Camping

Luke has wanted to go camping for a long time. Gary told him as soon as it stayed warm at night they'd go camping in the back yard. Last night was finally the night! They pitched a tent and we even made s'mores (which, as strange as it may sound, Luke didn't like.) It was pretty warm in the tent, and it took Luke a while to settle down, but they both slept out there all night. Needless to say, I slept in my bed. I'm so glad my boys have a Daddy who likes to do those kinds of things because Mommy is very attached to indoor living!

The end

The last day of preschool!

Luke's new bike

Luke desperately needed a bigger bike, so we used preschool graduation as an excuse to get him one. We were originally going to get it for him for his birthday, but that's still 2 months away, and he had completely outgrown his other bike. He's still getting used to this one since it's a good bit bigger, but as you can see he's already riding like the wind.

The Graduate

That's right, folks, my baby graduated from preschool Tuesday night. I used to think preschool graduations were pretty silly . . . that was until I had a child who participated in one. The whole thing was very cute. They marched in to the graduation song, then they sang 4 songs. After that they walked across the stage one at a time, said what they wanted to be when they grow up, and got their "diploma". Very, very cute. There were some funny aspirations as to what they'll be when they grow up, too: the president, a mommy, a daddy, a grandma, a princess, a fireman, a baseball player, a transformer, Iron Man, a vet, a dentist.

How far Luke has come - he's not the child who chose not to wear the cap and gown! The Sunshine Kids class of 2008
Luke said he wants to be a superhero.
The Frog class
Our beloved Ms. Mary and Ms. Lori

517 days

In that amount of time Noah has mastered:

-screaming . . . for joy, frustration, or for the sheer pleasure of hearing himself scream.
-the sign for "more" (which actually means "eat" to him).
-the sign for "please" which he often combines with "more" for the very clever sign language sentence, "more, please"!
-saying "uh-oh", "mmmm" (as is "mmmm, these crackers are yummy!") and "hi-yah" (as in "hi-yah, I'm going to karate chop you!")
-climbing. Need I say more?
-blowing kisses (sound included).
-giving kisses, especially to Mommy.
-waving hi and bye at anyone and everyone.

He's a hoot and brings much joy (and complete and total exhaustion) into our lives. Happy 17 month birthday, baby boy!

Happy mother's day!

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children are a reward from him." Psalm 127:3

Mother's tea

Today Luke's class had a mother's tea for all the mommies. It was so special! We waited in the hall, and they came out one by one with a rose for us and led us in to sit down. They made sweet gifts for us: a flower pot that was painted and decorated with beads; a canvas tote bag with flowers made from their thumb prints; a small treasure box they painted and decorated with jewels. They also did another fill-in-the-blank story about us that was quite hilarious. To top it off, they sang a sweet song to us (Luke sang every word and did all the motions.) I was so thankful to my friend Adriane for watching Noah so I could enjoy my time with Luke.

Each kiddo drew a picture of us and we had to guess which one was us. I got it right! Aren't I beautiful?

May 9

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Nana! Happy birthday to you!" I hope you have a wonderful day. I wish we could be there to celebrate with you, but we're looking forward to seeing you in a month. I love you!

Yum!

Cold treats on a warm day.

A big day

I registered Luke for kindergarten today. It's so hard for me to believe that he'll be in kindergarten this fall, and I must admit that I'm a little anxious about it. I'm sure most parents feel this way, especially when they're sending their first child to school. I imagine him being at school all day . . . in a class with 20 other kids, walking down the hall to the cafeteria, buying a school lunch from time to time, getting a report card. Wow! He's so ready to go to kindergarten, and the more we talk about it, the more excited he gets. He was disappointed that we couldn't walk around his new school today, and he's already looking forward to making so many new friends. While we were in the office registering, two of his friends walked by on their way to lunch, and he thought it was so cool to see Tanner and Jake. It seems that the transition is going to be harder for me than for him (as it should be.) This afternoon he spent some time writing so he could practice for kindergarten. Anyone who knows Luke knows he likes to be prepared, so it's no surprise that he's already thinking ahead to the fall. Maybe if I start practicing now, too, I'll be ready in the fall to let him go.

Daredevil

The title of this post speaks for itself.

Splash day

I think we'll be doing this all summer!

