Slide

Gibi moved Luke's little castle/slide/play thingie (that's the official name) into our family room yesterday and Luke is a sliding machine! Last month we had it out and he was terrified to go down it, but not anymore!

Disturbing

On Saturday evening I was browsing Forever21 online and came across this disturbing shirt - it's a white t-shirt with a black lace bra attached overtop for an "avant garde" look. I looked at it once, moved on, and then had to come back again later just to see if I had honestly looked at it correctly. ha! Anyway, I found it funny and amusing and thought I'd share it with ya'll! :)

'Dem Bones

I picked these adorable baby gap pjs up a while ago and have been itching to get Luke into them. The little bit of cool weather we had last week inspired me to go ahead and pull them out and let Luke start wearing them and boy am I glad I did - 1) I have no idea why pjs tend to run so small and he won't be able to wear them much beyond Halloween and 2) I really wanted to get a cute picture of him in them, but couldn't becasue he was moving WAY too fast :)

The uber-cute thing about them is that they glow in the dark... so whenever we put them on Luke goes and stands in the laundry room to see himself glow. :)

Big Help

Luke LOVES to help - and although most of the time it slows down the process, I can't help but love his enthusiasm!

Splish Splash

With all the rain we've had the last couple of weeks we were feeling a little housebound - so in between the rain showers (and sometimes during the lighter ones) we'd head outside to splish splash in the puddles. Luke is 100% boy - he loves to get wet and dirty and pick up all kinds of gross nasty wet stuff. (Please excuse his EXTREME case of bed head - he sleeps directly on his forehead- ha! HE had JUST woken up from his nap and to fend off the after-nap crabbies we went outside)

Here's a short look at what he did for several days...

Family Night

A couple of weeks ago we were able to enjoy a rare "family night". A night free of school, work and church obligations where we all arrived at home fairly early and realized that we had NOTHING planned for the evening! It was awesome :)

We packed up and headed to Yogurtville - pretty much becasue I think about their peppermint patty frozen yogurt about 17 hours a day :) After eating a ludicrous amount of frozen yogurt and an even more outrageous amount of toppings we decided to stop in at the MCA varsity volleyball game. We only stayed for a little while, but Luke enjoyed running around in the stands, waving at people and clapping when the fans cheered. When we left it was getting dark outside and Luke thought he was hot stuff walking to the car on the lit sidewalk:

Skinny Minnie

Over the past month or so, Luke has lost a lot of his baby belly and instead replaced it with the leaner figure of a toddler :( So sad!

What's almost as sad as the fact that my baby is getting more grown up with each passing day - is that my attempts to be frugal and prepared may have backfired on me... all of the sale fall pants that I've been picking up over the last few months in size 2 look like they're going to be too big this year! Who would have guessed that my pudgy little guy (who's pretty much always been a size ahead!) would slim out right before Fall.

I'm guessing that his current shape is alluding to the fact that he'll probably be built like his Daddy! Alas - the situation calls for shopping! hahaha

Shopping

Shopping is a lot different than it used to be - I used to be able to browse around a store, casually looking and trying things on - now it's more like a speed-event where I get in and get out as fast as I can... because when I have Mr. Man with me this is what can happen when I dawdle:

Shopping may not be nearly as easy as it used to be, but it's definitley more fun!

Visitor

Luke came to visit me at school this week and, as always, he LOVES coming and exploring my classroom. There's tons to look at, lots to touch and bunches of kids to talk to - perfect for him. He sat in one of my desks and Dave mentioned that it wouldn't be long before he was a student himself and I almost choked on my Diet coke - there's no way I even want to think about my baby being in real school any time soon... but he sure does look cute in a desk!

Various...

Here are a bunch of various pictures from the last week or so. I'm working on scrapbooking a bunch of pics and will post these later, but these were some that didn't really fit into a page :)

First of all - here's a pic of Kensington from our dinner with the Shulls and News a couple of weekends ago... how cute is that grin?!?!?! This was back on Labor Day - Luke thought it would be super fun to hang out in a basket for a while...

