Family photo shoot continued

We got our pictures back from our family photo shoot and we're quite pleased (especially considering the fact that Mikey was freezing and not all that happy through most of it). If you are on facebook chances are you've already seen these, but here they are. Thanks Sami! You did a great job!!

The Diminutive

Suddenly Mikey can only talk in the diminutive. All day long this is what I hear:

"Luke is sady"
"Come into my roomy"
"Can I have a drinky?"
"I need a snacky"
"Can we go to the storey?"
"I need to watch a showy"
"Can I have some milky?"
"I need to brush my teethy"
"I don't want to take a bathy"

I don't know where he came up with that, but it cracks me up!

The end of an era...and only 8 years too late

Kristy obviously didn't think this made the blog cut, but I was pretty happy with my work, so I thought I'd share. She was also worried that it would cause people to conclude that I don't think "W" is a moron...not so.

Poor Lance

Anyone who has been to our house knows about our trees. They are huge. They have many leaves.

Lance had, in fact, ALREADY raked a week or so before this was taken.
And this was how many leaves were still on the trees soon to join the others covering our lawn.

Poor Lance

Happy Halloween!

(Okay, first of all, sorry about the major onslaught of posts. Geesh, I went crazy! But there was so much to catch up on, I just had to get it done. This is the last one for today, I promise!)

On Halloween evening, we went over to Heather's to see some of Mikey's cousins all dressed up. They all got to play in their costumes before doing some trick-or-treating. Getting pictures was another story, though.

While jumping, we got a few of them to stop long enough to snap a picture.

Then we tried for the posing on the ground in the leaves.

Kate and Ben were quite cooperative, but Mikey and Abigail were a different story.

We thought Kate could hold Anna and support Luke at the same time, but that wasn't so easy for a 6-year-old. You can see a hint of Mikey and Abigail running off in the background. Those two wanted nothing of posing.

Finally we got Mikey to sit down for one second, but he wasn't able to hold Luke up very well and right after this picture, Luke was pretty much flat on his back.

This was the final attempt to get a picture of Abigail. We never did get a very good one. But she was a darn cute monkey!

Anna was pretty much the only one who held completely still. Way to go Anna!

On a side note, as we were getting ready to go, Mikey and I had the following conversation:

Me: Mikey, do you know what Kate is for Halloween?

Mikey: What?

Me: A cat.

Mikey in a high, shocked, screech: WHAT?! A Cat?!

Me: Do you know what Ben is?

Mikey: What?

Me: A froggy

Mikey in same, aforementioned voice: WHAT?! A froggy?!

Me: Do you know what Amanda is going to be? A bumble bee.

Mikey, same as above: WHAT?! A bumble bee?!

And so on and so forth, through Caroline as a bunny and Abigail as a monkey and Anna as a ghost. He was just as shocked at the last one as he was at the first

Halloween Trunk-or-Treat

A week before Halloween our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat. Mikey and Luke's friends, Hallie and Gavin joined us for the evening and had a blast.

The ballerina and dragon--unlikely couple? I think not!

Luke is our little tiger for the year (as Mikey was our tiger two years ago and their cousin, Ben was the tiger last year. But it's a cute costume and we never tire of it!)

I love this picture! If only my stupid arm wasn't in the way!

Luke and Gavin are obviously quickly becoming best friends as Luke already feels comfortable enough to try and suck on Gavin's hand instead of his own.

Luke has 4 months and more than a few lbs on Gavin. I'm sure Gavin will catch up one day! :)

Birthday dinners and Mikey's cooking experience

On the last day my mom was in town we had a family dinner to celebrate Brad and Kate's birthday. It is always so fun to have everyone together. It was so cute to watch all the bigger kids line up along the fireplace to "watch" (more like help) Kate open her presents. Here is Abigail, Ben, Mikey, Kate and Amanda.

I was in charge of the desert and being October we had to go with the Halloween theme. We have a chocolate ice cream cake AND pecan cup cakes because many members of the family can't live without chocolate, and a few won't even touch it. But it's okay, it just gives me a reason to do two cute things. :)
The night prior to the dinner, I had to start baking. I decided that Mikey was big enough to help. He helped me to stir and dumped in an ingredient or two...and of course licked the spoons, bowls, beaters....the usual things that need licking. Thanks, Mikey!

Happy Birthday, Kate!

Kate turned 6 in October and had a party at Chuck E Cheese's, which happens to be right by our house so Mikey got invited! Thanks for the fun party, Kate!

Ben, Mikey, Kate and one of her friends.

Mikey on the carousel. (It's been hard to get good, smiling pictures of Mikey lately so we're lucky to have this one!)

I lost track of how many tokens we used here, but Mikey and Ben just rode this and rode this until it was time to leave

Mimi had the tough job of hanging out with Luke and newborn Anna. I know it was rough, but she hung in there.

Mikey and Kate's cousin, Ester driving around town

Family play group!

