Cousins!



 A few weeks ago, we got a special visit from Channing and Campbell.  Jake and Luke loved having them around!  I took lots of pictures that didn't turn out so great, but there was one picture that turned out awesome.  Here they are stirring the cookie dough for our special Halloween cookies!

Boys and Dirt

 A few months ago, our electric company told us they were going to have to remove some bushes from our yard to do proper maintenance.  We were definitely surprised and disappointed because the bushes were nice, big thriving in our front yard.  Sadly, we lost the bushes, but the boys have found a new place to play in the dirt! 

18 months

 Luke turned 18 months last week!  Here are some things about younger son at 18 months...

*He loves to eat!  He's picky with some vegetables and he doesn't seem to like hamburger or anything with ground beef, but otherwise eats a lot

*Some of his favorite things are french fries, scrambled eggs, edamame, and hot dogs

*This love for eating leads to the fact that he is a big boy!  He weighed 29 pounds 4 oz and was 34 inches long at his 18 month appointment.  Both stats are in the 90% percentile.  This is a 6 pound weight gain from his 12 month appointment, and he weighs 5 pounds 4 ounces more than Jake did at 18 months!!  His doctor told us to go ahead and switch him from whole milk to 2%.  This is obviously not a child who is needing those extra fat and calories!

*He's not shy about his love of eating, and will definitely tell me when he's hungry.  He can say "sna" for snack and "waa" for water, and when I see him like this I definitely know what he wants....

*He's so silly.  He loves to smile and laugh.  Here's a silly pic of him in Jake's boots.  He put them on all by himself...

 *He really loves books, and has grown to like more books than just touch and feel and sound effect books; however, he rushes through them and I hardly ever get to finish reading a page.  He is a speed machine with page turning!  He says "ba" for book and will bring me books to read and snuggle in my lap.
*He also loves music.  His favorite song is "My Lighthouse."  He knows we can watch the video on the computer, so sometime he points to the laptop and I know exactly what he wants.  I'll ask, "Do you want My Lighthouse" and he answers, "Yeah."
*He's pretty accident prone and has fallen a lot lately.  One night before we had family pics scheduled, he tripped near our wooden children's table and his face hit the edge of the table.  He got a horrible black eye, so we cancelled those pics.  One week later, he fell walking on the sidewalk and scraped the edge of his nose and underneath his nostril.  He looked pretty rough for a while.  Here are some pics from October 13, his official 18 month and if you look closely, he can see the remnants of the black eye and also the busted nose...

 *He loves baths and showers!  He loves a bath anytime, either alone or with Jake.  Just recently, Kevin started doing "3 boy showers" sometimes and Luke LOVES it.  Jake did not like showers at this age, so I was a little surprised.  He also loves running around the house in his hooded towel after his bath.  Here's the little monkey after a bath...

*His vocabulary is really booming!  He's better at repeating words we say and there's many words he uses regularly.  He doesn't finish out the final sound on many words, though.  For example, bath is "baa" and snack is "sna."  The funniest word he says, though, is Taco.  He does not mean taco the food, but Taco, the dog.  We dogsat for Taco a couple times and he picked up his name really quickly and would say it over and over and over!

Knight Parade

Jake's school mascot is the Knights.  There is a tradition called the "Knight Parade" near the beginning of each year.  Every person in the school decorates his/her own shield and there is a parade around the school for family and friends to attend.  I was really proud of how well Jake did on his shield.  I helped with finding and printing pictures off the computer, but otherwise, Jake did all writing, drawing, decorating and painting himself.  Each student was supposed to put their class mascot on the left side and things they liked that helped tell about them on the right.  Here is his finished product after all his hard work ...



 And here he is at the parade waiting to begin.  If you can't tell, he drew a turtle on the left for his class mascot.  On the right, there's a family picture, TCU, Baylor, and UT logos, sports balls, and the words, "zoo" and "holiday."

 Luke REALLY wanted to be in the parade.  He REALLY wanted to be a big boy in kindergarten.  In fact, after he hugged Jake as he walked by, he went on to throw a full blown fit.  It was quite the eventful morning!  Even though I came prepared with a toy, snack and water, nothing I did calmed the storm until a really nice mom gave him some play dough.  Thankfully, that did the trick.

 Here's the start of Mrs. Haug's turtle class...

 and here's my favorite turtle...

McLane Stadium

We try to make it to one Baylor football game each season, and with the new McLane Stadium, this season was a must!  We were fortunate to see a game in the final season of Floyd Casey, and again fortunate to see a game in the 1st season of McLane!  We walked through campus on our way, so we stopped for a few shots...

I love Baylor's campus!  It's truly beautiful!

 Family photo op in front of the river/stadium...