This was last week during the L.O.N.G. rainy spell we had - Luke and Daddy spent lots of time reading books in the big chair in the kitchen:

And last of all - we're finally TRYING to make the transition to sippy cups instead of the bottle. It's not that he refuses to take a bottle... he just doesn't drink as much out of the cup as he does the bottle. We're trying to be good about only doing the cup, but so far it's not going all that well: Plus - this is completely selfish, but when he takes a bottle he'll snuggle up with you on the couch for about 10 minutes while he drinks it and it's one of my favorite times of the day - but with the cup he'll take a couple of sips and then be right up to do a puzzle or read a book or play with a truck.

Fore!

I shared my impromptu family pics from a recent walk on the golf course a few days ago, but I forgot to share a couple of cute pics of Mr. Man that I was able to snap as well.

The golf course is one of Luke's favorite places to be - his daddy would like to think that it has something to do with some sort of inner golf talent just waiting to come out, but I think it has to do more with the wide open spaces and soft grass :) Either way, we always have a great time when we head out onto the golf course for an after-dinner walk ...

You'd think that after spending all day with Gibi some of her novelty would wear off... apparently not :)

Where has the time gone?!?!?

I've said this a million times, but I'm going to say it again - the past year and a half has absolutely FLOWN by! I realized this even more how quickly the time has gone when we got together with the Shulls and the News this weekend and Jaxson was crawling and Kensington was walking! It was crazy!

Here are our kiddos (plus Nathan) in March...
And here they are in May...

And here they were on Sunday!

Can you believe how much they've grown?!?!?!

(Please excuse Luke's wierd face - this was seriously the only picture out of about 12 where all three of them were actually in the chair)

I have absolutely LOVED getting to see our precious babies grow up and can't wait for them all to play together when they're older - so fun! :)

Addendum

This is an addendum to my post about the Little Gym - as I was going through my pictures last night, I took a closer look at this one and laughed for about 10 minutes :) This is when they blew the air mat up and told us that our kids would probably be scared to stand on it... ha! Luke is in the middle of a crazy bout of jumping and the mom across the mat is looking at him like he's crazy! (either that or she's afraid that he's going to crush her crawling son) Anyway, I thought her expression was too funny not to share:

I Heart Mod Podge

The longer I know Mod Podge, the deeper in love I fall with it :) hahaha

I've drooled over the mod-podged clipboards that you see on every other person's blog and it's taken me forever to get my act together with making one, but in a moment of creativness a few weeks ago I broke down, busted out my mod podge and scrapbook paper and went to town.

The back: Anyway, it was a super fun project and I really enjoyed making it - my club this year at school is "craft club" adn I think I'll take this project on with my 20 girls... we'll have to see.

Moo!

On Labor Day we headed over to Chick-Fil-A (along with every other person in McKinney!) sportin' our Texas Tech gear for their free chicken sandwich promotion. I'm not sure if getting a $2 sandwich for free was worth fighting the crowds (ha!), but it was fun nonetheless - and best of all we got to meet the Chick-Fil-A cow! :) This was Luke's first "mascot" experience and he handled it beautifully - I wasn't sure how he was going to take to the giant cow, but he was nothing but curious and desperate to give him a high five: Our next step will be to get his picture taken with MCA's Mustang Sally at a football game. :)

