5

Luke turned five yesterday. I know every parent must feel this way, but I just can't believe he's 5! Where has the time gone? Aahhhh, the yearly picture! I remembered at about 8:30 last night that I hadn't taken his picture, so I had to do it in his "pj's" (i.e., his underwear.) You gotta love a little boy in tighty-whities!

Hooray! A Wii! Gary and I are pretty excited to have one, too.
Star Wars guys from Aunt Cari, Uncle Cam, Hannah, Benjamin, & Ethan
We went to McDonald's for lunch and got a tour of the kitchen. The kids got ice cream after the tour.

Dinner at Macaroni GrillLuke wasn't sure what to think about being serenaded with the Italian version of "Happy Birthday".

Another cake and yet another rendition of "Happy Birthday".

Playing the Wii!!

Happy Birthday, my sweet boy!

Testing

I got a new camera today! My old one was on its last legs. In order to take more than one picture, you had to take a picture, turn the camera off, turn it back on, and take another picture. Not exactly convenient. So, I did a little research and got a Canon PowerShot ELPH. It's so tiny! It has lots of settings I'll probably never use, and even though reading instruction manuals isn't my strong suit, I'm going to try to learn how to use it. I took a few pictures of one of my favorite models a little while ago.

I took this picture using the Macro setting which allows you to get extreme closeups. You gotta love a boy with that many freckles!

More beach pictures

We played putt-putt while we were at the beach; this was Luke's first time playing. I know it may seem strange that Luke has never played putt-putt before, but there are two very good reasons. 1) There are no putt-putt courses near us. 2) Noah.
Alex, our resident golf pro.
The boys hard at work on another sand castle.
I buried Luke in a big ol' hole. He thought it was hilarious (I did, too!)
Overall the trip was really fun. The weather was great, the hotel had a fun water park and a couple of pools, and our good friends were with us. It sure is nice to be home, though!

Vacation pictures

We just got back from our annual summer trek to South Carolina. We stayed with Gary's parents for a few days before heading down to the beach.

G-Mommy, Katie, Brittany, Lauren, G-Daddy

Grayson, Luke, & Noah

On Tuesday we left for Myrtle Beach. We usually go to Edisto, but this year our friends the Nelsons came with us, and we thought Myrtle would be fun for the kids. Luke & Ben had a great time playing with each other. They spent hours working on sand castles every day.

Noah had fun playing on the beach, but his two favorite activities were . . .

. . . eating and . . .

throwing away trash.
Wednesday we ate at The Sea Captain's House. Luke's favorite part was climbing on the rocks behind the restaurant.

Our family pictures on the beach didn't turn out very well (thanks mostly to my camera which is dying), but this one of Gary & me is pretty good.

Welcome, Baby Lane!

My friend Heather had her second baby this morning, and I am lucky enough to be in Columbia to meet him! He arrived at 7:25, weighed 7 lbs., 14 oz., and was 20 inches long. Mother and baby are doing just fine; actually, mother's doing great now that she's no longer pregnant! She was due last Friday and was really, really ready for him to come on out. Happy birthday, Lane!

Buddies

Recently Noah has been sitting on Luke's lap when they're playing. Luke thinks it's great since Noah usually doesn't want to be all that close to him. Today, as you can see, it went from sitting on Luke to lying on Luke.

Happy 4th of July!

My boys!

More VBC pictures

My BFF
My friend Sandra made this adorable decoration. She used all the names of the kids in the nursery during VBC to make a "Periodic Table of the Deliveries". It was so cute!

BIG FISH

My friend Adriane and I started a new VBC program for rising 5th & 6th graders this year. I have never had so much fun during the week of VBC as I had this past week! Most of the kids had a really good time, too, and we got many positive comments from our adult volunteers.The week's Bible points were:

-Jesus gives us the power to be thankful.

-Jesus gives us the power to help others.

-Jesus gives us the power to be brave.

-Jesus gives us the power to live forever.

-Jesus gives us the power to tell others about God.

On Monday each crew had to walk across the floor stepping only on paper plates. Each time they took a step, they had to say someone or something they were thankful for.

The BIG FISH made 40 blankets to donate to an organization called Project Linus.

