FIVE!

Luke turned 5 years old last week!  A whole hand! :)  I can hardly believe that we have been parents for 5 years.  That went by in the blink of an eye.  We sure do love our Luke.  He is the sweetest, kindest, most thoughtful boy.  He has such a loving heart, and tells me I am beautiful, gives me hugs and kisses without prompting, and loves all over his two sisters.  He can get frustrated easily, and we have been working on controlling outbursts of anger.  These outbursts are usually directed at a nameless 2 year old girl. ;)  He is super smart, and takes after his daddy in that he is interested in learning everything.  Brian can sit and explain how something works that is way over his head, and Luke will listen with interest.  I look at Brian at times, roll my eyes, and tell him that is TMI for a 5 year old, but Luke wants to hear all these things, and actually retains a lot of it.  They are two peas in a pod.  :)  And... they both like to talk.... a lot!  My house is pretty much never quiet, and Audrey has just now started telling Luke to be quiet, because it is her turn to talk.  Haha.  Luke still likes to dress up, and is very interested in "Rescuing".  This means many different things to him, but he has been obsessed for awhile now.  We are even having a "Rescue Center" birthday party this weekend. He says when he grows up he is going to be a Rescue Diver in the Coast Guard.   Luke loves soccer and hitting baseballs in the backyard.  He has also become a little fish this summer, and can pretty much do anything he wants now in the pool.  We are so blessed by this boy, and I can already see he has a heart for the Lord.  He says things to me that truly inspire me, and he brings so much joy and love to all our lives!    

Here is a little interview with Mr. Luke.

What is your favorite color? blue

What is your favorite food?  pizza

What is your favorite treat? chocolate cake

What do you want to be when you grow up? Water Rescue Center

What is your favorite toy to play with? How to Train Your Dragon dragons

What is your favorite movie? Lego Movie

What is your favorite TV show? Wild Kratts

What is your favorite book? all of them

What is your favorite animal? Harpy Eagle

What do you like to do with Mommy?  ride bikes to Tula and Pop's house

What do you like to do with Daddy? explore with him

What do you like to do with Audrey? swing with her

What do you like to do with Savannah? pick her up and carry her

Typical Luke face.  

Luke's yearly birthday pictures.  Crazy how much he has changed!

We are having his big friend party at our house this weekend, but we had a mini celebration the actual day of his birthday with swimming at Tula and Pop's house.

Cannonball!

Luke got to open his presents and Ben and Audrey were close by to watch.

So excited about this "Rescue Center".

Mama's excited about this!  Memories...

Luke was testing out his new Razor scooter on the driveway prior to swimming, and took a bit of a fall.  He is showing off his wound here.

Happy Birthday!

His sister's enjoyed the celebration too!

No less than 30 minutes ago I was trying to take Luke's yearly picture where he wears daddy's shirt. Well... Audrey wanted in on the action as well, and Luke wasn't having it.  Remember when I said we are working on his outbursts?  Well, apparently we need more work. Haha!

This makes me laugh.  Keeping it real people, keeping it real... After everyone calmed down, I was finally successful.  Oh the challenge that is raising kids!  Here is Luke from 1 to 5.  Sweet baby boy. (It is funny to me how bad my photography skills were back in the day, haha!)

Happy Birthday to this amazing boy that we are beyond blessed to call ours!

10 Months

Sweet Savannah turned 10 months last week!  2 short months away from a whole year.  With this being our last baby, it is so weird to think about packing away "baby things".  She has pretty much given up on the jumpy, soon no more bottles for this household...it is crazy!  She is the sweetest thing and such a joy to our family.  Here is what is new this month:

• teeth!  Her bottom teeth busted out while we were on vacation, July 4th exactly.  I call them her patriotic teeth. ;)
• Waves hi and bye bye now
• tries to say bye bye
• says mama, dada
• Starting to look at Audrey, Luke, Otie, Mommy and Daddy whenever I say "where's ____?"
• Can walk behind the walker now
• cruises around furniture, but afraid of going in between objects.  She will sit down first and crawl to next object instead of trying to transfer
• crawls up stairs
• Eats pretty much anything (see below picture..haha!)
• still on 4 bottles a day
• Finished her helmet!  So thankful!
• size 3 diapers, 4 at night
• 9 month to 12 month clothing

You can see her crooked little teeth in this picture. 