The Little Gym

Last Saturday morning we took Luke to our local Little Gym to try out a class. It took him about 3 seconds to warm up to the place and even before we could get into the gym he was making himself right at home - exploring everything and pushing the chairs around. Class started with "circle time" which he enjoyed from outside the circle running around :) He did enjoy running through the middle of the circle high-fiving the other babies and the bubble machine was enthralling as well. After circle time they blew up the air mat and although we were warned that most kids kind of "freaked out" the first couple of times they are on it, Luke (surprise! surprise!) pried his hand from mine and was running back and forth and jumping on it before it was even fully blown up. ha! After the airmat it was time to "explore" the equipment. Luke tried out everything and was the "teacher's pet" when she needed a kid to demonstrate a skill. After exploring the parallel bars, uneven bars, wedge mats and balance beam it was time to get out the balls.... and what put this whole experience over the top for Luke is that they store all of their bouncy balls in a TRASH CAN!!! We know that Luke loves him some trash can :)

The class ended with another round of the ceiling-mounted bubble machine and a couple of stamps on his hands and feet and overall I'd say it was a success.

Although he LOVED it, we've decided to wait to enroll him in their spring semester so that he'll qualify to be in an older age-group class (right now he's the oldest one in the class). I think that it would be more beneficial if he had older kids to look to as an example rather than babies who are still crawling to step on. hahaha

Impromptu Family Pics

Last Tuesday night (when it was actually semi-bearable outside and I thought that maybe, just maybe, the end of the ungodly heat was near) we stopped by Gibi's house and went for a walk on the golf course. I snapped a bunch of cute pics (which I'm in the process of scrapbooking), but my mom also took a couple of impromptu family pics. Both my boys were in desperate need of a haircut and if I had known I was going to be in a picture I would have probably worn something other than one of my bazillion MCA spirit shirts and giant grey cut off sweatpants. I probably also would have brushed my hair and had makeup on, - but oh well.

Check out that silly grin:

Since becomming a mom, I've found that I really don't care how I look in a picture (to a point, of course) - If Luke looks cute I'll gladly share the picture with the blog world! :)

Acceptance Speech

I'm drafting my acceptance speech for my "Mom of the Year Award" - here's what got me nominated...

Putting both of Luke's legs into one leg of his shorts - and then letting him walk around like that while I ran to get my camera :)
When I went in to check on him one night this is what I found...
I did remove the blanket from over his face, no worries.

Oh, and this video also had something to do with my nomination. hahaha

Yogurtville

So on Sunday my life changed for the better - we visited Yogurtville for the first time and I am hooked. I'm not one for mixing frozen yogurt flavors (I'm not really one for mixing any of my food), but the Peppermint Patty yogurt I had topped off with oreos, dark chocolate chips, butter finger pieces, chocolate covered raisins and other miscellaneous chocolate items was the best thing I've tasted for a while. We took Gibi and Grandpa with us and right before we got in the car I snapped this cute pic of Luke and his grandparents: Before we left I snapped a couple pics of Luke sitting at the table. He's been cracking us up lately with how fast his moods can change. One minute he's happy and giggly, and then something doesn't "suit his fancy" and he throws himself into full-on whiney mode... then about 3 seconds after that something distracts him and he's happy again. Oh, the life of a 17-month old :)

Subtle Hint

So I've decided to start dropping a few subtle hints around my house, letting mother nature know that anytime she's ready, she can go ahead and bring on the cool fall weather.

Feeling inspired by my super old and super bare grapevine wreath I picked up at a Trade Days about 3 years ago, mom and I packed up and headed to Hobby Lobby (sans Luke - can I just tell you how much I LOVED having a chance to browse! I mean, obviously I love having him with me, but there's something to be said for having the luxury of humming and hawing over ribbon colors and not just throwing something that looks okay into the basket because your child is scattering goldfish all over the floor of the store). I love everything "Fall" related and it took a good portion of my will power to not put one of everything into my cart, but after a "less is more" reminder from my mom I picked up a bunch of stuff for the wreath anyway :)

I couldn't wait to put it all together when I got home and I was uber-pleased with the result: If this doesn't inspire cooler weather, I'm not really sure what will!

Upon the completion of my wreath, I debated the practicality of putting out my Halloween decor in early September and after about 2 and a half seconds, dumped it all out on the counter.

