The Lucchesi Family Happenings: December 2012

Introducing Robert Lorenzo Lucchesi

We are so excited to welcome into our family at 9:39am on Monday December 10th, 2012 little Robert Lorenzo Lucchesi via scheduled c-section. He weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long. He has dark brown hair and dark eyes. We think they will likely turn hazel like his daddy's. The c-section couldn't have gone smoother and we are all doing very well. He is perfect in every way and we instantly fell in love with him. He was named after his late great grandfather Robert Wiens and the prophet Lorenzo Snow and my mother Laurie. His whole name together means "One who hails from Lucca, Italy; bright with glory wearing a laurel wreath." Although we are still 15 days from Christmas we consider this our best Christmas gift ever. We are so thankful for this precious gift.

Matthew spent the night before at Nana and Grandpa's house and got to come visit as soon as we got to our room Monday morning. He had been waiting a long time for his little brother to come and was pretty excited. He just kept saying "wow" each time we showed him something new on his little brother.

He only wanted to hold him for a short time but he sure love looking at his little hands and feet.

Exploring his new brother

He loved his little feet

His aunt Meagan and Uncle Seth came to visit that evening and brought along 2 1/2 week old Myler to meet him. Already Myler looks so big compared to Robbie. He was also bigger at birth.

Santa and Christmas Preparation

This year was fun with Matthew at Christmas. He actually understood what was going on and was so excited for Santa to come. Matthew got to meet Santa twice this year. The picture above was at our Breakfast with Santa that our ward put on. He also got to meet him at Cabellas with his cousin Sage. It was a lot of fun. Matthew said he wanted a guitar.

This year we decided to get a real tree. Matthew of course wanted his own little one but they were around $30 each!. After a tantrum he settled for the top of our tree that we had to cut off for the angel.

Matthew loved this little bear that sat outside the tree lot.

His favorite part was Mater. This was the second year in a row that Mater was placed outside the tree lot. Matthew absolutely loves Mater.

Big boy helper. Of course he had to help the guy load it onto the tree.

And help Daddy put it in the stand.

Matthew is all boy for sure. Whenever there are tools around he is "doing my work " as he puts it.

He loved all the lights on the tree.

When the tree was all decorated we put the train around it. That cheap train entertained him for hours!

Another adventure, Half a Beef

Jamie has wanted to buy a side of beef and butcher it himself for quite a while now. He wanted to learn how and get the meat cut the way he wants and use all the bones and other "stuff" the butcher would throw out to make stock and other misc stuff. It ended up being a BIG project! He set up a station outside when it was finally cold enough to keep the meat good for a while and went at it. He cut the side in half and carried it to the back yard. He learned a lot about how a beef is set up in the process. Now we have a freezer full of beef!

This was the rib portion. It was already portioned out into sections for this picture.

Matthew's Big Boy Room

We knew when we found out I was pregnant that we would need to convert Jamie's upstairs office to a bedroom and move his office downstairs. It has been a big ordeal but we finally got it done. We decided to convert the office into Matthew's room and keep the Nursery just the way it was for the new baby. Plus, Matthew wanted a big boy room anyway and we thought it would be a good way to make him feel special with the new baby coming. As we planned the room just kept getting more extravagant. We made him a Cars themed room. We painted the walls red on the bottom and blue on the top. Put clouds all over and stensiled cars along the black border between the colors. We the embelished some above with a landscape. It took many hours but turned out great. We found a Lightning McQueen bed on KSL which is perfect and put that in the room. It took a few nights for him to get used to the change but now he loves it.

I did the pond. Jackie (Jamie's sister) was good enough to come over and help us with the room. She did a lot of the stenciling like the airplane. Jamie made the forest by the window.

Jamie did the trees.

Jamie has become quite the artist in the process. He painted the mountain scene by the door.

Overall I think the room turned out really good.

