Quack, Oink, Moo, Luke is Two!

Today was Luke's second birthday party, even though his real birthday isn't until next week. The weather was perfect and it was so much fun! Luke is very into farm animals right now and asks for his "farm tv" (Baby Einstein's Baby MacDonald) almost every day. In one swift move by super mom (with help from super dad) we transformed this place into Luke's own personal farm, well, as close as we could get it without going broke or springing for real animals. Heck, we didn't even spring for real hay. Anyway, I think everyone had a good time, I know Luke did.

At the beginning of the month, I whipped out these little invitations:

The barn doors opened to read "Oink, Oink, Moo Moo! Luke M*** is turning two. Join us in cowtown for the celebration!"

Just a few short weeks later it was party time. Our little man woke up ready to party today. Grandma Juli was here which made things extra special. Luke LOVES his Juli. When Juli is here, Luke's world IS Juli. Here he is getting in party mode early.

Mama made some pretty realistic decorations. Luke tried to sit on each animal--somehow though, none of the animals would have it. (Sadie made sure I knew that those animals weren't real.)

Cousin Zoe, whom Luke talks about almost every day, poses sweetly in her cowgirl hat. He says it "Zohhhh-Eeeeeeeee.

I was a little nervous about games. Last year we didn't do any games/activities, but this year I felt like we should. I was nervous about getting the kids interested, but I learned all you need is Sadie or Madie. Get one of those two going, and everyone wants to see whats going on. Make sure they are on your invite list if you need a hoppin' party. Sadie helped Luke and little bro Connor at the henhouse. Each nest was full of eggs and you had to find the eggs with your sticker on it. All the eggs had a prize inside, candy, stickers, super balls, etc. She was really good at finding the matching stickers, and her favorites were eggs that had candy inside.

Cousin Maya was riding this horse like she was in a rodeo! I see some barrell racing in her future.

One attempt at getting a family picture. Do you know how hard it is to get a two year old to stand still?

I truly believe that Luke's favorite element of any party is the food. The fact that our parties are generally buffet style, and almost always have chips, is like Disneyland to him. Not only did he eat the fruit and crackers out at the beginning, but once lunch was served, Luke & Maya split two plates. Then Luke proceeded to eat all the fruit dip off Juli's plate before just taking it away and polishing it off. I got him a second plate which he was hard into when I realized the party was nearing its end and we had yet to open presesnts or cut cake. I had to take his plate away to open presesnts. What other kid do you have to take the food away from to get them to open presents? If you remember from last year, this is pretty much the same food story.


Luke opened his presents slowly. As like Christmas, Luke takes the time to enjoy each gift as he opens. It was a little hard to take away his new toys and "force" him to open another one. He has really enjoyed getting to know his toys after the party.

Then it was time for cake. . .

MMMMMmmmmmm! Creative Memories Bakery provided us our delicious (and cute) cake!

We've been practicing singing the Happy Birthday song and blowing out candles so Luke thought it was great.

A second attempt at family photo.

Luke enjoying his cake.

Sadly, the party, and the all-you-can-eat buffet, had to end. Luke with his Great-Grandparents who had driven a long way to celebrate with us. It was wonderful to have them here.

Luke helped Aunt Kim get ready to leave. They tied on their cowboy hats together.

The party's never over until we have a silly picture of daddy.

Haha! I didn't make you suffer through any compare Luke now with Luke last year. But if you enjoy it, you can check out our birthday post from last year by clicking here.

Dallas Blooms!

We went to Dalls Blooms! at the Dallas Arboretum this week. It was so much fun! There was a petting zoo, lots of play houses, a teepee, and tons of space for the kids to run free in. Luke talked about the goats for the rest of the day. We had a picnic lunch and got to spend time with our friends. We also met little baby Quinn who slept almost the whole time. The flowers were beautiful. I'll never figure out how they keep that place so gorgeous despite the stampedes of children running through there. Thanks go to Cari who suggested we visit during Blooms. The weather was perfect!

Luke playing in one of the houses. He kept crawling up on the bed, wanting the covers, and saying "nite-nite." Then doing his pretend sleep for about 5 sec before popping up.

Our friend Ryan.

Our friend Kati.

These boys look like they are up to something. . .

Lunch Time!

Luke brushing a goat.

Chasing each other around.

Moments after this shot, Luke was stuck in that tree.

