Fun With Cousins

Being home with the boys for summer means more time for playing with cousins! Luke had his first experience in the kiddie pool with his cousins Andrew and Jonathan. He was a little unsure at first..."Um, Andrew, is this going to be fun?"

Yeah, he liked it alright. They played out there for hours, and I had to practically drag him in the house when it was time to go.

Even Hannah dipped her toes in!

Birthday Bash

The first weekend in June, we took a quick trip up to Omaha to celebrate our nephew Seth's first birthday. Luke played and played with his cousins Kayla and Ethan! We took them to Kayla's school playground just down the street to help burn off some energy before Seth's birthday party.

Adam just chilled in the shade.

The guys spent the day building a new swing set in Shanna and Micah's backyard. Although here it seems Micah is doing all the work...

Here is Seth's awesome birthday cake that Aunt Cherise made!

The birthday boy!

Little Man

Well, our little man is growing up fast! At his 2 month appointment, he was already 13 pounds, and now at 3 1/2 months, I'm guessing he's getting close to 15 pounds - a big strong boy! He is such a sweet, happy, easy-going baby. He started smiling at us at 7 weeks, and sleeping through the night at 12 weeks old (hooray!) and still is doing well at night for the most part. And today he rolled over for the first time! On-top-of-everything mother that I am, I still do not have a baby book for him, so gotta record it all somewhere so I don't forget! He is super smiley and beams whenever anyone talks to him, stranger or not. He looks nothing like Luke at this point...he's his own little person. The other night, Luke thought Adam should wear his cowboy hat that he inherited from Great Grandpa. We thought that was a good idea. and more pics of our cutie-patootie...

It's the Best...

...being a mom, that is. These boys are simply a delight and add lots of joy to our lives. Some days are more challenging than others of course, but I can always confidently say that it is 100% worth it. The other week, our serman at church was about distinguishing what in our lives has eternal value. I couldn't help but think of the eternal value of raising kids. God has given us the blessing and responsibility to raise our children to know and serve Him. What job could be more important?

Luke has just started to spontaneously tell us he loves us. The other day, he ran up and hugged my leg and said, "Mommy I just love you so much". *Melt* my heart.

And another day, I caught Luke (spontaneously) serenading his brother with "Jesus Loves Me", with Adam smiling and beaming at the attention from his big brother. Love it! Since Motherhood is not a paid position, I consider this my raise. :)

Favorite Things

Lately, at the end of each day, I've been trying to remember my favorite thing that happened that day. Today I have two things. The first happened during church. Someone sitting behind us let out an unintentional, but VERY loud, long, and gutteral/growling-sounding cough. Luke looked up at me with large bewildered eyes and asked in all seriousness, "Mommy, was that a bear?". Ha! My second thing is pictured below. Chad was on nap duty today and after they were in there for awhile, I wondered what was going on, and this is what I found. This is extra special because it NEVER happens. Sometime around Luke's first birthday, he began to only be able to fall asleep on his own in his bed and never ever on our laps. But today, they both fell asleep! A.dor.able.

Happy Hour

We've had a rough week. This mommy got strep throat on Wednesday night and was pretty much out of commission until Saturday. On Friday, Luke woke up crying from his nap crying his "I'm in pain" cry and immediately I knew he was sick with something too. Sure enough, he had a fever. I called his doctor immediately and they were thankfully able to get us in their last appointment of the day. He had an ear infection and conjunctivitis (pink eye). So 50% of this household is on antibiotics right now. It had been a dreary couple of days at our house (the only fun part about being sick for me was that I had something to watch [the Royal Wedding] at 4:30 a.m. while I was up with the aches and chills. :) So, on the way home from the doctor's office I decided it was about time for some fun and get a little special treat for us sickies. We went through the drive-thru at Bogey's and got some curly fries and Luke's first taste of a cherry limeade. Yum! They have happy hour (50% off drinks) from 3-5, so my total bill for all of this delicious comfort was $3, which made me even happier, of course. :) But the best part of it all was seeing Luke's face light up with joy at this special treat and listening to him happily say over and over the whole way home "Mmmmm...so GOOD!". It made my day.

