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.