Our friends Kati and Amy.

Sweet angel children.

(psst. . .someone hold up the baby's head. . .) Ahh, much better.

Ty chasing bubbles.

Luke's new hat

One of Luke's favorite spots is to perch on the window sill. He eats there, he drinks there, sometimes just contemplates whatever it is two year olds contemplate. I love comparison shots, so here you go. . .

my baby sometime in his first year. .. .




my little man now. . . .

His toes reach the ground!!!!

I walked in on Luke the other day in his playroom to find him up on the table playing with his Little People barn. While I don't usually let him play on top of the table I thought it was cute enough to get a few snaps before helping him get down. After I uploaded the photos on to the computer Luke and I were browsing through them. When I came to the ten or so shots of him up on the table he said "uh-oh, no, no." Yeah, uh-oh! You got caught buddy!

At the end of February, Gene ran the Cowtown Half Marathon. Luke, Juli, and I were all ready to go downtown to cheer him on but, unfortunately, the weather prevented us from going. Freezing temperatures with strong wind gusts convinced us to stay home. We were all ready to cheer for Daddy when he came home. I made a big meal of pulled pork roast, fried potatoes, pasta salad, beans. We cooked and ate all day. Luke was real impressed with Daddy's medal. We had to go dig out a medal for Luke to wear. When Luke was a baby, he got a medal for doing the 1mi Turkey Trot in Fort Worth. It was just a little trinket stamped with a sponsor's logo for the kids. Funny though, the date on the medal is 2006. Must have been leftovers from the previous year. Apparently, Luke won a race in utero. What a champ. Here they are posing with their medals. Couldn't get the boys to smile at the same time, so I'll just post two pics--one with Daddy smiling, one with Luke smiling.

Luke LOVES going to school. He learns so much. Last week they learned about elephants. Luke made an elephant mask and is showing us how to use it.

He is also learning about sharing. This is Luke sharing his animal cookies with Mommy. He is walking them over the table to me.

We've started down the path to potty training around here. Luke is well aware of his potty and what it is for. He's not quite old enough to be focusing too much on it, but we talk about it and look at it and all the things that go with it. Pull-ups. Well, he hasn't figured out much what to think about them, but he loves doing the pull-up hokey-pokey. He puts his left leg in, he takes his left leg out, he puts his left leg in, he takes his left leg out. He puts his head in. HAT!!! Pull-ups are now referred to as hats by Luke. When he sees one, he shouts "HAT!!!" and puts it on his head. I think maybe his daddy put him up to this. I fear they will never make it to their appropriate destination.

This is the goldmine for blackmail. . .

Reporting live from inside the snot factory.

My house is a snot factory. Luke was snotty for about ten days, now Gene is trying to recover from it. I have spent all my money on kleenex and alcohol hand sanitizer. Boogers are imbedded in everything. Unfortunately, it has gone from bad to worse. Anyone who has ever met a toddler on antibiotics has seen the wrath it can do to their tummy. I'll spare details and just let you know Luke changes clothes an average of 3-4 times a day and has one of the worst diaper rashes he has ever had. Poor thing. Gene started his antibiotics today. I already told him he's going to have to manage his diaper rash on his own.

Just for fun, I wanted to include these pictures. . .

I just think this is a funny face at a funny angle and is, well, funny.

This is Luke and his boobie-dog at about six weeks old. . .

This is Luke and his boobie-dog today. Awww! So big. sniffle.

p.s. if a picture could talk, this is what my house sounds like these days.

Lost in thought. . .

I started this post a while ago. I loaded up all the pictures and walked away. Now I have no idea what I was planning on writing so I will just tell you about these photos and update on our lives of late. Luke is in full-fledged 2 year old behavior. While this is good in that he is improving in his independence and communication, it is also very trying as he pushes his limits every second of every day. We have been learning to choose our battles around here. This is a battle I chose not to fight. Painting with yogurt. Gross--yes, messy--yes, kept him busy while I ate my dinner--yes. I called a stop to it when the yogurt started to get thrown and we went straight to the bathtub.




We have been having lots of fun with our new camera. Luke has learned to say "cheese" and smile for the camera. This first photo is a little blurry but I thought it was a cut picture anyway. (oh, and don't look at my crazy, fuzzy, frizzy, hair.)




