Chores

The boys sure love  helping Bampa do the chores out at the ranch.  Luke mostly enjoys running around and supervising (for now).  Tyke enjoys feeding the cows and helping move the water.  What they really love though is the trip to the gas station afterwards for an ice cream sandwich!  These boys are so spoiled in more ways than one!  They get to spend time with Bampa, they get yummy treats, and they're learning valuable life lessons from the men we love most (Grandpa Terry, Great Grandpa Wally, and Daddy!).  I don't know how life could be any better!

Nose On The Wall...

We have tried a lot of different things in the past for discipline with Tyke.  Last summer while in Oregon we learned the neat "nose on the wall" trick from Aunt Jo.  It has been a great little trick for us all in our home.  If Tyke gets in trouble he gets a three minute time out standing with his nose to the wall.  After his time is up we have a little talk about what he did wrong and how to make it right and to try really hard not to do it again.  He HATES time out but cooperates well and it really has been a good thing.

We have been working on potty training for a few months now (he gets it he just doesn't want to cooperate 70% of the time).  We have him using pull-ups and for the most part he does a pretty good job.  He changes his own pull-ups when needed (which has been both nice and frustrating because it gets wasteful!).  He's funny about going #2 anywhere other than our home and Bowdee's home.  He likes to pee outside when he can (he's such a boy) but in the house he tends to forget and pees in his pull-ups if we don't remind him to go.  Well today I asked him to go potty and he did after a small argument.  He can get his pants down but he can't pull them all the way back up so he walks around with them around his ankles until he finds help.  After peeing in the potty and coming out for help with his pants I asked if his pull-up was still dry.  He said it was but it wasn't.  And so he got a three minute time out for lying (and peeing his pants).  He went straight to his spot on the wall and stuck his nose to it.  Luke walked up to him and looked at him, turned around and looked at me confused, looked back at Tyke and I swear he shrugged his shoulders and stuck his nose to the wall too!  It was the cutest thing ever and I couldn't help but laugh!  Luke only lasted a few seconds before getting bored with time out and left.  I imagine in the near future these boys might be spending more time together in time out with all of the mischievous things they'll be doing.  It's only a matter of time!

Another Shiner

(The two pics on the left are from yesterday, the pic on the right is from this morning)

This kid is going to give us a run for our money!  Around 4:00 p.m. yesterday Grandma Cheryl called me at work and asked if I could come and get Luke.  He had fallen on the handle of a wooden rocking horse and landed right on his left eye.  I was thinking he had split his eye open and that we'd be going to the instacare for stitches.  Luckily when we arrived to get him it was only a very swollen, watery, bruised eye.  He had a small scratch/bruise on his nose and the inside of his eye.  His eye was tender to touch and watered like crazy.  The white of his eye was very pink and the pupil of his eye had a scratch across it.  I text my cousin Shayla to see if she thought he needed to be seen by an eye doctor (she works for one) and after lots of discussion and watching Luke throughout the rest of the day we decided he was probably okay to not be seen.  The swelling by this morning had gone way down and I couldn't find the scratch that I had seen yesterday.  I'm so glad!  Even the bruising doesn't seem like it will be much.  Needless to say the wooden rocking horse at grandma's house has been put away indefinitely thanks to the Lu!

Best Helpers

Our boys are going to be good, strong, hard workers when they grow up!  They love to help out no matter what the job is.  The more manly the better.  Tyke has been in heaven helping his Daddy with the new shop addition.  He gathers his own tools (a hammer, a saw, etc), puts his cute little leather gloves on and gets right to work measuring and hammering.  He's fearless when it comes to climbing the latter (he didn't listen too well when we told him to stay down!).

Luke has figured out how to get the step stool out and pushes it over to the sink to play in the water.  He's too handy!  He thinks he's washing dishes but really he's just splashing water all over.  He even tries to eat the scrub brush, ew!

We love our big helpers and enjoy watching them learn and grow and help out around the house!  We can't wait to see what's next on their little agendas.  Tyke & Luke are the best helpers around!

Batucky!

