Silly Lu!

This baby boy of ours couldn't get any cuter if he tried!  He's such a goof ball!  He's so much fun to watch right now as he's learning to get around the house by himself.  He still hasn't mastered crawling.  He likes to "stand" on his hands and tip toes.  He LOVES to be on the tile (I hate that!  He finally bonked his head tonight while playing, so sad)  He pulls the cutest little faces.  He's high maintenance.  He's Tyke's best bud.  He's our silly Lu!  We love you bubba boy!

24th of July (Mona Days)

Yesterday, Friday, was Utah's celebration, the 24th of July or Days of '47, whatever you want to call it.  Mona always puts on a big celebration.  They celebrate the 24th of July on the Saturday nearest to the actual date so that more people can attend.  Because the 24th of July isn't a national holiday most of us don't get to take work off for it.  Friday night Mona offered a yummy dinner of BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, rolls, watermelon and pie (all made and served by Rick and Lucinda and other Kay family members, go Kay's!).  We usually don't attend the big dinner but I decided that this year me and the boys would go and check it out (Chad was working cherries, boo!).  There was a great gathering at the park for the dinner!  Lucinda said she figures she fed just over three hundred people!  The food was really good!  Tyke would only eat the roll and played with his corn on the cob.  He wouldn't even try the chocolate pudding pie.  Silly boy!  He was more concerned about playing with Bowdee.  After dinner was over the kids all went to check out the animals at a small petting zoo that had been set up in the park.  Tyke spent quite a bit of time over there with his cousins (thanks guys!) before coming to get me to show me what he had found.  He really surprised me with how brave he was around all of the animals.  He got in trouble a couple of times with the owners for being too rough and not following the rules (Poking the tortoise was a big no-no! So was sticking his fingers in the birds cage, silly Tyke!).  Tyke pet a giant rabbit, poked and pet a tortoise, touched a big lizard, talked to the white bird, and held a chinchilla.  He loved it all!  And to really surprise me he ran up to the lady that owned all of these animals and said, "I wanna see da nake!" (SNAKE!!!)  This kid is usually so shy around people and very intimidated by animals, not today.  After bugging the poor gal to death she finally pulled out her giant snake for Tyke to touch and hold.  He loved it! (who is this kid?!)  When she offered to let him hold it he panicked and grabbed me so we together got to have snake sit on our shoulders.  Talk about creepy!  After that experience Tyke was good to go!

Today was celebration day Mona style.  We headed out just before 10 a.m. for the parade.  We "sat" in our usual spot with the Kay clan.  We had a pretty good group this year! (Grams and Gramps, Mark and Jamie and fam, Drew and Charlotte and fam, Rick and Lucinda and fam)  Tyke had a blast picking up candy by the handful.  He did awesome and was so fun to watch!  Luke picked up one piece of candy too!  Way to go buddy!  Towards the end of the parade Tyke was getting a little too greedy and pushed cousin Taten (Kay) down and made him drop his cookie and skin his elbows.  Luckily that was the only casualty.  After the parade was over we walked across the street to the park and did a little visiting with family and friends.  We got Tyke a wristband so that he could go and play on all of the fun blowup toys but he wasn't a fan of them at all.  He went with Brooke, Callie Jo, Addi, Trayson and Bowdee.  Their first "ride" was on the big obstacle course and poor Tyke nearly got trampled by older kids making their way through.  Needless to say he was done after that!  He spent the rest of the afternoon running wild and playing in the water buckets placed all over the place to hold the canopy tents in place.  Tyke is a magnet to water!  Luke was really good and enjoyed just sitting on a blanket on the grass, inspecting the fold up chairs surrounding him.  He got spoiled good by his aunts, cousins and Grandma Cheryl.  While I was playing with him I noticed two new teeth in his cute little mouth!  His two top front teeth have officially pushed through!  While inspecting them I realized that the fang teeth I thought Luke had are really his lateral incisors.  This makes seven teeth for Luke!  Before leaving the park we grabbed some food and ate.  Of course Tyke chowed down on pizza, boy does he love his pizza!  We left the park around one in the afternoon to go get our grocery shopping done and just be home and enjoy being lazy.

We spent the evening at home relaxing.  It was nice for all of us.  Chad has been working so many hours lately that it was good for him to just chill.  The boys loved having him home and wrestling with him.  Around 7 p.m. we headed back out to Mona.  We had a few things to deliver to Grandma Cheryl's house but she wasn't home.  We drove slowly back down the road and hunted rabbits with our pellet gun.  We had a good time and Tyke was so excited to spot rabbits for us.  He did pretty darn good too!  Once we were off the hill we decided that we had better go and find us a spot at the park for the big firework show.  It didn't start until dark but the place fills up fast thanks to it being one of the best displays of fireworks around!!!  The fireworks this year didn't disappoint and the boys loved them!  Tyke wasn't really that interested in them, he just wanted to run around but we wouldn't let him.  He didn't pay attention too well.  He had more fun playing with the glow sticks that Aunt Jenny had given him.  Luke however never took his eyes off of them!  He was all smiles during the entire show.  He loved them!  He was more fun to watch than the fireworks themselves.  We sure love our boys!!

