Keeping Up with the Jameses

Home Goals for 2012

2012-01-10T22:00:00.001-06:00

A blog I read called Nesting Place is talking about goals for your home so I thought I might as well put mine on our blog. I want to write more about our house because I love it so much (minus the rats) but I just haven’t had/made the time. I will post our laundry room makeover soon. Mark did a great job! Here are our home goals for this year:

Update the kitchen. Before we even moved in we painted over the dark red walls to a neutral color, which made it a lot brighter and a lot better. But the honey/golden oak cabinets seem very 90s to me and the counters are in need of an upgrade. Plus, I despise our sink. It is so shallow.We want to paint the cabinets white {which feels like an enormous undertaking but it is so expensive to get them painted}, put in either light or dark granite countertops, and put in wood floors (or something that looks like wood). I know that is not very original—that is what pretty much every home decor blog I read does to their kitchen but it is a look I really love. Here are two kitchens I like:

Source: flickr.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: emilyaclark.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

2. Update our master bathroom. I don’t have a picture of it. It needs to be painted and we want to update our shower from gold to oil rubbed bronze and also update our fixtures which are two-toned (gold and silver=not a fan). I also want to frame our mirrors.

3. Decorate and repaint the dining room.

4. Repaint Ethan’s room. It was BRIGHT pink when we bought it, with some ladybugs painted on the wall. I picked a really pale blue for some unknown reason. I guess I forgot most of his stuff was already blue. So I want to repaint it and hang more art in his room. You can click here to see what his nursery looked like before we moved.

I’d like it to look more like this nursery from Restoration Hardware. This is the same bedding Ethan has and he has dark wood furniture so I think I can {somewhat} recreate it. I’ll probably need Shauna’s help though.

5. Decorate the guest bedroom. There’s basically just a bed, nightstand and a small bookshelf in there now. Nothing on the walls.

6. Re-do the boys’ bathroom upstairs. It needs to be painted. I saw this on pinterest and loved it for a boy’s bathroom. Although I doubt we would actually paint the vanity blue. But I thought this was really cute and classy.

Source: beckdesignblog.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Whew….that’s a lot of stuff. We may not get to all of this stuff this year but it is fun thinking and planning projects for a house you love. Mark is probably tired just reading this ;).

Rats

2012-01-08T21:42:00.001-06:00

I also posted an update on the boys.

I thought about putting a picture of an actual rat but I am still too disturbed so Remy from Disney’s Ratatouille will have to do.

I’m not sure I really want to remember this but I guess it is memorable. One night in early December, I accidentally left Luke’s school bag and lunch box on the floor of the garage because we were making room in the car to go to his Christmas performance. The next morning, a rodent or rodents chewed through the bag AND his lunchbox to eat a peanut butter cracker he had left in his lunchbox that day. In hindsight, we should have put our poison or traps then but I guess hindsight is always 20/20. So then one day after Christmas, we were going to eat at Chick-Fil-A with some friends who had been over at the house. We started driving in our neighborhood and the car starting acting really weird and would not shift gears properly and all the lights on the dashboard were flashing. We turned around and went home and moved the carseats to our other car. Well, as it turns out, a rat (or rats) had chewed through the insulation and other stuff on the bottom of our Pilot and managed to chew through the speed sensor wire for the transmission. The little pest caused more than ONE THOUSAND dollars worth of damage to our car. We still don’t have our car back. Thankfully, our car insurance covers this type of damage.

THEN—I was sitting in our office one night and heard the distinct squeaking sound of a rat/mouse in the ceiling above me and then heard it running. So, the nasty pests managed to get in our walls/ceiling too!! We called ABC Pest the very next day and they came and saw evidence of them in the attic and so we paid $566.00 to have them set traps and seal up any roof joints, etc. where the rats may be getting in.

We sincerely hope this is the end of our rat troubles. Ugh. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to us.

Starting Fresh…

2012-01-08T21:21:00.001-06:00

this is our chalkboard in the kitchen—I wanted to highlight Mark’s awesome chalk artwork :)

Wow—I am a really pathetic blogger. Okay—the whole purpose of this blog is to chronicle the life of our family because Lord knows I am no scrapbooker or diary-keeper. I don’t even know where to begin since I last blogged in November. I’ll start with this guy…Lukie B :

still obsessed with all things Star Wars and got Star Wars books, Legos and action figures for Christmas
he also got a scooter and is learning how to ride it
still a very picky eater

Ethan:

says so many words now. I really wanted to do a developmental update on him but this will have to do. He repeats what we say and is a really good talker for 20 months (in my opinion). He says new words every day. He calls Luke—“Gook”
LOVES the Wiggles. He was obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba for a long time but right after Christmas we showed him the Wiggles and it has been all Wiggles all the time.
Got his own iPod touch for Christmas, which I think is hilarious and awesome. We like to start our kids on Apple products very early. He also got this awesome case for his iPod, which is genius.
loves dogs so much, especially David’s dog Molly. Molly was his main source of entertainment while we stayed at Ammy and PawPaw’s house.
got strep throat a week before Christmas and was pretty miserable. Thank God for antibiotics and urgent care clinics.
picture of my poor, sick baby at urgent care

That is all I can think of for now. But it is a start! I think I might write a post about our rat problem next. Good times.

Halloween

2011-11-12T14:41:00.001-06:00

We had a great Halloween, although our plans were almost derailed by a nasty stomach virus in three out of the four of us. Luke was able to wear his Captain Rex costume on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so I feel like we got our money’s worth. On Halloween we walked down to a little party at the end of our street and the kids played and then we started trick-or-treating down our street. When we got to our house, Luke decided he was finished even though his friends were still going strong. He enjoyed passing out candy for a while. We ran out of candy pretty early on—I guess next year I will need to buy a lot more. We did a Star Wars theme this year and I think we had the cutest R2-D2 and Captain Rex ever. Ethan was such a good sport about wearing his costume. He will probably be a lover of costumes just like his big brother.

Soccer

2011-09-27T13:36:00.001-05:00

Luke had his first soccer game this past Saturday. He did so good! I was so proud of him. He even scored a goal for his team—the Lizards! He was not afraid to get in there and try his best to kick the ball. I really was so proud of him. I’m all for him playing soccer or golf or tennis! Just no football. I like the sports where there is little to no danger involved. He seemed to have a great time and wore himself out running so much. We are doing it at the YMCA. There are other more competitive leagues but we wanted to see if he even had an interest in the sport before we invested a lot of time and money in something. Plus, he’s five. It’s all about having fun right now anyway. Here are a bunch of pictures from his game:

This is the smallest uniform they offer and it was still huge!

This picture makes me laugh because it looks like he is giving this girl on the opposing team a dirty look. I’m sure he wasn’t—he was probably asking her a question or something. :)

Five

2011-09-20T20:59:00.001-05:00

I can’t believe our Lukie B is five! Five seems like such a big milestone. He’s a real live kid now. :) We had a fun two days of celebrating but I only took pictures of the party and not all the other stuff we did. But I’m going to talk about it for memory’s sake.

Friday:

Woke up to a new {little} circus tent (from Ikea) in the playroom and a new Spider Man book too.
Picked up some doughnut holes at Shipley’s and went to the fun park with the merry-go-round and the tall slides and played for a long time. He made a little friend and had a blast playing with him. Ethan loved the park too and wasn’t afraid of anything and went down all the slides by himself.
Left the park and drove downtown so Luke could see skyscrapers. He has been interested in those lately and wanted to see some.
Rented Hoodwinked Two and watched that while Ethan napped.
Family dinner at McDonald’s (Luke’s choice), playing at the playscape, and an ice cream cone.

Saturday:

Birthday Party at 10:00!
After the party he wanted to open all his toys and Mark spent a while putting his pirate ship together and then we started working on the Batcave and the Joker-Bot
Luke and I went to the Disney store at the mall so Luke could get Jack Skellington—something he has wanted a looooong time. I have no idea why. But he bought it with some birthday money.
Watched Lion King 3D at the movies with popcorn and Sprite. He was so good at the movies.

The birthday party on Saturday was lots of fun. It was fun (and a little stressful) to have it at our house. This is the first time I’ve ever felt like we could have a party at our house because we have the space and a shady backyard. There just wasn’t enough room at our old house. Luke wanted a Spider Man theme for his party. We got the yard all ready for the party:

Ammy made him an awesome cake:

Shauna made a really fun game for the kids to shoot silly string at some of the Spider Man villains:

We had a Spider Man piñata. I just love Brody’s face. He was serious about hitting that thing:

And here are a few other pictures from the party:

A good time was had by all. And I just have to say that I could never have had the party without the help of my wonderful, amazing, unbelievably generous and talented mother-in-law, Sharon. She was a huge help to me and I love her so much!

Oh and here is a picture of the one crafty thing I made for the party. A wreath for the front door:

Pre-K

2011-09-06T20:43:00.001-05:00

Luke started Pre-K today. He had a great day! He will go three days a week. At the last minute, we decided to switch Luke to a preschool closer to our new house. I think it was a wonderful decision and I thoroughly enjoyed having only a 10 minute drive today instead of a 30 minute one. I tried to take a few pictures before school and only managed to get one decent one. I am pretty sad about it but at least I got the one. I am so excited for Luke and all of the fun things he is going to learn this year!

One of the not-so-good ones

Meanwhile, Ethan and I enjoyed the wonderful weather and played for a long time outside. I don’t feel like I can get anything done when Ethan is awake—when I am folding laundry, he is right there unfolding it; if I am loading/unloading the dishwasher, he is going straight for the knives or trying to stand on the dishwasher door; if I’m making the bed, he wants to be on top of the bed playing; if I’m on the computer, he’s turning the surge protector off and on and trying to pull cables out of the wall. But—they grow up fast. So I”m going to try to enjoy this one-on-one time with Ethan and hopefully get some stuff done too.

Summer Update

2011-08-22T13:44:00.010-05:00

Once again I have let blogging become overwhelming to me and I haven't been documenting our lives the way I wish I would. Why I feel like I need to put edited pictures on my blog posts--I have no idea. Seriously. This is just supposed to be a scrapbook for us and whatever else I want it to be. I am not competing with professional photographers or professional bloggers.

Anyway...this summer seems like it was so busy. Too busy. In hindsight, I wish we wouldn't have signed Luke up for the summer program at his school because it was just too much. But we have had the month of August to have some time to ourselves. Mark made the comment last night that this would be the last August for the next 20ish years that we won't be getting ready for the kids to start school. I get sad when I think about Luke being gone five days a week for about 8 hours. I think that may be why some people homeschool. They just can't bear to let their kids leave them.

Here are a few photos of things going on with us:

Mark and Maggie worked almost all day Saturday making this path in our backyard with crushed granite. I think it looks great and I think Maggie is an extraordinary person to come work outside in the 100+ degree heat to help her nephew with a project. I know Mark couldn't have done it without her.

I really need to do a post about these two sweet boys and all the stuff Ethan is doing at 16 months old. Hopefully soon. For now, here are pictures of them at Chipotle. One of Luke's favorite foods is rice from Chipotle. We eat there every Sunday after church. I love our little lunch ritual and I am so happy that we found a church we love. I didn't realize how much I missed going to church (we had just been going to Sunday School). More on that later too hopefully.

Luke and I have gone to the pool in the evenings quite a few times this summer. It is fun one on one time. Last night he wanted to wear these black sunglasses that he got at Lily's birthday party and he also wore his Green Lantern mask to the pool and while swimming so he could be "Aqua Lad." :)

I guess that is enough of an update for now. I'm about to throw this Mac out the window because I cannot get the pictures spaced and aligned correctly.

Staycation and SeaWorld

2011-07-28T11:49:00.001-05:00

We enjoyed a fun staycation with my parents and the Olsons earlier this week. We are trying to do some sort of vacation with my family every year. Last year we did South Padre Island. This year we looked into a few things and decided we should just enjoy my parents’ house on the lake. When I was little, our vacations were usually a week at Lake LBJ. Now my parents live on that lake so we might was well enjoy it like it is a vacation spot. We went out in the boat and went tubing. The kids swam and played. We even did a “campfire” one night (in my parents’ fire pit) at Luke’s request and roasted marshmallows. My parents rented a jet ski for a few hours and Luke really loved riding on that.

On Monday, my parents kept Ethan and Eli and the rest of us drove to San Antonio to go to SeaWorld. It was HOT. It was fun but SeaWorld is just not run as well as Disney World. We had to stand in line 30 minutes just to get in, which made Luke and Lily both a little grouchy. Once we were in, Luke and Lily enjoyed seeing the animals and riding a few rides. We definitely didn’t get to do all that SeaWorld offers but I’m glad we took them. And I am SO glad we didn’t have the babies with us. They would have been miserable.

Today I took Luke to school and his teacher said she missed him. I told her we were at SeaWorld. She said to Luke, “Oh, did you see Shamu?” and Luke said, “I got popcorn.” Apparently the highlight of the trip was the popcorn we ate while watching the Shamu show.

4th of July

2011-07-05T12:11:00.001-05:00

The 4th of July is a huge holiday in the James family. Jim and Sharon throw a fun barbeque at their house outside of Temple. This year the count was 91 people!! It is always a lot of fun. The first time I met all of Mark’s family was on the 4th. He and David invited a bunch of friends (and I was one of those.). I rode to Belton with Mark and two other girls. We weren’t dating at the time but I do have a strong memory of being there and thinking I should be (and wanted to be) a part of his family. Here we are—seven years of marriage and two kids later! I never am good about taking pictures during the party because I am busy watching the boys or talking to friends. I did take a few of the boys in their matching shirts before it started. And I managed to snap a few during the party.