Girlfriends

I rarely post anything that doesn't directly involve my boys, so I thought I'd share a little of the non-Mommy side of my life. My women's Bible study group is selling t-shirts to raise money to help furnish the new building at our church. I have no experience selling anything, so I had no expectations for how many t-shirts we would sell. So far we've sold over 80 shirts and have made $1000 for our church! I have to admit that they're really cute; turquoise & brown is such a popular color combination, and I think that's why so many have sold. I have to say a big "Thanks!" to my friend Sandra who took my sad little design and turned it into something this adorable.

I know that this idea as well as the implementation of the idea was God's doing because there's no way I could have done this on my own. I hope we have brought glory to him and that the donation of TV's/DVD players for two of the rooms in the new building will allow others to learn more about our gracious, loving God.

15 minutes with Noah

45 seconds - pull all puzzles and several books off the shelf
2 minutes - try to reach stuff on top of the bookshelves; realize standing on books makes it easier to reach more 15 seconds - turn on humidifier
2 minutes - put all diapers on top of changing table
10 minutes - see what's under the crib and play with whatever is found

Silly boys

Playing peek-a-boo through the blinds.

I'm not sure what Luke's fascination is with putting Webkinz in his jammies.

Time flies

Happy 16-month birthday to our little man! Here's a day in the life of Noah:

-Wake up happy as a lark around 7:30.
-Eat breakfast (the one meal he consistently eats.)
-Walk around the house and pull out anything that can be reached -Tupperware, DVD's, miscellaneous bathroom items (including the plunger), diapers, books . . . you get the idea. Say "eh, eh, eh" the entire time.
-Run various errands with Mommy and eat snacks/say "eh, eh, eh" the entire time. Wave at everyone.
-Come home and throw lunch on the floor because there's no more room in a tummy filled with snacks.
-Play for a while, lie on Mommy, beg for snacks at the pantry door, start to get really crabby but be forced to stay awake till Luke gets picked up from school. Say "EH, EH, EH!!!" the entire time.
-Finally take a nap for a couple of hours.
-Wake up happy as a lark some time around 4:00 and have -joy, joy, joy - another snack!
-Play outside if it's nice. Say "eh, eh, eh" the entire time.
-Eat some dinner, throw some on the floor, eat a little more dinner, throw a little more on the floor (I wonder why Molly weighs 80 pounds?!?)
-Play, play, play in the bath with brother.
-Play a little more, read a book, and hop into bed.

Life is good!

Wild weather

We had some crazy weather last week. It's not really crazy by Texas standards, but for those of us not used to growing up with tornado sirens, it's pretty crazy. Last week, strong storms with the capability of producing hail and tornadoes were supposed to move through late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning. You hear this kind of forecast all the time out here, so it's not that alarming . . . until it actually happens.

About 4:00 Thursday morning, I heard Noah's monitor beeping, and I realized the power was out. Five seconds later, Luke was in my room. I let him get in bed with me (Gary was, of course, not here), and we were amazed by the constant lightning outside. Not five minutes later, we heard the tornado siren. In retrospect, I realize I should have gotten Noah up and gone into Luke's bathroom (which is the interior most room in our house), but I just wasn't sure what to do. It's hard to make those kinds of decisions at 4:15 a.m. Luke was pretty scared; I was pretty scared, too. We stayed in bed and waited (I did a lot of praying, too.) Not long after the siren went off, the storm started to weaken and move out. By 5:00, it was all over, and, luckily, we never saw a tornado. The power stayed off till about 7:15 that morning which wasn't too bad considering thousands of people still didn't have power on Friday.

I read in the paper this weekend that there was a tornado in Allen which is only a few minutes south of us. Some of my friends did take cover when they heard the siren; others didn't which made me feel like less of a negligent mother for just lying in bed shaking. Next time I hear that siren, we'll be taking cover. Ah . . . spring time in Texas!

What Noah's been up to . . .

Walking his caterpillar . . .
playing a little X-Box . . .


and sitting on tables (yes, he got up there all by himself.)

Time with Mimi

My mom has been here for the past couple of days. Here are a few pictures from her visit.

The sidewalk artist


Noah loves wearing Luke's Crocs.

Farmer Joe
Feeding the fish and turtles
Just hangin' around!
Farmer Joe, again!

GOAL!!!

Two goals, actually. That's right, Luke scored two more goals in last Saturday's soccer game!

The Power Rangers - Coach Dan, Luke, Eric, Grant, Riley, Grayson, and Javier