Luke is 3!

"My son is 3." No! These words are not supposed to come out of my mouth yet! But, I am exactly where I wanted to be at this point in my life. I wanted to be a young mom, and I am lucky that things have worked out for us like they have.... But, I'm only 25, and I'm cleaning out baby stuff! Crazy. I love it though. Heath and I are planning a trip when he gets through stripping this year. It's gonna be fun. AND! The kids and I are going to Disney World in August! I'm super excited. We are going with our sweet Stanley friends. They are like Disney World experts. So, we're gonna tag along and learn the ins and outs without having to read the books and all that jazz. It's gonna be fun.

We celebrated Luke's birthday all week last week. He was so anxious for it to be his birthday because we have celebrated so many birthdays lately and gone to buy gifts for other people, so I think he was starting to wonder if he would ever get to have his birthday! His actual birthday was Tuesday, the 5th, and we started the day off going to tumbling. He was excited for his coaches to tell him "Happy Birthday" that day. When we came home, my parents brought his gifts over, and we went to his place of choice for lunch, which was Dairy Queen. We got him a chocolate sundae for dessert and put candles in it for him. JoJo (my cousin Amber) came over that afternoon and brought him gifts, too, and we sat outside and played with him. We cooked hamburgers that night after Heath got home with JoJo and Jeremy. He opened his gifts from us, and he blew out candles again in the cookies I made for dessert. It was a great day!
For his birthday party, we rented an inflatable slide and had friends and family over. He had a Mike the Knight birthday cake, and he played with bubbles with his friends, too. We are thankful to have so many good friends around his age! Having them here made for a great party.

Luke at 2 years old was very challenging for us. We have loved him through it, but it has been exhausting at times. Honestly, he's just now faithfully sleeping through the night. I sometimes blame myself for how rigid I tried to be with him. Everything was by the book..... Don't rock, don't nurse to sleep, let him cry, yada yada..... Man, if I would've realized how fast that stage is over, I would've rocked him for miles like I have Landry. In fact, I think part of the healing for him has been for him to be nurtured by Heath and me, so he's developed a sense of security he didn't have in the beginning. And, I could be completely off. Maybe it's just his age and outgrowing cutting teeth and being afraid of the dark..? But I do blame myself for part of it. I've rocked him more in the last year than I did in the first year, simply because I see how fast he's gonna outgrow my arms and that chair. Ah, we live and learn though. Hindsight is always 20/20, right?!

He is going to start a PDO program at our church in the fall. I'm excited for him. It's a good way for us to take baby steps into getting him in school, I think. It will be at our church, and he loves going to church now, so I'm looking forward to it for him. We plan on starting him a year late in school since he has a summer birthday, so this will give him something to do before we get him into preschool.

At 3 years old, here are some of his favorites:
- Foods: Strawberries, grapes, chicken, pizza, cinnamon toast crunch, green beans, salad, chocolate milk, and ice cream
- Friends: Jaxon and Kale
- Color: Seems to be Red
- Toys: McQueen cars, Gator, Baseball, Golf, and Batman costume/mask
- Restaurant: Blue Sky and ChickFilA
- Songs: Twinkle Twinkle, Real Gone (Cars), and You've Got a Friend in Me (Toy Story)

As for Landry, she is now 9 1/2 months old, and like Luke was, she is in no hurry to get moving. She army crawls across the house, and when she thinks she's going really fast, she breaths fast but moves no faster. She loves all foods but is getting to where she would rather feed herself than have baby food. She still nurses, but she's gotten pretty good with juice in a sippy cup. Her foods of choice are ritz crackers and frozen fruit in her teether. She just got her first tooth last week! It's starting to show just a little bit when she smiles. She sleeps from about 8:30-8 most nights. She wakes up maybe once a week to eat during the night. She does 2 naps a day, but she can go on 1 if she needs to. She'll swim no matter how cold the water is, and she loves for Luke to give her attention! She giggles so much when he hovers over her and tickles her. Part of it is for the tickling, and the other part is just because he's giving her attention. She loves men! She cries if Heath comes home and doesn't hold her, and she loves to go to her Papa and cuddle. She's pretty much the sweetest thing and not a form of birth control if you're looking for one! Ha!

So, here are some pictures!

Headed to tumbling on his birthday.