What a great day we had!  Happy 24th of July!

Chickens and Ducks

My good friend Ashlee invited us over to come see her cute little ducks and chickens.  They have grown so fast and have been so fun to watch via facebook and instagram.  I was just sure that Tyke would be clingy and whiny but he surprised me and instead followed Ashlee right out back and helped her feed her pets meal worms.  He loved it!  He got a little wild and chased them around and threw rocks into the ducks pool but for the most part he was good.  He thought it was pretty darn cool!  Luke did too!  Towards the end of our visit I let him sit on the ground to see the ducks and they came right up to him to investigate.  One even nibbled his toe but he didn't mind at all.  What a fun night for my boys!  Thanks Ashlee!  

9 Month Pics

I finally found the time and energy to snap a few pictures for Luke's nine months pics.  I feel like such a slacker lately.  I had plans to take his pictures else where but yesterday morning our backyard looked perfect for it.  I hurried and dressed Luke and ran him outside for his shoot.  He wasn't exactly thrilled but he cooperated pretty well.  Before we were done though, he was getting into a pretty grumpy mood.  He's pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!  We love this boy of ours so much!  I can't believe he's nine months old already!  Slow.down.time!

Payson Pool and Cherries with Dad

I FINALLY took the boys to a pool this summer and they loved it!  We went to the Payson city pool yesterday with Stephanie,  Heather Jo, Tiffany & David, Grandma Cheryl and kids.  We had so much fun!  

We got there around 5:30 p.m. and Tyke was so anxious to get in the water.  He about had a melt down while I was changing him into his swim shorts because he wanted to get in the water so bad.  He's a little fish!  Grandma Cheryl helped me to get both boys changed and then she watched them while I changed.  After a few pictures it was time to get in the water!  The water was great!  It was slightly heated so there was no cold shock to the system at all.  Tyke refused to wear his little life jacket, you know, the one he HAS to wear when he swims in the kiddie pool at home?  He wouldn't even look at the thing and ran away from me.  

I had lots of help in the water with my boys.  Aunt Jo, Aunt Steph, Aunt Tiffy and Uncle David all took turns playing with Luke and watching Tyke.  Bowdee and Callie Jo took Tyke down the enclosed green slide, pretty much against his will, and he hated it!  I thought he'd like it and had asked Callie if she would take him.  All of the kids went and when it was Tyke's turn he freaked out.  So, Bowdee picked him up, sat him down and pushed him down the slide.  He came out on his back, head first and we he stood up he was hysterically crying.  No more slides after that!  Luke kicked his little legs like crazy the entire time we were there (about two hours) and wore himself right out!  I think he'll be a little fishy too when he gets older.  Tyke and I did one lap around the lazy river.  He was scared at first but liked it by the time we were done.

By the time it was time to go (because us adults were tired and hungry, not the kids and not because it was closing time) Tyke was braving the less scary red slide.  Luke even went down it a few times and loved it.  Aunt Jo helped him and boy did his little legs kick as she was sitting him back at the top to slide down.  It was so cute and so fun.

I had fight on my hands getting Tyke out of the water and dressed to go.  He didn't want to leave, he wanted to "wim!"  Poor guy loves the water.  After leaving the pool we all went to Costa Vida for dinner.  Tyke ate really well, surprisingly.  He must have worked up a good appetite.  Luke too!  Luke downed a baby food pouch in thirty seconds I swear and a bottle too before falling right to sleep.  The sun and the water wore us all out for sure!

After dinner we ventured out to West Mountain to find Daddy, who's been working a lot of hours the last week and half and we haven't seen him much.  Tyke and Luke both got to "drive" the cherry shaking machine.  Tyke loved it and got a little too comfortable with it and started pushing buttons.  He helped shake five trees and then it was Luke's turn.  I had woken Luke up so he could see his Daddy.  He was still groggy so I wasn't sure how well he would like the loud tractors but he perked right up and was all smiles while it was his turn to "drive."  Little cherry workers in the making!  We didn't stay too long, maybe thirty minutes, before leaving and heading home.  It was late and we were all tired and Daddy had to get back to work.  The boys fell asleep on the ride home and I was able to move them to their beds without waking them at all, which is huge, especially for Luke!