Video Post

2011-06-14T11:17:00.001-05:00

We’ve been dealing with a stomach bug at our house. It hit Ethan first, then me, and both Mark and Luke yesterday. In fact, Luke had a great day and went to gymnastics and to play at the YMCA and then JUST as we were turning on our street to come home he vomited all over himself and his car seat. I seriously debated just buying a new one. But we hosed it down and washed all the parts that can be washed and I think it will be okay. Fortunately, the bug seems to go away pretty quickly. So I’m hoping we’ll all be well by tomorrow.

I took a video of Ethan on Sunday when he turned 14 months old. He loves to play in the little blue chair in Luke’s room. And Mark did a video on Saturday of Luke singing “Happy Birthday” to Uncle David that I thought was really cute.

Instagram Update

2011-06-04T16:17:00.001-05:00

Here is a post filled with Instagram photos I’ve taken on my phone to show what we’ve been up to lately. I feel so behind on blogging and then I get overwhelmed so I don’t do anything. I decided to just do this and maybe I’ll eventually blog about some old stuff or maybe I won’t. But I have to start somewhere.

Ethan got his first big boy haircut in either April or May. I can’t remember. He did so good and looked so cute and so much older. I’m going to have to learn to style his curls.

This is Luke doing a super hero pose for the camera. One of the only times he actually posed for me.

Ethan was sick a few weeks ago with a high fever. We never really found out what it was. It wasn’t fun for him or mommy.

I love this picture of Luke entertaining Ethan.

Ammy cleaned out her attic and got down a lot of Mark and David’s old toys. She had kept a ton of cool Star Wars toys. Luke has had a blast playing with them at their house. I tried to get a picture of Luke playing with them but he wouldn’t cooperate. :)

We spent a fun Saturday swimming at Maggie and Jo’s pool. Luke absolutely loves the water. Ethan seems to be a fan but he is not into being in a float. He wants to be held. I’m hoping he learns to like the float so I can take both boys to the pool this summer.

After a full day of swimming at Maggie and Jo’s, Luke took a super long nap in Ammy and Paw Paw’s sunroom. He had had a fun sleepover with Ammy in the sunroom the night before.

Ethan has eight teeth now. I love this sweet picture of him. You can’t really see them in the picture but he had two bruises on his forehead from two head injuries sustained within about an hour of each other. He still falls a lot while walking but is getting steadier every day.

Ethan is wearing the little British soccer uniform or “kit” that Uncle David brought Luke when he visited England a few years ago. We have a picture somewhere of Luke in this outfit. So cute.

Mark was out of town for a few days to attend a conference in Virginia so we spent the time at my parents’ house since Nana is finally out of school for the summer. Lukie and Lily’s friend Gwynn came over and they played and played.

Well….there are some photos of what has been going on with us. Thank goodness I have a camera on my phone or there might not be any pictures of my kids. I like the pictures to be big so I apologize if it takes forever to load this post. :)

Ethan and Eli’s Birthday Party

2011-05-17T11:09:00.001-05:00

This post is only about a month late but better late than never, right? Shauna planned an adorable and fun birthday party for Ethan and Eli last month. I could say that I was too busy with the move to plan a party—but really—Shauna has a gift for all things creative so I wanted Ethan be included in one of her wonderful party ideas.

Shauna already posted all about it. She thought of the super cute theme based on the “Pigeon” books by Mo Willems. She planned every last detail. All I did was bring the food for lunch. Also, her mother-in-law, Carla, made both boys the CUTEST little keepsake book. You can kind of see it on the table in the pictures above. The party was lots of fun. The kids had a “pigeon egg” hunt and Shauna even made the bus from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus for the kids to play in. We had such a fun day celebrating our sweet boys. Uncle David even flew all the way from San Francisco for the occasion! Thanks Aunt Shauna for making Ethan’s first birthday party so special!

{Attempting to get a picture of the birthday boys but failing, so Ethan got a solo pic}

Easter

2011-05-02T20:54:00.001-05:00

We had a great Easter as a family of four. Last Easter was one week before Ethan’s big debut. On Saturday, Luke dyed eggs. On Sunday, we went to the early service at our church and then drove around a little bit so Ethan could nap. Then we went to The County Line for lunch—one of our favorite special occasion places. We came home and the boys got their Easter baskets filled with a few presents and then Luke hunted eggs in the backyard. It was a great day to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. Since it was just the four of us, I couldn’t get a family picture. But I kind of doubt we could have anyway. I couldn’t even manage to get a picture of both boys sitting in the chair together in their Easter outfits.

New House/Moving

2011-04-13T18:56:00.001-05:00

Don’t miss the little update I did about Ethan’s birthday below this post.

I’m catching up on some blogging. We are all moved in! We still have to hang pictures and do some decorating but the boxes are unpacked and this place feels like home. I want to post pictures when it is “finished” --but really-- is it ever really finished? But I will at least wait until we have hung the pictures to post some pictures of the rooms. I absolutely love the house and feel so blessed. It has so much storage and it is so nice to have a place to put everything. We are looking forward to our first houseguest tomorrow night and we are trying to get the guest bedroom ready for David.

I hate moving period—but moving with two small kids is even less fun. Moving with kids is on my list of things to NEVER. DO. AGAIN. We even had LOTS of help from family and it was still hard. But the worst is definitely behind us and we can enjoy the house now. January through now just feels like a blur because of staging the house, having it on the market, selling it, being homeless, getting this house painted, and moving in. It was a lot. And everything didn’t go as smoothly as it could have (the painters GREATLY underestimated how long it would take to paint all of the trim) but in the end it all worked out and we have many, many years to look forward to in this house.

Here are some pictures of three random things I love about the house:

1. Nice appliances. The dishwasher at our old house was so loud we couldn’t run it until we went to bed and even then we could hear it through our closed door. In fact, we are both really surprised it passed the inspection. We thought we might have to replace it. This one is super quiet and the controls are on top so Ethan can’t mess with it. We also bought a new fridge and are so happy to have ice and water in the door! I know that isn’t new technology but we had a very basic fridge before so this one feels super nice to us.

2. A pretty front door. I have always wanted a pretty front door with glass that let light in. We may replace the handle at some point but we love the door (the picture isn’t that great).

3. And once again—the trees. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having trees! I’m so glad we didn’t end up compromising on that and giving up on our dream of having a shady yard. If you know
Mark, you know he obviously has big plans for the landscaping in the yard so keep that in mind when you see the pictures.

One

2011-04-13T18:14:00.001-05:00

Our sweet Ethan turned one yesterday. I really can’t believe it. It has gone by so quickly. But it also feels like he has been a part of the family forever. I am so behind in blogging and talking about what he is up to these days so I will just do what I can for now.

How we celebrated his birthday:

Luke and I went in his room together (like we always do in the morning) and sang “Happy Birthday” to him. He smiled and is always happy to see us in the morning. After we took Luke to school, we went to Target and Ethan got a Mickey Mouse ball (he seems to really like Mickey) and he got a cool tunnel for the playroom that has been a big hit (pictures below). Then he got Chick-Fil-A nuggets for lunch. That night we picked up two mini cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes (soooo goood and close to our new house!!!) and we sang to him and ate cake. He loved the cake! Then we all went to Luke’s spring concert at school and met Ammy and PawPaw there. Ethan was really good and loved watching the kids sing and clapped for the performances. The big joint birthday party is on Saturday. There’s no way I could have planned a party for him with all that has been going on—plus—I really just wanted to weasel myself in on Shauna’s awesome party planning abilities.

He goes to the doctor tomorrow for his one year well check and to get shots….which is never fun. I'll write an update soon with his stats and some developmental stuff for my memories. We took some pictures of him last night at the concert. I think he looks so much like Mark. And that is a good thing!! He is such a sweet, happy boy. We are extremely blessed!

House Update

2011-03-27T08:43:00.001-05:00

I'm blogging from a blow-up bed at our new house. We don't move in until Thursday. We've been homeless for almost two weeks. My parents and Mark's parents have taken really good care of us and I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to cook again and entertain the kids by myself.

We are painting this weekend. Trying to get as much done as possible before we have people come paint the trim and doors. We have had lots of help painting and are so thankful.

The kitchen was red--not our taste. Luke's room was lavender. Ethan's room was bright pink with ladybugs all over that took about 50 coats of primer to cover.

I'll post a few pics I took with my phone but something with this app makes the pictures really low quality. But it's the best I can do for now.

We love the house and I just can't tell you how happy it makes me to look out the window and see trees.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Stressed/random thoughts

2011-03-10T16:11:00.001-06:00

Luke has a nasty virus and has been sick since Monday so little to no progress has been made on the packing front. He is really clingy and wants to be right next to me so I haven't had a moment to myself. I hate to see him this sick. I'm PRAYING Ethan doesn't get this because Luke has felt really terrible and the boys are set to start staying with my parents starting tomorrow night.

I can't believe this is the last night these sweet boys will spend in this house. It's hard to wrap my head around it.

Mark doesn't think this weekend is enough time to pack but I think we'll get it done. It's amazing what you can do when you're not taking care of two kids.

We closed on our old house yesterday and met the woman who is buying it. She is very nice and is 26-27. She is so excited. The first thing she said was "how do you keep the house so clean? and how do you make it smell so good?" I guess all our Scentsy and Yankee candle plug-ins paid off. :)

We realized this past weekend after Luke kept complaining about his shoes hurting that his shoes were two sizes too small. I drove all the way to Nordstrom to find the shoes that fit him and their selection was horrible. I wish he had normal feet. The girl at Nordstrom said it isn't that his foot is wide it's that he has a really high instep. We did find these though:

And we ended up ordering his tennis shoes online (after I bought some at Sandy's that Mark and Shauna hated :)).

This poor little guy is napping for the second time today and wakes up shivering and crying because he feels so bad. He is so tired of taking Tylenol and ibuprofen. :(

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone--which explains all the punctuation errors :)

Sold: Part 2

2011-03-02T20:46:00.005-06:00

Disclaimer: this is really long and probably boring but I want to remember these details....

I wanted to record all the details before I forget and so I can look back on it one day. On Saturday, February 20 we looked at a house that we absolutely loved. It was in a neighborhood we loved and a floorplan we LOVED and the backyard was full of trees. We have been looking at houses since October and I have seen maybe 3 backyards I loved and this was one of them. But we wanted to think about it and pray about it. On Sunday we decided to go ahead and make an offer. On Monday we found out that they were not interested in taking a contingent offer because they had just come on the market. I felt so sad. Despair is the word that comes to mind. I just knew it was the house for us. I loved it so much. After an encouraging email from my Dad on Tuesday reminding me of the amount of faith required in this whole process, I was feeling better about things.

On that Tuesday we had two showings--which was great for a Tuesday. The next day (Wednesday) around 5:30, a realtor called and said she had shown the house the day before and her client was ready to make a decision and could they possibly see the house again at 7 that evening. Of course we said yes and got everything looking perfect. It was horrible timing because Ethan had missed most of his afternoon nap and I was planning to put him to bed early but we were obviously not going to turn down the showing.

On Thursday morning we heard from our realtor that the person had made an offer! We were so excited. We countered back and she accepted it and by that afternoon we had a contract on our house. The lady is paying cash for the house and the only catch was that she wanted to close on the house on March 9!! That's next Wednesday. We agreed to the closing but asked to lease the house back for a week, so now we have to be out of our house by March 16. I can't believe it. Two weeks from today we will be moving out. So, it ended up taking 27 days for our house to sell. I think the staging helped. Everyone that looked at the house gave us positive feedback and we had 2 almost offers before our real offer finally came through. But ultimately I think it boils down to your price. We were realistic for our neighborhood so I think that is why it sold (relatively) quickly in this market. And we are actually going to walk away with some money. I still can't believe that. I had prepared for the worst.

The day we got our contract we went to see two houses that were new on the market but we didn't love either one as much as the one we had made an offer on. So, on Friday we made our offer again on the house we loved and they agreed since we now had a contract on our house.

So I went from despair on Monday to elation on Friday. My parents and Mark's parents came on Saturday to see it and they all gave it their seal of approval. We had the inspection on Tuesday and nothing major came up so we are all set to close on March 25. We will be homeless from March 16 through March 25. THANKFULLY we have two sets of parents to stay with during the time. We are going to split the time between my parents' and Mark's parents' house. It is going to be stressful, for sure, but definitely worth it in the end. Right now I am calling movers and getting quotes and we are trying to start getting ready. March 15 will be here before we know it and I ALWAYS underestimate how much work moving really is and I always say I never want to do it again.

Well, there is the saga of our home sale and new home purchase. I am so ready to leave this neighborhood but I know I will feel some feelings of sadness when we move out of this house--the only house Luke and Ethan have ever known. But those feelings will pretty much immediately replaced with feelings of joy thinking about the new house.

Sold!!

2011-02-28T10:21:00.001-06:00

We sold our house! And we have a contract on another house. So much to talk about. I'm trying this new app for blogging I downloaded for my phone. So right now I am blogging from the Chick-Fil-A playscape because our (old) house is being inspected. We're so excited!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Random YouTube Post...

2011-02-03T12:04:00.002-06:00

If you have some time on your hands, here are some things I love from YouTube:

New favorite song....

An oldie but goodie....

I just love this....

It's Official...

2011-01-29T20:17:00.008-06:00

Our house is on the market! Hooray! The day has finally come. We have worked our tails off getting it ready. Here is a list of what we've done:

Had new carpet put in Luke and Ethan's bedrooms and the hallway
Had the rest of our carpet cleaned
Had 7 cracked tiles replaced (because of "seasonal movement" in our foundation)
Replaced our front door handle and lock
Filled a 10x10 storage unit of furniture and other stuff that we can apparently live without
Put new mulch out and planted flowers
Touched up paint and caulking
Cleaned. And Cleaned. And cleaned some more.

That's all I can think of for now but it has been quite a process and we are glad to finally be at this point. We are so, so thankful for both sets of grandparents who helped us tremendously while we were getting the house ready.