Dairy Queen for lunch!

Bubbles with JoJo the afternoon of his bday.

And some party pictures!

This was the picture I took after I got myself and the kids ready for Sunday School when Heath was out of town.

The kids were "hiding" in my bathroom cabinets while I was getting ready one day.

Landry with Daddy Don

Swimming at Guggy and Kakee's

Pool time with cousin Londyn!

Luke giving Heath a buzz. :)

Love my babies!

Landry wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses.

More cousin time!

Luke as Buzz Lightyear.

SPRING!!!!

Well... it's been too long! I'll try to catch up with some pictures.

As for the kids....

We have all been loving the warmer weather. The wheels on Luke's gator might be slick by the end of the summer. He doesn't like water in his ears, so the idea of swimming is having to grow on him. And, it is! He really enjoyed swimming with his Stanley friends Easter weekend. They broke him in well and got him hunting eggs and getting more brave in the water. He had a blast! He loves going to "Twaci's". He was begging us to leave him there before we even left our house. Haha :)

He knows all of his colors and shapes really well. He can count to 10 and tries to go beyond that some. He sings his ABCs but some letters are jibberish. He'll get there. I'm not pushing it! He loves going places with Heath. He begs to go to Len's barn and fly remote control "harplanes". He'll hardly leave the house without a cap on, and he's getting that way about his sunglasses, too. He's been wearing flip flops since it's been warm. Hearing him try to say "flip flops" is pretty dang funny, I think.
He's so sweet and tender hearted. He encourages me just like I do him. He'll tell me "good job" for things I do and told me "That's great!" when I told him I had painted in my class. From about 4 months to 2 years, church was a struggle for us and something we ended up dreading every Sunday. Luke would cry when we got in the parking lot. He's really gotten better and loves going now. In fact, sometimes, he cries to leave! We are thankful for Terri Stanley for loving on him and getting him to enjoy going.

It's funny how different Luke and Landry are... Luke could watch 15 episodes of Dora in a row. He would watch a good 20 minutes of Sesame Street when he was 4 months old. Landry has yet to watch 5 minutes of TV. Luke has never been a belly sleeper, and Landry loves being on her belly. Luke took a pacifier in the hospital. Landry has never taken one. -- They are definitely both challenging in their own ways! 

Landry's little personality is coming out more all the time. She is 7 months now and is always happy. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but she gives the cutest gummy grins! She is babbling and saying what sounds like "bubba" most often. She's just started trying to wave and say "bye-bye". She would love to be able to follow Luke's every move. She rolls all over the living room chasing him as best she can. She giggles out of control when Luke gives her attention. She loves for me to hold her and chase Luke... She'll squeal out of excitement! He loves it, too. She sleeps really good... This week she's slept 10-11 hours every night. She goes to sleep on her own and usually doesn't fuss too much about it. She loves bath time and splashes with Luke in the water. AND! She's started taking a bottle! She's still nursing, but we actually got to go to dinner last week with no kids! It was awesome. 

Heath has been spraying and has had his water going... He went to the race in Dallas, and we stayed home and had a really lazy weekend! We are still waiting on that one good rain we need to really get everything going. We are faithful that it will come!

-- Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, Lord our God. Therefore, our hope is in You, for you are the One who does all this. - Jeremiah 14:22

So here's a look at what we've been up to....

We went to Dallas with friends for Spring Break while Heath was in Las Vegas for the annual NASCAR trip.

Here, we were taking a break at Six Flags.

Ethan and Kade at Legoland - they are buddies!

Kade giving Kale a boost - How sweet?! :)

Luker doesn't care where he is as long as he has friends around!

Traci showed Kale and Luke the lego farm. 

Luke and Landry checked out early.

Kade braving the ride home between Luke and Kale!

See why he needed to go back to work!? Too much time on his hands to shop for toys!

Sweet girl.

We've painted with the pinterest recipe using cornstarch, water, and food coloring. Fun!

Luke's big goose egg.

This picture makes all the hectic times having 2 little ones all worth it. 

Belly sleeper!

I love her pudgy wudgies. :)

Easter with the Roses

Silly boy!

Heath put Kade to work. :)

She gets a million kisses a day. :)

Luke and Landry playing.

Luke saying "flip flops"!