It was a fun summer night for us all.  We can't wait to do it again!!

30 Months Old = 2 1/2 Years Old!

Mr. Tyke is officially two and a half years old today!  He's such a fun, goofy little boy.  He's changed so much in the last month it's crazy.  He's more little boy than toddler now and it just amazes us to watch.

The last few times we have gotten together with family Tyke has run off on his own, with the big kids, and played.  We're not really helicopter parents, at least we try not to be, but we have always watched him fairly close to make sure he's safe and not being picked on and being a good boy.  The last few times we haven't done so and just let him play and deal with his own problems.  It's been strange but strangely nice.  He's becoming very independent!

Tyke has been Grandpa Terry's big helper the last couple of weeks.  I don't know that he does much work but he tags along and is learning a lot from Bampa which Chad and I appreciate more than he'll ever know.  They feed the cows and move the irrigation and finish up with a "Big Boy" ice cream sandwich nearly every day.  Tyke loves his ice cream and now thinks that the gas station in Mona is "eye-teams house mom!"  We have little arguments every morning as we get off the freeway to take him to Grandma's for the day.  He wants me to go to the service station for ice cream and I never do which causes a bit of a tantrum.

Tyke has started helping out around the house more and more.  He loves to help his Daddy with whatever he might be doing.  If it's something that involves tools Tyke will run and grab his toy tools and help.  It's pretty darn cute!  Tyke helps pick up his and Luke's toys.  He likes to help with dishes (mostly he just likes to play in the water).  He has started to show interest in helping us cook but we don't let him do much more than watch, for now.

Tyke has really enjoyed "swimming" this summer.  He has always been my little water baby but this year he's having a blast with it!  We need to get him to the big pool more often, before swimming season is over.  Tyke always tells me, "Mom, I wim!" (Mom, I swim).  He's a little too brave in the water sometimes but he's slowly learning to respect it.  I need to get him in swimming lessons next year for sure!

Tyke's little vocabulary is always growing.  It's amazing to Chad and I to hear new word and sentences come out of his cute little mouth.  He's communicating more and more each day and we are able to understand him more and more.  He does really well for his age!  Some new phrases (that I can think of right now):

• I hug you mom!
• I tiss you mom! (I kiss you mom)
• Lu nah-ee! (Luke's naughty)
• I doe Bampa's how! (I go to Grandpa's house)
• Where ar-pain doe?
• Dis my how (This is my house)
• Hode me mom (Hold me mom)
• I eat tispee! (I eat rice krispie treat)
• Oh I see pizza's how mom! ("I see pizza's house" when he sees the pizza place)
• I hungee mom/dad!!! (he always tells us when he's hungry now)

And the list goes on.  My favorites right now are the hugs and kisses.  When he's in trouble, when he wants to be cuddled, when he wants attention and when he's just been a mush he will come up to me, arms wide open and eyes squinted shut and say, "I hug you mom!"  He gives me a big hug and pulls away, squints his eyes harder and says, "I tiss you mom!" and gives me a big kiss.  Yes it gets him out of trouble pretty much all of the time!  He knows how to work me.

Tyke has been extra lovey and snugly and...whiny/sad when I leave him to go to work.  It breaks my heart!  I had hoped we would never have to deal with this stage but here we are.  Most mornings Grandma Cheryl has to forcefully hold him back while I literally run out of the house.  It's sad.  He just wants to go home.  He just want to be held.  And I just have to go to work.  It's hard.  It helps a ton to know that he's safe and loved with Grandma Cheryl and not in some random daycare (I'm not dissing daycare, it's just not for us).  He has done really well while Aunt Jo and the girls have been in town visiting and staying at Grandma and Grandpa's.  I'm pretty sure his big issue is that there aren't other kids there to play with.  Once school starts back up I'm hoping he'll be fine.

Tyke's appetite is about the same.  He's such a picky eater!!  He loves his milta (chocolate milk), apple juice and water.  He doesn't really care much for pop.  He always steals a sip from us and then pulls a disgusted look on his face.  He loves corn dogs, PIZZA, grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese quesadillas and chicken (as long as it's not breaded).  I hate his daily menu and we offer him plenty of other foods but that's what he likes and it's all he eats.  As long as he's eating something that's all I care.  Cute story about Tyke loving pizza:  the other night as we were trying to go to bed Tyke kept saying, "I hungee mom!"  I told him he couldn't possibly be hungry.  He had eaten three slices of pizza and two bread sticks for dinner.  He kept repeating, "I hungee mom!" until I asked him well what do you want?  He got a sly smile on his face, slowly put his hand in the air and in a small little smart alec voice said, "Uhhhhhh....PIZZAAAA!!!!"  I laughed so hard, he's a character!  