 We were meeting friends early to tailgate, and I have to say the tailgating scene was awesome!!  It was so different and SO much better than my days at Baylor.  It helps to have a new on-campus stadium plus an incredible football team!!  Unfortunately, we were hit by a rainstorm which definitely soured things for about 30 minutes.  It POURED!  Thankfully, we were under a tent so we didn't get soaked, and thankfully, the rain stopped just in time for the game!

 We had great seats.  It was awesome!

 Luke seemed to really like it.  He was all eyes; watching what was going on...

 Jake was excited to sit with his friends Kelton and Kolt, eating snacks and cheering on the Bears!

 Luke was quite the fan!

 All in all, even with the rain, we had an awesome time!  The stadium is beautiful; the Bears won; and we all had fun!  What more could you ask for?

Brother time

 I am happy and proud to say these boys love each other.  Of course, they have their moments.  Sometimes Luke destroys what Jake has been working on or playing with resulting in Jake's tears; or Luke wants the toy Jake has and can't get it, resulting in Luke's tears.  Sometimes Luke gets frustrated and without the words to use, hits Jake, resulting in Jake yelling, "Mommy!! Luke hit me" resulting in Luke getting in trouble.  Sometimes Jake isn't in the mood to play with Luke and would rather play by himself, resulting in Luke's tears and Mommy filling in as the 2nd best.  Despite sometimes having those scenarios, MOST of the time, they really do get along and show love to each other.  It truly doesn't get better than seeing them happily together.  Here they are....

Lately, they have been really into going shirtless.  Well, Jake's into going shirtless so he pulls Luke's shirt off too...

 Jake's blinking in this one, but I couldn't resist b/c it's still so adorable...

 Jake loves to match with Luke.  I never ask them to match.  If they are matching, it's due to Jake's request.  In fact, one day, he asked me to match too so we were all wearing blue striped shirts!

KINDERGARTEN

Jake just finished his first week of kindergarten!!!!  This week could not possibly have gone any better.  I'm so thankful we've had such a good start, and my prayers are for more weeks to come as wonderful as this one.  I took a lot of pics from the first day, so here they are along with things I want to remember about his first week...

*When I picked him up the first day, I asked, "How was your day?"  Jake answered, "It was good."  I replied, "What was good about it?" and he said, "Pretty much all of it!"
*I have not had to wake Jake up one single time.  He is up and in our room ready to go b/t 6 and 6:30.  He has also been dressed from head to toe every morning without me having to ask.

*After his first day, a note from the teacher told us to ask our kids what Pete the Cat says.  I asked Jake and he promptly replied, "Goodness No!"  He also sang a song and re-told a story from a Pete the Cat book they read.  It told the story of the cat stepping in different things: strawberries, bluberries, water, dirt, then singing, "I love my (red/blue/wet/brown) shoes.  I love my (red/blue/wet/brown)shoes."  Jake loved this song.

Unfortunately, this came out blurry, but here is Jake's teacher, Mrs. Haug...

*Jake's special for the 2nd day was PE, so I asked him to tell me about PE.  His answer was , "I'm in shape now!"
* Thursday night, Jake asked for the crayons and scissors.  He then began working on a project.  He drew a turtle, then cut it out and told us it was a gift for Mrs. Haug.  I was so proud of his thoughtfulness all on his own!

*Jake LOVES the cafeteria.  After the first day of school, he was already ready to buy his lunch.  I was nervous about it, so I made his lunch the 2nd day again, and again he begged to buy his lunch.  So, on Wednesday, we gave him money to buy his lunch.  When I picked him up, I asked how lunch was and he said, "Good! It was free!"  After asking a few more questions, it seems Jake felt a little rushed to get out his money, and the kids are able to debit their account by just telling their name.  We continue to reinforce the fact that Mommy and Daddy do pay for lunch b/c he's still convinced everything in the cafeteria is free.

*After the first day of school, Jake told us he played with a new friend, but didn't know his name.  By the 3rd day of school, he was playing with the same friend and knew his name is Tanner.  By the 5th day of school, he talked about another friend and knew his name is Caleb.
*Jake has been sitting at a table with all girls.

*I expected Jake to be really tired in the afternoon/evenings after school.  He surprisingly still seems full of energy and has been happy to come home and play with me and Luke. 
*He's had a Chobani Lime Greek yogurt every day once he gets home.  Then Friday, he asked me if I could buy more lemon yogurt for his snacks next week too.
*Out of Jake and Luke, I actually think Luke was way more tired after the first full week of school.  The Saturday morning after the first week, Jake woke up at 6:30 and Luke slept til 8:45.  Kindergarten can wear a little brother out!

*Since learning about being in the turtle class, Jake has been ALL about turtles.  He already had a turtle pillow pet that has now become his favorite sleeping companion.  He is also drawing turtles all the time.  Here is a sample of some of his turtle art...