The birthday boy

It's hard for me to believe it, but Luke turned 3 yesterday! He's been so excited about his birthday and has been counting down the days. When he woke up yesterday, he was thrilled his birthday had finally come. We had a Thomas party in the afternoon, and lots of our friends came to help us celebrate. He had such a blast playing with all his friends, but his favorite part was, of course, opening the presents. It was a little chaotic as all the other children tried to help him open the presents, but we all survived and Luke got some fun new toys. His favorite present was the Diego Rescue Center. Gary & I gave him a big boy bike which he has already learned how to ride (he has obviously inherited Gary's athleticism and not my complete ungracefulness!) A friend from church made his completely awesome Thomas cake which was a huge hit. Even though it was 100 degrees yesterday, the day was better than I could have imagined!

Luke, the musical

Luke loves to sing. He loves it so much that he often makes up his own songs. The other night he was singing about his bath toys, and a couple of weeks ago he was singing the praises of chocolate (something along the lines of, "Chocolate is so good and chocolatey!") It's so funny to hear him making up these songs, but it's even funnier when he asks me to sing them when he's done. I'll tell him I don't know the song, and then he'll tell me he just taught it to me. I need to pay better attention! Wouldn't it be nice to have such joy in your life that you wanted to sing about everything?

Mr. Smarty

I think Luke is so smart! Ok, I know I'm completely biased because he is my child, but he constantly amazes me. A few days ago, he asked me to help him draw a "k" so he could write his name. I watched him write an "L", then helped him a bit with the "u", showed him a "k", and watched him write the "e". He did most of it himself, and even though he didn't quite get it all on one line, I think it's still pretty good considering he won't be 3 for a couple of weeks! I think that pretty soon he's going to be smarter than me so I'll have to get some kind of full-time tutor to help him out!

Remember the Alamo!

Before we left town Wednesday, we went to the Alamo. It's right in downtown San Antonio and was definitely worth the trip. The building is a little underwhelming when you first see it, but once you go inside you realize how big it actually is. A distant, distant cousin of Gary's, Micajah Autry, fought and died at the Alamo, and it was neat to make that connection.

Dinner with Shamu

The highlight of our Sea World adventure was Dinner with Shamu on Tuesday evening. Dinner was served behind the Shamu show arena by the training pool. After we ate, the trainers told us more information about the whales (which are actually the largest member of the dolphin family), and they brought them up close for everyone to see. It was so cool to see them that close!

Sea World

Our first order of business Monday morningwas going to see Shamu. Luke's been talking about Shamu for several weeks now and wondered why he wasn't at the hotel when we checked in. We hit Sea World bright and early Monday morning and had a blast. We fed the dolphins as soon as we got there - what at treat that was! They swim right up to the edge of the pool to eat the fish. You can even touch them if you're quick enough. We saw a dolphin & Beluga whale show next, and it was really neat. Luke like seeing all the acrobats jump into the pool from way up high.

Luke feeding the dolphins.

Feeding frenzy!

After the dolphin show, we went to the Shamu "Believe" show. That's where things went a little sour. We were sitting in the "splash zone", and boy did we ever get splashed! We were all soaked, and Luke freaked out! He started crying and said he wanted to leave. So we watched the rest of the show from up high where there was no danger of getting wet. Despite getting wet, the show was fun to watch.

The day was saved when we went to the children's area after lunch and rode rides (by "we", I of course mean Gary & Luke rode rides.)

San Antonio

Casa Rio restaurant on the riverwalk.

This week we took a little vacation to San Antonio. It's about a 5-hour drive from home, but Luke did really well in the car, thanks to lots of movies and our DVD player. We got to San Antonio Sunday afternoon and after buying enough clothes to last me a few days (since I left ALL my clothes at home), we took a walk on the riverwalk. The San Antonio river runs through the middle of downtown San Antonio, and there are shops, restaurants, and hotels on either side of the river. Luke really thought the river was neat and asked all week when we were going back. We ate dinner on the riverwalk Sunday and Monday nights and took a boat ride Tuesday night. San Antonio is a pretty city, and we all enjoyed our vacation.

One of the many bridges on the river.

Enjoying the breeze.

Our Tuesday night boat cruise.

Happy Birthday, America!

We had a grand ol' time yesterday! Thanks to G-Mommy, we were all decked out in flag t-shirts. Landon, one of Luke's friends, had a birthday swim party yesterday morning, and we swam and swam and swam. Luke's doing really well this summer in the pool, and swimming has been a favorite afternoon activity. After nap we had another pool party, and Luke & Gary swam some more. It was a little rainy, but it cleared up enough to get in the pool. All of us were tuckered out yesterday evening!

Luke & Landon's sister Chloe enjoyed "pushing" Gary in the pool.

Landon & Luke taking a well-deserved lunch break.

Dallas World Aquarium

We went to the Dallas World Aquarium on Monday. It's such a neat place! They have fish from all over the world, plus exhibits with other animals. Luke loved the penguins and the flamingos, but his favorite animal was the jaguar (I didn't get a picture of it.) Luke wasn't in a picture taking mood, so I'm just posting pictures of some of the animals.
The shark tank.