Tyke is currently wearing 3t shirts, 3t pants, 2t shorts, 3t-4t jammies, size 5 diapers and size 10 shoes!  He's a big boy!  He got his first pair of cowboy boots while we were in Oregon last month and they are his favorite shoes to wear.  They're mine too because he can put them on by himself!  Tyke is showing more and more interest in being potty trained but still not quite enough to really push the issue.  One of these day though.

We love our sweet, funny little Roni man so much!  Happy two and a half years Tykers!!!

The bottom middle picture was taken by Grandpa Terry and sent to us to see what Tyke was helping out with at the feed yard.  It melts my heart and makes us so proud of our hard working little guy.  Thanks Dad for teaching him!!!

9 Month Well Check

Luke had his nine month well check today and he did great!  Everything checked out perfectly for our little guy!  Luke was in a good, goofy mood at his doctors visit.  He had fun ripping the tissue paper apart making lots of noise.  He was really good for Dr. Fullmer and played along well.  Luke is completely healthy and growing great.  We had to fill out a little questionnaire and everything on that looked great as well.  Way to go Luke!

Luke didn't have to have any shots today, yay!  His next visit he will have to have four though, boo.

We discussed a few concerns with Dr. Fullmer.  Nothing too serious just the fact that Luke likes to cry, a lot.  And he always seems to have tight, gassy belly no matter what we try.  And he still isn't sleeping through the night, he wakes up 2-3 times a night.  Dr. Fullmer thinks it may be tied together along with Luke's teething.  Dr. Fullmer noted that Luke's gums are very swollen so more teeth are on the way!  I said, "nice he's going to get them all at once" and Dr.  Fullmer said, "well, might as well and get it over with."  Poor Luke.  Anyway, Dr. Fullmer told us we are doing a good job at trying to calm and comfort our grumpy boy when he's in his screaming fits.  He said it does more damage to us than to Luke to let him just "cry it out" (which he will NOT!, only once has he cried himself to sleep, otherwise he will just cry and cry and cry).  Dr. Fullmer suggested we start feeding Luke more food to try and get him sleeping through the night.  More food?!  Dang boy!  Dr. Fullmer said Luke is definitely getting enough calories but to really stuff him.  He also told us a couple of tricks we could do to get him sleeping through the night. 1- cry it out (which he didn't really suggest just for my sanity haha) or 2- trick him with his bottles.  He suggested we slowly dilute Luke's bottles with formula until it's just water and he loses interest.  That's the route we're going to go.  (By the way, we're pretty well done with nursing now so Luke is on formula.  I have milk supply enough for him for the next week or so while he's at Grandma Cheryl's and then he'll be straight formula.  Bitter sweet...) 

Luke's 9 month stats:

Weight: 21 pounds 11 ounces (80%)

Height: 30.4 inches (98%)

Head: 17.6 inches (37%)

Once again we were surprised at how "little" Luke really is.  He seems so big to us for his age.  He grew a good two inches since his six month well check!  He's solid and so I expected him to weigh at least one pound more than he did.  It also surprised me that for his weight he was only in the 80th percentile.  Really though, who cares?  As long as our Bubba Lu is healthy and happy that's all that matters!

New Tricks!

We are officially in trouble!  Luke started army crawling today at Grandma Cheryl's house!!  It's the first any of us have seen it and he seems to have it mastered already.  Our little guy is pretty fast at it too!  I had just sent a text to Chad saying how Luke went from sitting position to crawling position, moved one small crawl and then sat back up into sitting position.  That's the first time I've seen him do that.  A few minutes later he was on his belly and army crawling to the toys he wanted, another first.  Bampa Terry said if Luke crawls as fast as his little legs can kick we'll really be in trouble!  Luke army crawled and rolled and babbled for a good hour or so.  It's so fun watching him learn and do new things, way to go Luke!!

Also, about thirty minutes after all of the army crawling excitement, Luke started saying "mom"!  Talk about make my day!  He kept repeating, "mom mom mom mom mom" in the cutest little voice ever.  I have this and his crawling on video.  It's so crazy how much can change overnight.  Our baby boy is growing up!

