About Me

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I am a 27 year old married mother of a beautiful, curly headed toddler named Easton and precious (and precocious) puppy named Ritzy. I have 3 blogs. The first blog is our family blog. Enjoy being nosey. Ha! The second blog is for the journey we have embarked on for our puppy. At almost 5 years old, our sweet Ritzy was diagnosed with calcium oxalate bladder stones. He had surgery to remove the stones. This blog is to document (and help others) our journey in saving Ritzy so he gets the long and healthy life he deserves. The third blog is for my "professional" life. It references my lovely Etsy store and all of the loveliness that inspires me on the wonderful world of Etsy
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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christmas in a nut shell!

Some snapshots from Christmas :-)



Christmas eve at my folks house with some of the extended family. Always a good time.

My dad, with yet again, another wine bottle. Nice, lush! ;-)

Easton looking at the Cars racetrack that Santa brought him! Easton was consistent about what he wanted Santa to bring him, "Cars, football and soccerball!" Santa brought him all of those things PLUS a basketball hoop and a stocking full of goodies. How nice of Santa! ;-) (Notice Ritzy? HE thinks HE got a new racetrack for Christmas - not Easton, Ritzy LOVES this thing and tries to grab the cars off the track, super cute and super naughty! Hehe!)

The guys checking out the goods Santa left!


The tree with some of the goods from Mommy, Daddy and Mimi and Boppy

Easton, so happy to see more CARS, CARS, CARS!!!! :-)

Handy Manny! Wow!


The CAT bulldozer he was LUSTING over in the store. Of course mommy and daddy remembered!

Uncle Kolby, Boppy and The Toe surveying the goods :-)



One last present from Boppy? Of course! Easton just kept saying, "Wow, wow!"



Racing down the street :-)


"Cool car Boppy!"



A sweet boy and his Christmas tree on Christmas night <3

Mommy and her sweetie pie by the Christmas tree


Isn't he beautiful!? Merry Christmas our sweet little boy. <3

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A Written Christmas Recap....

The Christmas holiday has come and gone. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a Christmas FREAK! I love Christmas. The Christmas season begins for me on November 1 - that is when I break out my Christmas music and I try to get Ryan to break out the decorations then as well - those normally make their appearance the 2nd weekend in November :-) I am a complete nut when it comes to Christmas! I love the sights, the sounds and just that warm feeling that surrounds you the whole season! So, needless to say, I am sad the season has come and gone and I am still holding on to the last little pieces of Christmas that I hold in my TIGHT grasp (our decorations are NOT down yet!)

Having Easton has made Christmas even more fun. The past few Christmases with him have been a blast, but this year has been especially fun because he finally REALLY "gets" Christmas and Santa, the Reindeer - all of it, he "gets" and he LOVES the magic....and it seems, just as much as I do and I have been eating it up! He has been my little Christmas spirit buddy! And, most importantly, he truly knows the REAL MEANING of Christmas this year. Hearing him talk about the Baby Jesus and how God gave us Christmas has been so precious and really fills Ryan and I with a lot of pride.

Easton was very consistent with his Christmas list this year. Everytime he met Santa, he would rattle off the same items, "Football, Soccerball and Cars" which was hilarious. He knew exactly what he wanted for Christmas!

In addition to our normal Christmas decorations, we also added a miniature Christmas tree with twinkle lights in Easton's room, which he had lit almost 24/7, he loved having Christmas spirit in his bedroom - so sweet! And, he would fall asleep to Christmas music every night! Call me a sap, but one of my favorite moments from this season, was checking on Easton before I went to bed one night and peeking into his room, all dark with the exception of his Christmas tree, his angelic face all aglow from the twinkle lights and hearing "Little Drummer Boy" being played on the radio....for some reason, that very moment, it almost brought me to tears. Just the beauty of the season, the beauty of my son, one of the greatest gifts God ever gave Ryan and I, just all of the beauty together was just too much!

Easton has really loved singing carols with me, especially in the car! His favorite seemed to be "Winter Wonderland"! He knows almost all the words and would sing along with such vigor and glee! :-)

We took quite a few nights to look at Christmas lights which Easton thoroughly enjoyed!

Oh and I cannot forget to mention "The Polar Express". Easton LOVES the Movie "The Polar Express". Uncle Kolby introduced him to it and he is hooked! He can recite almost the whole movie and all the songs, he just adores it, which has been a ton of fun! Oh and we have also spent many a night reading "The Night Before Christmas" and "God Gave Us Christmas". These movies and readings have definitely become Christmas traditions I hope we will continue to uphold :-)

It was truly such a beautiful season for our family and we hope you enjoyed the holiday season with yours as well! I mainly wrote this for my own reference and memory to look back on. Thank you for indulging me.

I will have some pictures and a recap of our Christmas soon :-)

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Where do we go from here?


Easton got a Ferrari for Christmas.

What does this mean for us when the age of 16 rolls around???? Thanks DAD!


Thursday, December 23, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010!


