Luke is 11 months today!

Luke is 11 months old, which is crazy!  Time has flown by...  I made this little jumper for him to prepare for his 1 year outfit I'm making.  Don't let the elephant fool you; I'm still an Auburn fan.  I chose the elephant because Ron's a Bama fan, it went with the color red, and Newbie can wear it down the road whether a girl or boy.

This picture was taken at MDO this morning while one of the teachers helped Luke stand up.  Notice how empty the halls are?  I didn't get the memo they had closed because of the stupid Swine Flu.  So I had to turn around and head back home.  I was fortunate enough to get a babysitter and make it to my doctor's appointment without having to reschedule.  (32 weeks and counting; both me and the baby got a good check-up.)

Sam wanted to hold Luke and take a picture.  They're having too much fun!

Luke's new way to ride

As some of you know, you're supposed to wait until your child is 20 lbs and one year old before you put them in a front-facing car seat.  Luke has met one of those criteria, but is just now barely 11 months old.  So Ron and I thought long and hard about it (which totalled about 10 seconds) and decided to go ahead and move Luke up to the next car seat.  We drove around the neighborhood last night and accomplished two things: get Luke's reaction to his new way of riding, and let Ron hear my brakes.

Yep, I'm getting new brakes.  I went two weeks ago and they told me I needed them.  I thought I'd hold off and let my step-dad do it for a lot cheaper.  Yesterday my car started making horrible noises, so I couldn't put it off another day.  You know the sound your car makes when you pull into a parking space and the bottom of your bumper hits the parking block?  That's what my brakes sound like.  On a side note, if any of you want to learn a new word for the day, I've got one for you.  Turtarrier is the actual name for the parking blocks used in parking lots... yep, I Googled it.

our weekend

We had a fun weekend packed with a lot of activities.  Friday was quite the day for me; I've been overwhelmed with emotions lately.  It seems my pregnancy hormones have changed: the hormones that gave me curly hair have gone away and been replaced by hormones that make me cry... a lot.  I lost all my curls which makes me sad; but it was fun while it lasted.

Sam enjoyed some Play-Doh fun on Friday.

Luke started drinking out of a sippy cup Friday.  He had been drinking from an old-fashioned spout cup with my help for a few weeks, but now he can handle a real sippy cup on his own.

We enjoyed playing outside.  Luke ran up and down the driveway while Sam played in the sand.

Other activities included Ron going to Cleveland, TN Friday and Saturday with three other guys for a race, Rebekah coming to visit, dinner at Rosie's, breakfast with all our houseguests Sunday morning at the Waffle House, church, and the Panoply Festival.  It was a fun weekend.

they jumped

I don't think I've done an update on my family skydiving...

The clouds lifted last Saturday in Cullman long enough for my mom, step-dad, brother and several others to go jump at Skydive Alabama.  This is how she celebrated her 60th birthday.

Here's Mom and Dave right before the jump

My mom free-falling at 120 mph.

Here's Dave heading down.  Check out the effects of the wind against his skin.

for my brother (and a few others)

We've lived here a little over 2 months and some friends and family have been asking for me to post pictures... so here it goes.

The front of the house is a little deeper in color than pictured.  I had to lighten it up because of the shadows.

My kitchen, which is painted a light sea-foam green.

Our bedroom... thanks to a ton of help from my mom-in-law Christine, we made most of the curtains in the house.  This was my first attempt at pinch-pleat curtains.

Newbie's room...  The curtains and bedding are a toile with yellow, pink, blue and green. They have bunnies and etc.  I still need to make a bed skirt.

Sam's room... we got him some grown-up bedding and I made these burlap curtains.  He has cool train sheets which he likes.

Our main living area... I love how these curtains turned out!  And the art is inspired by David Bromstad's work...it's growing on us.  ☺

Thanks to tedious work by my sister-in-law Rebekah, here is our finished shower curtain.  I trimmed the towels with the same material to bring it all together...