Helping Bampa

The past few weeks Tyke has been lucky enough to get to help Bampa Terry do chores, both morning and night, depending on if he's there in time or not.  Yesterday after work I was lucky enough to tag along.  Me and the kids (Tyke, Ellie Jo and Sophie) loaded up in Bampa's new four wheeler and went and picked him up at the shop and then went and moved water.  Bampa did all the work while we sat and watched.  The kids squealed and had a good time.  At one point Ellie Jo told Tyke to be quiet and Sophie quickly followed with, "yeah, you're being annoying!"  They love each other, really!  After finishing up at the field it was time to go back to the house.  Of course Tyke spotted the gas station right across the street and told Bampa he needed "eye-team!" so we had to turn around and stop for an ice cream.  These babies are spoiled by their Bampa Terry!  He has to have spent a small fortune on ice cream this summer.  He definitely keeps the Park N Pump in business.  We all enjoyed an ice cream, and the kids made a huge mess.  I'm glad and proud that our little Tyke gets to tag along and learn to do chores with Bampa.  I wish I would have taken the opportunity to do so too when I was a kid.  Tyke loves it!  This is what summer days should look like!

Night Time Fun

We had visitors tonight!  Grandma Cheryl, Aunt Jo Jo, Sophie and Ellie Jo came for a visit.  They stopped by just as we were headed to the park near our house for a little outing.  They tagged along and we had such a good time.  The kids love swinging and playing and running wild while we enjoyed visiting and taking in the good weather.  We're so lucky to have such a fun little park near our house.  We need to visit it more often.  Luke LOVED swinging and couldn't get enough of it.  Tyke LOVED spinning and would spin until he couldn't stand up straight.  By the time we got home both boys were exhausted and we had an easy bedtime routine, yay!

81st Ute Stampede!

The 2015 Ute Stamped is officially over.  That pretty much means summer is winding down.  Did it ever really start?  It sure feels like a blur.  Anyway, we had a good time joining in on all of the festivities!  

Thursday morning Grandma Cheryl, Aunt Tiffany and Aunt Jo Jo brought the kids over to watch the wild horses go down main street.  Chad and I met them at the park.  We didn't have to wait long this year for the horses to go by.  Tyke loved it!  Luke loved the flashing lights on the patrol cars escorting them.  It didn't take long for the horses to go by and the excitement to be done but I'm glad our boys got to experience it!

(A little story I'd like to remember.  Heather Jo, Sophie and Ellie came for a visit for two weeks.  They got to Mona on 7-8-15.  Thursday morning when I dropped the boys off at Grandma Cheryl's house I told Tyke that Ellie was here to visit!  We all know how well they got along in Oregon.  I told Tyke to be nice to her and don't bug her.  Play nice and don't get beat up!  He tipped his head to the side and looked at me and said, "Ellie here ma?!"  I told him yes.  He pulled his little fists up to his chin and with a panicked look said, "Ellie care me ma!" (Ellie scares me ma).  I got a good laugh out of that!  Luckily, so far, they have gotten along great!!  Silly little two year olds)

That night we went to the horse parade.  It was cold and windy and the sky was getting dark, ready to storm.  We stayed for a little more than half of the parade before calling it quits and heading back to the car.  It worked out good that way, as soon as we got to the car the rain started up.  Perfect timing!  We went our separate ways for a while and then got back together to go to the carnival for an hour.  We waited until the rodeo had started so we missed all of the crazy traffic and parking.  Luke fell asleep and slept most of the time we were there.  When he was awake he was in awe of all of the flashing lights.  Tyke had a blast!  It was so crazy to watch my big boy ride big boy rides this year.  A little surreal if you ask me.  He was excited to ride the "hor-ee" (horsey) on the carousel, he was excited to ride the motorcycle on the motorcycle/truck ride, but he was super excited to ride the choo choo train.  He almost couldn't stand waiting of it!  He grabbed the fence and shook it back and forth excitedly, getting himself in trouble with one of the carni workers.  He finally got his ride and he was all smiles and giggles and refused to get off when it was done.  By that time Luke was wide awake and excitedly watching things.  We had a few tickets left.  The older kids went on the little caterpillar rollercoaster (I thought Tyke might still be too little to ride it) and me and my boys went back to the carousel.  Tyke giggled the entire time and Luke smiled and happily kicked the entire time too.  I loved watching my boys little faces light up over something so simple and fun.  When it was time to get off I had my hands full!  Tyke didn't want to leave and would NOT let go!  I pulled and pulled and pulled until he couldn't keep his grip anymore.  He kicked and screamed and I almost dropped him (keep in mind I was packing Luke too) but luckily Bampa Terry grabbed him in time.  Tyke wasn't a very happy camper the rest of the night, poor guy.  It was a good night!  The only way it could have been better is if Daddy had been able to come too! (he's working cherries right now) (and the wind could've gone away...)

After the carnival we all went and got some food from Wendy's and met back at our house to eat and hang out.  The party ended just after 10 p.m.  Everyone left and then the fun really began.  Luke started a screaming session that I couldn't get stopped.  I finally just let him cry himself to sleep.  It's the first time he's ever done that!  He usually just cries and cries and cries.  It was around midnight when he finally "dozed" off.  A little while later Tyke woke up coughing so hard that he threw up allover our bed.  So, me and him were up until just after 2 a.m. washing bedding, cleaning up and calming him down.  What a night!