Daddy spent this past week in Kentucky at the Kentucky Rocky Mountain ATV warehouse.  He helped get a few things set up and a few problems fixed.  He said it was great scenery in Kentucky but he missed home, especially the boys!  The boys (and me!) missed him too!  It was a long week of answering the question "where's Daddy?!"  Luckily we were able to facetime every night.  The boys loved seeing and talking to their Daddy.  Tyke reminded his Daddy every night to bring them a surprise, aka a blue t-rex dinosaur.  During their conversations Tyke would ask multiple times, "Dad! Where are you are we at?!" (Where are you?) to which Daddy would reply that he was in Kentucky.  We tried and tried to get Tyke to pronounce it right but it just kept coming out "Batucky"  Tonight our Daddy finally made it home with surprises in store!  He found a blue t-rex (what are the odds?!) and Tyke was extremely happy!  He named him Batucky and just loves him!  Luke was super excited to see his Daddy and gave him a great big wet kiss on the cheek as soon Dad picked him up.  For the record, Luke hasn't really given any kisses at all in months so I was super jealous of this!  We're so glad that Daddy is back home!  We missed him a lot!!

Daddy's Birthday

Happy Birthday to our favorite Daddy!  We love you so much and hope you have the best day ever!!

No More High Chairs Here

So this kid has decided that it's so much fun to climb up and into his high chair.  The first time he did it was when I told him to run and get in his chair.  He would always run to his chair and wait for someone to put him but not this time.  He actually climbed on in and was proud as can be!  We were shocked and impressed.  The next day however, he climbed into his highchair again, without supervision, and that's when we decided it was time get rid of the highchair once and for all.  It's bittersweet for me.  I'll be glad to have it gone and out of our house and to have the extra space and maybe not so many messes from Luke tossing his food on the floor (yeah right) but it's also sad for me because it's the end of yet another stage in our family and our growing boys.  So bittersweet indeed!  Anyway, we have a little booster seat high chair thing that we dug out and hooked onto one of the table chairs so Luke can now dine with us at the table.  He was super happy about it but I'm not so sure.  He thinks he's so big now (bigger than he already did) and keeps trying to stand up in his new chair (there are unfortunately no straps to tie him in).  Oh Bubba, what are we going to do with you wild boy?

18 Months Old

Today is Luke's half birthday!  Today our boy turns 1 1/2 year old!  It's so crazy to think that he's "so old" but at the same time it feels like he should be older.  I know I've said it before but he seriously keeps getting more and more fun.

Luke's personality is getting so big and fun.  This kiddo is a complete goofball and loves to make others laugh.  He gets the giggles a lot lately and it's one of my most favorite sounds.  He and Tyke feed off of each other and once they start giggling they have a hard time stopping.  Of course, they usually giggle the best when they're doing something naughty...like throwing food on the floor, slapping, tossing toys, etc.  Luke is definitely mischievous!

Luke is still completely drawn to bathrooms if we leave the doors open.  There's just something about them that we can't figure out.  He doesn't get into too much trouble with them at our house but at Grandma Cheryl's house he does.  He has now ruined three toothbrushes there by scrubbing the toilet with them.  He loves to play in the toilet at her house and simply closing the door isn't enough to keep him out.  Grandma Cheryl has to lock the door and close it otherwise he sneaks in and gets into trouble.  He's also thrown an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet for her too.  Troub-a-Lu!

Louie LOVES playing outside!  He is in such a better mood if he can spend some time outside.

Luke's vocabulary hasn't advanced much.  He understands words and knows what we're saying but refuses to repeat us.  He follows simple instructions and is starting to like helping around the house.  He likes to bring us small items we ask for.  He likes to throw dirty dishes in the sink.  He runs to his high chair when we say it's time to eat.  He likes to run to the bath tub after meal time and check the water temperature constantly.  Luke can say:

• Ty (Tyke)
• Li (light)
• Mil (milk)
• Buh (bum)
• What?!
• Dad!
• Mom!
• and once, he said "Grandpa" plain as day when he saw Bampa Terry!  It shocked both Chad and I.  He said it so perfectly you would have thought an adult had said it.

Luke has started pointing and grunting at things he wants.  He will sometimes get mad and cry and if we ask him what he wants/needs he will run to the pantry and open it up and point at his treat bucket.  He usually needs one of three things: apple sauce pouch, mandarin oranges or potato chips. 

