks. Last year, Lucas got two front teeth for Christmas. This year, he got four teeth for Christmas (his canines)! Now we only have a couple more sets molars to go and we're done with teeth!

Lucas has also really started to love animals. In Arizona he got to meet Riley, Ben's aunt's dog. He also got to see the duck pond. He was quite scared at first, but then tried to climb into the pond feet first like he goes down the stairs. He even started saying a new word that sounds a lot like "dog" or "duck".... we think it might be a German word. But, I think it is the word for all things not human.

In Albuquerque, Lucas was excited to see Nala and Oscar again. They weren't quite so excited to see him. We have made it two weeks without any bites - just a couple growls. Lucas has learned to be careful with the dogs and not poke them in the face. Last week Lisa was giving Lucas a bath and they heard Oscar walk down the hall and Lucas said, "Oska." I didn't believe her at first, but now he says it quite often when he sees the dog. (Ben isn't a fan of Oscar, so he wasn't happy when I told him this...). I now hear "Oska" and the German dog word much more than Mama.

Oh, and Lucas finally did his first sign! I've been trying to get this kid to sign for ten months. Now he'll do the sign for "all done" when he wants down from his high chair. Next we'll work on "milk" and "more."

Lucas has some fun toys to play with here (toys way older than me). There's a pretty cool Tonka dump truck, a doll crib, and a little set of wooden beads and a big string. He enjoys playing with the beads and has started to string them onto the string with some help. And of course, Lucas's favorite activity is the sorting, stacking, and organizing. Lucas has emptied every single drawer in my parent's house, and several drawers in Ben's parent's house. He loves it.

I was supposed to go home last Thursday, but stayed longer because Ben had work to do in Austin and I didn't want to go home and be alone while Ben worked. The first week home after being with my family is always really hard - the empty house, doing all the work by myself, etc. Here I have about 6 assistants to help with watching Lucas and it makes for a nice break. And the great thing is that they really enjoy playing with Lucas... and instead of being a chore, bath time is a really FUN time.

The good news is that my sister showed Lucas some pictures on the computer tonight. He got really excited when he saw Ben, so he still remembers him! Ben and I have wondered before how long it would take him to forget one of us. I said he'd be over me in a week, but now I know that's not true. He misses and loves his daddy very much. We'll see you soon, Baby!