Friday I was able to get off of work an hour early and meet up with my kiddos. (Grandma Cheryl and Aunt Jo brought them over).  We met at Reed's and then walked over to the park and waited for the big mammoth parade.  It wasn't really all that impressive this year.  It seemed pretty short to us.  Tyke and the girls had fun chasing down tossed candy.  They had a lot of competition but got their fair share.  It worked out good because they only went home with a few pieces of candy instead of a bag full that would end up in the trash.  Tyke was so funny about getting his candies.  He would pick it up excitedly, throw it on the ground and look at it, pick it up again and show me as if it was his first time picking it up.  What a goof ball!  Luke sat in the shade with Grandma Cheryl and Aunt Tiffy.  He was a good boy for them and all smiles.  He had fun grabbing at all of the older kids loot when they would come and empty their pockets.  It was a fun time!

After the parade we went and grabbed a pizza for the kids and then hung out at our house until it was time to rodeo!  We headed down to the fairgrounds around 7:30 p.m.  We were able to park at cousin Taylee's house and walk over to the arena.  Both boys looked so handsome in their "cowboy" clothes.  I didn't go out and buy them new rodeo clothes, just dressed them in what I could find at home and it worked perfect!  We had a good time at the rodeo.  Tyke enjoyed a carni corn dog and I had a plain carni cheeseburger, yum!  Tyke did really good at taking his hat off and putting his hand over his heart as the flag dropped into the arena.  He did it without me telling him to, he just followed what everyone else was doing and it made me proud!  Luke enjoyed being passed around and spoiled by his aunties and cousins.  Before the rodeo ended both boys were getting cranky and anxious.  It was past their bedtime and me, only having had three hours of sleep the night before, got upset about it so we packed up our stuff and left early.  Grandma Cheryl followed us out and left with us.  It made me feel bad that she missed out on the rest of the show and I felt like I had ruined her fun night with my bad attitude, but it was nice to have her help getting the boys back to the car.

Saturday was spent shopping.  Me and the boys shopped all day with Grandma and the girls while Daddy stayed home and did yard work.  We're getting a new vinyl fence put in in a few weeks, yay, and needed to rip out the old fence and make a few arrangements so that we're ready for it.  Uncle Chris and Waylon came over to help.  The house looks so strange right now without a fence!  Daddy worked hard all day and as soon as he was done and cleaned up we went back down to the fairgrounds to ride a few rides so that he could watch how much the boys loved it!  It wasn't near as cheap as Thursday had been (Thursday is family night and tickets are $1 and each ride only takes 1 ticket, the rest of the nights it's 2-4 tickets per ride and $1.50 a ticket!  Ouch!).  We bought twelve tickets, not knowing if that would be enough because we weren't sure how many tickets we needed per ride.  It worked out perfectly though and by the time we were done we were out of tickets.  Tyke was so excited to ride the choo choo train again!  That was the first thing on his agenda.  He loved that ride!  Next he rode the motorcycle/truck ride and then our little family of four went on the carousel.  Luke really loved it that night!  He grabbed onto the bar and never let go.  He was all smiles the entire time and I could feel him giggling (it was too loud to hear him but I could feel it and it sure made me happy).  When the ride was over I had a hard prying his little hands off.  When I finally did he freaked out and yes, he pretty much cried the whole way home.  Poor bubba Lu!  Before leaving the carnival we hurried and grabbed some carni food: corn dogs, cheeseburgers and curly fries.  We went home to eat it all.  Luke still wasn't happy with us and we had a hard time convincing him to calm down.

All in all it was a pretty fun weekend!  We missed having Daddy with us but we survived and had fun.  

Luke's First Word?

I think it might be safe to say Luke has finally said his first word: "Ba-ba!"  He started saying it late last night, around 10 p.m.  He had had a rough night and was super grumpy!  After a warm bath, pj's, bottle and a car ride he finally calmed down and fell asleep.  When we got home I just knew I wouldn't be able to get him out of the car and to bed without waking the little grump.  Sure enough, he woke right up.  At least he was in a happy mood at this point.  I went and layed him on the ground while I hurried and found something for dinner for me (life is a bit chaotic right now, it's cherries season so I'm a single mamma for a couple of weeks).  Luke started repeatedly saying, "Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!"  I got excited and recorded him but figured it was a fluke.  This morning though, first thing after having his breakfast he started saying it again, "Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!"  I think it just sounds like ba-ba (bottle maybe?), Chad thinks he's saying Bampa (grandpa).  Either way, it's adorable and we love his cute little mug!