Thank you Denise!  ☺

I called my friend Denise to see if she had experienced what I was now experiencing... Luke is at the stage where he thinks he can walk and get around okay but instead is constantly falling down and bumping in to things.  A couple of days ago I cried to Ron about how I can't even read a book to Sam without having to tend to Luke.  It will probably be a few more weeks until Luke is walking good on his own.  Until then I feel like I don't have a chance for much quality time with Sam.

So she mentioned putting Luke in a pack-n-play or his bed for a few minutes.  Throw in some toys and he can have play time while I spend a few minutes with Sam.  I tried it and we all enjoyed it.  Sam and I got to read and play a few minutes until he got distracted by Luke's giggling.   Luke was having so much fun playing and laughing that Sam decided to join in...so they both ended up in Luke's bed for playtime.

this warms my heart...

In the past couple of weeks I've noticed Sam and Luke beginning to play together.  Last night we watched them run in circles around the house... Sam pushed his big green tractor while Luke chased him in his walker.  It was so cute.  Luke woke up before Sam this morning and I put him in his walker while I went to get his bottle ready.  I heard him squealing and hitting something.  When I went to find out what he was doing, I found him at Sam's door.  He had worked his way over there and was running his walker into the door over and over, as if he was beckoning Sam to come out and play.  It warmed my heart.  It wasn't long before Sam was awake and their day as brothers began...

Ron got Sam in the "studio" a couple of weeks ago to record a few songs.  We plan on uploading them to this post once we take the time to figure out how to add audio clips.  Until then we just have pictures.

Sam enjoyed playing Ron's melodica.  You have to breathe through the mouthpiece to get sound to come out.  It sounds a lot like an accordion...

Luke even got in on the action by playing the piano.

Growing bellies...

Here's a picture of me and my 3 friends who are all pregnant and due just a couple of weeks apart.  I may have the due dates off a day or two, but here it goes:

Leslie - 5/15, Ashley - 6/7, Denise 5/31, and me 6/25

Leslie and Ashley are having little girls; Denise and I are going to be surprised.

Thank you Sarah for taking the picture.  We can't wait to meet your little one in the fall.

Ashley took this sweet picture of Luke last night.

Luke's skillz

This video just has a few clips of Luke doing different things.  Luke clapped yesterday for the first time, so I had to get a little of that on video.  He claps in the car now and keeps himself entertained throughout the day just watching his little hands.

breakfast time

SAM's breakfast today:

1/2 of a Pop Tart

LUKE's breakfast today:

1 whole Pop Tart

1 whole piece of raisin bread

1 whole banana

4 oz. bottle of milk

I love my boys and their differences.  It makes me laugh.  It makes me appreciate them in different ways!  ☺

Easter Outfit

Here are Sam and Luke each pictured wearing the Easter outfit I made.

Luke at 10 months

Sam at 6 months

KIDS!!

Let me just start off by saying I'm doing a lot better now than I was 2 hours ago...  after hearing from a couple of sound individuals (thanks Ashley and Ron) that there are worse things in life and this is fixable, I'm more calm.  But I'm still upset.

Long story short sometimes I let Sam close the garage door.  Well, not today.  I told him I had to get groceries out of the back of the van and he couldn't close it.  He said "Yes Ma'am".  I got to the back of the van and opened the door; I even reminded him when I was back there that he wasn't to push the button and close the door.  So I went around the side to get Luke out before grabbing more groceries and what do you think happened?  Yep, you guessed it.  Sam closed the door.  By the time I tried to get the door back up, the damage was done.  My back van door was stuck in the garage door in a mangled mess.  Fortunately I pried the van door out and it only sustained a few scratches.  But the garage door will probably have to be replaced.  I'll find out in the next day or two.  As of now I'm scared to even attempt to lift the door back up, so I'm stuck in my house the rest of the day.