We even had our first showing this evening! It was so exciting. Thankfully we had left the house ready--just in case--while we went out to an early dinner. But when the realtor called we still decided Mark should go home real quick and make sure all the lamps were on. We're going to have to write up a checklist or something.

This is the part of the process where we just have to have faith that the right buyer will come at the right time. Of course we are very optimistic and hoping it sells quickly. Our realtor had a professional photographer come and take pictures of the house and do a virtual tour. They turned out really great. We aren't posting the link because it has our address and we're not sure if any crazy people read this blog. :) Here are a few pictures I copied from the website though:

P.S. I really hate using blogger because my pictures never go where I want them to and I will seriously miss Windows Live Writer while our desktop computer is in storage. So if it seems like my pictures are weirdly placed for a while you'll know why.

Luke Lately

2011-01-24T20:11:00.004-06:00

A few things Luke has been saying lately that I want to remember:

"Well that's not there." He says this a lot. He means "that's not fair" but even when I tell him he still says it the other way.

"I give up." Said with great emotion today when we forced him to come to the table to eat and stop playing.

Tonight he was asking me when he was going to be a grown-up. I told him when he was 18 he would be a grown-up. I told him then he would go to college. He got really excited and said, "I always wanted to go to college. Then we can go by Sunnyside Daycare. But where is Sunnyside Daycare?" (Sunnyside Daycare is in the movie Toy Story 3.)

Also, he has been obsessed with drawing and coloring for several weeks now. Mark, Me, Ammy, Nana and Shauna have all drawn our fair share of characters from movies and books that Luke likes. Everyday he comes up with something new for us to draw, color and cut out. He carries different "cut-outs" around all day. I took this picture of him sleeping with some of his cut-outs. He especially loves the movie, The Prince of Egypt, right now and we have about fifty Moses' and Rameses' in his basket of cut-outs.

And here is a video of him coloring and talking about The Prince of Egypt:

9 Months

2011-01-20T20:55:00.002-06:00

I’m so sad that I haven’t been better about doing the monthly updates. I haven’t written about Ethan since 6 months! He has changed so much since then. And, I really wanted to do a little collage with his pictures from one through nine months but Photoshop isn’t working on my computer and if I spend time trying to figure out why then I’ll never post this.

Ethan at nine months:

Weighed 21 lbs. and was 28.5 in. at his 9 month check-up, which is around the 60th percentile for both.
Army crawls all over the place. He gets up on all fours and rocks and will crawl just a bit but always resorts to getting on his tummy and doing the army crawl ALL OVER the house. This is exactly what Luke did too.
Pulls up on EVERYTHING. He’s getting more and more brave and sometimes is barely holding on and will stand for a while. He still doesn’t know how to gracefully get back down most of the time and just kind of falls to his tummy. I guess that is one reason to be thankful we have carpet in most of the house.
Loves to eat. He feeds himself small chunks of pretty much anything. Fruit, vegetables, chicken, etc. So far he likes everything. But his favorite seems to be pancakes. He even ate almost all of Luke’s grilled cheese sandwich recently. He’s getting less interested in bottles because I guess he is getting full on food. At his nine month check-up the doctor said we need to try to transition him to taking formula from a sippy cup. We have been trying but he is not going for it.
He is finally on a pretty consistent schedule. Sleeps from 7:30 until 6:30 or 7 and naps around 9:30 and around 1:30. We definitely have off days though. He amazes me how flexible he is. I just can’t stay home all the time to make sure he gets good naps since I have Luke to entertain too, so he often misses one of his naps and he is usually happy and will take a catnap in the car.
Laughs at Luke all the time.
Isn’t saying any words yet. I looked back at the blog and I had written that Luke said two words during his ninth month—”up” and “uh-oh.” I asked the doctor and he said saying words at nine months is super advanced and it is not unusual for kids to not even say a word by 12 months. So, I am trying not to compare them. I always knew the area Luke was advanced in was his verbal skills and Ethan may or may not be the same and that is fine. :) Although I kind of think he can say “hey” and wave but I’m not sure yet that is what he is actually saying. We’ll see. Oh also—he loves to click with his mouth and likes to mimic you when you make clicking sounds.
We moved him to his big boy car seat (Luke’s old Britax) a few weeks ago and he seems to really like it. I think it is funny that we waited until almost 9 months to move him because I found the receipt when we were cleaning out stuff and we moved Luke when he was 5 months old.
He just had his first real illness in 9 months. At his 9 month check-up the doctor commented on how healthy he had been and had only been in for well checks. Well, five days later we were back in the office and he was diagnosed with croup. He is doing better and seems to have had a mild case.

That’s what I can think of right now. He is such a happy and sweet little guy. We love him so much and I am trying to really soak up the time with him at night when I rock him and give him his bottle because before I know it he’ll be big and I won’t be able to rock him anymore.

First day in the big boy car seat

7 months old—I absolutely love this picture of him!

7 months 8 months 9 months

2010 in Review

2011-01-02T15:56:00.002-06:00

2010 will go down in the books as the “year of Ethan.” We became a family of four and made it through the newborn phase. Here are some pictures of the highlights of our year.

January

Pregnant sisters

Horns play in the National Championship (and lose…..).

Luke gets a big boy room.

February

Snow!

We finished Ethan’s nursery.

Ready to pop!

March

Luke takes a big brother class at the hospital.

Easter fun with Lily.

Diaper shower/girl’s night with good friends.

April

Last picture as a family of 3.

Ethan is born!

Eli is born exactly one week later.

May

Swim lessons

brothers

Fun times at home ;-)

June (June was a very bad month for pictures. I think I took about five pictures the whole month.)

Ethan’s first Woodson family reunion.

My sweet two-month-old.

July

David moves to San Francisco and has a going away party at Matt’s.

Fun family vacation to South Padre Island.

August

Belated birthday celebration for Ammy.

Trying solids for the first time.

September

Four years old!

No more pacifiers for Luke.

First day of school.

Luke’s birthday party at Kiddie Acres.

October

Pumpkin patch

Mark visits David in San Francisco.

Halloween

November

Thanksgiving celebration at school

Two teeth!

Thanksgiving at Dixie Lee’s

Thanksgiving at Maggie and Jo’s

Our family of four

December

Christmas performance at school

Making a gingerbread house

Christmas morning

2010 was a wonderful year. We are so blessed by our two sweet boys and all the fun times we have had together. Happy 2011!!

So Busy

2010-12-31T16:05:00.001-06:00

I want to do a full post of Christmas but for now here are 2 of my favorite pictures from all the fun we had.

We are busy spending this week (while Mark is off) getting our house ready to put on the market. We rented a storage unit and are storing some furniture and some of our non-essential stuff so the house can look as open, airy and organized as possible. I sure hope this staging pays off because it has been so much work. We tackled it room by room and it took all week. Mark is in heaven though because he hates clutter to begin with and wishes we could live like minimalists all the time. We have to get some tile in our kitchen replaced and replace the carpet in Ethan’s room (due to a paint spill that the crib covers right now) and then we should be ready to list the house!

I have been looking at houses since Luke was born and have been ready to move since then but now the time is finally right. We need more room. We want trees in the backyard (although after looking I’m not sure that is going to happen since we tend to like newer houses). And we want the boys to go to really good schools. Right now the high school our neighborhood is zoned for isn’t good so I want to move where the good ones are. I know high school is a long way away but my hope is that we move somewhere and settle and don’t move again until both boys are all through school. I had move in the 6th grade and 9th grade and I just really want my kids to stay in one place.

We know the market isn’t great for selling but we don’t want to miss out on all the great buys that are out there right now. We can afford a much better house than we could four years ago when I first started looking because of the way the market is right now. So pray that our house sells quickly please!! :)

Anyway, that is what we have been up to lately. Luke and Ethan have been troopers while we have been so busy. They stayed at Ammy and Paw Paw’s one day and we got a lot done. I will hopefully we able to post about Christmas, 2010 in review and Ethan’s 7 and 8 month updates before we have to pack up the computer and store it away. Apparently having a desk and computer in your master bedroom isn’t all that desirable, so it’s all going in storage. Can’t wait to have a real study in the next house! We still have our laptop though so I can blog from there—it just won’t have all our pictures on it.

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-12T10:46:00.001-06:00

I am way behind on blogging but I’m going to attempt to catch up. First, Luke had a fun Thanksgiving celebration at his school before Thanksgiving. His class dressed up like Native Americans (that’s the PC term, right?). Mark and I got to eat with him and Ammy kept Ethan so we could enjoy the special time with Luke.

We celebrated with my side of the family on Thanksgiving day at my Aunt Dixie Lee’s house in Granbury. It was great as always. Then we drove to Temple and spent the night and had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with Mark’s family the next day. Both boys had a good time (although Luke was not into taking pictures AT ALL on Thanksgiving day—as evidenced in the pictures below). Luke loved seeing Uncle David for the first time since July. As usual, I didn’t take near enough pictures of all that we did but here are the pictures I did take:

Crawling

2010-11-24T19:06:00.002-06:00

Ethan decided to army crawl for the first time on Sunday. This is exactly how Luke started getting around when he was eight months old -- about a month older than Ethan is right now. Just in time to get into all the Christmas decorations!

Da-da

2010-11-19T19:30:00.001-06:00

I just love his sweet little voice!

Halloween

2010-11-15T21:26:00.002-06:00

We had a great Halloween! I think it is Luke’s favorite holiday—well, until Christmas comes around. He loves dressing up in his costume and he just loves everything about it. There is a house in the cul-de-sac near our house that puts out about ten inflatable Halloween things in their yard. Every night, Mark and Luke would walk to their house and look at all the “yucky guys.” On Halloween night we went to a fall festival organized by our church and it was lots of fun. Luke and one of his best buddies, Noah, had a blast riding the train, bouncing, sliding, getting their face painted and running around. I never really saw the appeal of Halloween until I had kids—but now I love it!

Here are some pictures of all of the fun we had.

The next few pictures are of a HUGE slide that I still can’t believe Luke wanted to do. I would never have done it. It was really high. Mark and Luke did it twice. I love Luke’s face in the last picture—I think he was terrified but still having so much fun!

Teeth

2010-11-05T19:06:00.001-05:00

Ethan’s first tooth came in last Wednesday (10/27). Ammy noticed it. I’m pretty sure it popped through that day though because I am always looking in his mouth. Then he was SUPER fussy yesterday. So I looked in his mouth that evening and noticed tooth number two making its appearance.

Please excuse the dirty face. It was right after dinner. Plus his eczema is super bad right now because of all the drooling.

And here’s a cute picture of him just for good measure:

6 Months

2010-10-22T11:01:00.003-05:00

{This was actually taken on his five month birthday. I love his sweet little face.}

I truly cannot believe Ethan is already half a year old. It has gone by so fast. I missed his five month update so here are all the new things that have happened since his four month update.

--Ethan started eating food. We started with rice cereal and he was not a fan. He has been slow to like baby food but now seems to like it pretty well. He eats bananas, apples, pears, sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots. I just started feeding him yogurt and he loves it and we started giving him puffs and he loves those too.

{This is what he thought of his first time eating rice cereal}

--We stopped swaddling him sometime during his fourth month. We were worried it was going to be hard but he really adapted quickly. His sleep is okay. Sometimes he sleeps from 7:45 until 5:30 and then eats and sleeps until 8 and some days he wakes up at 3 and then wakes up around 7. His naps are all over the place. Some days he will take great naps and some days they are short naps. I am definitely ready for him to be on a “real” schedule so I can have a set nap time and plan our days around those. But I think part of the problem is that since we have Luke too we are always going and doing stuff so Ethan has to nap on the go. I think that is just reality when you have two kids. The days of planning all your days around nap time have to go out the window.

{Ready for bed}

--He is a rolling machine. He started rolling over from his back to his tummy a week after he turned five months old. Now when I lay him down he almost always rolls over to his tummy. There were a few nights when he was rolling over and crying and couldn't go back to sleep. But now he has decided to be a tummy sleeper, which I think is so cute. Now when I put him down at night on his back he immediately rolls over to his tummy and goes to sleep. Luke never did that.

--He enjoys being in his exersaucer and the jumperoo. He doesn’t stay too long in the Bumbo. It seems like Luke lived in that Bumbo but Ethan tries to get out so I don’t leave him in there too long.

--His eczema has gotten pretty bad. I think his face itches him so pretty much every day he wakes up with a new scratch on his face even though I try my hardest to keep his nails trimmed.

--He is still a happy guy. He watches Luke like a hawk and LOVES when Luke plays with him and talks to him. But usually Luke gets a little too enthusiastic and is too rough so it ends with crying. He loves to swing outside in the swing—especially if Luke is swinging next to him.

{I love this picture including the crazy hair and the baby-food-matted-eyebrow.}

Here are his stats from his six month check up:

Weight: 17 lbs. 12.8 ounces (56%)

Length: 26.5 inches (53 %)

And here are a few more favorite pictures of him over the last two months:

{I love his chunky legs!! }

{All dressed up for church}

{Attempting a brother photo shoot :)}

So Behind…

2010-10-18T21:21:00.001-05:00

These guys are most definitely a full-time (and then some) job:

I felt compelled to write a short post so I can see something new on my blog. I have so many posts I want to write for our family memories. I’m just so behind….on everything….I feel like I am never caught up. I have just felt really overwhelmed lately taking care of both boys and doing all the things I am supposed to do. And I even have a helpful husband. A really helpful one. I wish I could just get caught up. Or even ahead on some things. Ethan has had a bad cold and I’ve felt like we have a newborn again. When I am up several times during the night, my plans for waking up early and getting caught up on things almost always go out the window. Obviously time management is not my strong suit because a productive person would be doing a load of laundry instead of writing this blog post. :)

Luke’s Birthday Party!