Merry Christmas 2010 from the Loucks family! ~ Ryan, Kami, Easton & Ritzy







Sunday, December 12, 2010

Great Wolf Lodge!


On December 9 - 11, Ryan, Easton and I had the pleasure of staying and playing at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City and boy did we have a blast!

I want to take a minute first to give my parents a "shout out" for giving us this trip as part of our Christmas - thank you SO much! We had so much fun, we want to make it a yearly tradition (and we are thinking of going back in the next month or two! Ha!)

The lodge is lovely and we had so much fun enjoying the activities and waterpark with our friends Jeff and Kellye and their two boys Carson and Dylan!

Easton could not stop talking about the water bucket (you will see soon!) and the waterslides! Our little dude is a daredevil and could not get enough of the waterslides! His favorite was the fastest, longest and had the steepest drop off, of course! We were proud of him and all he would do! He was awesome!

On to the pictures and my commentary....



We got up to GWL Thursday in the early afternoon and after getting settled in our room, we headed off to the waterpark where Easton immediately took off and sat down in the first pool of water he could find, he didn't even let me take his shirt off! Ha!
Shirt off now (for the few seconds he would sit still!) And playing in the water fountains
Ryan, Easton, Jeff and Carson in one of the pools
Daddy and the Toe!
Before dinner Thursday night, we let Easton and Carson explore the lobby all decorated for Christmas. They took up residence in Santa's chair! :-) I love Easton's expression here!

Dinner at the Lodge Thursday night :-)
Kellye and Dylan
Ryan being silly.
After dinner we hit up the arcade. Ryan insisted Easton wanted to do this ride. Suuure ;-)
And this one too....

Here is what Easton really wanted to do!
Easton couldn't believe it was SNOWING INSIDE! :-) There is a clocktower show with singing and talking animals and they sing Christmas carols and then it "snows" in the lobby (see above picture) and then someone comes out and reads a special story! Rudolph also made an appearance this night!

WOO HOO! (Almost all of the kids wore their jammies to story time!)



A hug from Rudolph - or Rudolph's crotch. *sigh* lol

Easton and Carson engaging in some toddler shenanigans while watching Polar Express after story time! We would go down to Jeff and Kellye's room to play games at night and the boys would watch a movie and fall asleep - sometimes :-)

Buddies sharing a laugh

My handsome little man and myself at breakfast in the morning :-)

Family shot! The only one sadly :-(


Love him!

Easton posing with a great wolf! :-)

More time in Santa's chair. They just wanted to keep it warm for him!


Getting ready for day #2 of water park!

Spillage from THE HUGE WATER BUCKET. There is a huge bucket in the middle of the waterpark that spills 1,000 gallons of water all over the people who dare to stand beneath!

Easton on his ride down the red slide!

Ryan's turn

E and I getting ready to go down some waterslides together!

Grabbing our tube!




WOO HOO! THAT WAS A BLAST!

The middle of the water park and "The Bucket" on top!



After water park Easton was a little sleepy and all he wanted to do was have me hold him. I happily obliged! :-)

My sweet, sweet baby boy. <3


Before dinner we hit up "Candy Cane Lane" and the boys got to make a reindeer out of candy canes!


Easton proudly showing off his candy cane reindeer :-)

WOLF EARS! After every meal, the boys would get a pair of wolf ears, they are super cute :-)

Kellye and I. Sweet friend, I am so blessed to have her in my life!

After dinner the boys found out SANTA WAS HERE, SANTA WAS HERE! Easton played shy and wouldn't sit on his lap, but I told him he needed to remind Santa of what he wanted for Christmas and then he said "Oh yeah!" and ran over to Santa and rattled off what he wanted "Cars, a football and soccer" and he said it so fast Santa said, "Tell me again?" and he did. Easton has been VERY consistent with what he wants Santa to bring him for Christmas!

After Santa made a mental note of Easton's list, he said to Easton, "I know you don't want to sit on my lap, but can I get a hug?" and Easton hugged him and then he said, "Well, now that we're friends, why don't you sit on my lap and your mom can get a nice picture...." and Easton did, Santa laughed and said to me, "See how that works?" He was the LOVELIEST Santa ever!


The boys loved Santa and Easton, later seeing Santa walking around the lobby went back for more hugs to which Santa said, "You're a special little one, aren't you?" Yes Santa, he most certainly is.


Sporting his wolf ears again :-) The wolf ears made a lot of appearances during adult game time (especially with a little beer and wine involved! Ha!)

Story time!


More hugs for Rudolph's crotch.

Easton grabbing his bunny and blanket before heading to hang with Carson in his room after story time :-)

The last day we hit up the arcade one more time to use up all our tokens. Easton loved skeetball!



And our last time at the waterpark, so much fun! My sweet boys.

More waterslide action with mommom!

The lazy river.

And this is Easton and I just getting done riding down Easton's FAVORITE SLIDE!



One more waterslide ride for Daddy.

One more waterslide ride for Easton.

Bye-Bye Waterpark....We'll miss you....

But we'll be back soon!