Halloween 2012

Matthew picked out his costume himself this year. He was Thomas the Train. As usual we went to my sister Amy's house for dinner and trick or treating. They go all out for Halloween unlike us. This was the first year in a long time that I wore a costume. I saw one like it on facebook and had to indulge because I didn't know if I would be pregnant again around Halloween. You can't see it well in the pictures but I have two little doll hands sticking out of my pregnant belly with a trick or treat bag on one of the hands. Jamie wore a "I don't do costumes" shirt.

Matthew loves to dance and my brother in law put on Thriller dance along projected on the garage on his Wii I think. Matthew had a blast dancing with all the neighborhood kids.

He can dance and hold his candy at the same time. Best of both worlds!

Pumpking Carving 2012

The pumkins we grew this year were planted too late so we had to buy a few. It was a lot of fun carving this year. Matthew helped Mommy pull out the "guts" and helped Daddy carve. He also picked the design.

Matthew used his toddler knife to "carve" the pumpkin.

He thought the guts were funny.

He was not afraid to get in there and get dirty. He helped me sort the seeds so we could roast them.

This pumpkin was so big it probably could have fit on his head.

Helping Daddy carve.

The finished product.

Lighting the pumpkin.

He was really proud of it. It was a REALLY warm night for October. We were all out in our bare feet.

I love roasted pumpkin seeds. We sorted all of them, salted them and roasted them. YUM!

3rd birthday at the most magical place on earth.

We spent Matthew's third birthday at the most magical place on earth, Disney Land! We hadn't planned it that way but it worked out really well. My sister Amy goes with her dance studio every year in October and this year it happened to be over Matthew's birthday. It was a blast. I am so happy we went. We traveled in Great Grandma Anderson's car and stoped in Vegas for the night on the way out and back. We stayed at Dolphin's Cove Condos (our time share) that is just a few blocks away from Disney. We had a big group. Along with us and Grandma Anderson my parents came, my brother Ben, Amy and her family, and Jake and his family. My favorite part was seeing Matthew's face during the rides and meeting the Cars characters. He had a blast. The picture above is us in front of the castle. It was dark so you can't see it well. Matthew called it his birthday castle because before we left when we would see the castle at the beginning of a Disney movie we would say that is where we are going for your birthday. I will always remember this vacation as one of the best ever.

I like this picture. It is just cute of Matthew. He wore his monkey backpack the whole time there. It is a "leash" that kept him from getting lost.

Me waiting for a ride.

Jamie enjoyed taking these pics of me.

Jamie and Dad on the bugs life hot air balloon ride.

Mommy and Matthew on the bugs life hot air balloon ride.

Matthew and Zack LOVED meeting lightning McQueen. Matthew was a little more star struck than Zack. He was really nervous when he met him but he wouldn't stop talking about it afterwards.

Matthew had to learn to stand in lines while there. It was a challenge but it taught him a good lesson.

I went with Matthew on the Autopia ride and let him drive. He LOVED it (a little more than I did, it was BUMPY with him driving)

Being 7 months pregnant I really didn't want to be standing in lines and walking a ton so I rented a scooter. I looked a little ridiculous but really enjoyed it. So did Matthew. He also loved his Buzz Lightyear toy that Grandma Anderson got him for his birthday.

He got to wear a Happy Birthday pin while he was there. He even got a special Happy Birthday song sung to him by goofy.

Mommy and Matthew on the space ship ride.

This trip was fun but exhausting. When this picture was taken it was almost 10 at night without a nap. He was TIRED!

Matthew knocking on the door of his "Birthday Castle".

My little poser. At our Dolphin's cove condo there were four of these benches and he had me take a picture of him on each one. He is such a cheeser.

Our condo. It was quite comfortable.

The table at the condo.

The patio

We also went to the beach (Matthew's first time). It was a lot of fun and Matthew loved it.

He would run in and out of the water laughing his head off. He was a little leery of the waves at first then he lost his fear and was all over the place.

Matthew and mommy in the breaking waves.

He loved to let the waves hit him as long as I was close by.

The day we went to the beach was his birthday. We invited everyone over for dinner and cupcakes. It was a lot of fun. Of course we had Cars themed cupcakes.