2010-09-19T15:41:00.002-05:00

We had a fun birthday party for Luke last Saturday at Kiddie Acres. It was hot but the kids had a lot of fun. We’ve just had to accept the fact that Luke’s birthday is always going to be hot since it is September in Texas. We were so thankful it didn’t rain though! The past two years it has been rainy the weekend of his birthday party.

The place has different rides that are the perfect size for kids Luke’s age and younger. Luke’s most favorite part of the party was the Blue Beetle cake his Ammy made especially for him. She also made adorable cupcakes to go along with the cake. The party didn’t really have a theme—I haven’t quite gotten into the whole “theme” thing yet (much to Shauna’s dismay), but I’d say it was a combination carnival/Super Hero themed party. Here are some pictures from the party:

Pacifier Fairy and First Day of School

2010-09-08T16:59:00.002-05:00

It has been a big week around our house. First, Luke gave up his pacifiers on Saturday night so the pacifier fairy could bring him some new toys. I hesitated even putting this on the blog because I figured I’d be judged because my almost-four-year-old child still uses a pacifier. But, this is our scrapbook and I wanted to remember this. Since just before he turned two, he has only been allowed to use his pacifiers at night time and nap time. We had discussed this with the pediatrician and he wasn’t too concerned. He said as long as it wasn’t delaying his speech or he wasn’t trying to talk with the pacifier in his mouth, it wasn’t that big of a deal. But, we figured by age 4, it was definitely time. He was very eager to put them outside for the pacifier fairy and wanted to wait in his room until she came (watching from the window). We tried to explain to him that it didn’t work that way and distracted him until bedtime. When bedtime came and he really realized he would be going to sleep without his pacifiers he started crying and saying they were his best friends. We made it through the night though, and he was so excited to get his toys the next morning. The next night, he had a sleepover with Lily Bug, and that distracted him. Overall, he has done pretty well. We’re going on day four now. He has said a few times he wants the pacifier fairy to bring him new pacifiers for his birthday—but I think we are past the hard part.

On Tuesday, Luke started school again. He had a great day and I think his teacher and class are going to be great. There’s another Luke though, so he has to to go by “Luke J.” He gets to go to science this year, so that will be fun for him. It was pouring rain, and we weren’t really able to get any good pictures, plus Luke wouldn’t put down Plastic Man—but these will do.

Four Months

2010-08-16T20:11:00.003-05:00

Ethan turned four months old last Thursday. We had his well-check that day and here are his stats:

15 lbs 6.4 oz (49%)

25 1/4 inches (55%)

{waiting for the doctor}

I feel like he is a big baby but apparently he is average. He is smaller than Luke was at this age by about a pound and an inch. I guess I spoke too soon last month about the whole sleeping through the night thing. Because I think the very night I posted that he started waking up again. It was a nice 10 or so days though while it lasted. He is a good sleeper for the most part. He slept from 8:00 to 4:30 last night and then went back to sleep after I fed him until 7. The doctor said we could go ahead and start with solids, so we bought some rice cereal but haven’t started it yet. The doctor also said we should wean him off swaddling sometime during his fourth month so that should be fun. :)

He is such a sweet little guy. He is really growing up. He sits in the Bumbo quite a bit and we started putting him in the exersaucer some. We also started putting him in the high chair while we eat dinner, so that has been nice. Just this past Saturday, he took his first nap in the swing. Up until now he hasn’t been a fan of the swing but we kept trying and he finally seems to like it better. He LOVES watching Luke. He always tries to make sure Luke is in his line of vision. He smiles a lot. It is kind of tough to get laughs out of him but when we do it is so cute. He loves to blow raspberries and talks to us a lot. He started teething this month for sure and drools a ton.

On another note, I am losing MASSIVE amounts of hair. I remember this from last time but it still just seems wrong. How am I not bald yet? It is driving me crazy and my hair is all over everything, including Ethan. I am ready for this to be done but then I will start getting the weird baby hair, so I’m not really looking forward to that either.

Here are pictures of Ethan’s fourth month:

Hairpiece Fun

2010-08-09T14:09:00.001-05:00

When I was in middle school, my Dad decided to get a toupee. He had gone bald on top when he was pretty young so I think he just wanted to see what it was like to have a lot of hair. I think he wore it a week, maybe two and then had it removed. We can all laugh about it now, thankfully. And looking back it just seems so out of character for my Dad. Shauna got a lot of use out of it though during Halloween and while filming various videos of herself. Last week we were upstairs at my parents’ house in the playroom/loft area {side note: my parents’ house is very clean but Luke and Lily pretty much destroy the playroom every time they play in there} and my Mom opened the closet and we saw the toupee. This is what happened:

Sorry for the bad quality but I was laughing so hard and for some reason I was holding my phone vertically instead of horizontally. It makes me laugh every time I watch it though, so I needed it on the blog. :)

Family Vacation 2010

2010-08-02T08:50:00.003-05:00

This post is way overdue. Shauna posted about it right after we got back, so this seems like old news. We had a great time on our vacation all together. Mom and Dad were a huge help with the kids and I doubt we could have managed without them. Luke and Lily had a lot of fun and loved swimming in the pool and playing at the beach. They also loved running up the stairs and playing in the bunkbeds in the house we rented. Like Shauna said, it was a perfect vacation for the stage of life we are in. I can’t imagine being cooped up in a hotel room with Luke AND Ethan. So, it was so nice having a big house with a pool to enjoy. And the beach was just a short walk away.

Three Months

2010-07-14T22:03:00.004-05:00

Ethan was three months old on Monday. I can’t believe how fast he is growing. I really wish I had done these monthly posts for Luke so I could compare the two boys. Usually the second kid is the one that doesn’t get as many pictures and the mom doesn’t keep as good of records—but I think for our family it is going to be the opposite.

I am so happy to report that he is sleeping through the night. He usually sleeps from 8:30 until sometime after 7:00 in the morning. He started doing this right around July 4th. We realized that he was waking up during the night because he was coming out of his swaddle, not because he was hungry. He is SO STRONG! So, we started double swaddling him in the Miracle Blanket and then one of the Aden and Anais blankets on top of that. Plus, we moved his white noise machine into his crib. The combination of those two things seemed to do the trick and he sleeps all the way through the night. I’m paranoid about him getting overheated since that can increase the risks of SIDS, so we turned the a/c down a few degrees and put his ceiling fan on high and also have another fan in his room. I was really happy to read recently that swaddling decreases the risk of SIDS by one third!

He is still not a great napper. But I guess I will take good night sleep over naps. He goes down pretty easily for naps but he just doesn’t stay asleep long.

He is just a happy little guy and he loves talking to us and smiling at us. We got him a new bouncer off of craigslist. He never liked the papasan chair we had. He loves the bouncer and I finally have another way to entertain him other than his floor mat. He absolutely LOVES watching Luke play and gets so excited when Luke talks to him.

He screams about 85 percent of the time we are in the car. I’m not sure why he doesn’t like to be in the car. He wakes up any time we stop and usually can’t go back to sleep. Needless to say, it makes for some fun times in the car. Luke is pretty good about ignoring it, although sometimes he tells Ethan to be quiet. :) I guess every kid really is different because Luke loved being in the car and that was one foolproof way to get him to take a long nap.

He can lift his head up really well when he is on his tummy and can roll over from his tummy to his back.

That’s all I can think of for his three month update. We love him so much! Here is the comparison photo I made for 1/2/3 months. He sure changed a lot from 1 to 2 months but not too much from 2 to 3 months.

New phones…

2010-06-25T09:43:00.004-05:00

I think I’ve established on this blog that Mark is basically obsessed with any Apple product. So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that he got the new iPhone 4 that came out yesterday. Fortunately, I was eligible for an upgrade on my phone so I got to get one too! Mark stood in line for five and a half hours for phones that had ALREADY BEEN RESERVED FOR US!!! Crazy. I don’t think there is any other product out there that would convince someone to stand in the heat almost all day. While I am not as obsessed as Mark, I have absolutely LOVED having an iPhone and could never live without it. I also really love our iPad. I made this little video of Ethan on my phone. I shot the video, added the music and titles, and posted it to YouTube all from my phone. Hopefully I’ll be posting more videos of the kids since it is super easy. Going through YouTube definitely takes away some of the quality of the video but it still looks decent enough.

Two Months

2010-06-15T21:31:00.002-05:00

Ethan turned two months old on Saturday. I can’t believe how fast he is growing up already. I took him to the doctor today for his two month well check. Here are his stats:

Weight: 13 lbs 6.4 oz (75-90%)

Length: 23 in (50-75%)

FOC (head): 39.8 cm (50-75%)

I got out Luke’s old two month well check paperwork to compare. They are basically the same size. Luke was 13 lbs 2.5 oz, 23.5 in, and 40.8 cm FOC. Ethan is a little chunky monkey just like his brother was. I’ll say it again—I LOVE chunky babies!

Both boys were in bed ASLEEP before 8:00 tonight. That has to be some sort of a record. Sadly, the time is coming for Luke to drop his afternoon nap. This is a day I never wanted to come. But on days like this when he doesn’t nap he goes to bed really easily.

Ethan’s sleep is pretty good. Last night he slept from 9 p.m. until about 4:15 a.m. and then I fed him and he slept until 7:30. But that is by no means how it is every night. Tonight since he was asleep before 8, I don’t know when he will wake up. I think he was worn out from getting his shots today. Most nights his first stretch of sleep at night is at least 6 hours, so that is definitely progress from a month ago. Naps are still all over the place. I told the doctor today that I feel like some days I spend the entire day trying to get him to sleep and I don’t get to spend quality time with Luke. He told me that Ethan is old enough, big enough, and healthy enough to cry a little bit. So, I am going to let him try to get to sleep without me rocking him. He goes to bed great at night, I’m not sure why naps are such a challenge. I thought I had to wait until 4 months to start sleep training but I am glad to know I can do it now.

Overall, I still think he is a happy and easygoing baby. He does get overstimulated so we have to be careful about that. But if he is getting his naps he is happy. He is smiling a lot. He smiles at us and at different little toys he recognizes. He has a sweet little voice and he coos quite a bit.

We love him more and more every day! Here are some pictures from the past month and some from his two month photo shoot on Saturday.

Lately….

2010-06-08T20:34:00.004-05:00

We’ve been keeping busy. Luke started his summer Mother’s Day Out program today and I am so thankful. We’ve been stuck at home a lot and I’m glad at least two days a week he can play with friends and do some fun stuff. We spent a night at Ammy and Paw Paw’s house and went swimming at Maggie and Jo’s. That was a lot of fun. Mark is leaving for a conference tomorrow morning in Annapolis, Maryland so Mom is coming to stay with us for a few days. I was most definitely not ready to do the days AND nights all by myself. Ethan will be two months on Saturday and I’ll do a post all about what he is up to these days. Here are some photos from my iPhone to show what’s been going on with us.

Left to right, top to bottom

1) Luke in the Robin costume made by Mark’s grandmother for Halloween when Mark and David were little.

2) Luke having a blast playing with Maggie in the pool

3) Luke acting out Toy Story while Ethan takes a little nap

4) close-up of Ethan sleeping

5) reading a Batman book at the library

6) Ethan hanging out while we ate at Luby’s on Memorial Day (we couldn’t pass up the $3.99 LuAnn platters :) )

7) $95 worth of hair products purchased for $5 at an estate sale (my new favorite pastime)

8) Ethan after his bath in his Longhorn towel

Brothers

2010-05-16T11:11:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to share these two pictures of my sweet boys that Shauna took on Wednesday. I love these little guys so much.

One Month

2010-05-14T12:28:00.001-05:00

Ethan turned one month old on Wednesday. We celebrated by having Shauna, Lily, Eli and Mom over for a playdate. It was chaotic with the four kids but it was fun too. I’m curious how it will work out without Mom there to watch Luke and Lily while Shauna and I take care of Ethan and Eli. There’s no telling what they will get into.

Ethan is still a good baby. Naps seem to be our one weak area. If he is being held, he sleeps great, but we are working on putting him down for naps so I can get stuff done and have time with Luke. At night he gets swaddled, eats and goes to sleep easily in his bassinet. He will go almost 4 hours for that first stretch and then it is 3 hours every time after that. Can you tell that I am obsessed with his sleep?? :) But it could be a lot worse. I am still just thankful that we can put him down at night instead of holding him all night like we did with Luke.

Overall, he is a happy little guy and doesn’t cry unless he is hungry or over stimulated. He is not a big fan of his carseat….yet….I’m hoping that will change.

Here are some photos I took of him at one month:

And this is how he felt by the end of the photo shoot:

This Week…

2010-05-06T18:41:00.002-05:00

….has been good and bad.

I don’t want to talk too much about the bad (MAJOR issues related to breastfeeding/pumping, antibiotics, lots of crying, antidepressant medication, more crying…..). Once all that is cleared up, I really think I can handle this whole motherhood of two business!!

But I do want to talk about all the good things from this week:

Luke had his first ever dentist appointment on Wednesday. We were SO proud of him! He wasn’t scared at all and let the dentist and hygienist do all that they needed to do in his mouth. They said we need to brush better and floss (uhhh….yeah) but overall he got a good report. He is such a trooper with stuff like that. Here are some photos from Mark’s phone:

Luke also started swim lessons. He was so excited and got a new Spiderman towel and snazzy blue goggles. The teacher said he was pretty scared and wouldn’t put his face under the water but he had a good time and was cooperative. He can stay on level one as long as he needs to and then will move up through the other levels.

We found out Ethan really enjoys being outside. It really seems to calm him down and he likes to just observe his surroundings. Here is a phone picture of Luke and Ethan outside:

Look at those sweet boys—I am so blessed!!!!

