7 Months Today...

I love this cheesy smile! Her two, little teeth are always showing.
This is her yoga move. She does this quite often. She goes from all fours, to this move and then she kind of walks on her hands to get to where she needs to go. She's not doing as much of the crawling bit. We think it's pretty cute...
Those of you who have talked to me recently know just how thrilled we are with our "new happy baby!" It's the BEST! I can hardly get enough of her! She is a happy girl and looking at her now I have almost forgotten how difficult she was (well, not completely :) ) Thankfully we have pictures to remind us. She loves toys and you can give her a tub of them and she will play with them forever! It is fun for us to just watch her play. She squeals and jabbers a lot and definitely enjoys the sound of her own voice. She is making more noise than James ever did. She loves to climb all over us and pulls herself up on everything. She and James will sit and play with things together (James is learning the concept of sharing, although it's a bit difficult). She is sleeping extremely well, both at night and for naps. Every time I put her down I think, "I cannot believe how easy this is." Luke is probably sick of hearing me say that, but it is just such a drastic change from what we've been used to. And now for the official miracle... SHE DOESN'T MIND RIDING IN THE CAR!!!! This truly is a miracle! A week ago today I took her in the car to my parents and she didn't cry at all. I thought it was a fluke for sure, but she's been great ever since. It's truly amazing. I can actually hear the radio!! I just can't help but wonder why she had been so miserable the last 6 months. Wish she could tell us...ya know? Well, we'll take it. This is so fun!

Too Much Fun, What's That Mean???

"Too much fun, what's that mean? It's like too much money, there's no such thing..." (old country song for those of you who didn't recognize that line :) There's no such thing as too

much fun and especially not at Aunt Jennifer's house!!!

James LOVES going to his cousin Mason's house to play and I'm sure you can see why!! His time there is full of fun, fun, fun! Aunt Jennifer picked up the go cart he is riding at a garage sale for him and boy does he LOVE it!

And they got to play in Mason's new sprinkler that shoots water up in the air. I love the picture of them running around it! And of course, here they are drying off, but she even has

them using cute, little animal towels. Those of you who know Jennifer would

appreciate this. Everything she does is always "just right."

Just in case you can't see what is in Aunt Jennifer's hand, it's a baby toad. James finally got to touch one. We have found big ones around our yard, but I'm too much of a wimp to pick it up and let him touch it. I always say, "You touch it James," and he replies back, "Mommy touch it first." Smart kid...why would he touch something I wouldn't??? :)

FYI-James was pretty upset when I showed up to pick him up. He was having

that much fun!

The Men in My Life...

This is the picture James was painting for Luke for Father's Day! He was so proud!
Isn't this picture sweet? James actually smiled for me!!! It was a cheezy one, but at least it was a smile! We'll take it! :) We made Daddy breakfast for Father's Day and then we sat at James' little table to eat it. James painted him a picture and I framed the kids' footprints. Both kids squirmed their feet and toes terribly as I was painting them-I would have too! It was a tough chore to do myself, but well worth it!
This is my dear dad or as James calls him, "Boca," who I love and respect so dearly. These are all 7 of the grandchildren who love him an awful lot too! Only my dad could love and handle 7 kids under the age of 7 and 5 of them being boys!!


Top Ten Great Reasons to Be A Dad:
(figured since I did one for mother's day, I had to do one for Father's Day too!!) This is from Luke's point of view...

10. Mowing now takes twice as long because I'm trying to hold James and gratify his obsession with mowing
9. I now get to pick out my favorite part of Lucky Charms-the marshmallows- and give them to James because they are HIS favorite part.
8. Giving up my last bites of food and share-gets me every time!
7.Having on a perfectly good outfit and having to change because I was spit up on-ALL OVER!!!
6. Missing the final innings of baseball games to put on "Finding Nemo" or "Baby Einstein" for James.
5. Getting home and giving numerous piggy back and airplane rides when really all I want to do is sit and relax.
4. Having Lauren grab everything off my plate when I am trying to eat.
3. Looking for motorcycles, horses, and cows EVERYWHERE we go and then trying to come up with good reasons why we don't actually stop to pet, ride, or touch them. (if you're a parent, this will make COMPLETE sense!)
2. Being able to pretend to be sleeping even though I hear every scream Lauren makes at night. "Oh, she was up last night??? I didn't hear a thing..."
1. On a serious note-being able to take part in this great gift of being a father to 2 amazing children and working hard to raise them in a way that would make God proud. What an awesome responsibility...

Little Landscaper

It's amazing that James knows he needs to go along the sides of things to use his weed eater and that you use it when the grass is long. Fascinating... He got this out when Luke was mowing. He really believes he is cutting the grass. I stand back and just smile from ear to ear!

Now, he's helping daddy spread grass around the plants in the garden to keep the weeds from growing. He LOVES this part, but we all usually end up with grass clippings all over us! :)

My all time favorite is when we mow, James gets out his mower and mows along side of us! It is just the best ever!

He can't always keep up...isn't this picture priceless? Love it! I need to blow it up and frame it!