Bedtime with this kid is a bit hard lately.  He loves the freedom of a toddler bed but I don't.  I have to sit guard by him until he falls asleep.  When he thinks I'm not "watching" he will slowly slide of his bed and stand up to run away.  I'll tell him to get back in his bed and he will dive right back on and giggle.  It's about an hour long battle every night and it's exhausting.  He goes to bed with a bottle of milk every night.  Sometimes he needs two before he can comfortably fall asleep.  He's a little piggy sometimes.  On the nights that he has two bottles before bed he sleeps the entire night but for the most part Lu is still waking up once a night, sometimes twice.  He usually wakes around 1:30 a.m. and has to have a bottle before calming down and going back to sleep.  Someday he might sleep through the night, someday... 

Luke isn't a major fan of any of the toys in our house really.  He plays well with them all but doesn't seem to have a favorite or a real interest in anything.  He likes to play with the elefun quite a bit and he walks around a lot with a screw, from the play work bench, in his mouth blowing on it to make a whistling noise.  Other than that he just likes to run around with his binky and blanket.  We're slowly trying to phase out the binky but it's such a lifesaver for us that we don't want to be rid of it too quickly.  We all rely on those darn binkies more than we should and I'm sure that his near constant use of the bink is part of the reason he doesn't say more words than he does. 

Our big boy is phasing into size 24 month/2t clothing.  He still fits into a few of his 12-18 month jeans but not for much longer.  He wears 24 month/2t shirts.  He's not a huge fan of long sleeved shirts, at least I don't think he is.  Every time we put one on him he starts tugging at the sleeves and usually gets one arm out before taking off.  Luke is in size 5 diapers with plenty of room to grow.  We are using Kirkland brand diapers on him now because Huggies leaked big time for some reason.  Luke is in a size 7 shoe but is getting close to needing an 8.  He weighs 29 pounds even.  He's solid as can be and it's starting to get awkward to hold him in certain positions.  My baby is growing right up!  Luke doesn't have any new teeth to report.  He still only has twelve teeth with no sign of new ones coming in.  He's still a great eater and eats most everything we offer to him.  He's starting to dislike grilled cheese sandwiches.  I think it's because he needs meat and flavor unlike his brother.  Luke loves fruit, sharp cheddar cheese (LOVES it!), salsa(!), chicken, ruffle potato chips, sausage, fruit snacks, juice, plain milk (he's not a huge fan of chocolate milk.  He is Tyke's exact opposite in nearly every way!).

We love our Bubba-Lu so much and can't believe that he's a year and a half old already!  He brings so much joy to our family and I can't help but smile just thinking of him and his cute, sassy, stubborn, bubbly personality.  Happy half birthday buddy!

Boise Getaway

Grandma Cheryl, Aunt Steph, Aunt Tiffy, Aunt Jo and us decided we needed a little "girls" weekend because it had been too long since the cousins and all of us had gotten together.  Boise is the halfway point between us and Aunt Jo so we planned a little weekend getaway to shop, play, eat and have fun.  Boy did we ever have fun!  

We all left early Friday morning and met up in Boise at the Black Bear Diner within minutes of each other.  It was great timing and to be honest, the road trip really wasn't too bad.  We got seated in a private room (the manager must have noticed we were a rowdy bunch) and we all had a good time visiting and catching up.  The kids LOVED being together once again!  After lunch we went and found our hotel, the Hyatt, and got settled in before going out to do some shopping!  We got lucky and ended up with adjoining rooms which was so much fun for all of us!  We shopped for a while before deciding we were all exhausted from our long day.  We headed back to the rooms and ordered pizza and had ourselves a little pizza party for dinner.  After dinner we got ready to go swimming.  Tyke did not want to go at all so I figured we wouldn't swim.  I got Luke ready for bed and then Tyke, seeing Bowdee in his swim shorts, begged to go swimming.  So, we went.  He was super excited until we got to the water and then he freaked out.  The pool was COLD!  I managed to get him in the water but the entire time we were in he couldn't/wouldn't relax and had a death grip around my neck.  He was happiest sitting on the edge of the pool splashing the water with his feet.  After swimming and getting cleaned up we stayed up late playing and visiting.  The kids finally crashed around 11 p.m. and the rest of us called it quits around 1 a.m.  