Quick 2 Week Ethan Update

2010-04-28T12:40:00.003-05:00

A quick update is all I can manage right now but I wanted to put something on the blog before I forget stuff. Ethan is 2 weeks and 2 days old. He was up to 9 pounds 6 ounces at his 2 week appointment on Monday—so he is gaining weight like a champ. Mark and I were fully indoctrinated into the world of having two small kids when Luke woke up early Tuesday morning (around 2 a.m.) crying hysterically and burning up with fever. We thought it was a lingering ear infection but after he cried all night and day off and on and was more miserable than I have ever seen him, we took him to the doctor and found out he has that hand foot mouth virus. Lovely. It is contagious, so we are trying to keep him away from Ethan and he does a pretty good job of staying away. Last night he woke up again crying and after some motrin and two episodes of Spider-Man we were able to get him back to bed. So basically, we have been taking turns with each kid. Ethan is up every 3 hours to eat—although he did go a four hour stretch the other night, which gave me some hope. Ammy came to the rescue today and I intend to take a looooong nap. Here are a few of my other memories/thoughts:

The c-section went well. It was a little scary just because it was such a new experience. I passed out shortly after Ethan was out and then I fainted again later that day when they tried to get me up for the first time.
This recovery is a MILLION times better than my recovery last time. I actually feel human and could get up at the hospital. The c-section was most definitely the right choice for me.
Ethan is a good baby. He will actually sleep in the bassinet, which is wonderful. We had to hold Luke all through the night for the first few weeks. Please Lord—let this continue!!
I’m pumping for now. Breastfeeding wasn’t working. He likes to clamp down over and over again. Once the blisters and bleeding began—I had to take a break. I’ve shed so many tears about this. I may write a whole post about my feelings or I may just decide it is nobody’s business what I feed my child. We’ll see. He is getting breastmilk for now though.

Shauna and Jeff brought Eli by on their way home from the hospital and we took a few pictures of them. It’s hard to believe they are from the same family since they look so different. I guess we won’t have any trouble telling them apart. :) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that these boys will be able to grow up together. And it is nice to commiserate with Shauna on the phone about the newborn phase. (We’re both not really fans of this part :) )

If You're Happy and You Know It...

2010-04-26T15:37:00.007-05:00

Luke performed in his school's Spring Concert last Tuesday morning and did such a great job. We were so proud of him. The theme of the concert was Sunday School Favorites. His class sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" with one of the other classes and then they performed "I've Got the Joy in My Heart" on their own.

The last two weeks have been big weeks for all of us, but Luke has taken it all in stride and hasn't missed a beat.

If you want to skip all of the lining up, waving, silly faces and teacher instructions between songs, you can fast forward to the 1:20 and 4:10 sections of the video. :-)

Ethan Harrison James

2010-04-18T12:32:00.001-05:00

Ethan was born at 7:33 a.m. on Monday, April 12. He weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces and was 21 inches long. He was 2 ounces bigger than Luke and an inch longer. I was kind of expecting him to be smaller than Luke based on the ultrasound estimates. He is a little chunk—which is good because I absolutely love chunky babies. I don’t know what I would do with a tiny little thing—he already seems so tiny. He has really dark hair and kind of looks like a little Eskimo baby to me. :) He is absolutely perfect. We already love him so much.

My Thoughts before the Big Day…

2010-04-11T17:38:00.001-05:00

Our last picture as a family of 3. Taken on Easter Sunday.

Well, tomorrow morning we get to meet Ethan! I’m so, so excited. I really thought I would go into labor before tomorrow but I just didn’t. I’ve been thinking all day about how this is our last day as a family of 3. I went and got Luke and put him in bed with us this morning because it’s his last day as an only child and I wanted to try and savor the moment. I keep saying stuff to him about how he is going to be a big brother tomorrow but I don’t know that he fully grasps how soon tomorrow really is.

My surgery starts at 7 a.m. and we have to be there by 5 a.m. I knew I wouldn’t sleep much the night before so I asked for the earliest time they had available.

This time around I am SUPER paranoid about germs. I don’t think I was even aware of germs and babies when I had Luke—I didn’t think twice about people holding him or coming to visit. I think I am extra paranoid because my friend’s newborn caught a virus while at the hospital and it ended up being a major ordeal. I know you can’t protect them from everything—but do you think it is overkill to ask everyone to wear masks and latex gloves?? :) Obviously we want Luke to be able to visit and touch his baby brother but I am PRAYING he doesn’t pick up anything at school on Tuesday or Thursday. I guess we could keep him home but even that seems like a little overkill. I see now why some hospitals have a “no kid” policy.

Mark’s present to me (hahahahaha) last Saturday was an iPad. We all know it was really for him. I have to admit that it is very cool. Luke loves it! Now I’ll have something to fill all that free time we’ll have at the hospital (hahahahaha again….).

We definitely appreciate everyone’s prayers tomorrow and over the last 9 months. Be on the lookout for a text/email/facebook status update tomorrow morning!

Final Countdown

2010-04-02T15:53:00.003-05:00

10 days to go!!! I’m so excited. I seriously cannot wait to meet little Ethan. We are all ready for his arrival. We’ve been blessed with a great supply of diapers and wipes thanks to friends and family. We are planning to put the carseat in this weekend. The only thing I have left to buy before he comes is some sort of diaper disposal system. We’re not doing the Diaper Genie this time and I think we may just get a step-on trashcan for the garage. I still need to pack our bag and should probably do that soon just in case he decides to come early.

I really wanted a video monitor this time around and Uncle David gave us a giftcard to Buy Buy Baby and we were able to get this AWESOME video monitor. I love it so much!! I’m not sure how we lived without it for Luke. We have the camera set up in Luke’s room now and I love being able to see him when I hear him cough or make a noise. This monitor accepts additional cameras so I think we’re going to have to buy another camera so I can see both boys.

Craigslist has been a goldmine for us. I decided I wanted a new carseat and ended up getting this whole travel system for less than we would have paid for just the carseat. I know you’re not supposed to buy a used carseat—and I am normally such a rule follower. But I feel like I am a pretty good judge of character and these people weren’t shady at all and it turned out that the lady works in Mark’s building.

And this was the find I was most happy about—I found a Joovy Caboose Ultralight for $80!! Those things sell brand new for about $250. I almost feel bad for getting it so cheap because I don’t think the guy knew that he could get a lot more. I think this thing has been used less than 5 times and it was in perfect condition. It is super heavy though—I can’t imagine how heavy the regular Joovy is considering this is the “ultralight.”

Last, I just want to say that I have the best mother-in-law in the world. Sharon (aka Ammy) has saved me the last few weeks. She’s helped with laundry, watched Luke, cooked delicious meals, and kept me supplied with cut-up watermelon chunks (I can’t get enough!). I’ve had some rough days here at the end (because of the pain and lack of sleep) and she has been a lifesaver!!

Luke at 3 and a Half

2010-03-16T07:00:00.003-05:00

Sorry to post a picture that was just posted on here recently but this is one of my favorites. I tried to post another one but Mark didn’t like it because Luke wasn’t smiling.

I really wish I had been better about keeping up with these milestones for Luke considering this blog is his scrapbook. I want to remember all the little details about him, especially before his baby brother arrives. So, here goes:

Dear Luke,

You are exactly 3 and a half years old today. You are such a sweet boy. I want to remember all the things you were doing because someday these details will escape me and be a distant memory.

Personality: You are a really friendly little guy. You always find people to play with at parks and Chick-Fil-A. It breaks my heart when older kids are “too cool” to play with you, but it doesn’t seem to phase you. You are so sweet too. You are really sensitive, just like me and your Dad. Even your teacher at school commented that you “take everything to heart.” You are really affectionate and lately you really like pretending like you are a baby kitten nuzzling up to Mama Cat and Daddy Cat. You really love your Dad. When he comes home from work you run to the door and want all of his attention.

Behavior: Overall, you are such a good boy. We really feel blessed that God gave you to us. You are not rough or aggressive. You usually respond to the threat of a spanking and we don’t actually have to give you too many. You went through a pretty bad phase about 2 weeks ago and I was really wondering where my sweet little boy had gone—BUT—you are back to your old self, thank the Lord!

Play: You still LOVE your Thomas table. You have gone through periods here and there where you don’t play with it much, but you always come back to it. You also love playing with your Cars, Finding Nemo stuff, and Toy Story stuff. You play with your Bat Cave a lot and all the Batman characters. You also like playing with Spiderman. You love to play tag outside with Dad. Fortunately, you are pretty good about playing by yourself. You can entertain yourself at your Thomas table for quite a while. If I am busy in the kitchen, you will entertain yourself. When I sit down with the laptop though, you want my attention. I guess you know when I am truly busy or just wasting time. :) You and Lily Bug play really well together. We are working on you being better about sharing toys, but you two have a lot of fun together. When I ask you who your best friend is, you say, “Lily Bug.”

TV/Movies: Your favorite things to watch are Thomas, Cars and Finding Nemo. You like watching Dr. Seuss videos a lot too (Green Eggs and Ham, Sneetches, and Grinch Night). You also like watching Go Diego Go.

Food: You are still a picky eater. I joke with people that you survive on chocolate milk and chicken nuggets—but it is actually not that far from the truth. You love all kinds of fruit and carrots dipped in ranch. You love pretzels and any type of snack cracker. I send a Nutrigrain Bar in your lunch to school because you won’t eat any type of sandwich. Chicken nuggets are pretty much the only meat you will eat, although you will eat the occasional hamburger. You recently started loving pancakes, so we have been having that a lot for dinner. Your absolute favorite restaurant is Chick-Fil-A. We go there at least once a week. You also love getting a cheese quesadilla and rice from Chipotle.

Sleep: We start putting you to bed around 7:45/8:00 and read at least three books to you. When we leave the room, we play one of your story CDs that lasts about 15 minutes on your CD player. Lately, the only one you have wanted to listen to is Finding Nemo. But you also listen to Cars, Toy Story, and Thomas stories. You are usually awake between 7-7:30. You take a nap every day from about 2-4 p.m. You are a great sleeper, and I am incredibly thankful for that.

Potty training: You became potty trained right after Christmas. We are so proud of you and you haven’t had many accidents at all. I think the combination of you finally being ready and your Dad being home for two weeks for the holidays made it finally happen.

Baby brother: You are really excited about baby Ethan coming, Although, a lot of your excitement comes from the fact that I promised you he would bring you a present. You change your mind pretty much every day about what you would like him to bring you and you talk to my tummy and tell him. The other day, it was so cute, you came out of your room after a nap and walked straight to me, still half asleep and said, “Is the baby coming out of your tummy yet?” I think you must have been having a dream about him. I know you will be such a sweet big brother. Last week, I got choked up just thinking about you coming in the room and meeting your brother for the first time. That is going to be so special.

Those are all the little details I can think of right now. I am so thankful Dad and I have had you all to ourselves for 3 and a half years. Our life is going to change so much in less than a month, but it is a good change. I know the three of us are ready to share our life with someone else and be a family of four. I love you so, so much Lukie B.

Love,

Mom

Luke dressed up for “Western Day” at school.

One Month!

2010-03-12T10:07:00.002-06:00

I haven’t taken a photo since 33 weeks.

Wow—in exactly one month (or less if he decides to come on his own) Ethan will be joining our family! My c-section is scheduled for April 12 at 7 in the morning. That is only 4 days before my due date and Luke came 4 days before his due date, so we will see if I make it to the 12th. I am all for having him before the 12th, but I really want my doctor to do the c-section since it is major surgery. So, anyway, here are my random thoughts I want to be able to look back on someday:

I think I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that a c-section is the best choice for me. Sometimes I feel a little judged and I feel like I have to explain why I am having one. Plus, as hard as it was, having Luke naturally (with drugs though) was something I will remember the rest of my life. And it makes me sad I won’t have that same experience with Ethan. I’m glad I’ve had 9 months to accept it. I even checked out this book from the library—which pretty much sealed the deal for me. The bottom line is: I don’t want to have to wear a diaper for the rest of my life. The possibility of fecal incontinence sounds like my worst nightmare. My doctor left the choice up to me, but he said if I tore that badly again, I could have serious issues the rest of my life. Healing from the 4th degree tear was truly horrible for me and I think the c-section, while no walk in the park, will be better for me.
I’ve reached the point in this pregnancy where I officially feel pretty miserable. I want to be positive but it’s hard. Last time, my back pain was horrible and I started a daily regimen of vicodin that barely took the edge of the pain. This time, it isn’t my back, but it is my hips and pelvis. Most of the time I feel like my left leg is out of the socket.
I really miss sleep. Sometimes I am up 4 times during the night to go to the bathroom because of all the pressure on my bladder. I know this is just part of it and this will be my life with a newborn as well.
As Shauna said on facebook, the heartburn is straight from Satan. Seriously. I am surviving with Zantac and Tums.
The one thing I will miss the most about being pregnant is feeling him move around. He’s my little buddy. He’s still really active. The other night Mark was feeling him move and said he felt sorry for him because he was pushing and kicking so hard and Mark thought he was trying to get out.

Last August when I found out I was pregnant seems like a lifetime ago. Parts of this pregnancy have gone by really slowly and yet I can’t believe we are only a month away from being a family of 4. It was in April last year that we found out I had a miscarriage and this April we’ll be welcoming our new son. A lot can happen in a year. God is so good—all the time!!

My bump doesn’t look dramatically bigger since 22 weeks but it sure feels a lot bigger! I do think my bump got big pretty early on and it has just filled out more since then.

Ethan’s Nursery

2010-03-07T18:18:00.004-06:00

We finished Ethan’s nursery about a week ago. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Mark did an excellent job painting the room. I could have NEVER gotten the lines so straight! Now we just need Ethan here to fill the other frames with pictures of him.

