Just like bro!

Nate is doing everything so much earlier than Luke ever cared to try. I guess that's what happens when you have an older sibling. He rarely lets me feed him anymore.

Paci - FREE!

It has been one week since Chance and I took a big gulp and attempted to get Luke to give up his Pacifier. I had been dreading the day for a very long time and though I've know for awhile now that we need to get rid of it, we just couldn't get ourselves to take away Luke's favorite thing in the whole world! Not to mention, we were scared to death of the havoc it would reek on Luke's sleeping!

I am still in shock, but I am overjoyed to announce that Luke has been free of his paci for a week now. And He has slept the last two nights, without a hitch. He has taken a couple naps too!

We sort of did it on a whim. He wanted a "Mac" truck so Chance and I told him he could have it if he gave us his paci's - and he would never ever get them again. We weren't really sure if he would go for it. But after having "one more" nap with his paci's he came downstairs holding them out, took one last suck and then handed them over. That night, amazingly he fell asleep without a complaint of no paci. But then.... he woke up in the middle of the night crying, "I don't want to be a big boy anymore!!!!" It was so sad. I brought him into bed with us and was soooo close to giving in cause he was so upset, but we managed to quiet him down enough to have Chance tell him a couple stories. He ended up falling asleep for the rest of the night. It was the same thing for 3 or 4 more nights. Never complained until the middle of the night or early morning. Every once in awhile before bed he'd ask, "But where ARE my paci's?" We just kept telling him he traded them in for Mac and that he was a big boy now. I've decided we are in the clear today when I overheard him say, "Yeah Nate, that's a paci." I was mortified to hear these words as I thought I had removed all trace of paci's, but when I got to his room I saw Nate holding a smaller paci - that must have been stashed away in a toy somewhere. And Luke never said anything to me about his paci's!! What a BIG BOY!!!! Good job Luke!

Larry Boy

Nate is starting to join in on one of Luke's favorite past times - dancing!

Grandpa Jim

My Dad has been helping us out a lot lately. I'll post more about that later, but it began with him building some fence gates to close off our backyard. It's amazing he can get anything done with his shadow following him around and talking his ear off the whole time. And of course when the real Grandpa Jim leaves - the pretend one comes out immediately! (Notice the voice)

Shindig 2011

We attended the Sultan Shindig this year. First we went to the parade.

Luke takes after his Mom - he is super sensitive to loud noises so unfortunately he spent most of the parade looking like this:

He did however get to meet the Sultan Turk!

Wyatt got there at the end of the parade, so him and Luke watched the end together.

Luke had lots of fun going on rides with Wyatt. One of his favorites was this roller coaster. He had the biggest grin on his face and he was laughing and squealing. It was really cute!

This picture says it all!

Luke loves going down the big slide - I snuck up with him the first time even though I didn't have a bracelet. I figured they wouldn't let me go a second time and since Wyatt was going up by himself, I decided to let Luke go if he wanted to. I have to say I was holding my breath the entire time as he walked up the steep, metal steps with the big old burlap sack. But he did it!

The little ones spent most of the time in their strollers - poor kids. It's just too hard to chase them around too right now! Here are Wade and Sienna - they were troopers!

I had to let Nate out of his bike trailer cage for just a little snuggling!