Good morning, sunshine!

This is the smiling face we wake up to every morning!  I absolutely love this happy girl!  My favorite phrase that she has recently been saying is "happy, happy, happy"!  She truly is!  Jason snapped the above picture the other morning shortly after she woke up.  She wanted all her animals piled up in the chair with her...all her favorite characters are there:  bear, bear, and bear, dog, frog, elephant, green elephant, duck, and pig (wearing Luci's prized bunny ears). 

Here's wishing you a "happy, happy, happy" day!

A Farewell...

This is a difficult post for me to write.  Over a week ago, we had to say goodbye to our faithful and loving pup Cleo.  I meant to do this earlier, but to be honest...I wasn't ready to write these words yet. 

Jason and I adopted Cleo into our family when she was an 8-week-old bundle of English bulldog energy!  We were married in May of '98 and found Cleo in at the beginning of November.  She was our first child and we treated her like one...as any childless couple does with their pets!  She went everywhere with us and when she was young enough to jump, even slept at the foot of our bed with us! 

This September, Cleo would have turned 12...very old in bulldog years!  In the past couple of years, she had developed arthritis and in the past couple of months had started to deteriorate quickly.  2 weeks ago, she stopped eating and finally was no longer able to use one of her back legs.  On the morning of Wednesday, June 2 we said a very tearful and painful good-bye. 

Even though it has been a week and a half now, I still think I hear her in the house, the click-clicking of her claws on the hardwood floors.  She was with us for 12 years and it is hard for me to remember (or maybe I just don't want to) that she isn't here.  Luci misses her too and often asks "dog???" and I have to remind her that Cleo went "bye-bye".  I know she doesn't understand where her play-mate is. We had some wonderful memories with her and we will miss her for a long time!!!

A picture of Luci and Cleo from last summer as they were just getting to know each other!

Swimming at Red Bluff

We went swimming this afternoon to get away from the already oppressive heat!  Our friend was kind enough to offer up her place on the War Eagle any time we wanted to bring Luci to swim.  Of course we couldn't say no!  We had a nice picnic lunch and a fun swim with no one around!  What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Waiting for lunch.  Luci has learned to say "cheese" for the camera.

Red Bluff!  The perfect swimming hole!

Swimming on Daddy's back.

Summertime!!!!

I love summer around here!  Leisurely days...no responsibilities...lots of fun-time with Luci!

So far this summer we haven't done much of anything serious!  If we feel like going into town, we do.  If we feel like staying home, we do.  Luci is a great day time sleeper...long naps with all her friends and blankets (a.k.a. "B").

We have also visited the Farmer's Market during the week (that never happens during the school year)!  Our favorite summertime fruit has just come into season so we occasionally have to stop immediately and sample some.  Mmmmm...blueberries!

We have also spent some time at the library for the Toddler Story-hour.  This past Thursday the tambourine playing was Luci's favorite!  The girl's got some rhythm.  The librarian who conducts this circus must have the patience of Job!  You take 30 2-year-olds, jam them into one room, and try to get them to SIT still and listen to a story while not climbing on you, not pulling the book out of your hands, not screaming and kicking the children next to them, etc...you get the picture!  I taught Kindergarten and it had its share of crazy days but this trumps it all!  Luci loves it and I love it for her!!!  :)

We also (just tonight) got the garden tilled and lots of stuff planted.  I know...its late.  But better late than not at all!  Hopefully it will do well.  We have had a small section planted since March with our cold weather crops likes peas and onions and broccoli.  Tonight we plowed the rest of it and finished planting potatoes (we will have two crops this year), tomatoes, and beans.  We will head out to the nursery this week and see if we can still find peppers and some corn.  Luci loved playing in the garden tonight as I planted.  She had a spade and we finally gave her a bucket so that she would quit digging up what I had planted.  She quickly became consumed with filling her bucket with dirt.  The chickens also enjoyed the newly tilled garden with its feast of worms and Luci especially enjoyed chasing them over the potato mound again and again!

We have taken one trip already this summer.  We went up to Wisconsin about a week ago to celebrate the life of a wonderful man, my grandfather.  I am so happy that Luci had the chance to meet and play with him twice here on earth.  There was no one quite like him!  We are all going to miss him dearly but I am thankful that now he is in a much better place, rejoicing with his Savior in a newly healed body!  The picture below was of Luci, Grandpa, and I last summer during their first meeting.

1st Annual Forever Family Day!

Can you believe it?!  Luci has been home a year!!!  I know I can't!  So today, I am thinking back on the last year and all the amazing changes our family has gone through...

