PGA here we come!

You see this guy? This two year old little boy has become quite the golfer. He loves to play on his golf course in the backyard. It basically consists of hitting balls from one side of the yard to the other. He uses real balls and real clubs and he is pretty good. In fact I would venture to say that he is better than me.
Last week, he went to play golf with his daddy and his poppy. They took him to Kiawah Island and he played 4 holes at Cougar Pointe, where Mike works part-time.

If you don't know much about golf, then know this. Next year the PGA championship will be hosted there. That is the the fourth major of the year. Not on that course, but on the island. The courses are nice, very nice and greens fees are equivalent to a car payment. And my two year old had his first golf experience there. Not too shabby. Oh, and I was told that he did pretty good, until a big black bird stole his pb&j sandwich out of the cart. It was kinda downhill from there. But, he had fun, his daddy and poppy had fun, and his mama is proud!

10 months!

Luke is 10 months old now and he has decided to start taking steps! Oh my gosh! It has been funny to watch him hit milestones. He has beat Will by a couple of months on all the major ones from sitting up to now learning to walk. I guess it is true that the younger siblings pick up on things faster because they have an older sibling to watch. This little one is cracking us up daily! He has a cute personality and loves to laugh!
So...what is this little one doing now?
*Taking steps-he has been doing this for about a week, he will take a few and then fall, but he has also been able to walk across most of a room
*drink from a sippy cup
*dance-he loves music and loves to dance!
*sprint crawl-after Luke falls from taking steps he literally sprints across the floor on all fours!
*climbing stairs
*eating more and more table food
*into everything, I have to watch him like a hawk!

A Friday Night Out

Last Friday night, Mike and I took the boys downtown for a family night. It was kind of impromptu, but it was a ton of fun. We ate at Yo Burrito, went through the Market and ended up playing in the pineapple fountain at Waterfront Park. They boys had a blast. Mike and I had a blast. We can't wait to do it again! Here are some pictures from our fun night:

Big Boy Will

I have been watching Will for the past few weeks, just observing him as he goes about his every day life, and it dawned on me that he is such a big boy now. I know that might sound silly, but when you are used to telling a 2 1/2 year old how big they are, it seems normal. This kid is knocking our socks off with the things that he is doing and frankly, we are proud of our big boy.
Here are the latest things he is doing:
*Copying- Will has learned so much from just watching us! He literally wants to do everything that we do! The other day we were outside watching Mike cut the grass. Will got his lawnmower, watched his daddy and copied exactly what Mike did. He picks up on everything, including tiny details. Now when Will plays with his lawnmower, he pretends like he is pulling the starter, just like his daddy does. It is really cute!


*Helping-He has helped me for sometime now, but now he is able to do things that he hasn't before. He loves to get things for me. From getting a spoon out of the silverware drawer to getting socks out of his drawer, he is excited to help when can.
*Reading-oh my, this little boy is a child after my own heart! He LOVES to read and adores the library! His favorite books tend to be about trains or trucks, but he also likes boats and the Biscuit series.

*Talking-This kid has so much to say! He is able to carry on a conversation with you now and he is so cute as he thinks about each word he is going to say. You can tell he really wants to get it right! He loves to say, "Nope, not yet!", "Yep", "Mommy, I hold you", "Where are me?", "I wub you mommy!" and "I a big boy!". Every morning when we get up, he always asks where his daddy is. He wants to know if daddy is golf course, coffee shop or church! We know he is listening to us, because he will say the things that we talk to him about in conversations with different people. He is getting somewhat nosy and loves to ask "What is it?", "What happened" or "What did Gukie do, mommy?" when I say something to the effect of "Oh no!".
*Learning-Last week I started "homeschooling" Will. We went to Wal-Mart and got him some supplies, and after my friend Danna sent us some materials and websites, we got started. We are having a blast! We started with the letter A and have now moved on to B. We are making an ABC book and doing different activities with the letters, including painting, reading stories, and nursery rhymes. We are also working on scripture memorization. Genesis 1:1 is this month's verse, he is doing pretty good. We might get 20 minutes a day, but he is excited to learn. I am proud of him!

*On being a brother-This is an area where we are struggling. It is so hard as a parent to watch Will with Luke, one minute he loves him, the next he is pushing Luke over as he walks by. He can't stand for Luke to touch anything that belongs to him and naturally Luke only wants to play with Will's toys. I have been told it is just a phase and not to worry too much about it. I am looking forward to them being playmates very soon. Here's hoping that they will be close friends as well.

Will is such a sweet little boy. He is all boy and very active and rambunctious, but he is also compassionate and always up for a snuggle. He is my big boy!

Luke at 9 months

I totally slacked and forgot to do an eight month picture and update for Luke. I hope he can forgive me! But I'm back with his 9 month update. Right now, Luke is so much fun! He is full of personality and determination. He is standing and crawling really well, but I have a feeling that his walking days are right around the corner.
Here are the things I want to remember at this age:
*He is always smiling and showing his 2 little teeth!
*He crawls really well and really fast
*He stands all the time and is cruising around furniture like a champ
*He is starting to eat more and more food, in fact we are starting to feed him some from the table, including spaghetti, rice, peas, cheese, bananas and crackers
*He is sleeping better at night going 7-8 hours at a time
*He is saying mama when he sees me, this mostly happens when he is fussy, he is a mama's boy!
*He is an active little boy! We have already had 2 black-eyes and a trip to the ER with this one. I hope this not a sign of things to come!

Trying out spaghetti for the first time.

Memory-Keeper

I am really trying to be a good memory-keeper for both of my boys. I want them both to have albums and albums of baby pictures. I want them to know exactly when they hit major milestones in their lives. Instead of doing a baby-book I chose to do a blog and a First Year Calendar. But, they also each have a bag that keeps all of their important stuff, like cards and doctor's office papers.



Last night it dawned on me that Luke's calendar needed to be updated. I had not written anything in it since he was 3 months old. I sat and tried to think about when he started doing things, like crawling and standing, and honestly I couldn't remember. So I read my blog, since I did a decent job at keeping it updated. Just looking at those pictures and reading each post made me a little emotional. My baby is already 9 months old! Wasn't he just born yesterday? My big boy is 2 and 1/2. It is mind-blowing how fast they grow. I am so thankful that I have recorded these memories and hope that one day the boys will be as well.

Chattanooga Road Trip

Hanging with Marmie and Poppy at a Lookouts game.

This spring, we have spent time with lots of family. A couple of weeks ago, Will, Luke and I headed out to Chattanooga to spend time with my parents and to go to our nephew Tate's 1st birthday party. Mike wasn't able to go with us. He was here helping paint a school with about 300 other volunteers. Go to www.lovegave.com and read about it. Anyways, that meant the boys and I had to do a 7 hour drive by ourselves. We made it and found that it wasn't that bad.

Luke and Tate, my dad and I tried to get a picture of all 3 cousins, but it wasn't happening!

So, what did we do? We visited Marmie and Poppy at work, we played at a park, we went to Tate's party and spent the night with Aunt Linny and Uncle Seth, we went to play with our cousin Jake, we went to the aquarium and to a Lookouts baseball game. Every night the boys went to bed exhausted, but they had a blast and so did I.

Marmie and Luke at the park.
Marmie and the boys at the penguin exhibit at the aquarium.
Poppy and Will in the shark tank.
Poppy and Will before the game. He has a wierd look on his face, but Will loved every minute of the game. He is still talking about it!
My boys and I

We look forward to hanging out with family again soon!