Saturday we had big plans to go to the Boise Zoo!  The kids were so excited and so were us adults.  We had a quick breakfast down at the hotels continental breakfast.  Luke enjoyed about three sausage links before throwing his food at me and calling it quits.  Tyke enjoyed pancakes, sausage links and yogurt.  After breakfast we headed to the zoo.  The weather was perfect for a zoo day.  The boys (Tyke, Luke & Bowdee, aka my crew) had fun chasing squirrels and having sword fights with sticks while we waited for the girls to show up.  Funny story, on our way into the zoo there was a squirrel perched on a picnic table posing for some foreign tourists.  Well that didn't last long because Tyke and Bowdee ran up behind them growling and scared the poor squirrel away.  Oh my did those boys ever have fun together!  

The zoo was so much fun!  We ended up staying for about three hours and it was perfect timing.  There weren't too many people yet and the weather wasn't too hot, yet.  The kids had a blast riding in the rented wagons.  Tyke was super excited to go and see the giraffes.  Luke LOVED the meerkats and thought they were so funny.  I think they thought he was pretty cool too because they played with each other at the glass partition.  I loved every bit of the zoo and watching my boys enjoy the animals.  They were so excited and amazed at everything and it was just a really good time for all of us!  The Boise Zoo has probably got to be one of my favorites (granted I haven't been to many but I sure enjoyed this one!)  Great Grandpa Wally and Great Grandma Gaye had given each of the kids $20 to spend on their weekend trip (THANKS Grams and Gramps!!) and we decided we'd spend our money at the zoo and buy a souvenir.  The kids all had fun picking out their own prizes and paying for them with their own money.  Tyke immediately set his eyes on a stuffed giraffe and had to have it.  We picked a stuffed meerkat for Luke, since that had been his favorite animal in the zoo, or so it seemed.  When we went to check out we found out that Tyke could get a larger stuffed giraffe for the same price as the one he had in his arms.  Of course he opted for the bigger one, the "daddy" giraffe.

After purchasing our souvenirs we gathered all of the kids up with their new toys and took a group photo to send to Grams and Gramps along with a thank you.  We loaded up and left soon after that.  It was getting hot and we were starving.  Some of us had made ourselves a little sick by not eating or drinking enough while walking around the zoo all morning.  We had lunch at the Olive Garden and Luke slept through the entire thing.  He was one exhausted boy!  After lunch we walked to the mall and spent a good amount of time there shopping.  Luke woke up hungry so he and I and Tyke went and found the food court and got him a cheeseburger and fries.  He ate the cheeseburger pretty well but he did better with it once we ditched the bun.  The boy is a meat eater!  We shopped and shopped and shopped until we were all exhausted.  We hit a few places other than the mall before heading back to the rooms.  None of us were very hungry once dinner time rolled around because of our big, late lunch.  A few of us left to go and grab some fries and chicken strips and milk shakes to munch on.  Heather Jo did some hair while we waited.  I got my hair colored and both boys got their hair cut.  Tyke wasn't too impressed having to stand in the bath tub in his pull-up to have his hair buzzed.  We didn't stay up too late Saturday night because we were all super tired from our big, long day.

Sunday morning we woke up to a huge thud, Luke had fallen off of the bed and boy did it ever upset him!  I had a hard time getting him calmed down so that he wouldn't wake up the rest of our crew (or the second floor for that matter, the kid has got a set of lungs!).  He had been sleeping between me and Tyke and somehow managed to wiggle himself to the end of the bed and right off.  It was a pretty tall bed too.  He had a hard time calming down and once I got him calmed down he would freak out if I tried to lay him down.  It was about 6 a.m. when this happened and he and I never went back to sleep, darn it.  When everyone else finally got up we got our bags packed and the rooms cleaned and then headed down for breakfast.  Luke didn't eat well at all and pretty much threw all of his food at me and laughed.  Tyke must have been starving because he ate and ate and ate pancakes and sausage and yogurt, yum!  After breakfast we went and got our bags and checked out of the hotel and went back to the mall.  We shopped for a few hours and then went to Sizzler for lunch.  Luke once again refused to eat anything but Tyke was a little piggy.  After lunch we parted ways and called it a weekend and headed home.  Luke fell asleep almost instantly.  Tyke and Bowdee had a blast sitting in the back seat playing with their new toys.  I was amused listening to their little imaginations as they played.  We missed Daddy tons and the boys and I were so happy to get home in time to see him before he had to go to work.  We had such a good weekend and we can't wait to do it again!