Last year, April 27 was the day we lived twice...literally!  It was April 27th when we woke up in Korea and it was April 27 nearly 42 hours later when we finally laid our heads down in our own bed back home!  Granted we didn't lay our heads down for long because our sweet Luci had her days and nights mixed up and she was ready to play at 2 a.m. as evidenced from the precious picture below.  Note the sheer exhaustion on my face and the absolute delight that we finally gave in on Luci's face!  We will never forget those 2 a.m bonding sessions...actually, they still happen.  It is extremely rare that Luci sleeps all the way through the night.  This little bundle of solid energy just doesn't need much sleep.  Mommy and Daddy do 'cause we are old but Luci doesn't seem to get that yet!  HA!

 As any parent knows, one year can bring so many changes.  We came home crawling, shortly followed by cruising, and immediately followed by walking, running, jumping, skipping, etc...She has always preferred vegetables to any other food and to this day will walk into the kitchen, try to open the refrigerator and say "peas???"  Seriously...what toddler begs for peas before asking for any other food????  I know she's weird but I'll take every morsel of Luci weirdness she can dish out!  She also LOVES to be outside..."ou-siiiiide???" (Notice the Southern drawl I tried to insert...yes my little Korean will have a Southern accent.) This time last year the idea of touching grass brought a series of panicked screams.  Now our bare-footed, nature-lovin', worm-digging girl can't get enough of the great outdoors!  And, of course, we can't either!  (Check out the picture below from a go-to-work-with-daddy day last week...NOT staged!!!)  What an absolutely perfect match for our family!

So, how did we celebrate our 1st annual Forever Family Day?  We started about 2 weeks ago with a photo session commemorating the occasion.  Mindy of MJW Photography took some absolutely beautiful pictures and now we have the impossible task of choosing which ones to order...below are some of my favorites.  I have narrowed my choices down to about 20. I think I need to narrow further.

 On the actual day, we celebrated by going to Build-A-Bear and letting Luci pick an animal.  This girl LOVES her stuffed animals like no kid I have ever seen.  As you can tell from the one of the above pictures, "elephant" goes with her everywhere...even to a photo shoot (yes that is his ear in the big-smile, little-teeth picture)!

After Build-A-Bear, we went to a Korean restaurant for some delicious food..bulgogi for Jason and dolsot bibimbap for me!  Luci had the whole restaurant ohhing and ahhing.  She got quite a few extras that I am sure we didn't get charged for!

We had a lovely day, but then again...we usually do!  I can not imagine life without Luci!  She brings joy to every moment of every day!

Spring Break Week

This post is a little late...meant to get it posted on Monday but I had to play quite a bit of catch up at work.  That's what happens when you totally ignore the outside world for an entire week!  (It was sooooo worth it!)

We started out the week with a massive snow-fall...13 inches of blowing snow to be exact!  Unbelievable and not all that fun.  At least Luci didn't think so.  I took her out to build a snowman because it was a nice, packable-wet snow and she couldn't even walk.  We didn't stay out too long!

Braving the snow-storm to check on the chickens

"Now what do I do?!"

My Spring-Break-Snowman...complete with sun hat and sunglasses

 Then, typical NWA-March-style, the snow was melted the next day and we had beautiful 80 degree weather.  So we decided to enjoy the weather and take Luci on her first trip to the zoo.  She (and we) had an absolute blast!  She isn't scared of anything!  In fact, I think she would have climbed into the fish tank with the giant alligator gar...she was trying to catch it through the glass!

1st carousel ride...on an elephant of course.  (Mommy made me leave my stuffed one in the car.)

In the desert exhibit
 

Luci's favorite animal at the zoo...a road runner.  We have these in our backyard but we went to the zoo to play with them!

Jason and Luci checking out the rhinos.  Did you know they "moo"?

Jason teaching Luci to ROARRRRR like a lion!

 Wednesday we completely left the world behind (cell-phones, internet, and TV) and took advantage of my parents cabin on the edge of the world in Big Flat.  We had a wonderful time enjoying the country-side and each other.  Luci is a true back-roads girl.  She giggled and squealed all over the bumpy dirt roads.  Her favorite part of one of our explorations was when the road and the creek-bed merged and we drove and splashed down stream.  If she hadn't been buckled in, she would have fallen out of her seat laughing!  She really is a joyous girl!

Luci has her own leather recliner at the cabin.  (Yes, she is the only grandchild on my side of the family, in case you were wondering!)  She loved waking up in it each morning while she snuggled one of her elephants.

Picnic lunch
 

Throwing pebbles in the stream with Daddy.

Luci in her first cave.  Even I will go in a cave like this one!

The edge of the world

Eventually we had to rejoin civilization so we headed back to town.  We ended the week with family hair-cut night.  Much overdue for Jason and I; Luci's first!

Prepping for the cut

The only way we could get Luci to sit still long enough for a trim was if she combed elephant's hair while Roxie combed hers!  She ended up with the cutest little bob!