And he's off...

I'm so excited to say that our little Luke is walking! Over the past few days he has been getting more confident in letting go and walking on his own. He still takes his time and holds on to things along the way to brace himself but he is doing great! We are thrilled!!!!! He turns 15 months tomorrow so we were ready!

He is such a joy to us and I have really been enjoying this age and all that he is doing. Here are some of his new "tricks"...

-He can shake his head yes in response to a question.
-He is now dancing when he hears music. He shakes his head and bounces his legs, with a huge smile of course. It's too cute.
-He now has 11 teeth including all 4 molars and the 12th one is about to break through!
-He had his first cup of orange juice and seemed to like it.
-He still won't drink milk. Jacob still doesn't either so I'm not sure what this is all about.
-He still is a great eater. He loves cheese, black olives, chicken, broccoli, green beans, most fruits, and beans to name a few.
-He loves to open and close cabinet doors, over and over and over! :)

I'm sure I've left off a few things but that is what comes to mind over the last month. We leave for our vacation to Destin soon so I'll be sure to post pictures once we are back.

Here he goes






Loves the cabinet doors




Needing a break

My little Easter bunnies

We had a great time celebrating Easter at my parents in Kilgore. We had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday, which is always fun. Hope you all had a joyous Easter as well!

The great Easter egg hunt








Same smile

My big boy

As of 4/6, Jacob is officially 3 1/2. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't amaze me with the things he says, the things he can recall from his memory and his sweet, innocent disposition. He really is seeming like such a big boy, more and more now. He is so much fun and I thought this would be a fun time to share a few funny stories...

-As you may recall from a previous post, Jacob decided to give up popsicles for Lent. I certainly wasn't going to hold him to it, seeing how he is only 3. Surprisingly, he has done great and hasn't had one single popsicle. So, the other day he and I went for a walk around the block and I thought that would be a good time to talk to him about the meaning of Easter and what it means to us etc. So I said "Do you know what Easter means?" And he said "Yes, it means I get to have popsicles." I thought it was too funny!

-When we take walks around the block, Jacob likes to stop and pick up leaves, flowers etc and give them to me. He started doing this last summer and still does it. So, as you know he goes to his little preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And every day that I have picked him up, he runs over and gets his backpack and says with bright eyes "Mommy, I have a surprise for you!" He digs all around in his backpack and pulls out a leaf that he found on the playground. It's so cute. I try to imagine him on the playground, taking the time to find just the right leaf and bringing it inside to put in his backpack for me. So sweet! Needless to say, we have quite the collection of leaves accumulating in the garage.

Here are some other funny quotes that he has recently said...
-"When you get to be a little girl, you can come to the playground at my school- you will love it."
-"When I was a little boy I used to..." (he says this as if he is so old now)
-When he is trying to say something is messy or messed up he says "it's all crazied up"

Here are some fun facts...
-He loves playing games. We play during the day (only when Luke is sleeping b/c Luke likes to "play" too). Part of the night time routine is that he has to play games with Daddy after his bath before bed. Some of his favorite games are: Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Bingo, The Ladybug Game, Go Fish and the Memory game.
-He loves playing outside and we are taking advantage while we have this nice, spring weather. He loves riding his bike around the block, riding his scooter, playing on our play set in the backyard, playing frisbee, playing soccer, playing t-ball, playing with bubbles and just about any other outdoor activity you can think of.
These are just a few of my favorites. He is such a joy and we are enjoying every moment as time really does fly by!!

Bluebonnet boys

There is a nice patch of bluebonnets not far from our house. We decided to dress the boys and head out for pictures before we went to dinner. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea, as there were several other families there doing the same thing, one being our neighbor. So, she offered to take a family picture which is always nice to have. The last two pictures are from the years past. Happy Spring!

















April '08- Jacob was 2 1/2 and Luke was 2 months


April '07- Jacob was 18 months.

14 months today

Our sweet Luke is 14 months today! I get so excited when there is a 31st day of the month b/c I like noting Luke's birth day each month. I get a little sad when there are only 30 days in the month and I can't celebrate the day. Especially the first 2 years, each month is so significant and so many milestones to celebrate each month.