Some of you may have heard that my mom and step-dad were going skydiving today for her 60th birthday.  After the news started making it's way around Birmingham, more people kept signing up.  Mom and Dave, my brother, my step-brother and his girlfriend, and a friend from church all made their way to Cullman this morning to jump.  Several others were there for moral support...

I told them I wanted a picture just in case anything went wrong... they didn't think that was funny.

Luke enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with Kathy Cheely...

Sam enjoyed hanging out with Marcia Bryan, his new best friend...

Sam also had fun jumping out of the plane (while it was still in the hanger) as if he was parachuting.

Here's the group getting their instructions...

After two hours of waiting for the clouds to clear so they could go up, I decided I would head back to Huntsville with the boys.  We left Cullman at 10:30 and as of now (2:30) they still haven't jumped.  I hope it clears up for them because I know they were all looking forward to it...

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!!

B, you are beautiful in so many ways and our lives are better because of you!  Thanks for your dedication to us over the years.  Thanks for loving us during the hard times, even when you didn't like us much.  ☺  Thanks for being you...

No, we still don't know

Some of you were privy to a little inside information.  About 5 weeks ago we decided after all we wanted to know Newbie's gender, so I set up an appointment for a 4D ultrasound.  I didn't want to tell anyone until after we did it because I know how we are.  We get these ideas, say we're going to do something, change our minds (or do it before we realize it's a mistake), and all you guys roll your eyes at us.  May I reference that we just moved for the 11th time in 9 ½ years of marriage... big eye roll there!

Anyway, so I told Rebekah and Ashley mostly because they'll roll their eyes at me right at the beginning and it'll be over with.  I can handle that.  Ron told quite a few people without me knowing it...so my friends start coming up to me asking when we're finding out?  And guess what happened? We didn't find out!  I knew we wouldn't; I knew we'd change our minds.  So go ahead and roll your eyes...  Get it out of your system.  And may I add here that this will be the last time you will roll your eyes at us for a while, because I still promise we aren't moving out of this house for at least 15 years!

funny!

not only am i wearing green and posing the same way in both pictures, i'm also big and preggo!  

meeting sir topham hatt this year was a lot like meeting him exactly a year ago.  oh, it makes me laugh!  

and just look at how much longer sam's legs are... he's grown so much.

Thomas and Friends

Amanda and I took Sam and Pierson to "A Day out with Thomas" in Birmingham yesterday.  It was a great trip and the boys had so much fun.  Unfortunately it was a little chilly and I didn't dress Sam properly for the occasion.  He had to borrow Pierson's vest and his poor arms were uncovered the whole time!  But we still had a good time...

Here are the boys sitting in their seats ready to go...  After the first half of the trip the volunteers were nice enough to let us sit in an indoor coach.  It was much warmer the second half of the ride.

Each of the boys got a balloon.  And each of the boys popped theirs and got another one.  ☺  Here's Sam with his fish and fishing pole.

The last picture was my favorite part.  Ron and I have been wanting to break Sam's pacifier habit for a while now.  We've gotten him down to only having it at night and during his nap.  A few weeks ago I asked Sam if he was ready to give up his pacifiers.  If he was, we could take them to Sir Topham Hatt and ask him to take good care of them.  We were even going to suggest that he put the pacifiers in Thomas' Christmas stocking (his stocking is talked about in one of Sam's favorite Thomas books).  So we got in line to meet Sir Hatt and he was nice enough to say he'd take good care of him.  If you look closely in the picture, you'll see a little plastic baggy with pacifiers in it in the crook of Sir Hatt's arm.  After being told by other parents there that it was a brilliant idea, I had high hopes.  I'm happy to say that Sam slept last night without his pacifier.  He didn't even ask for it when going to bed.  And right now he's asleep without it for his afternoon nap.  YEA!  He's such a big boy...

Silly Faces

Ron and Sam played around with our computer's Photo Booth the other day.  Sam LOVED all the special effects.  Here are the two best pics of them...