This is another "cheese" picture. We were also trying to show off Luke's new hair cut. He did soooo good at the salon this time. Sat happily to get his hair cut, but was so excited about all the fun around him that he was not too still. Those pro's at the kiddie salon worked around it though.







Luke has been put to work around here lately. His favorite chore seems to be swiffering. Just watch out for yourself if he's at work.

Luke just being his crazy self.

Thats all for now. We went for a checkup at the ENT clinic this week. Luke had fun in the waiting room and touched EVERY SINGLE TOY. I degermed him from elbow to fingertip about every five minutes. Sadly, we did not avoid picking something up and are now battling a super-slimy runny nose and a ugly cough. Happy kid, no fever, but messy. Please, oh, please, be better by Tuesday so you can go to school and mommy can go to yoga.

Big boys & Birthdays

A lot of changes have been going on around our house lately. The biggest one being in Luke's room. He is no longer in his crib! We have converted it into its toddler bed mode. It is very exciting for him. The change has been a big adjustment, mostly evident in the length of time it takes him to fall asleep. I think that he just gets so excited to be in his big boy bed that it is hard for him to fall asleep. He lays in there and plays for HOURS! Bedtime is 8:00 pm and sometimes he will play until almost 11! I am thankful that we are not fighting him to stay in bed. At first he didn't want us to leave the room, but we edged our way out and now he will stay in there alone without crying. I have had to use my scary mom voice a few times when the play started to get a little out of control.
He is really working his way into being a big 2 year old. Lately he has been so hyper. It's funny to watch him because sometimes he has so much energy he just literally stands in the living room and spins in circles until he falls. There have been days lately where he has just been pushing my buttons to see where it gets him. Grrrrr! Being so big though, comes with its privelages. Luke's been working on getting his driver's permit.


He's been practicing doing donuts in the driveway in his little tikes car. It is so funny to watch him. He LOVES that thing, LOVES it! Everytime we go to the garage he has to get in it and wave bye-bye. It doesn't matter if we are in a hurry or not. I have learned to just plan an extra five minutes to get out the door.







Like I said in my last post, I got a new camera for Christmas. We've been snapping a lot of photos but I hadn't figured out how to upload them until last night. Luke has been receiving most of the attention from the camera as we figure out how to use all its new functions. Along the way we have gotten a few good snaps here and there. These are some of my favorite:

Looking a lot like his daddy in this photo:

Not sure why I like this one so much. He just looks so hard at work with that Play-doh that I think its cute.

We've had some beautiful weather lately. The other day I sent all the boys outside to play so that I could mop the kitchen floor in peace. As I finished up I looked outside the window and saw this. I have no idea what was going on. Must be a boy thing. . .

Luke is talking up a storm these days. His list of words is nearing 25! He gets a new word every few days. He's getting very good at imitating words and sounds. Once he says a word spontaneously it goes on our word list. Our word today is "bear" after seeing bear on the Baby Einstein video. He doesn't have to many words for animals other than dog, but he has lots of animal sounds down. He can make sounds for cat, cow, duck, dog, lion, bear, dinosaur. His default sound is "grrrr" so any animal that might growl--Luke can imitate it. It's so exciting to hear him say real words. It feels like we've waited so long for this. He is also using sign language for "more", "thank-you," and "please." We helped throw a baby shower for one of our friends this past weekend. After cleaning up, Luke and Gene came to pick me up and Luke started showing off his sign language skills. The ladies were so impressed with him that Ashley fed him all her cake for politely using his signs for "more" and "thank-you." What a ladies man--talking a pregnant girl out of her cake!

Lastly, Uncle Mike came by to visit with us last week. Luke loves Uncle Mike. Here they are snuggling. Before he left, Luke talked Uncle Mike out of his hat. They had so much fun together. Luke was real impressed with Uncle Mikes big truck. He walked all around it, checking out the tires, all the toys in the bed. He got his little car out and parked it in between daddy's car and Uncle Mike's truck. He doesn't care much for mama's car. Whenever we are in a parking lot he is always trying to talk me into leaving in another car. He is constantly picking out big trucks and big SUV's. What a boy!

Oh, and the birthday part--Gene is now the big 32 yesterday, and today I am 29!

Better Posts to come. . .

I haven't posted in a while. I have been super busy this past week, but more importantly, I got a new camera for Christmas. I haven't had time to figure out how to upload my pictures on to my computer yet. It's on my to-do list for this week. Stay tuned. . .