I am anti crib bumpers because I am super paranoid about SIDS. I think it is because I went to a training on SIDS when I was a CPS caseworker. I know a “real” crib bumper would be a lot cuter, but we went with the breathable bumper because I think they are safer. That’s my little soapbox. :) But I will say if I found a great deal like Shauna did on a matching bumper I would get one just for decoration and take it out when the baby starts sleeping there. The bumper that matches our bedding was $120 and I can think of a lot of better ways to spend $120….

A Little Perspective

2010-02-25T17:44:00.002-06:00

I found this website when Ryan Seacrest tweeted about it. It is about a 2 year old girl in Houston who is in the final stages of cancer. Her mom wrote this post and it really touched me. She talked about feeling regret about all those times she wanted her daughter to go to bed early or sleep longer so she could get things done. Now, all her daughter wants to do is sleep. I am definitely guilty of this. Sometimes I truly can’t wait until naptime for some time to myself. And, I just keep worrying about all the sleep I won’t be getting when I have a newborn in less than two months. But maybe, just maybe, I’ll remember this family and try to be thankful. I’m sure I’ll have my moments. So, if you hear me complaining—don’t be surprised! I don’t think you can truly have that mother’s perspective unless you are going through something like that—but—I want to try and remember this as much as I can.

And I’ll throw in a cute picture of Luke just for good measure. I love this little guy with all of my heart.

3D Ultrasound, Birthday Lunch, and a Pregnancy Update

2010-02-14T16:29:00.003-06:00

Just a warning…this is a long post. I haven’t posted in a while and a few things have happened since the last post. Hopefully you’re sitting somewhere comfortable….. :)

3D Ultrasound

On January 28 we had a 3D ultrasound for Ethan. I absolutely loved seeing a better picture of him. We did it with Luke, and we both thought it was worth it to do it again. This one actually turned out better than Luke’s. I think he was in a better position and I was about three weeks further along. I will go ahead and put pictures up to compare the two like Shauna did with Eli and Lily, but they really don’t look that much alike in the 3D ultrasound. Here are two pictures of Ethan:

And a picture of Luke:

And here is one of them side by side (Luke left/Ethan right):

Birthday Lunch

On January 30 we had our annual birthday lunch to celebrate my Dad’s birthday, my birthday and Shauna’s birthday. We went to Temple to Jim and Sharon’s house because Mom and Dad have been wanting to pick up pecans, and Jim and Sharon had a huge crop this year. Then we all went to eat at Texas Roadhouse in Temple and came back to their house for cake and ice cream. I wanted to get some pictures of me and Shauna pregnant because it isn’t every day that you and your sister are due to have babies exactly one week apart!

And I just love these two pictures of our favorite little munchkins:

Pregnancy Update

I went in Thursday for my OB checkup. I am 31 weeks pregnant. But I am measuring 34 weeks. This exact thing happened in my pregnancy with Luke. In fact, I wrote a blog post about it. That time I was measuring 35 weeks though. It doesn’t change my due date or anything. It basically just means I get to be extra uncomfortable for the next two months. I was hoping I wouldn’t get as uncomfortable this time but it looks like it will be the same. I think Ethan just had a growth spurt recently because my discomfort is definitely worse. I will get to have an ultrasound in two weeks to estimate his size and I will hopefully get a date for my c-section.

Mark and I finally decided on the bedding we wanted and we have been slowly getting the nursery ready. Mark is painting the room right now. I’ll post some pictures as soon as it is done.

Okay, that’s all of my giant update. If you’ve read this far—you must really love our family! :)

Big Boy Room and Other Stuff…

2010-01-26T18:00:00.002-06:00

We’ve been busy lately moving things around for Ethan’s arrival. There’s still so much to do though! Luke’s furniture got ready several weeks before we thought it would, so two weekends ago we got his big boy room all ready. He really likes it and transitioned wonderfully to his new bed. He’s been sleeping in his new bed a little more than a week now. I want Shauna to make some more art for his walls, but basically the room is done. Here are some pictures:

Earlier this month, Luke had “pajama day” at school. He was excited to wear his pj’s and his teacher made pancakes for them. I had my glucose test that morning so Mark took him to school and took a few pictures before school.

I’m in my third trimester now and definitely starting to get more uncomfortable. We have our 3D/4D ultrasound on Thursday and I am really excited about that! We did it with Luke and I just loved getting a better glimpse of him than the ultrasounds at my doctor’s office. We had an ultrasound last Thursday and my doctor estimated Ethan weighs about 2.5 pounds and did manage to get a little picture of him. I like this picture because he looks happy (the picture quality isn’t great because this is a picture of a picture taken with a phone).

Hook’em Horns!

2010-01-07T10:16:00.001-06:00

Luke is ready for the National Championship tonight! Uncle David got him this cool shirt for Christmas. Let’s hope they win--but win or lose we still love the Longhorns in the James household.

Luke is saying “Hook’em Horns!” in that last picture. :)

Christmas 2009 Recap

2010-01-06T19:43:00.004-06:00

I love this picture of Luke making his “happy” face for the camera.

We had a wonderful Christmas with both sides of the family. We feel so blessed! Luke had a “Cars” Christmas. The movie Cars is his latest obsession, so he was able to get lots of cars to add to his collection. He also got his very own iPod Touch. So, now he can watch movies and television shows and play games in the car without always borrowing Mommy’s iPhone.

We spent the day before Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve with my parents and celebrated with them and the Olsons. Luke and Lily had so much fun together. I love that they have each other for playmates and are fairly good at entertaining each other. They made a gingerbread house together, but all those pictures are on Nana’s camera. They also decorated cookies for Santa and had lots of fun playing with all their new stuff they got while at Nana and Augie’s house.

We came home Christmas Eve night and little before Luke’s bedtime and let him play a little bit before bed. He helped Mark sprinkle “reindeer food” in the yard and helped get Santa’s plate of cookies ready and a few carrots for the reindeer.

We woke up around 7 a.m. on Christmas and got things ready. We thought Luke was awake because we had heard him earlier on the monitor, but when we went in there, he was asleep. So we woke him up to come see what Santa had brought him. He was really excited about everything. I’m trying to figure out what our traditions as a family will be. I want to have a special Christmas morning breakfast for us. I fixed Monkey Bread this year. I’m not sure if that will be our lifelong tradition or not. I’ll probably have to experiment for a few years.

We headed to Mark’s parents’ house around 10 a.m. on Christmas to spend the rest of the day and the next day with Mark’s family. Luke was completely spoiled all over again and got lots of fun stuff. Ammy fixed a delicious lunch, and we had lots of fun with Mark’s family.

The day after Christmas I woke up early to go to Target to check out their after-Christmas deals. I stocked up on gift bags and a few other things. That afternoon, Mark, David and I went to see The Blind Side (LOVED it!!) while Ammy and PawPaw took Luke to Chick-Fil-A and home for a nap.

Here are lots of pictures. I had trouble narrowing them down. Plus this is mostly for our memories. :)

2009 in Review

2009-12-29T10:03:00.001-06:00

When I think back on 2009 the main theme that comes to mind is pregnancy/baby. It pretty much consumed me. Mark and I decided that in January we would try to get pregnant with baby number 2. Luke had turned two in September and we felt ready. But we decided to wait until January because we thought it would be super easy to get pregnant like it was with Luke and I would get pregnant the first month and have the baby in October and my children would be basically three years apart and both have fall birthdays. My perfect little scenario that I concocted in my head. Things didn’t go as planned (imagine that!!) so here is a little recap of the year:

January: Officially start trying. Had a chemical pregnancy at the end of the month. (The pregnancy test was faintly positive one day and negative the next.)

February: Not pregnant. Turned 30!!

March: Pregnant!! Yay. First positive test was on March 26.

April: April 20—I noticed a tiny amount of spotting. I was 7 weeks pregnant. Went to doctor on April 21 for ultrasound. Baby had strong heartbeat but was measuring a week behind. Progesterone was low so they put me on progesterone supplements. Came in 1 week later (April 28) for follow-up. No heartbeat.

May: May 5—had D&C for miscarriage. Doctor said to wait 2 cycles before trying again. Went to Disney World May 13 through 20. Had so much fun watching Luke experience everything.

June: Waiting to try again. Mark turned 34!

July: Start trying again for baby number 2.

August: Pregnant!! I tested positive on August 5 several days before I was even supposed to test on a test from the dollar store. (I had read online they were actually good). Started progesterone right away as a precaution. Went to doctor several times and everything looked good.

September: Luke turned 3! He started Mother’s Day Out at a new school. I saw the doctor and everything still looked good.

October: Hooray—I am in the second trimester! Mark and I went to the U2 concert in Dallas and had a wonderful time and we also took Luke to Day Out with Thomas during the month. I cried like a huge nerd due to all my pregnancy hormones.

November: Found out we are having a boy on November 19! We are so excited. I finally stopped throwing up every day during this month.

December: I will end 2009 one day shy of being 25 weeks pregnant. Luke has made tremendous progress with potty training this month. Had a wonderful Christmas with family.

Well, there you go. 2009 in a nutshell. I’m so thankful for this baby that is kicking me more and more each day (and Mark finally felt him on Sunday!). My kids will be 3 years and 7 months apart instead of 3 years like I planned. I have to keep reminding myself that 7 months is not a big deal in the grand scheme of life. Shauna and I are exactly 4 years apart and I don’t know anyone that is closer to their sibling than we are (except maybe Mark and David). I know God’s plan is infinitely better than my plan. 2010 will bring a lot of changes to our family and I can’t wait!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T09:02:00.001-06:00

Luke Update

2009-12-15T16:17:00.004-06:00

The last two posts have been about Ethan so here is a post about Luke. Earlier this month, Luke had his Christmas program at school. He loves his music teacher and did a great job at the performance. He wasn’t shy at all!! I don’t know where he gets that because neither Mark nor I are into performing for crowds. They sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “The Secret.” Seeing a group of 2-3 year olds perform on stage is one of the cutest things ever. Most of the photos include his best buddy in the class, Reid. They had fun on stage together! I will try to post a little video when we finally load it onto the computer.

Today Luke had his Christmas party at school. They made an ornament, decorated sugar cookies, and had a book exchange. Mark was sick at home with a cold, so he couldn’t go. I only took a few pictures because I was trying to keep Luke from unwrapping his gift early most of the time. He was not in the greatest mood because he also has been dealing with a cold—but he managed to have a good time.

Here are a few “bump” pictures. I’m not sure why I’m putting them on the blog for all to see because I’m not exactly in love with the way I look—but I want to remember what I looked like pregnant. It’s funny that I really thought I was showing quite a bit at 14 weeks and when I see myself now, I just have to laugh. I’ll probably think the same thing about the 22 week photos when I am 30 weeks.

His Name

2009-12-10T17:12:00.006-06:00

It was really hard to pick out another boy name for us. We picked Luke when we were dating and knew without a doubt if we had a son, he would be named Luke. We never really thought about other boy names. So, after we had our Luke, I knew we needed another boy name because chances were pretty high that we would have another boy. I love classic names. I am not really a fan of trendy names and I guess everyone has their own opinion of what constitutes “trendy” so I’ll leave it at that to avoid offending anyone.

The name we picked for our son is…….Ethan Harrison James. I wanted to finalize it because I like to call him by his name when I talk to him, and I want Luke to know his name. I guess it really isn’t “final” until we fill out the birth certificate but a blog is pretty official. Right? :-) We picked Ethan fairly early on in the pregnancy—but I worried it was just too popular. I read this article a couple of weeks ago and it kind of sent me into a tailspin. They list Ethan in the opening of the article with the name Madison (which is in my opinion a very trendy name) and seem to imply that Ethan is a trendy name. It is currently the third most popular boy’s name in the U.S. BUT after doing some extensive research, that’s really not true. I found this site that adds up all the alternate spellings of names and after you add all the different Aidens and Jaydens together, Ethan moves to number five. And five is better than three to me. :) The same is true for Texas. Ethan is number 8 in Texas--but when you do the math (which I did) and add the Aiden/Ayden/Aidans and Jayden/Jadens and Christian/Cristians together, Ethan moves to number 11! So it’s not even in the top 10. I just really didn’t want a trendy name but I am okay with a classic name that is popular. Some people may not think there is a difference, but I do. Ethan has been around for a long time. There were four Ethans in the Bible. The name Ethan has been on the rise in popularity since the 1950s. Our name requirements were:

distinctly masculine name
a name that can’t be shortened
a name that means something

Ethan is Hebrew in origin and means “strong and firm.” We picked Harrison as the middle name because that is Mark’s dad’s middle name and it has been a middle name in the family for several generations (Mark’s dad’s great grandfather and great-great grandfather).

So, hopefully people don’t think we are just followers and go with whatever is popular. We put a lot of thought into this. There’s a chance that he may not be the only Ethan in his Kindergarten class but I think I can live with that.

Pregnancy Update: 21 weeks

2009-12-04T10:36:00.001-06:00

This is one of those posts that is mostly for my memories. I realized with my pregnancy with Luke I didn’t do any updates from 20 weeks (when we found out the sex) to 31 weeks. I really wish I would have updated more because I would like to go back and read about how I was feeling and what I was thinking in case I ever get the crazy idea to do this pregnancy thing again one of these days….

I’m feeling pretty good these days. My nausea went away around 17 weeks. It is really nice to wake up and not have to vomit. The headaches are better too. I still have them, but not as frequently. My main symptom is HORRENDOUS heartburn. I had this with Luke too. I feel it even if I haven’t eaten anything. Thank God for Tums and Zantac. I seriously think my esophagus is being eaten alive sometimes. The old wives tale is that heartburn correlates to your baby having more hair. And I will say that Luke had a lot of hair at birth—so maybe it is true.

I have an anterior placenta this time again—which means the placenta is in the front—so the baby’s kicks have to be felt through that. Most people have their placenta in the back. So, the movement is still pretty subtle. I have been feeling movement for at least 5 or 6 weeks. But the hard kicks will come later for me. I guess that isn’t that bad but I would like for Mark to be able to feel the kicks. It will come soon enough though.