Teeths

Fresh out of the tub and all smiles! (sort of)  I finally caught a good picture of Luke's little chompers.  His goofy, toothy little smile is the cutest!  We love our Lu!

4th of July Weekend Fun

We are still trying to recover from our long, fun fourth of July weekend!  We went camping up Fairview canyon with the entire Long family.  It was fun to have us all together for the weekend.  The kids had a blast playing in the dirt, building huts, and fishing.

We had left our trailer up the canyon two weeks earlier, when we camped with Chris & Danielle.  Thursday after I go off of work we hurried and loaded the truck up with everything we needed, the boys, and we left home for the weekend.  We were the first to arrive at camp.  We got everything situated and put away while Luke slept and Tyke played in the dirt.  That kid loves dirt!  Chris & Danielle and Corey & Stephanie and families showed up shortly after.  We got dinner out of the way (grilled chicken fajitas, yum!) and then sat around the camp fire.  Luke went to bed early and not very long after that Tyke came up to me and said, "mom, I doe to bed."  That's pretty unusual for him!  So I got him ready for bed and in bed with some chocolate milk and a movie.  He fell right to sleep.  He did this every night we were up there!  He must have worn himself right out!!

Friday morning Nanna and Jenny & Cody and kids showed up after breakfast.  We pretty much just spent the day at camp being lazy and enjoying each others company.  We did go for a few little four wheeler rides with the kids.  That night for dinner we all pitched in and had a shrimp boil (shrimp, chicken, sausage, potatoes, onions, corn on the cob and lemon wedges).  We had planned it for Saturday night but with everyone planning on going to the fireworks that night we knew it wouldn't work out too well.  Everyone donated an item of food (this was all planned out) and Chad cooked it in the can cooker.  Talk about good!  We dumped it out onto two cookie sheets and everyone dished up.  It was yum!  After dinner we talked Jenny into watching the boys so that Chad and I could go for a rhino ride.  It was much needed break and the scenery was beautiful!  We saw a few deer along the way too.  We got back to camp just as it was starting to get really dark.  We spent a while around the campfire, making s'mores before putting the boys to bed.  It was weird but nice to be able to put the boys to bed, without them being asleep, and going back out around the fire.  They played so hard they were exhausted come bed time.

Saturday morning after a yummy mountain man breakfast our little family of four loaded up and headed to Huntington Lake to fish.  Tyke loved it!  We remembered to bring his fishing pole with us this time.  He loved smacking the water with his pole, throwing rocks, and pretending like he caught a "Nemo".  We had no luck fishing but Tyke sure thought he did when he pulled in a small floating log that he thought was a fish.  He was so excited and proud of his catch!  The rest of the gang showed up to fish about an hour after us.  None of us had any luck and big dark thunder clouds moved in over us so we packed up and left.  Our plan was to go try our luck fishing at Gooseberry.  The boys, however, fell asleep (they needed to bad too!  Especially Tyke!) so we drove around a while so they could rest.  We eventually caught up to the rest of our gang and fished for about an hour with no luck.  We left them and headed back to camp where we all took a good long nap.  Once we woke up it was time to load up and go for another ride, this time to Scofield to watch the fireworks.  They do a big firework show from the island in the middle of the lake and the reflection of them is pretty neat.  This year though, it was a dud and we decided that we probably don't need to go to them again.  Tyke had fun right up until the fireworks started and then he just wanted to be held and "doe home mom".  Luke thought they were awesome.  His first fireworks show!!  We got back to camp just before 11 p.m.  We put the boys to bed and then sat around the campfire visiting until nearly 2 a.m.!

Sunday we wasted no time getting up and leaving.  We got everything hooked up, loaded up and moved out of the way.  We visited for a good hour with the others before calling it a trip and heading home.

We had so much fun!  The kids had a blast playing together.  The weather was perfect and the scenery beautiful.  It was so green with purple flowers everywhere.  It was a perfect weekend and we're sure glad we were able to go and enjoy!

9 Months Old

I feel like I just barely finished up writing Luke's eight month old story.  The months are starting to blend into each other and I feel like I can't keep up.  I can't believe our baby boy is nine months old today!  The time has gone by so fast and it feels like it goes faster and faster with each passing week.

