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See how rediculous we are at this? Come on! We can do better!

Fall Colors

So, I guess we are doing this by season! That's alright, it's more than we used to do!

Kaori is 2! Wow, it goes by fast. She's 2 and loving it! She has so much personality, she is so fun to be around. Everything she says is just adorable. Her current fave, "It's not fai-ya!" coupled with furrowed eyebrows, huge pouty lip and tightly folded arms. Granted, I do not like this and have to either ignore or reprimand, but I do turn away and have to compose myself to do either. She loves to sing. Her faves include Hairspray, HSM, HM, Natasha Beddingfield, Enchanted and WOW! WOW! Wubbzy!. She is finally getting into coloring, and has learned many of her colors. She began the journey with "I don' know, GREEN!" every time we asked her about a color of something. Now she responds still, "I don' know...", but with (70% of the time) the right color. She is definitely our favorite 2 year old!

Erik just finished another show, Damn Yankees. He really enjoyed the cast and had a lot of fun. The show was really great too. Very entertaining, with some real talent, Erik included! Its been fun that with Erik being in so many shows over the last year, I've been able to go to the theater often! and see shows that I've never seen. He just auditioned for another starting next year, so we have more to look forward to. How can you resist such angelic faces, really?

Naomi started Kindergarten! Wow! And things are still all up in the air. Our smartypants little girl is blowing everyone away at school. We're going to discuss "options" next week at our parent/teacher conference. She's visited one of the first grade classes and goes to another room for part of the day. Sometimes I feel like she should have been born to geniuses, though I'm grateful she's ours. She sure does learn and remember everything. I can't believe she'll be 6 soon. Her smile still wins me over and her laugh is contagious. Friends and family are very all important to her, and she misses the old ones, and gets excited about new ones. Her daily questions aren't "where are we going today?" they are, "who are we going to see today?". She loves to draw and write, and has currently "written" three "books" for herself. She has decided that a book needs twenty pages and writes until she fills them. Her drawing has really gotten better over the last few months and has impressed me and I love seeing what she brings home from school.

She loved Halloween and counted down the days till she got to dress up and get candy! Kaori really had fun with it too. We made them both skunks (lil' stinkers) and they were adorable. And Mom made another pinata, which they happily beat upon. We had fun.

Finally, The biggest and best thing this fall was the birth of Aidan Makoto Lukens to Erik's sister, Cristina. He is adorable, sweet, and precious. Labor was intense, the c-section quick, the recovery still in progress, and after being in NICU for a week because of infection, he's home with mom and dad:) Congrats to you CCC! and your bro and fam loves you too!

Summer's End

Wow! Summer is over and SCHOOL has started. Naomi officially a kindergardener! So far so good and I just love watching her walk all in a line in her class. She blows me a kiss and waves bye and says "Bye Mom" every morning as she is walking away, totally happy, and its just so cute. She does it cause she thinks she is so big now. And she is.

This last summer she learned how to swim, going from tubes and floaties, to nothing at all. and I like to say that she looks more like she's drowning than swimming, but she can swim across the pool, using her arms and breathing. She "graduated" to the deep end during lessons and I was so proud. She was just happy that she got TWO jelly beans instead of one at the end of the lesson.
Erik has had rehearsals most of summer, and is in the middle of performing at the Woodland Opera House in "Tom Sawyer". It is a great show that Naomi loves and has seen three times, and plan to go and see it again. I really like it as well. It is a lot of fun. He'll start another one almost as soon as he is done, so he's been really busy.
Kaori turns 2 on Saturday! Where has the time gone?!? She is such funny, cute, little girl! After Saturday she won't be a baby anymore. Wow. She loves to sing about the monkey swinging in the tree laughing at the crocodile, the eency weency spider and the monkeys jumping on the bed. She's into wearing other people shoes, saying I don't know when you ask her anything, and when you ask her where something is, she says "right dehine you." She will copy anything you do or say. And when she is in trouble and you ask her if she wants to have a time out or some other punishment, she very clearly says while nodding her head, "yes!" She is just so darn cute!
I think that my favorite part of summer was watching Karen get married, meeting my nephew, Eldon's son, for the first time, and getting to spend a lot of time with family. And to top it all off, we got to see Becky and Randy again when they came to California to go to Karen's open house in Fresno, and went with us to not go paddle boating (that one was for you guys. Ahh, memories). Next year we have two more weddings to go to! Congratulations Cristina & Spencer and Alison & Shawn!
Man summer flew by fast! I have a feeling that this year will be even faster. I hope we slow down enough to live it well and make some memories. We love you friends and family and we think of you often!

2008: So far, SO good...

Wow, we can't believe April is almost over! It's been a great '08 so far and we are having so much fun! Right now we're trying to decide on a place and when the best time to move would be in the next few months. We'll be staying here in Woodland, it's just a matter of what side of town. The girls had a fun Easter. Kaori was able to "find" some eggs and Naomi was all over the place. There wasn't a place you could hide an egg that she wouldn't find it (you know there's candy in them things). Naomi is gearing up for her first ballet recital next month and she's excited! Dad is trying to convince her to join him in his acting pursuits, and she's beginning to warm up to the idea. She is a natural on the floor, she sings and dances with ease, she just needs to overcome her fears of "people looking at her". Mom is testing the waters in finding a job. She has all the tools, it's just a matter of who the lucky establishment will be that will have the pleasure of her services. Dad is going strong with, #12 in the nation (best companies to work for Fortune Magazine), the Nugget Markets and is loving his job and the people he works with. He was asked by a friend to participate in the Opera House's "A Streetcar Named Desire" and is playing the small role of Pablo Gonzales. So that has been our year, so far. We're all just content and loving life together.

Happy Holidays!

Wow, what a holiday season it's been! We've enjoyed visits from so many family members, and extended family. During Thanksgiving we saw Karen and met her boyfriend, Jason. We also had a special visit from Jeff! We didn't see Eldon's, Becky's or Anthony's family but we did see Cristina. We met at Great Grandma's for a while and also the Grandparents Johnston. Naomi celebrated her fifth birthday and she was so thrilled. She got a Razor Scooter and loves to ride around outside. Gaylene also had a nice birthday, and we took family photos at the Picture People (who we highly recomend) that we posted here on the blog. For Christmas we saw everyone from Thanksgiving, and a few days after Anthony brought his family over and we had a FULL HOUSE!! It was crazy in here, but lots of fun, too. We enjoyed playing Wii games together, and our nephew Jacob brought over some extra controllers for the 360 and we made some ruckus playing Halo 3. It has been a lot of fun, but we're all ready to ring in the New Year!