I am SO thankful for the doppler that Shauna’s friend let me borrow. She had a scare in her pregnancy so they bought a really expensive one. Some of the cheap dopplers you can buy don’t work well but this one is even nicer than the one they use at my doctor’s office (Shauna graciously agreed to let me have it instead of her since I tend to be slightly more anxious :) ). Mark and I have been listening to the baby’s heartbeat since about twelve weeks. We usually listen to it every other day for less than 30 seconds. I just love hearing his heartbeat and sometimes his kicks. His heartrate is usually in the 140s. Mark is really good at finding it and should probably be a certified doppler technician. We were able to bring it with us to my parents’ house and Mark’s parents’ house so that everyone could hear the baby’s little heartbeat.

“The baby” may or may not have a name. We thought we had a name picked out but I am having second thoughts. I want to decide soon though! I hate being undecided.

And we were very excited to find out this week that Shauna is having a boy too! How fun will it be to have these two little boys (that will only be about a week or two apart in age) grow up together!

Thanksgiving and Other Stuff….

2009-11-28T23:17:00.001-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving at my Aunt Dixie Lee’s house in Granbury. It was extra special this year because Mark’s parents, brother and aunt joined us too. I have so much to be thankful for this year and every year. I feel extremely blessed to be living the life I live. Luke wouldn’t sit still for any family photos so Mark and I got one of just the two of us and then we got several of Luke running around. Augie and Nana bought Luke and Lily Santa hats—which is why he is wearing a Santa hat in all of the pictures.

We decorated for Christmas after we got home from being out of town for Thanksgiving. It was so fun this year because Luke was really interested in all of the decorations. Here are a few pictures of Luke decorating his special tree in his room.

Speaking of being thankful…..we came home from Thanksgiving with an early Christmas present to ourselves. We bought a Honda Pilot. I have been researching cars for months now and we decided on a Pilot a while ago. I really wanted a very safe car since we’ll have two kids now and Luke won’t be in the center seat anymore. I wanted a car that has airbags all around and something fairly large. I also wanted a foldable third row so that we can have other people in the car when we need to (now that the middle row will be filled with two car seats), and I wanted a lot of cargo room for a stroller and all of the other stuff that comes with having a newborn and a toddler. And, I think I am most excited about the backup camera. I’ve been really wanting one after hearing about a horrible tragedy on Oprah a few years ago. I don’t know what I am going to look at online now. I’ve been obsessed with reading car reviews for so long. I guess I’ll start researching baby video monitors and double strollers now!

It’s a….

2009-11-19T13:47:00.001-06:00

No big surprise there. And I think pretty much everyone who reads this blog knows already because of phone calls and facebook. We are very excited about having another little boy. I just knew this one was going to be a boy. I knew the last time too—although not as sure as I was this time. I think God prepared me early on (before we even starting thinking about having another baby) so that I wouldn’t feel any disappointment about not having girls. And I just think you have exactly what you are supposed to have. We really don’t have much of a say in the matter. I think brothers will be a lot of fun. Luke is going to be such a good big brother and teach this one all about Thomas and Spiderman.

Everything looked great on the baby. He has a big head—just like Luke! The other great news was that they actually have my due date as April 16—not the 20th like I thought. So I gained 4 days and he is due on his PawPaw’s birthday! But we will most likely deliver sometime around April 9 since I am opting for a c-section this time.

We’ve narrowed it down to two names and are trying to decide. This just makes everything more real and I am ready to start thinking about his room and all of that fun stuff. Mark and I were laughing thinking about our ultrasound with Luke compared to this one. We brought in our videotape and our parents came down to meet us at the house after the appointment to watch the tape and then we all went to lunch. We didn’t even bring a tape this time. But that doesn’t mean we are any less excited!! :) We didn’t get any good pictures from the ultrasound—at least none worth posting here.

We are just so thankful for this little guy and can’t wait to meet him!

Halloween

2009-11-01T12:55:00.004-06:00

We had a really fun Halloween. Luke dressed up as Spiderman. He has been wearing his Spiderman costume every single day since I bought it earlier this month. I’m glad it held up for the big day. He’s wearing it again today. I’m glad we got our money’s worth! :)

On Thursday, Luke’s school had a fall festival. He got to wear his Spiderman costume to school—which he was THRILLED about! The kids got to play carnival games and we went on a hayride. It was a lot of fun.

On Halloween, we went to Temple to have a fun Halloween party with Jim, Sharon, Pat, David, Shauna, Jeff and Lily. The kids had a great time playing and then we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood Mark grew up in. It was fun for Mark to see people he knew and show off his little Spiderman. One house in the neighborhood had made a table full of baked treats and popped popcorn for all of the people who came by. It was so cute. Luke and Lily LOVED trick-or-treating. They had no fear going up to all the doors. Even Lily, who is usually pretty shy around new people, told people that she was dressed up as Pinkie Pie (from My Little Ponies). We drove to another neighborhood and someone had set up a sno-cone stand and we all got sno-cones. Needless to say, Luke was hyped up from all of the fun and sugar and didn’t even fall asleep on the drive home. He didn’t go to sleep until 11 that night. It was such a fun day!

Luke is pretty sad that all of the Halloween lawn inflatables (aka yucky men) have gone bye-bye. Our daily ritual has been to drive around and see all of them in the neighborhood. But Christmas will be here soon and we’ll have new inflatables to look at!!

Lots of Stuff

2009-10-25T19:43:00.003-05:00

We went to a pumpkin patch with our Sunday School class last Saturday and had a great time. Luke would not pose for ANY photos. I just had to catch photos of him running around and looking into the distance. We tried to take a family photo but he would not stop for a second. Thank goodness for a fast camera so I could at least get a few photos of him.

I can’t believe I will be in my 16th week of pregnancy this week! It is going by pretty fast. I remember with Luke, I was just consumed with my pregnancy. It was all I thought about. It was all I wanted to talk about with people. This time is definitely different. This little bean is definitely on my mind all day long, but I am just not as consumed with it. I guess having a kid will do that to you. I feel like I need to make this disclaimer every few months: this blog is our family scrapbook. It is the closest thing we have to a scrapbook so it is how I keep track of memories. I know some people don’t care about some of these mundane details but I like going back and reading what was going on in our lives. I’ve gone back to a lot of the old posts from when I was pregnant with Luke.

So, with all that said---I am still so sick!! Ugh!!! I am ready for the sickness to end. I am writing this so I can remind myself if I ever decide I miss being pregnant. I throw up at least 5 days a week. Luke is so cute when I am throwing up. He comes over and says, “It’s okay Mama,” and pats on my leg. He also offers me Spiderman and his Monkey/Bear to make me feel better. He even brought me his chocolate milk one day. It is just so cute how he is so concerned. On Wednesday, I had the worst day yet. I couldn’t do anything but sit. Every time I was up, I felt so nauseous. So, Luke watched a lot of television that day. The next day I had my monthly doctor appointment so I got a prescription for nausea medication in case I have anymore days like that. On top of the nausea, I am experiencing DAILY headaches and have had several migraines. It is not fun at all. So, like I said, I’m not writing this to elicit sympathy (although I’ve never turned down sympathy), I’m writing this so I can look back one day and remember the good and the bad from my pregnancies. The good news is that we were able to have a quick ultrasound at my appointment on Thursday and see the little bean’s lips and nose and everything looked great. I made my appointment for my “big” ultrasound on November 19. I just know it’s a boy—but we’ll see!!

Last, I am so excited because this was delivered on Friday. I love Advent calendars and we have one that is a Christmas tree and every day you put a new little ornament on the tree. Luke loved doing it last year and every morning on the days leading up to Christmas we would do it together. Last year, I saw this on someone else’s blog but it was sold out before Christmas so I ordered it early this year. I think it will be such a fun tradition for Luke and the new little baby James to put a new piece of the Nativity on it on the days leading up to Christmas and we can talk about it every morning.

Day Out with Thomas

2009-10-19T20:26:00.003-05:00

Luke’s love of all things Thomas is well documented on this blog. In fact, it was around this time last year that Ammy and PawPaw surprised Luke with his wonderful Thomas table. We were so excited when we found out several months ago that “Day Out with Thomas” would be in Burnet. We went a few weeks ago and had a great time. The train ride wasn’t as fun as I had hoped—we went backwards for about 15 minutes and then back the other way for 15 minutes—but I know Luke had a good time. We got to see a real Thomas engine up close. Luke did a good job but had a little meltdown in the “store.” They had tons of Thomas merchandise for sale and Luke didn’t want to leave without this. We’ve told him hopefully Santa Claus will bring it to him this Christmas.

The really embarrassing part that I have to share is that I cried when we first got there and started walking towards Thomas. I didn’t just tear up—I was really crying and trying my best not to let anyone see. Mark was laughing at me. I think I was just so happy that Luke was getting to experience this. This has been one of my pregnancy symptoms. I cry VERY easily. I also cried when the train started going. I know I looked like a weirdo. All I could do was laugh through my tears. Shauna thought it was hilarious when we saw them that afternoon and tried to get me worked up before the U2 concert so I would cry there too (I didn’t.)

Here are some pictures from the day:

U2

2009-10-14T19:38:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful time in Dallas for the U2 concert. The concert was amazing. Almost 80,000 people were there for the concert at the new Cowboys Stadium!!! I know I’ve talked about it before, but I just love that they sing about Jesus. Their music would be AWESOME even if they weren’t singing about Jesus in many of their songs, but the truth is they are. Read this book if you have any questions about what Bono believes. We also recently got this book written by a Baylor professor about the band’s faith. They sang lots of songs from their new album, which I love, and lots of their greatest hits. Mark recorded this video with his iPhone, it was one of my favorite moments of the concert:

We are rule followers and you were not supposed to be able to bring cameras in, so we left ours in the car. Turns out nobody follows that rule. We were able to take pictures with our phones.

You can click here to see some more photos that Mark took.

Luke had a great time with Ammy and PawPaw. He spent Sunday there and then the rest of the time at our house with Ammy. They had a great time together.

I definitely hope it is not the last time we are able to see U2 in concert.

Luke’s Birthday Party

2009-10-04T17:48:00.002-05:00

We decided to do a low-key family party for Luke’s third birthday. Maggie and Jo graciously agreed to let us have it their house and we planned to enjoy the pool. Well, for the second year in a row, Luke’s party was on a rainy day. But the rain didn’t stop people from swimming—and Luke and Lily had a fun time swimming and playing in the rain! Here are some pictures from the day.

Luke couldn’t decide if he wanted a Batman or a Superman cake, so his wonderful Ammy made one of each! Thanks Ammy! She also made the Batman cake for Mark and David’s fourth birthday. (Luke is looking at the picture of Daddy and Uncle David with their Batman and Cookie Monster cakes in one of the pictures above.)

Luke and Lily had a great time swimming in the rain. Thank goodness for heated pools! Nana and PawPaw even got in too.

Luke was quite the little performer and treated us to an awesome dance performance when we turned Maggie’s jukebox on.

Here is Luke taking a little rest from all the dancing.

Luke got a lot of fun presents from everyone.

Maggie gave Luke his very own Ford F-150. He has been having so much fun driving it all around the backyard. She even put Longhorn stickers on it and his own license plate. Lily took a ride in it too. It is too cute!

It was a really fun day and we are so thankful for our wonderful family. Thanks everyone for making Luke’s third birthday so special!!

Some Day….

2009-10-01T11:35:00.001-05:00

I’ll update the blog again. I still need to post pictures from Luke’s birthday party at Maggie and Jo’s and I want to do a post talking about all the stuff he is doing at 3 years old—including potty training!! I have not been feeling well and have zero energy. So far, this pregnancy is shaping up to be exactly like my pregnancy with Luke, which is why I think I’ll have another boy. I am sick every morning and just feel pretty blah all day. I am two weeks away from my second trimester, so maybe I’ll start feeling better soon. I think I’ve said it before, but as unpleasant as this is, I am thankful for these symptoms and what they mean.

April 20, 2010….

2009-09-13T11:57:00.001-05:00

is my official due date. Yes, that’s right—we are expecting a baby! And I’m only due three days before Shauna’s official due date!!! My parents are going to have a busy week that week! :) I was trying to hold off on sharing the news until I am out of my first trimester, but I just can’t do it. I don’t know some of you people wait that long before telling people. We did decide to wait a little longer this time to tell most of our friends and family since I had the miscarriage in April. I’ve gone in weekly for ultrasounds and everything looks great, and Baby James #2 is progressing normally and looking great. I’m sorry if I wasn’t able to be fully honest with any of you in the last few weeks. It is just something we were waiting until we felt comfortable to share. I had my official 8 week pregnancy confirmation appointment on Friday.

I’ve had a lot more nausea and have been so tired this time—much more so than with the miscarriage. This morning I vomited for the first time. Good times. Food sounds gross for the most part. My bad morning sickness set in with Luke around 8 weeks and I’m 8 weeks 5 days today---so possibly this one is following the same pattern. Although, I don’t remember the all day nausea last time. It seemed to go away and then come back last time. This time it is hanging around most of the day. I don’t know how someone who is pregnant can work. I’m not sure how I managed to teach school last time. I am so tired!! I really think it helps with the nausea this time that I am able to ease out of bed in the mornings around 7:30 a.m. rather than wake up at 6 a.m. and hit the ground running.