A few weeks ago we decided to do a little family play group (because my mom was secretly* in town for the birth of my new niece...shhhh). It was so much fun to have all the cousins together that we hope to be able to start holding regular family play groups. I know, I have the cutest nieces and nephew (yep, just ONE nephew. I'm definitely the one pulling most of the boy weight around here!) But just look how cute! Mikey and Amanda. Yep, Mikey's pushing around a stroller! He loves it! (Luckily he also loves everything trucks, balls, dirt and bugs, too)

Luke just sat back and watched it all. Just like the little, old man that he looks like :)

Abigail and Caroline

Kate, Ben, Mikey and Abigail

Here is Mikey, Amanda and Ben having a little party. I peeked outside just before we were leaving and I hear Mikey say, "it's a birthday party!" And as he touched each of their heads he said, "Birthday hat, birthday hat, birthday hat."

*By the way, when I say my mom was here "secretly," I mean she didn't tell many people because it wasn't a social visit. She did, in fact, have the proper permission to leave her mission. :)

My sweet boys...

That's all. That's all I have to say :)

Remember when....

...You were a little kid and could fall asleep anywhere and it was okay?

Falling asleep in the car isn't too surprising to anyone, but when they both do it? Bonus!

Falling asleep in the middle of jumping? A little more effort involved there. (And no comments on how our jumper hangs over the stairs! It was that or on the door to outside and it's getting cold here! It's the only place it fits!)

Asleep in the swing. A frequent occurrence.

"Hey Luke, are you looking for something? Did you drop something?"

Nope, just asleep

Lest you think I'm a bad mom and don't pay enough attention to my child to get him to bed when he needs it--one minutes he's jumping and smiling then I turn around for one minute and he's asleep! (Okay, you can still think I'm a bad mom if you wish, but you should know that judging is bad!)

Growing up so fast!

I can't believe how fast time is flying. Luke is getting so big so fast. And we are loving every day.

At 4 1/2 months he can sit up! Not every time, but he can do it!

He wants so badly to roll over, but he just can't get those arms over. As you can see, he can get his hips rolled over and almost completely flat, but can't get past those arms. He does this frequently and it cracks me up. He actually has rolled from stomach to back, but it was kind of an accident.

And his first solid meal. I was going to wait a little longer, but he suddenly started grabbing spoons from my hands so I thought it was time. And he loves it! He doesn't stop until I do!

Family photo shoot

So last Friday we decided to get some family portraits done. It was FREEZING so Mikey was not in his usual, smiley, cheesy, picture-taking mood. But I think we still managed to get some good ones. They will not all be available for another two weeks, but the photographer put a few teaser pictures up today on her blog. Look how cute! http://photosbysamantha.blogspot.com/
She was great and we really loved working with her. She was great with getting Mikey out of his freezing, grumpy mood. Anyway, you can be sure that I will put up the rest when we get them!

Teach them in their youth

So the other night at dinner, we were trying to get Mikey to calm down enough to say the prayer. He did his usual: kind of stop what he's doing and hold one forearm with the other hand, then as we're saying the prayer, take a bite or two of food while we finish. I often have my doubts about him always "getting" the prayer thing. But this time AFTER the prayer he got out of his chair. We immediately started in with, "Mikey, where are you going?" "Get back in your chair." "It's time to eat." But he continued around the table over to Luke and grabbed both his hands and tried to cross them. So then, while holding both of his hands, he bowed his head a little and started mumbling another little prayer. When we finally realized that he was trying to get Luke to also fold his arms and participate in the prayer, we quickly bowed our heads and joined in. Now every few prayers or so, Mikey goes over and tries to help Luke pray, too. Looks like Luke will have a big brother who looks after him and keeps him in line. :)

4 months old!

Luke was 4 months old last Monday and he is as cute as ever! (As you can see below)

He smiles at everything and it's so much fun. He now always wants to be sitting up and does not like being ignored. He is grabbing things and putting it all in his mouth and is so close to rolling over.

(I just thought it was so cute when he fell asleep with his arm up like that.) At the doctor on Wednesday he was 17.15 lbs 25.59 inches

Boys aren't cute

Conversation with Mikey in the car:

Me: Mikey, are you tired?

Mikey: No

Me: Mikey, are you cute?

Mikey: No! I'm a boy!

Me: Oh. What is Luke?

Mikey: Luke is cute!

Mikey does a lot of watching and learning and often fawns over Luke the way we do. It's so cute to watch. He certainly loves his little brother and Luke smiles more and more in response to his big brother. Unfortunately, we didn't get the best of what went on in this video because Luke was grinning ear to ear at first and we missed it. It's still pretty cute, though.

The State Fair

So we went to the state fair.

And here we are...

...with cows

Say cheese.
Okay seriously, though. We went to the state fair a few weeks ago and it was great. Mostly probably just because we were with our favorite firends and ate funnel cake (for the first time--I know, can you believe it?). Mikey loved a lot of the animals, though actually not the cows. He suddenly didn't want to get out of the stroller when we were around the cows, but we made him :)
Of course he and his girl were the cutest couple there. :)