The BIG FISH tested their bravery by running through a course while trying to avoid being hit with splash balls.

These are the items we collected so we could put together care packages for soldiers stationed overseas. We did some fun activities on Friday. This is donut-on-a-string - it's pretty self-explanatory.

One of our living sculptures.
Our final activity was an obstacle course. Each BIG FISH had a limitation assigned to them - they couldn't use their arms, their legs, their mouth, or their eyes. They had to help each other through the course, after putting on a bag of clothes (including a wig and a boa - it was pretty funny.)

Stringbean

Noah had his 18-month check-up today. Here are his stats:

-weight: 23 lbs., 6 oz - 15% (that's a jump from 7% at his year check-up)
-length: 33 1/2 inches - 85% (he has grown 5 inches in the past 6 months!)
-his little peanut head is still spot-on average

He DID NOT enjoy this visit to the doctor, and he screamed through the entire exam. The anger and indignation faded quickly, however; he was completely calm two minutes after we walked out of the room. He is built like me, and from what I understand, he acts like I did at this age. Aahhhh, the circle of life.

A wing and a prayer

For the past few months, this pink flamingo has been making his way among my and two of my neighbors' houses. He'll show up for birthday parties, or just because he needs to get some fresh air. Saturday morning he planted himself in our yard. The paper taped to him is a boarding pass for Barney Rubble - obviously Barney had a few too many the night before. Although no one has actually 'fessed up, I believe we have our Canadian neighbors across the street to thank for this yard art. Ahhh, foreigners can be so funny!

Bath boys

There's nothing better than the smell of clean babes!

Our trip to Greenville

We had a really good time in South Carolina. I haven't seen my sister and her kids in a year, and I couldn't believe how big they had gotten. My niece Hannah is almost as tall as I am, and she's beautiful. Luke had a great time playing with his cousins Ben and Ethan and even spent the night at Cari's house twice. We also celebrated my mom's birthday.

The luau princess
Hanging out with Aunt Cari
Four generations gathered to celebrate Mimi's birthday
The Wii is so much fun!!
Ahhhh . . . the joys of boys!

Word up!

While we were in Greenville last week, Noah's vocabulary tripled! When we left he was saying "Daddy" (very fitting that he said this for the first time right before Father's Day!) Now he also says "cracker", "cookie", and "thank you". He said "Mommy" once, but he won't say it again. I think he can say a lot more than he does; he's just making us wait for new words. I'm just so glad to know he can say actual words, not just "uh-oh" and "hi-yah".

Today

Noah is 18 months old today, and it's also the 5-year anniversary of the day we closed on our house in Texas. I can't believe it's been 5 years since we moved out here. I never thought I'd love living out here as much as I do. It's such a wonderful place to raise a family. If only we could pick Texas up and move it closer to South Carolina!

Traveling

The boys and I are headed to South Carolina tomorrow to visit my family. As of an hour ago, Luke was running a 102.4 temp - just in time to get on a plane and infect everyone else! Hopefully it's just a 24-hour bug and he'll be better tomorrow. Think of us tomorrow at 1:20 when I'm on the plane by myself with both boys!

And I ran

Noah had a little Flock of Seagulls going on yesterday after swimming.

What a card!

Noah has personality to spare! He waves "hi" to everyone - people in Kroger or Wal-Mart, cars that drive down our street, people walking their dogs. He also waves "bye-bye" and loves to blow kisses. His kiss sound used to be "mmm-aaah", but now it's a full-on kiss noise. He also loves to give kisses (complete with the "mmm-aaah" sound.) He likes to high-five, and recently Gary taught him to bump fists (commonly referred to by those in the know as giving "dap".) Once he starts giving dap or high-fives, he wants to include anyone close by.

When left to his own devices, you never know what you might discover . . . a bib and a book in the trashcan; a room redecorated with books, puzzles, and every diaper from his changing table; a TV remote that's lost for the better part of a day; the contents of a wallet scattered all over. He is a typical rambunctious, into-everything 17-month-old!

Snug as a bug in a rug

Notice he made sure these guys were covered with a blankie.
The cardinal must be keeping watch through the night.