Pass the Ice Cream, Please

Getting my children's pictures taken should be considered an Olympic sport. Seriously. On picture day, Luke awakens in the grouchiest mood of all time. He also wakes up with a serious amount of snot plastered all over his nose area and pinning him down the clean that up amid much resistance was enough to make me want to take a tub of ice cream and head back to bed. Once I finally got the car loaded and the boys loaded for our 45 minute drive to Wichita, I realized how bad the weather was. Cold and rainy and 50 mile per hour winds. I exaggerate not. The thought crosses my mind just to reschedule, but no, the car is loaded, the boys are ready...we're committed and there is no turning back. Once we get there Luke decides to control the situation best he could by pretending to be shy, clinging to his mother, and resisting pretty much everything they wanted him to do. "I don't want to sit in da chair!" What's that they say about the terrible twos?? Yeah, we're there. The photographers tried to make me feel better by saying that 2-year-olds are their most difficult subjects and this is by far not the worst they've seen. Still embarrassing and exhausting. When they did get him to smile, he pretty much only gave his "shy" smile, which includes his lovely tongue sticking out. See exhibit A:

and Exhibit B: (there are about 90 more like these)

But we did get about 2 pictures of him with a somewhat normal smile. I really mean literally 2 pictures. And here they are:
Now don't get me wrong, I love my Luke. He can be the sweetest child in the world and does make me smile each day. He's a great helper around the house and there is nothing like listening to him sing Jesus Loves Me while we're driving down the road. But this child has a serious bit of independence and strong-willed behavior. We're working on it. I've read "Don't Make Me Count to Three" by Ginger Plowman. The point of the book is to work on training the heart to obey...to focus on changing the heart instead of just getting the behavior to change, and to use God's word when doing so. And to expect immediate obedience, as delayed obedience is disobedience. Kids will live up to what we expect of them. If they know they don't have to obey until "3", they will never obey at "1". It's good stuff. Anyway...please tell me I'm not the only one out there dealing with the new-found independence and rebellion of a 2 year old!
Oh, but he really does love his baby brother.
This child, on the other hand, posed like a champ.

I got this one in black and white. His shirt is more of a rust color, but looked bright orange in the pictures for some reason which I didn't really like.

I liked this one because it made his blue eyes really pop. I guess I'm still surprised that with Chad's brown eyes and my green/hazel eyes, we had a blue-eyed son. Chad still thinks they're going to change, but I think they're here to stay. Either way, he is a little darling.

Boys Will Be Boys

Oh, the joys of motherhood. The other night, Luke was playing outside with Chad, and of course got his pants covered in dirt/mud. So, when they came in for supper, I just took off his pants and didn't put another pair on since bedtime was just around the corner. I also noted he had a super wet diaper, but again didn't change it since bathtime was coming after supper. Fast forward to after supper...Chad went back outside to mow and I kept Luke inside so I could give him a bath, but had to feed Adam first. Luke was playing quietly in the other room, so I was enjoying my time with Adam when my Mommy Radar went off. The other room was quiet, too quiet for the last minute or so. I hollered for Luke. No response. Adam's dinner came to a quick halt as I jumped up to investigate, only to find the door leading to the garage wide open. I ran through the garage [as fast as my post-baby legs can carry me] and discovered our first born happily frolicking and jumping in the puddles of our next door neighbor's freshly watered yard. Did I mention he was only wearing a red t-shirt, a saggy diaper, socks, and an oversized backwards baseball cap? Classy. If I wasn't so mortified in the moment, I would have run inside to grab my camera. The mental image of it still makes me laugh out loud. I did try to snap a photo when we got back inside [after he was scolded for going outside by himself], but couldn't get him to hold still long enough to do so. Go figure. Boys. What do I do with boys?!?

Da Boys

Here are some of the latest and greatest of our boys. I find my days to be so busy I often don't remember to get the camera out. This is my favorite one of all of my men. Brothers

Our house is loud, can you tell? Adam is still getting used to it as you can see from his expression.

Sweet sleeping baby...at least until his brother rudely awakens him. *sigh*

Adam has started smiling at us, which we love, of course. This is not his full smile, but the best one I've caught on camera so far.

Hello, blue eyes.

Month One in Life of Adam

And so it goes with a newborn...the days fly by and before you know it, you have a one month old! I'd love to tell you what has happened this last month, but alas, it is basically all a foggy blur to me. Sleep deprivation does not do good things to my memory or my functioning, but we're doing ok and actually got 4 hours in a row last night. I feel like a new woman...though I could still use a nap! Adam is a great baby. He's pretty content most of the time, and so far tolerates his brother's "love" fairly well. His one month stats: length - 22 inches (80%ile), weight - 10 pounds 8 ounces (70%ile). His eyes are soooo clear blue, that I wonder if they will stay that way. Here's our one month old babe. Check out the belly!

Other highlights from the last month:

Mommy trying to be a photographer (one week old)
Adam definitely has the old man disgruntled look down...even in his sleep!
Adam (2 days old) meeting his cousin Hannah having his first bottle with Daddy

Luke must hold him pretty much every day - "I want to hold it him Mommy" We've been trying to work on using "him" instead of "it", so now he usually just uses both.

Luke loves to help entertain Adam during tummy time. He asks about 100 times a day, "Adam tummy time now Mommy?"