Scary Santa

Luke was excited to go see Santa at the party at church this year.  Until it was time to get close to Santa that is...

Even the bribe of candy couldn't stop the tears.

Much to the crowd's entertainment, Luke was able to escape and run away.

But eventually he enjoyed his candy.

Trevor was a great Santa's helper, handing out candy to all the kids.

Jake had a serious talk with Santa.

Luke had a lot of fun with the balloon tree once Santa had left the building.

Unfortunately, Santa Claus is now known as SCARY SANTA around these parts! 

Daddy's Little Helper

Luke was quick to pull out his tools when he woke up to Don fixing the front door one morning.  He is such a little mimic, whether helping me cook in the kitchen, playing pirates with his siblings or fixing things with Don.  Luke always makes us laugh!

Gotta love those power tools!

Allergic

This boy is so sweet, even the mosquitoes love him.

 





Life with Luke

With everyone back in school, and me not babysitting other kids this year, this is the first time it's ever just been Luke and me during the day. 


"Me and my Mom"

It has been a lot of fun, seeing Luke's personality and vocabulary expand during the last few weeks that we have been on our own.  We have developed a routine after carpool drop-off that includes exercising and playing at the Y (with the highlight every morning being getting a sticker and a friendly five from the sweet elderly greeter, Mr. Marvin), running errands, going to the library and storytime, playgroups, and doing lots at home. 

Luke is my helper and everytime he hears me in the kitchen, he pulls up a chair to help. It is fun to play with him and watch his imagination at work, he has definitely been influenced by his older siblings but will put his own spin on things when he is in charge.  We've even done things like paint together.  I laughed when I saw this picture with his tongue sticking out when he was painting.  Trevor has always done the same thing with his tongue when he concentrating on something too.

Concentrating hard

These pictures were after taken after Luke had helped make banana bread.  I was putting the bread in the oven and turned around to see him cleaning the bowl for me.  He managed to get the batter all over his head and shirt, which is what happens when you stick your whole head in the bowl to do the licking :)

Painting a masterpiece

But not to worry, he also apparently knows how to get clean in very resourceful ways, like getting a chair, climbing into the kitchen sink and turning on the water while I am in the other room changing the laundry.  He is definitely a busy 2 year old!

Washing Up

But Luke's favorite time of day would be when it is time to go pick up people from school.  He loves his older brothers and sister and can't wait for them to get home to play, read, or just chill with him.  And they all seem to love their Luke time just as much!

Trevor reading Luke books

Just chilling out together afterschool

Brotherly Love

Movie time, and Trevor and Luke were just hanging out with each other.  I walked by and saw them snuggled up, and wanted to capture the moment.  

Love it.



Luke's New Look

Before

During

After

The Popsicle Bribe

Who are YOU?

This is Luke's new favorite video to watch on the computer.  He likes to play it over and over, so much that Trevor and Hayley said we should just put it on the blog for easier access :)

Enjoy!

Random April Pictures

Just a couple other random events from April....

Michael is always on the run and is hard to get a picture of.  But thanks to me working with the youth program at church now, I get to see him in action a little more often (something I am sure he just loves sometimes!).  He was able to do a couple of really cool things in April, including having fun at a Hawaiian themed dance and visiting Merrill Lynch downtown one evening.  The view was amazing!

Michael and friends at a Hawaiian Luau Dance in Sugar Land



Checking out the view from the 74th floor of the Chase Building

Trevor had his 2nd UIL tournament for the year, this time at Davis High School.  Grammy and Grandaddy came back to her old high school stomping grounds and were able to go on a tour before the awards ceremony where Trevor medaled in Social Studies, one of the 3 events he was busy with that day.

Trevor with Grandaddy and Grammy at the UIL Awards

On a Friday a couple of weeks ago, the kids at the elementary school had a gigantic lemonade sale, hosted by the lower grades, to raise money to send to Japan for the relief effort from the recent natural disasters there.  Our school is a magnet for foreign language and cultures and Japanese is one of the four languages that the kids can learn, so it was important for the kids to get involved and help out one of our "sister" countries that they know so much about.  For about an hour, the kids had a fantastic time buying and tasting lots of different types of lemonade from the 8-10 booths of the different primary grades.  Music was blaring and the weather was perfect.  Who says you can't drink lemonade at 9 am?  The kids had a blast and the school raised over $1600 to give to the Red Cross for Japan.  Luke and I had fun checking it all out and tasting a couple unique varieties of lemonade.