I have to say the past month has been really big for Luke. He can now say "ma-ma" and "up" with appropriate meaning and I think I've even heard him say "bite". He started signing "more". He got 3 new teeth and now has a total of 9 including 2 molars. And he has started crawling!! I still can't believe it. We just thought he was going to be one of these babies that just skips over crawling and walks instead. He has been crawling for about a week now. He doesn't do it all the time but he certainly can do it. He is still getting close to walking! I pray this is the last time I am going to have to say "still close to walking" and I can finally say he is WALKING! I can't to make that post, hopefully sooner rather than later! He is also pointing to so many things and just looks at me as if he were saying "what is that mom?" He is adsorbing so much and I can tell he is understanding so much of what we say.

Here are some pictures of Luke crawling...




And of course Jacob is right there with him


Luke loves his fire truck and is trying to get on and off of it by himself


Jacob took this one...


He loves pulling up to the couch


And cruising along the couch



Jacob has been really into using his imagination lately. Here he is using his tunnel as his "rocket ship" and counts down from 10 and "blasts off to Mars". And we have to be his "passengers" to go with him. And he even packs a little bag of toys to take with him. It's too funny!

Our week in Houston

The boys and I had a fun get-away last week in Houston. Jim had to go out of town last week and Kristina's husband, Oscar was out of town as well so we decided to join forces and spend the week together. I was a little nervous about driving 5+ hours by myself with the boys but they did great! It's all about the timing, around their naps, dinner etc. They did great there and back. Jacob had so much fun spending time with his cousins and Luke enjoyed taking it all in. Thanks Kristina and kids for a super fun week!

While we were there we took the kids to the Discover Green park in downtown Houston. They had a great time playing on the different play areas. We also were able to meet up with my good friend Lauri for lunch since she works downtown. We had a great visit and she enjoyed being able to see the boys briefly. We miss you Lauri!





We also took the kids to the Space Center since we had never been. Jacob had a great time and enjoyed playing with all the things there.





We also went to the Houston Rodeo during the day on Friday. It was a beautiful day and I was really impressed with all they had geared towards the kids. They had fun, interactive exhibits set up that the kids loved.




I also want to share that while we were there, Luke started signing "more". It was so cute to see him do it. He did it first while eating and then did it several more times when the other kids were being silly and singing and when they stopped he would sign "more". Now we will work on "all done", "eat" and "home". Those are the few that I did with Jacob and it so nice to be able to communicate with them before they can actually talk.


As you can imagine, I have a lot more pictures that I didn't post so be on the look out for an email with the rest of them.

Cowboy Jacob

Each week at Jacob's preschool, they have a different theme they focus on. Last week their theme was "Texas" and the school brought in a real pony they could sit on and of course have their picture taken with. I had talked it up to him that morning quite a bit since he is deathly afraid of any animal, even birds! We are working on overcoming this fear--and no we are NOT getting a pet! We'll work on it in other ways! :) There was a bird near our car in a parking lot just this week and Jacob wouldn't go near the car until the bird flew off. Poor guy! Anyway, I told him the pony was really boring and just stood there and didn't do anything. That somehow worked because he actually suited up and got on the pony for the picture below.

Luke is doing so much these days. All he wants to do is walk...finger walk that is. He loves to hold our fingers and walk all over. I'll be ready when he can take off on his own and give our backs a break! I can tell he is understanding more and more of the things we say to him. A few things he can understand are, take a bite, drink, where is your book, duck, tree, fan, balloon. He is also pointing at different things which is a really good milestone at this age. He can clap and wave on demand. His little personality is coming out more and more and it's so fun getting to know him on a different level since he is doing so much. Also, I wanted to share Luke's one year pictures we had taken last week. He was such a trooper and we got several great poses of him. It was so hard to decide but I think we got some good ones. Luke wore the same birthday outfit in this picture that Jacob wore for his one year pictures. Jacob's one year pictures are the last two.