Pregnancy is such a time of faith building for me. I have absolutely no control over anything and I just have to trust God. He definitely comforted us through the miscarriage and gave us peace about that situation. I am thankful we are pregnant again so quickly and truly just trying to trust God every single day with this pregnancy. I love how verses you never knew existed can become so important and tell you exactly what you need to hear. I came across this verse early in this pregnancy and I repeat it daily: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

First Day

2009-09-08T20:10:00.002-05:00

Today was Luke’s first day of preschool/Mother’s Day Out. He had a great day! He walked right in the classroom and started playing. I don’t know if he even noticed that Mark and I left. On the way to school, he was singing the song from Sid the Science Kid when he goes to school….he was singing, “I’m looking for my friends. I’m looking for you!” It was really cute. His teacher said he had a great day and she said he went right to sleep on his nap mat. I was really surprised about that one—since he has never slept on one before. But he did great and was happy to see me when I picked him up. He wasn’t being too cooperative with posing for pictures this morning, but we got a few. We were going outside to get a few on the front porch and when I was walking out of the front door I stubbed my toe and ripped off about half of my big toenail. I thought I was going to faint, so Mark was helping me out, and that cut our picture time short.

I think he is going to have so much fun at school this year and I thoroughly enjoyed having almost five hours to myself!

I LOVE this picture with his crazy bed-head hair and his little sleepy eyes.

Tubing

2009-09-08T19:39:00.001-05:00

We spent part of the weekend at my parents’ house and had a great time. Luke went tubing for the first time ever! He seemed to really like it and rode with Mark and Uncle Jeff. Here are a few pictures from the boat:

Visit to the Zoo

2009-09-03T20:23:00.002-05:00

On Saturday we went to Waco for our friend Drew Carpenter’s second birthday party. Luke had a lot of fun and pretty much took over the train table. Later that day, after a short nap in the car, we went with the McAnelly’s—William, Cristi, Brody, and William’s Mom, Liz—to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. It was a lot of fun! I was really impressed with the zoo. It was really stroller friendly and the exhibits seemed to be easily seen by someone Luke’s size. At the San Antonio Zoo, I felt like a lot of the things were too hard for him to see. Luke’s favorite thing BY FAR was the aquarium where they had a fish that looked just like Nemo and one that looked just like Dory. We saw that pretty early on in our visit and the entire rest of the visit he was begging to go see Nemo again. We’ll have to make another visit to the zoo and spend a lot of time visiting Nemo! Here are a few pictures:

Nemo and Dory

A fun slide

Petting the pretend Komodo Dragon

Saying goodbye to William

Luke LOVES William and made sure William was nearby at all times. He was pretty distressed when William had to drive his own family to the zoo but we reassured Luke that we would soon be reunited with William.

We met Luke’s new Mother’s Day Out teacher today. She seemed very sweet and we are so excited. There are only 8 kids in the class total—4 girls and 4 boys. Luke is the oldest by about 5 days. He is the only Luke this time and we are excited about that. Last year, he was one of two Lukes and had to go by “Luke J.” School starts on Tuesday and we can’t wait!

Luke’s Story

2009-08-24T20:22:00.001-05:00

I just had to post this because I want to remember it forever. Tonight, Mark and Luke went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things we needed. When they got home, Luke wanted to tell me a story. This is his EXACT quote:

“Once upon a time a boy named Luke arrived at Wal-Mart to buy some groceries. The End. “

I thought that was so cute! Also, the other day, Mark was helping Luke make his bed and asked him how it looked and Luke said it looked “splendid.” He picked that up from watching Thomas.

I love that little guy so much.

Here are three recent pictures taken on my iPhone camera (hence the poor quality of the photos.) The first one is Luke in Lily’s DJ Lance costume from Yo Gabba Gabba, the second one is Luke on his new nap mat, and the third one is Luke and Lily watching television this morning while Shauna was at her special doctor appointment. :)

2009-08-16T21:01:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I just haven’t had much to post about. We were super busy in July, but August seems to be slower and honestly I’m getting bored and I think Luke is too. I am ready for school to start for him. We have had fun days here and there playing with friends and hanging out with grandparents. Plus, it is just SOOOO hot outside, and we are running out of things to do inside.

So anyway, since I can’t think of much to post about; I decided to copy Shauna and post using this idea from The Simple Woman’s Daybook:

Outside my window...the sun has set and it is finally mildly pleasant outside. We just got in from playing outside.
I am thinking...I really need to order Luke’s backpack, lunchbox and nap mat for preschool.
I am thankful…that I am a stay at home mom and I’m not getting a classroom ready right now in between long days of staff development learning about “rhetoric” and “differentiation” and other stuff like that.
I am wearing...brown and pink pajama pants and a pink t-shirt. I put on my comfy clothes after church to take a nap and never changed out of them.
I am creating...a blog entry.
I am going...to bed pretty soon after we put Luke to bed.
I am reading...Love Life for Every Married Couple. I am doing a book study with the other ladies in my Sunday School class. It is a good book and talks about staying in love with your spouse.
I am hoping...we will have a baby in 2010.
I am hearing…a Thomas video on the television and Luke playing at his Thomas table.
Two of my favorite things...this verse and this song. I love “mainstream” artists (like U2 and Mat Kearney) that sing about Jesus.
A few plans for the rest of the week: see the Olsons! Lukie B has been missing Lily Bug.
Here is picture thought I am sharing...a few pictures from playing in the backyard this evening.

I know this is riveting stuff people. But a mundane update is better than no update, right??

A Few Recent Pictures

2009-07-26T20:44:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures from last week. I took some pictures at Nana and Augie’s house. Augie had just gotten home after flying in from Houston and didn’t even make it inside before Luke started hounding him to swing him. Augie lovingly obliged Luke and Lily.

Happy Birthday to Ammy!

2009-07-26T18:06:00.002-05:00

Luke sang "Happy Birthday" for his Ammy (aka Grammy and Sharon) earlier today and I just couldn't resist sharing it with everyone else too. Happy Birthday Sharon/Ammy! We love you very much!!

2009-07-17T21:51:00.002-05:00

I don't have much to update. Lukie B is spending the night at Nana and Augie's house so that Mark and I could do some much needed organizing in the house. I finally cleaned out our medicine cabinet and we went through Luke's toys and weeded out as many as we could. Tomorrow morning the plan is to tackle two of our closets. Fun times!!

Mark and I did have fun date night tonight. We ate at Texas Roadhouse, read magazines at Barnes & Noble (one of my favorite things to do--and it is impossible with a toddler), and saw a really cute movie--"Away We Go." I really enjoyed it and definitely recommend it.

My Grandmother forwarded this commercial to me earlier this week and Luke has been obsessed with watching it. We watch it over and over again and he runs around pretending he is on roller skates. We saw some roller skates at Target and he wanted them SO bad--but I'm not sure we're quite ready for roller skates.

2009-07-09T15:41:00.001-05:00

We had a wonderful 4th of July at Ammy and PawPaw’s house. Jim and Sharon hosted more than 80 people at their house on the 4th!! Can you believe that? It was so much fun and the food was wonderful. We had a great time catching up with friends and watching Luke play with all of his little friends too. In fact, I was having so much fun that I didn’t take a single picture. I wish I had taken some—but Sharon and Shauna took some with their cameras so I will have to get some from them. We especially enjoyed spending Lily’s 2nd birthday with her.

I haven’t been good about taking pictures lately. I took a few today while Luke and Lily played in the backyard. Maggie (Mark’s aunt) completely restored this tricycle that Mark and David used to ride when they were little. Luke and Lily had a good time playing with it today. You can see Luke’s latest boo-boo in the picture. A couple of weekends ago, he jumped off the chair and hit the corner of the wall. It bled quite about and we debated whether to go in for stitches but opted not to go. It seems to be healing fine. The purple stuff is the Mederma that we are putting on religiously in hopes that it doesn’t leave too bad of a scar.

On Tuesday, I took Luke to a movie theater for the first time ever. There is a free kid’s movie every Tuesday during the summer and we decided to try it out. They were showing the Veggie Tales movie about pirates. I bought Luke the little kid’s meal of popcorn, sprite, and skittles. He had a great time eating his popcorn and once he was done with that—he was ready to go! :) We made it through about 25 minutes of the movie. I wish they would show Toy Story or Finding Nemo. I know he would love to see one of those movies on the big screen. I think I will take him again because it is a fun little FREE outing.

2009-06-28T21:20:00.001-05:00

I feel like such a computer wizard. I revamped the blog and enabled blogging from my iPhone.

Batman…

2009-06-24T17:45:00.001-05:00

has taken up residence at our house. On our way home from the family reunion, we stopped at Ammy and PawPaw’s house. Sharon got out the Batman costume Mark’s grandmother made when he was little. One year, Mark and David were Batman and Robin for Halloween. The costume is adorable and Luke hasn’t wanted to take it off since Sunday. He even wore it to the library and Jason’s Deli.

We had a great time at the family reunion. Luke enjoyed playing outside and swimming. He carried Buzz and Woody with him almost everywhere. Luke (now that he is almost 3) has decided that he loves sleeping in a pack and play. So, that has made traveling easier. He slept great at Disney World and at the reunion. I wish we had some more out of town trips planned!

Luke and Lily with their matching towels from Disney World.

Nana and Lily

My cousin Stephanie’s son, Gavin, playing in the sand.

Playing at the pool

Mark and Birch

Mark and Luke

Shauna says….

2009-06-17T21:09:00.001-05:00

I don’t update the blog very often. I guess I don’t. I always wait until I have a lot to say. But, considering I am OBSESSED with blogs, I should probably update more. I check various blogs every single day and am always disappointed when there are no updates. I spend my downtime reading blogs and then finding other random blogs through clicking links. I recently found this blog and now it is one of my daily reads. My Dad absolutely does not understand this—but I am just really interested in other peoples’ lives. Another thing my Dad does not understand: facebook. I love facebook! I also check it many times a day. It is on my iPhone so I am always checking to see what people are doing. Dad thinks it must be so time consuming but it takes about a minute to check and see people's status updates. Even though Dad gives me a hard time about these things, I still love him, and his opinions, dearly. We are both very opinionated people—guess I know where I got that from.

Because of facebook, I have reconnected with several old friends. Just this past weekend, I was able to get together with my very first friend in the whole world, Sarah. We were best friends in Ira up until I moved to Austin the summer before sixth grade. Sarah and I kept in touch a little, but recently reconnected on facebook. It was so much fun to see her and her whole family.

This weekend we are going to my family reunion. I always look forward to this every year. I really feel like I have a special family and I love seeing them. Although, I must admit the reunions aren’t quite the same as they used to be—Luke doesn’t allow us to really sit around and talk. We have to be outside in the heat with the bugs. But, at least Shauna will have to be out there too and some of my cousins have little ones now, so we can all chase after our toddlers together. Also, I really don’t feel like I am as interesting as I once was. I don’t know that ever really was all that interesting—but I sure thought I was when I was in high school and college!! Now, I am a wise old 30 year old and I try to keep my mouth shut more. :)

A few things I am thankful for:

These two little munchkins. Lily still loves Lukie B so much—even though he often is not as nice as he could be to her. My favorite Lily quote so far, “Lukie B, what’s the problem?” (when he was crying). She has also started saying, “Lukie B be nice” because she hears me say it often.

This guy. I am thankful that he inherited from his dad a natural affinity/ability for keeping our yard beautiful.

This precious little boy. He has been trying my patience a lot lately, but I love him so much. I still can’t believe I get to stay home with him and go to the pool, the park, and do whatever else we can think of every single day. I feel very blessed.

Disney Trip Pictures

2009-06-06T22:07:00.003-05:00

I am finally posting some pictures from our Disney trip. I really wanted to make a cute slideshow with fun Disney music like Shauna and Jeff did—but I could never seem to get around to it. I’m posting my 2 favorite pictures and then the slideshow (with no music) at the end. Also, I feel like I must say this: I ended up taking most pictures with our regular point and shoot camera instead of our “good” camera. It was just so handy to have that little camera in my tiny little purse. Between keeping up with Luke, a stroller, and various other things, it was just too hard most of the time to get out the good camera. I did carry it around one day and I think the pictures are a lot better from that day. I guess I’ve become a camera snob :) Also, Luke NEVER wanted to sit still or pose for pictures. Literally every time we said “say cheese” he would start whining and look away. We finally learned to stop asking him to “say cheese” and just tried to snap the photos real quick.

We had a WONDERFUL time! I know some people may think it is crazy to take such a small kid to Disney World but Luke had such a good time. He was not scared of anything and just wanted to ride everything and see everything. I am so glad we took him. Disney World is my kind of vacation. I always think I want relaxing vacations but the reality is that I love having a lot to do and I really don’t want to just sit around and “relax.” In my opinion, Disney World truly is the happiest place on earth. There was so much for Luke to do. I think 7 days were the perfect amount of time. We came back to the hotel almost every afternoon to rest and swim and then went back to a park in the evening. Since we had 7 days there, I didn’t feel rushed or that we were wasting any precious time by resting at the hotel. Luke really was good the whole time. He had his moments here and there—but overall, he was great. It rained our last two days, but we still managed to do almost everything we wanted to do and ride Luke’s favorite rides 2 or 3 times. One night we rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride 3 times in a row because there was no line. It was great! Click here for a video of Luke riding a little roller coaster (or "rollie poster" as Luke called it) at the Magic Kingdom. We rode this 3 times. He looked terrified every time but wanted to ride it again and again.

Luke is taking a break from his Thomas obsession and has moved to a new obsession. He is now obsessed with Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. We watch Toy Story or Toy Story 2 at least once every day and some days more than once.

We had a great time and can’t wait to go back! I’m hoping we can go back every 2 or 3 years.

Lukie B’s Summer Haircut

2009-05-25T19:02:00.001-05:00

Luke got his first buzz cut today. I can’t get over how adorable it is on him. I love it! We went to Snip-Its, a salon geared towards kids. He did pretty good until he started getting hair in his mouth. Then he wasn’t happy and he kept getting more and more hair in his mouth while trying to get it out of his mouth. But we made it through and now Lukie B has his summer ‘do.