The Boys

Luke will be 18 months on Friday- it's hard to believe he is already a year and a half! Luke has really been trying to keep up with his big brother lately. They have been really interacting more and more which is so fun to watch. One thing that is really different this time around is the fact that Luke has a built in play buddy while Jacob at Luke's age only had me. I'm realizing how nice it is that they can play together and entertain one another instead of me providing all the entertainment. It's been very nice!!

Little Luke forgets sometimes that he is still little as he is wanting to do everything Jacob is doing. For example, Luke now has to dip his chicken, french fries, etc in ketchup just like Jacob does. It's funny b/c Jacob just started using ketchup about 6 months ago. Luke has also found that his finger fits just perfectly into the little holes in his nose, gee I wonder who he saw doing that! After Luke brushes his teeth (which consists of him chewing on his toothbrush) he tries to spit in the sink like Jacob and tries to make the same noise Jacob makes while spitting. It's too funny! Speaking of teeth, Luke has been teething so badly lately. Those darn K-9's are a killer! He was so fussy last week, just random spurts of crying on and off all day, all week. It was a rough couple of days but thankfully he is better now. He has one more K-9 to break through on the bottom then hopefully we will have a nice long break until the 2 year molars start making their way through, then we will be done!!!

Jacob has been loving his big brother role lately. He can be so sweet with Luke while at the same time, so rough! What are big brothers for, right! Along with them playing together comes the typical brotherly spats. Luke wants everything Jacob has and Jacob's not too fond of that. I'm having to quickly learn how to solve these spats while Luke cries and Jacob tells me every last detail of what just happened. It makes for some interesting times, no doubt!

So, I want to brag on Jacob for a minute...I have been working with him on writing his name this summer. In preschool last year, they traced their names every day to practice writing the letters. I really wanted to keep him practicing this summer so he wouldn't lose interest and his skills. He's done so well and can now write his first and last name on his own. He definitely has to be in the mood to sit down and do it but if I catch the window, he really enjoys it. He is also learning his letter sounds, thanks to the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD. It's really helping him learn the sounds in a fun, entertaining way. Highly recommend the DVD.

Here are a few recent pictures...

Luke's new favorite pose




New Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck toys




Hard at work...as I was taking this picture Jacob said "Mom don't look, I want to surprise you." And of course Luke is right there with him. (eating the crayons probably as he loves to do!)


If you look closely you can see he wrote his name...can you tell I am proud of my little guy!!

Yellowstone Trip

As most of you know, we took a trip to Yellowstone National Park last week. Jim was awarded this trip through Edward Jones from all of his hard work. They take care of everything which is so nice. We flew in last Sunday and enjoyed 6 nights and 7 days there and had such a great time. We stayed in Big Sky, Montana which was about an hour drive into Yellowstone. We spent 3 days visiting Yellowstone and the other days at our resort. We saw a lot of wildlife including lots of buffalo, elk, a bald eagle, wild wolves, and even moose. We didn't see a bear which was our goal but maybe next time. One of the days at the resort I went to the spa in the morning and Jim went white water rafting in the afternoon which was great for both of us. The boys were great and Jacob just loved seeing the Old Faithful geyser and they both loved seeing all the animals. We even had a little check list of things for Jacob to look for and he found them all. We had a tough time getting home but finally made it after 2 cancelled flights on Delta...they then reaccommodated us on American with a 2 hour flight delay...but we finally got home at midnight on Sunday! What an ending to our vacation!! Other than that, we couldn't complain about anything. Jim said this trip fulfilled one of his dreams of taking us all to Yellowstone, he loves the mountains! Here are just a few pictures from the trip (out of the 256 we took)!



Old Faithful Geyser

4th of July

Happy late 4th of July to everyone! We had a fun weekend in East Texas. It first started with Gabriel's 6th birthday party on July 3. He had a Spongebob party and Kristina and Oscar were happy to host his party at their new house in Tyler. They moved to Tyler in mid-June and are getting settled in. It's going to be fun having them only 2 hours away instead of 5. On Saturday, Kristina threw Oscar a party to recognize his completion of his many years of cardiology training. He is now officially done with his training and will be starting with his practice next week.

Such a big boy, it's hard to believe he is 6 and will be starting Kindergarten in August.


Party time


He loves Star Wars


Annie going in for a hug


Sweet cousins


Luke got his first busted lip over the weekend. It was so swollen but looked much better the next day!


Jacob got the job of filling the pinata with candy. He was in heaven with his hands over all that candy!


Luke was helping-again with the silly pose


At Oscar's party- a rare photo of my dad and grandpa and all of his siblings together


Water balloon toss


Rhonda, Brian and Emily drove to Kilgore for the party. We were so glad they came.


Of course, we had to do sparklers. Surprisingly, Jacob was so excited about it!


My 'All American Boy'


My 'All American Boy'


Jacob loves making this silly face and Luke is trying to do it too. Too funny!


One last picture of Jacob at his summer camp last week. They had a little parade around the school and wore their homemade shirts.

17 months and summer camp

Luke is now 17 months old and doing so much. He is walking so fast he is almost running, it won't be long. He also likes to stand in one place and turn in circles, over and over. There is something kids like about feeling dizzy, I guess! He loves playing with his little push car and can now not only go backwards when sitting on it but can go forwards too. This is a big accomplishment since it's takes a lot of strength to move himself forward. He is still favoring his left hand with almost everything. I know this doesn't mean he will end up left handed but do think it's interesting and will watch and see if he starts favoring his right at all. He also is always walking around with "something" in his hand. The other day he was walking around with a bottle of cough medicine and then later was walking around with my lent brush. And he doesn't put these things down for anything so I stopped trying! :) He also got his 13th tooth, his first K-9 and the 14th one is about to break through. Fun times here with all the teething! He still loves to put stuff in the trash. The other day Jacob finished his popsicle and the stick was laying on the table and Luke got it and went and put it in the trash. Luckily now, "trash" is actually ending up in the trash can instead of toys and such. He continues to understand so much. The other day, I was holding him and someone said to him, "You have mommy's eyes." He turned to me and pointed at my eyes. It's so fun watching him connect the dots and learn so much. He can also point to many body parts, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth etc. He and Jacob are really interacting more these days. It's fun to start to see them play and be together.

Jacob is having a great summer and has been going to a little summer fun camp at his school. His last day is tomorrow and last week their theme was the Olympics and this week it is 4th of July. He has been doing lots of games and art projects. I'm glad he has been able to go do something fun and creative while being with some of his friends. Yesterday they made t-shirts with their handprints for the parade tomorrow. We have also been swimming a lot with friends. He is loving the water and can't seem to get enough of it. It's hard to believe it's already July 1st, how fast the summer is going by but we are going to enjoy it as much as we can.

Bedtime snack


Luke does this new face now when he sees a camera...


This morning the boys were playing cars in the bathroom while I was getting ready. They were playing so well together and were going back and forth to the playroom getting more cars for "their car wash". There were cars lined up all over the counter. Whatever it takes, right! :)




Here is that face again...silly boy!