 

 


With all these fun activities that are always going on, Luke has some big shoes to fill to keep up with everyone...and on this particular day, the shoes he found he liked the best were Don's!

Luke having fun in Don's shoes

Dying Eggs...and Fingers too

This was Luke's first real year dying Easter Eggs and he really got into it.  Let's just say he did more than his alloted eggs, he was so excited. 

 

The finished products

 Most of the times Luke just used his fingers, turning his hands a great shade of blue by the time we were done.






For a kid who doesn't talk a lot, Luke sure did let us how he wanted his eggs!

Luke's Birthday Celebration

Luke is 2 years old!  Poor kid was spotted with hives on his birthday week-end but he didn't let that slow him down any.  Saturday was insane and there was literally only one 10 minute period between the hours of 6 am and 11:30 pm when all 7 of us were home together.  So we celebrated on Sunday instead.  He started of the morning with a splash, dunking donuts in milk just like his big brother Jake.  He was pretty excited about this fun new twist to breakfast.

 



One of the only shows Luke watches on TV is Disney's Phineas and Ferb (definitely the funniest cartoon on TV, the boy has great taste!).  He loves it, especially Perry the Pet Platypus, who also happens to be a secret agent.  So it was an Agent P kind of birthday for Luke. 






Giving Agent P some of that
famous Luke Lovin'



Not letting Perry out of his sight

Luke got great gifts from his grandparents, a fun train and this Noah's Ark Little People set.  For Christmas Luke had gotten a Little People Santa Claus who looks suspiciously like Noah, as Luke exclaimed "HO HO HO!!", excitedly pointing at Noah.  It was so funny, especially since none of the rest of us had noticed the similarities.  That is one smart 2 year old!

Is it Noah or Santa?

Hayley even made him a Phineas and Ferb coloring book with coloring pages she taped into a blank notebook.  Luke has loved it and it was the perfect gift to open right before church.  He had a great time, sitting still, smiling big and coloring the whole time.  It was great!

Luke and his coloring book



Showing his skills

Another thing Luke loves are bubbles, so he finally got his own no-spill bubbles.  He had a blast with Hayley and Jake, blowing/eating bubbles. 

 


So we had to try to make a Perry the Platypus cake. After a failed Perry/Twinkies experience, I finally used his Agent P action figure, popping out of the ground/cake,like he does in the show when he is secret agent mode (as opposed to pet platypus mode!).


 

Agent P!

Luke was memorized by the cake, just jabbering, smiling and pointing.  And apparently, redecorating as well, adding the sister Candace to the top of the cake.  It works!

So Excited - cake, Perry the Platypus and Ice Cream!

Happy Birthday Luke!

Our 2 Year Old!

On April 16, 2009 our family changed forever.



It's hard to believe our sweet baby Luke is already 2. 

Luke is such a fun, calm, easygoing kid. 

Luke can always bring a smile to all of our faces with his goofy antics.  Last week I had put him down for a nap.  A few minutes later I walked into the front room and he was curled up on the couch, eyes squinted shut (faking sleep!) and clutching the remote to the off tv in his hand. When I walked up closer to him, he started to giggle, but still kept his eyes shut, with the death grip on the remote. 

Sleeping Luke?

Nice Remote!

He was being so funny, I just laughed and threw a blanket over him...which resulted in a game of peekaboo.  He charmed his way out of a nap that day!

                            

He gets away with things nobody else can, just because he is Luke!



Sporting Hayley's glasses




Michael and Luke listening to Michael's Ipod on a road trip



He talks like a Wookie, mainly grunting and pointing, but definitely lets you know what he wants, and will make sure you understand, grabbing your hand and pulling you.

Luke is my # 1 kitchen helper.  He loves to help cook and do the dishes.  Right now his favorite thing is to scramble the eggs for me.  Anytime he sees me with a carton of eggs, he runs and gets out a fork, runs back to the table & babbles insistantly until I crack the eggs and place the bowl in front of him to scramble.  He does an "eggs-elent" job of course!

Scrambling the eggs

Drying the dishes

Luke's sweet hugs are a huge hit around here and you often have to wait in line to get some of that lucky Luke lovin'!

Snuggling with Jake

Snuggling with Hayley

We all love hanging out with Luke!



Luke and Trevor

 





But there are a few things that have already started happening to let us know that Luke  is already getting good at being 2.

It's gonna be a fun year!