It's amazing at what our kids pick up from simply watching us do daily tasks. They're so impressionable...

Red, Red Rose

Get ready to have your heart melt. James' new thing right now is picking flowers for me. Whenever he spots a flower, he picks it for me and has me smell it many, many times. It precious and it never gets old. He just spotted this full bloom, red rose and wanted it terribly. Of course it was covered in thorns, so we got some scissors and cut it. He was so proud of and and gave it to me to hold and smell on several occasions. I was impressed at how gentle he was with it and that the entire flower (petals and all) made it to water. He is very proud of this rose! It is actually sitting on his little table and believe it or not, the glass hasn't spilled yet...Do I have the sweetest kid ever or what???

She's A Swimmin'

Ok, you can't see this entire swimsuit, but it is precious! My sister picked this up for Lauren and I wish I had one like it. There's a little pink ruffle that goes around the middle that you can't see. She now has 4 bathing suits...4...she has more cute ones than I do! :) She really enjoyed the water and the pool. The water was a bit cool, but that didn't stop her! She especially liked splashing! My favortite was when she would splash herself and look around wondering where it came from. haha. I laughed quite a bit! It will be fun for her and James to play in the water together. James was more interested in everything else than he was her first swim. It may have been best that way.

FYI...I will get shots of all 4 swimsuits soon. They'll make you smile.

Mama's Boy

In they go...

One of James' favorite things to do besides help me in the kitchen is do the laundry. He LOVES laundry days and I love them too because after I sort the clothes and start the wash, he finishes the rest for me. He tips the laundry basket over to stand on, gets the clothes and dumps them into the washer. He just loves it. Then, he watches as the washing machine starts to spin. That's his favorite part. Maybe he'll always enjoy doing the laundry and his wife will thank me someday...probably not :) At least I'll have pictures to remind him that he did enjoy it at one time.

Toys Need Washing Too Right?

This is where it all began...

I heard him say, "It fall down," and I knew :)

Smart kid-after I fished out the rake, he opened the dryer to put in the toys to dry. I got a great laugh out of that one! It's amazing what kids put together at this age!

He was lining up the sandbox toys around the rim of the washer after he put the clothes in. I knew it would be just a matter of time before one of them fell in-either on purpose or accident. =)

When It Rains It Pours...

What you are looking at are all of the prescriptions and "goodies" I had to pick up over the course of the last 7 days. So, some of you may be wondering why I haven't blogged here recently and why there are several bottles of prescription drugs in this picture. Well, here is why... Last Wednesday evening, Luke came down with a severe stomach ache. It lasted throughout the day on Thursday and he finally decided to head into the ER. Well, it was just what everyone thought it was...his appendix. They scheduled an emergency appendectomy and hour later and out it came. The recovery was supposed to be quick. He was to take it easy over the weekend and was given the okay to head back to work on Monday. If only it were that simple...he was in excruciating pain throughout the week and couldn't get out of bed much. He could hardly speak. I kept thinking, "I know they say men have a low pain tolerance, but COME ON!" We realized on Wednesday evening there was an infection. Thankfully we didn't have to head back to the hospital. They were able to give him an antibiotic and take care of it in the office. It has been a long 7 days. I was basically taking care of 3 children and that got tough. I am so thankful for my friends and family who helped out SO much! My parents were simply angels! THANK YOU!!!!! Hopefully things will be back to normal by the beginning of next week!

Little Miss Independent

One of my favorite things about having two children is seeing them playing together! It's SO sweet. James will point out what toys are and hand them to her and she usually takes them which James gets a real kick out of! :)

This is her little gymnastics move

Well all in about a weeks time, Lauren started sitting up well by herself, eating baby food, and attempting to crawl. Wow, I sure didn't see the crawling part coming this soon! She is enjoying her new found freedom and loves playing with toys. Especially James' balls, toolbox, tools and tractors. It's so fun watching her gravitate toward so many new things. She loves grabbing books that James is reading. Our little Lou Lou enjoys toys more than James did and we are appreciated that tremendously! She isn't mobile enough that I have to watch her every minute, but she can get to the toys and things she needs to. It's fun to watch her excitement and it sure has helped her attachment issue with me now that she can entertain herself easily. YEAH FOR CRAWLING!!!

On to the Good Stuff

This is the smile she would give me when she saw the spoon coming toward her mouth

Well, we have officially started cereal and bananas! Hooray! Lauren has been very interested in people food for quite some time so we were hoping she would have the same interest in her baby food and...she did! She loved it! She wasn't completely sure what do with it the first few times it was in her mouth, but she quickly learned. As soon as it's in her mouth she starts smiling and the cereal starts coming out the sides. It's pretty funny. She gets happy when she sees the bib and bowl coming and even grabbed the spoon to feed herself. Hopefully she will like all of her vegetables just as well! :) James wanted to try some too so I told him to get a spoon of his own. I could have predicted the outcome. The look on his face when he took a bite was priceless and sheer disgust. I wished I would have captured it! But then a few minutes later he asked for more. Crazy boy...