Praise the Lord, helmet free!  We did see a pretty good change in her head, but a flat spot is still present.  Overall, we are very happy with the results.  Would she have been fine without it? Possibly, but overall, I am so glad we did it, as 2 years from now I would have been panicking if I thought I didn't do everything I should have done for her.  Haha, I have crazy brain!

First helmet free day for them together!

One of the many things I have found in her mouth.  Bird poop is also on this list.

First pedi with her mommy and sister.

This girl is a "bruiser baby".  She is all over the place and very rough.  I caught her eating a crayon, and after snapping this pic, noticed she had an eye wound.  She is one tough cookie!

First spaghetti dinner was a hit!  A messy hit!

Savannah is such a gift, and we can't wait to see what kind of person she becomes and the life God has in store for her.

Rosemary Beach

We got back from the quaint little town of Rosemary Beach, Florida 2 weeks ago.  I am still having beach withdrawals.  This was our first time going, and we will be back, probably more than once!  It is a little down the shore from Destin, Grayton Beach, Watercolor, and Seaside.  It was super family friendly, and other than stocking up on groceries, there is no need to get in your car.  It was a perfect vacation, and we are so very grateful Tula and Pop brought us along.  

We decided to make the 13 hour drive instead of fly.  We left at 4 in the morning, thinking the kids would fall back asleep, but that was a no go.  The first day we traveled to Mobile, Alabama after 10 hours of driving.  The kids did amazing! Here are some sweet feet during the drive.

After a night in Mobile, we stopped at the USS Alabama before making the additional 3 hour trip.  It was very interesting and the kids had fun exploring the ship.

We arrived at Rosemary Beach that afternoon.  The town has a European feel, and is so very cute.

The boardwalk from our house to the beach.

Everyday we ventured out into the town.  The Sugar Shack was a hit with the kids!

You could ride bikes everywhere.  Luke loved riding around town, and the other kids enjoyed riding on the back of the bikes.

We had some fun lunches in town.

We also made it out to Seaside, for a delicious lobster roll lunch.

Ali and I switched off watching the kids on opposite nights, so we each got a kid free night out with our hubbies and the rest of the adults.  On Brian and I's night, we ate at the little restaurant that had old movies playing in the courtyard.

We enjoyed family time at the house.

We also ventured out one day to a putt putt built in the 1950s.  This was the first time any of the kids had played golf, and they had a blast.

Riding down one night to enjoy the live music.

Audrey's Papa always stood like this.  It must have rubbed off.  He is probably smiling down from heaven looking at this view.

Sweet Savannah.

We were there over July 4th, and they had a bike decorating breakfast and parade.  It was so much fun!

We made our way down to the beach for fireworks that night. The show was amazing!

Ben was precious and put his hands in the air after almost every firework.

When we weren't enjoying the town or napping, we were beaching it.  It was the softest sand I have ever felt.

We got tons of looks with this one.  I read on pinterest about bringing a shower curtain to the beach so you can make a little baby pool.  It worked like a charm.  We also used the little pool to watch the hermit crabs that Brian collected from the ocean.  

Audrey was a little fish by the end of the trip.  She loved riding her float in with the waves.

Love these booties!

One night we attempted family pictures.  Not too bad!

Sweet Rebecca turned 1 on the trip, so I snapped a few "1 year pictures".  Precious little thing!

We were going to wake up early on Sunday and drive back, but about noon Saturday, Brian and I decided that we would just leave at 7pm and drive all night alternating every 2 hours.  It was so worth it!  The kids slept all 13 hours, and we pulled into McKinney at 8 in the morning.  Brian and I were exhausted, but it sure beat having to entertain three little ones.  

The trip was so relaxing, and overall so much fun.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone.  Thank you Tula and Pop for wanting to take our crazy crew on great vacations!  All good things must come to an end though....  Here is what happened on day 1 and day 2 of being home.  Back to reality. =)