Love those Florida flamingos!

Silly boy

What can I say other than Luke is his father's child?

"Come on, let's have some fun . . .

. . . it's all about Jesus' love." Our church held Vacation Bible Camp the week before last, and this was one of the songs we sang every day. We had about 500 children in attendance, and it was a great week! Although we had a few glitches every day, overall everything ran smoothly and the kids had lots of fun and learned all about Jesus. The theme was "Fiesta!", and the entire church was decorated; the 2 women in charge of decorations did a fabulous job! Even though Luke was technically in the nursery, they still did a few activities related to the theme, and he had a really good time. Every day there was a message that was reinforced through all the activities, and anytime someone said the theme, ("Jesus is our friend", "Jesus is our leader", etc.), the kids all yelled "Viva!" and raised their arms in the air. Luke especially liked that part as well as learning the motions to all the songs. Here are few pictures from the week.

Luke and his friend Kaylee gettin' down to one of the songs.

What a crowd!

Say what?!?

Gary & Luke played outside for a while this evening, and when they came in, Gary told me that Luke cracked him up outside. Apparently he looked at Gary very seriously and said, "Help us help dogs find a loving home." As best as I can figure, he got this from some kind of advertisement on the Nick Jr. website. He won't say exactly what it's from, but he enjoys saying it and repeated it several times tonight. So, I beg you, hear my son's plea and, "Help us help dogs find a loving home."

The artist

Yesterday evening Luke & I were outside playing when he decided he wanted to draw with chalk. He did a little scribbling, and then he drew three circles on top of each other and called it a snowman. He then said he needed to give it eyes and a mouth, and sure enough, he did. I asked him to put hair on it, and his reply was, "Usually they don't have hair." He drew some anyway, and I think it's pretty good for an almost-3-year-old.


This is the head and hair of the snowman. It's hard to see the eyes and mouth, but they're there!











This, according to Luke, is our baby - note the lifelike qualities of the body and head. I hope it's not this big!










The sun.














A porcupine.

Great expectations

The two people who actually read my blog already know this, but it's exciting enough to post anyway. We're having a baby! Baby Chumley #2 is due to make his/her appearance Dec. 25. I figured there's not much else going on around that time of year, so why not have a baby?!? So, I have plenty of motivation to get my Christmas shopping done a little early this year. We've already had a sonogram, and we heard the heartbeat last week, and everything seems to be fine. We're not planning on finding out what it is (sorry, Ellen!), so our special Christmas present will be a surprise. Luke is going to be such a good big brother!

Potty progress

It's been a long time coming, but we're finally starting to make some real progress on the potty. For those of you who are somewhat squeamish or have never potty-trained a child, you might want to quit reading now. But since the two people who actually read my blog are both mothers, I think we'll all survive what's to come. On Monday we had nothing to do but go to the grocery store, so I finally decided to put Luke in big boy underwear for the day. He did so well! I set a timer and he sat on the potty and pee-peed every 30 minutes. I think he was as excited as I was that he was going on the potty so much (not to mention that he gets a Skittle every time he pee-pees.) That, however was just the beginning. Later in the afternoon, he told me he had to go potty, and lo and behold, he pooped on the potty! We made a big deal out of it, and he got to call just about everyone we know to tell them the good news. Tuesday went just as well. He stayed in his Thomas underwear all day and even slept in them for nap and woke up dry. He also told me he had to poop on the potty and did. Hallelujah! I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this, but I think we're finally on the track to being potty trained!

Woof, woof!

Whenever Luke does something he thinks is cute, he asks me to take his picture. This occasion was no exception.

Just like Daddy

Luke's favorite thing to do in the bathtub is "shave". He has a toy razor, and he loves to put shaving cream on his face and shave it off. The funny thing is that he shaves his whole face - forehead, nose, ears, mouth. He also likes to shave his legs, arms, and sometimes even his belly. It's pretty funny to watch. I'm sure he'll get the hang of it by the time he actually needs to shave!

I scream, you scream

This evening the ice cream truck came to our neighborhood, and when Luke heard it, he jumped up and shouted, "Hooray!" He picked out a Dora ice cream bar which had black gumball eyes (it was a little strange looking, but he didn't seem to mind.) Since it was 95 today, it wasn't long before the ice cream started to melt and Luke was a complete mess. Good thing it was bath night!

Sprinkelier

Luke's favorite afternoon activity is playing in his new "sprinkelier", as he calls it. The first day we played in it, he ran all around and got wet, but since then, he's just filled up his little watering can and poured it out. Until the pool opens every day, this will be our way to cool off in the hot afternoon.

Splash day

On Luke's last day of school, the children got to go outside in the afternoon and play in water. Luke was very hesitant at first (imagine that!), but he soon warmed up to a couple of the sprinklers. I got about as wet as Luke did, but since it was HOT, it was OK. We're both sad that school is over, but we have lots of great memories of his first year.