Bluebonnets

Mimi and Papa came up this weekend for a visit.  I have never taken pictures in the bluebonnets, but I have always wanted to and it is a very popular thing to do in Austin.  They are so beautiful, and we found they smelled as wonderful as they looked.  So, we decided to all take some pictures in a field that was plentiful with these beautiful wildflowers.

We have never really sat Luke on the ground outdoors to play.  Since he can sit up on his own, I am sure we will be doing this a lot more.  It was so cute to seem him explore the flowers and grass.  Here are some of our pictures:

Want to see more pics? Click here.

Luke is 6 months old!

Luke turned 6 months old on Easter!  We just can't believe how fast time seems to be going by.

Here is what Luke is up to:

• He weighs 6 pounds 9 ounces and is 25.5 inches long.  His head circumference is 17 inches.  
• Luke loves food--any kind of food.  Of course, his favorite is mommy's milk, but besides that, his number one solid is sweet potatoes.  He has also tried rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, peas, applesauce, and avocado.  His least favorite of these is avocado.  He is so funny when you feed him.  When he is ready for his next bite, he opens his mouth really wide, like a little bird.  
• He sits up on his own.  It is so much fun to watch him sit on the floor and play with his toys.  He is becoming a lot less helpless, as he can reach for toys he enjoys and plays with them without needing mommy or daddy to find them and give them to him.
• He rolls over.  He enjoys sitting a lot more than laying on his back or belly though.   
• He's growing hair! Although, we laugh because of the pattern in which his hair is growing on his head.  It is like reverse male-pattern baldness in that it is growing from the back and sides, up to the top and front.  
• He said his first word a couple of weeks ago--it was "Moo."   (Drew and I have been making this sound with him when we play with his stuffed cow and Luke has been watching our mouths as we make the sound.  He decided to copy of of us.) He has been talking non-stop for several months now.  But, he is so polite about it.  When there are several people in the room speaking, he remains quiet--almost like he is "waiting his turn".  Then, when it is quiet, he jabbers.  Initially, he would speak mainly vowel sounds, but he has been combining them with consonants lately. 
• He selects toys and moves them from one hand to the other.
• He enjoys objects with buttons and lights---like cell phones, remote controls, etc.  That is why the Easter bunny brought him his own little toy cell phone.  I think it is one of his new favorite toys.
• He loves to hug and kiss his stuffed animals.  Luke is such a loving little boy!
• He reaches into bowls, or toys and pulls objects out.  Or, alternatively, he dumps them out.
• Some of his first books were the touchy-feely books.  Even when he was just a few months old, he would scratch at and feel the various textures on the books.  Now, he does that to every book (not just the touch-feely kind) and has begun to do the same cute scratchy motion on other fabrics and textures.   
• He's extremely social!  He doesn't know a stranger.  I know experts say though that 6-months is usually the age that baby's begin to get "stranger anxiety"--we'll see.  
• He's enjoying playing peek-a-boo. 

Today, we took Luke to Sears for a 6-month old portrait session. You can view the pics by clicking here.  He is at a really good age for getting professional pictures.  Our little boy is SO happy--he smiles all of the time.  And, since he is not mobile, it makes the pictures sessions really easy.  The really tough part was trying to figure out which pictures we wanted to buy!

Easter Weekend!

For Easter Weekend, we celebrated Christ's resurrection by traveling to Oklahoma to visit family.  We were very excited to see everyone, but especially excited to meet the newest member of the family, little Linnea.  Linnea Gretchen was born on Friday, March 5th at 1:55 p.m. She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 19 inches long.  My sister, Holly, brother-in-law, Ryan, and niece, Lilly, are so excited about the newest addition to the family.

Luke was especially excited to be around so many kids his age.   Luke turned 6-months old on Easter, so he is really at the perfect age to begin playing with other kids.  Here are some pictures from the weekend.  We took a lot of pictures--if you would like to see more, please visit our picasaweb album:  Easter 2010.

Here is Luke checking out what the Easter Bunny brought to him:

A Family Picture:

A picture of all of the Cousins:

Daddy & Luke:

Grandma, Grandpa & Luke:

Here are some pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt:

After the egg hunt, Drew took a picture of Luke and I:

There are a lot of fun places for kids to play at my parents' house.  Emily, Jason, Dad (Grandpa), Brody, Luke and I went to see their horses and do a little fishing in the pond.  Here is a cute picture that Emily took of Grandpa, Brody & Luke in the boat:

Here is a sweet picture of Lilly and the newest addition to the family, Linnea. 

Of course, I had to get a picture with Linnea also:

We had a great time and are already missing everyone!  We're looking forward to getting everyone together again soon!

Our Trip to Houston for Mitchell's Birthday Party

We visited Houston a couple of weekends ago to celebrate Mitchell's 9th birthday with him.  I can't believe he is 9 years old.   Mitchell is Luke's cousin on Drew's side of the family.  We had a lot of fun celebrating.  As you can see, the theme of the party was "Houston Astros."  We even bought Luke a couple of jerseys that were on clearance so that he could join in the fun.  Here are some fun pics from the party and the weekend.

We also played some fun games.  Here, we are playing musical chairs.  I hate this picture, but it is a good one of me beating out Drew for one of the final two chairs.   I ended up coming in second place. 

I had to sit the next game out because it involved balloons.  Some of you may not know I have an intense fear of balloons.  I must have had a scary childhood experience with one of those balloon games where you race to sit on the balloon and pop it--or perhaps it was an incident with a punch balloon.  Here is a picture of Drew participating in the balloon game.  The object of the game was to keep your balloon inflated while you chased others to pop theirs.  Drew was pretty good at this game--but, Mitchell ended up sneaking up on Drew while Drew was going in for an attack on another balloon.  While Drew celebrated his victory, Mitchell popped Drew's balloon.  Drew got 2nd place---2nd was our thing that day!

Here is a picture of Mitchell's cool cake:

We took a walk later that day.  Audrey & Lauren (Luke's other cousins and Mitchell's sisters) were all tuckered out after the day's events:

On Sunday, we went to church with the family.  Here are some good pictures of the family after church:

Some Recent Pics

I was getting ready to take Luke for a walk---he was looking too cute so I had to grab the camera for a quick pic.

He was enjoying his tummy time and looking cute--so again, I had to grab the camera for a quick pic.  :-)

The obligatory after-the-bath hooded towel photo.

Here's Luke trying his very first sweet potatoes that mommy made him.   Daddy asks him to open wide before each bite, and I must say he does that very well! 

All Done!!!!  He REALLY likes his sweet potatoes.

We're trying to catch up on blog posts.  The pics above were from early March. Stay tuned for some pics and a blog post from our adventures in Houston last weekend!

Luke discovers it has been he in the mirror all along!

Last night, after Luke had his first cereal, we sat Luke down in front of the stand-up mirror.  This time, Luke realized it was he who he has been seeing in the mirror.  The pictures are pretty funny!

Luke has been really good about taking his naps lately.  He takes a really good morning and afternoon nap.  Here is a picture of the little guy all tuckered out from jumping on his jumperoo.   I guess he was ready for his nap.  

Luke loves his feet lately.  He keeps trying to stick them in his mouth--he can stick his right toes in his mouth, but hasn't quite mastered the left one.

This picture was just too cute not to share!