Luke has changed so much in the past month.  He has grown bigger, smarter and faster.  He seems so big to me for a nine month old baby.  I'm not sure on his measurements yet but we will be taking him to his nine month well check soon and I'm eager to see how tall and heavy this solid boy is.   He's heavy!  My arms get tired packing him around.  He loves being held and pretty much fusses if he's not.  It's exhausting but I wouldn't change it (well, maybe a little...the little stink throws a fit when he's put down to change his diaper and clothes, spoiled!!!).  Mr. Lu is smart, just like his brother, which equals big trouble for us!  He doesn't miss a thing!  He grabs at everything.  He thinks everything is his.  His favorite thing to steal from us is our water bottles because they make a crinkly sound.  Luke likes playing with the iPad.  He doesn't really do much other than randomly hit buttons and move things around.  He thinks it's funny and gets mad when a jealous Tyke tries to take it away from him.  He likes our phones too.  He's seriously so grabby!

Luke is getting more and more mobile.  I keep thinking that any day now he will start crawling but I'm pretty sure it will be another few weeks before he takes off on his little hands and knees.  He will dive onto his belly from sitting position and lift up on his hands.  He'll look around at what it is he wants and he'll spin himself around.  He can roll like crazy too to get to what he wants.  I have caught him a time or two scooting on his bum towards his destinations.  He can "crawl" in reverse (6-28-15), pretty much pushing himself backwards until he's up against a wall or the couch or to the toy he's after.  He's definitely mobile, he gets where he's going and gets what he wants.  It will be big trouble once he figures out those knees underneath him.  I can't wait!

Luke has teeth now!  A whopping FIVE have come through in the last two weeks!  I can hardly believe it.  He went from having none to having "a mouthful" in days.  He had no problem pushing through his first two teeth, his bottom right and left central incisors.  He wasn't fussy at all and had no signs.  Just one day (6-17-15) there they were.  His right side came in a lot quicker than the left but they both broke through the gums around the same time.  Luke got sick a few days later and we really thought it was just teething.  After five days of throwing up and diarrhea we took him to the doctor.  Before heading to the doctors office I looked in his mouth at those two new teeth and noticed one more!  His top left canine! (6-22-15)  Vampire baby!!  I remember noticing that and getting so excited and then looking at Grandma Cheryl and nearly crying because our boy is going to look goofy with only fangs in the top of his mouth.  There are no signs of his two top front teeth coming in.  So three teeth in six days!  At the doctors visit that day that tooth was no longer visible and I wondered if maybe I had just been seeing things?  Dr. Fullmer checked it out and confirmed that the tooth was threw just not visible because of the swelling of his gums and that his top right canine was coming in too.  Luke's poor little gums were so swollen.  On 7-2-15 while checking his mouth I noticed another tooth had popped through.  This time it was his bottom right lateral incisor.  It hasn't grown much but it's definitely in.  Two days later, on the fourth of July, I noticed that his top left canine had poked through.  Definitely a vampire baby now!

Luke has got the quietest little giggle I've ever heard.  He laughs so hard but it's so quiet when we tickle him or act silly.  He has a fun sense of humor.  He watches us all like a hawk and if we do something silly he will nearly tip over in laughter.  He thinks Tyke is hilarious and giggles the hardest for him.  Luke is so ticklish pretty much everywhere now.  It's fun to tickle him and get those cute giggles out, but again, they are so soft and quiet.

Luke is a very vocal little feller.  He lets us know when he's mad, sad, happy or needy.  He's very stubborn and sometimes we have a hard time figuring out what he wants.  He will cry and scream because he wants to be held but as soon as we pick him up to calm him down he will squeal and squirm and arch his back wanting to be put down.  It can get pretty exhausting at times.

Lu-Lu is learning a few other fun, new, little tricks.  He is starting to clap.  He's not quite sure about it but will randomly clap his chubby little hands together.  He has started to "wave bye bye."  He won't do it on demand but can move his fingers back and forth in the bye-bye position.  It's adorable and he gets pretty excited about it.  Luke can make popping noises with his lips.  He likes sucking in his top lip and making kissing sounds.  It's even more fun when we do it back, then he really gets going.

Luke is now in 12 month clothes!  I pulled out a few 12 month items thinking they would fit him too big and they fit him pretty much perfect.  He grows so fast that there are a ton of cute clothes I was never able to get out for him to wear!  I guarantee in the next month or so I'll be busting out the 18 month clothes for our big boy.  He's still in size 3 diapers but that's about to change.  They fit but they're definitely getting snug around his chubby little belly.  His eye color keeps changing and at this point we're not really sure what color they are.  They were blue for a long time but now they have taken on a brown color too  making them look grey, almost like a sliced black olive.  We're pretty sure though that he's going to be a brown eyed boy just like his brother when his eyes finally decided what color they want to be.

This kiddo of ours is so much fun!  He's Tyke's best little buddy and our little sweetheart!  He's going to be trouble when he gets bigger, for sure, but we can't wait...maybe.  Happy nine months Louie-pooey!  We love you!!