This is my first year to decorate specifically for Halloween and my collection of decor is kind of limited, so I decided to keep it all on my kitchen bay window area (for now)

I had some cute black and white damask scrapbook paper (which I also used to make the jack-o-lantern face on the candle in the pic above), some leftover orange vellum and some fuzzy felt stickers and I put this little frame together: I'm not sure if I'm 100% in love, but it'll do for now.

The Halloween tree I picked up at Tuesday Morning last May (ha!) and I found the crows at the Dollar Tree and added them as well. The Haunted House is also a Tuesday Morning mega-clearance find and it had these really ugly vellum backs with the grim reaper and stuff on them so I ripped 'em off and replaced them with plain orange vellum scrapbook paper. Because I have it in the window the light shines through and it looks pretty cool.

Here's my mid-afternoon mess:
The updated mantle... fall leaves, a blessings sign and a couple of pumpkins:

I picked up this adorable "blessings" sign at 1001 Bargains and although it's kind of Thanksgivingey (okay, I'll stop denying it - it's a Thanksgiving decoration) I decided to go ahead and put it out:

I switched out some of the decor on my kitchen table tray to make it a little more festive as well:

So here's the deal with my Jesus tile... I collect Sid Dickens memory blocks and this one was part of MCA's auction last spring. I'm not a huge fan of the tile (I'm a fan of Jesus... just not having gratuitous pictures of him displayed on my kitchen table), but it was for a good cause and the colors work - plus it's Jesus... enough said. :)

Sideboard in the kitchen...

Kitchen sideboard again:

Anyway, I hope that not only is mother nature in a fall mood now, but that you are as well. Now at least when I come home from work all hot and sweaty and irritated (because it's nice to live super close to work, but it doesn't give your car nearly enough time to cool down after it's been sitting all day - UGH!) I'll at least feel like it's fall inside. :)

**Completely random sidenote** I just spellchecked this post before publishing it and I only had two spelling errors (other than Thanksgivingey)... I mispelt because TWICE! What's up with that?!?!?!

Friday Night Lights

Last Friday night was MCA's first home varsity football game and so Luke, Grandpa and I packed up and headed out to watch (well, first we went to McDonalds to eat ice cream and french fries and THEN we went to watch).

Here's Luke at McDonalds - I've mentioned before that he's nosey...
Luke and Grandpa playing with their food:
MCA has a football field, but we don't have stadium lights (yet) so this particular game was at the practice field at MHS. I pretty much followed Luke back and forth across the front of the bleachers for the better part of the first half. He'd stop to hold on to the chain link fence and jump, touch the trash cans or lick the bleachers - but other than that he was on the go the entire time.



After an exhausting couple of quarters, we went and sat with Grandpa in the bleachers where Luke was still for about a minute and a half while reading a book with Grandpa (I try to keep a board book in my purse at all times for situations such as this):

Luke WAS highly interested in what was going on on the field (and the sidelines, I mean come on, the cheerleaders had GOLD pom poms), but he was interested while running. ha!

We headed out after the first half and I think it took us about 25 minutes to walk to our car. The cheerleaders had lined the sidewalk with these little mustangs on sticks and Luke had to touch EVERY SINGLE ONE and then look up at Grandpa or I and say "dah!" before he'd move on to the next one:

I know that this one is dark, but I thought it was cute... Luke and Grandpa seemed to be playing some version of "follow the leader":

Luke is very into going under things right now and sometimes he gets the whole "ducking" concept...

But other times he'd rather crawl:

He was pretty proud of himself after going under the first time:

He decided to crawl under again, but this time he started about 4 feet too early and scraped up his knees: Playing follow the leader again with Grandpa:

Thank goodness that this week's game is away because I'm still wiped out from last week :) We'll definitley be making more appearances at other games this season - and maybe I'll get a picture of him actually watching the game. Unlikely - but maybe. :)