May 2013

May 01, 2013

Having a MASSIVE cookie sandwich at the outlet mall! Don't worry, he didn't eat the whole thing! I think it might have stopped his heart if he had!

Yep, I forgot Luke's shoes so I was the lady with the little barefoot hooligan child running around the outlet mall. Whoops!

We didn't have any quarters, so Luke resorted to pushing the rides. And he actually got this one moving with those strong little legs!

Luke sat on Garfield's lap to make room for me. It still wasn't enough room, but I did my best.

Sleepy boy on the ride home.

I just couldn't resist getting these for the twins at the Disney Store while we were at the mall!

Most nights, I climbed into Luke's bed next to him, big pregnant belly and all, to read him bedtime stories. Eventually Jeff took the railing off of the bed, supposedly so that Luke would be able to get out of bed to use the bathroom more easily at night, but I think it was also at least partially motivated by how ridiculous I looked trying to heft myself up over it each night.

May 02, 2013

Luke built a pretty innovative track all on his own, fitting pieces together in ways they aren't really supposed to connect in order to make more fun hills and bumps.

24 Weeks

May 03, 2013

Practicing his letters, in this case "H." Luke knows most all of his letters and can write several of them. He also can identify numbers 1-9.

[Facebook post] Been hanging out with this cute boy all morning and he's been particularly sweet and snuggly. I was already in heaven, but then he says, "Mommy, I love you." (he usually just says "I like you" and that's already a pretty big compliment, so I love you is a pretty big deal) and THEN, "Hey Mommy, I'm so happy you're my mommy." Seriously?! This kid is going to kill me! I'm way too pregnant and hormonal to handle this!

Best part of making cookies!

Ranch dressing art? I decided to let this slide in the name of creativity. I was actually surprised my neat, mess-hating boy even wanted to do this!

May 04, 2013

We had our monthly Saturday-before-Fast-Sunday family dinner at the park this month. Football, Kites, Soccer, Swings, good times.

May 06, 2013

Luke made a Mother's Day card for Grandma Lamb. We traced his hands and connected them with an accordion-style strip of paper. It said, "I Love You ...THIS MUCH!"

Luke's note says, "I draw a 'E' on there! I love her! (you) I put stickers on there! I want to play with with her. I like playing with Grandma. She's a nice Grandma cause she don't hit anybody. I want to walk around on the sidewalk with the stroller, and play toys with Grandma." Love, Luke

 

My brother, Jared, wasn't about to be outdone! He had Ashley help him trace his hands and on Mother's Day, he taped one to either side of the house and connected them with a ribbon ...

A note hung in the middle: "I Love You THIS MUCH! Your move, Luke." SO funny!

May 08, 2013

Jeff taught the whole neighborhood how to make the best paper airplanes! They loved it!

May 09, 2013

Splash Pad in the Rain!

Jeff threw Luke's ball up into these buckets and then caught it when it poured out over and over.

May 10, 2013

Crazy boy bike riding in the rain!

[Facebook Post]: These two went shopping for me for Mother's Day yesterday and each came home with a dress they picked out for baby girl! How sweet are they?? And they got something for me too. Jeff practiced with Luke the whole way home to say "nothing" when I asked what it was, but Luke got flustered and told me they got me earrings, and then tried to take it back: "Nothing, Mom, I said nothing." haha At least I still don't know what they look like! I love these boys!

May 11, 2013

These kids constantly beg Jeff to play "drive-thru" ever since he came up with it on this Saturday night.

We needed a double stroller and a wagon to walk to the church with all four kids for the youth talent show.

Watching the show. It's fun to imagine Jeff covered in a pile of our own kids one day!

Ben and Caitlin picked up their kids from the church, so Luke had the wagon all to himself to fall asleep in on the walk home.

May 12, 2013

Mother's Day

My boys have good taste!

Jeff made me french toast for breakfast - my Birthday and Mother's Day breakfast of choice. Yum!

My initial glucose test came back abnormal (Just barley - a score of 140 or higher is abnormal. My score was 140). The condition is much more common with twin pregnancy because all of the extra hormones can suppress insulin production. It was 3 weeks before my 3 hour test was scheduled to determine whether or not I had gestational diabetes, so I spent 3 weeks on a gestational diabetes diet, just in case. Sadly, Mother's Day fell in the middle of those 3 weeks so I couldn't eat my mother's day chocolate bar (they hand out king size Hershey's and Symphony bars to all of the women 18+ at church on Mother's Day). Fortunately for me, I did not have gestational diabetes so I was clear to eat Jeff's bar on Father's Day! Ha! He's too good to me!

May 13, 2013

Luke got a bubble gun after a long walk to HEB.

May 14, 2013

Luke and I picked up a pair of googles for all of our anticipated summer pool time. He liked them a little too much and for a few days, insisted on wearing them, even when we weren't going swimming!

Yep, that's my odd child wearing googles at the park for no good reason! At least he's happy!

We love HEB! Luke never passes up an opportunity to go grocery shopping with me because HEB is full of all kinds of yummy samples and at check out he gets Buddy Bucks. Each Buddy Buck lets him spin the wheel once to earn points. Eventually the points add up to earn him a prize.

May 15, 2013

26 Weeks

I brought Luke with me to my cleaning at the dentist a few days before he was scheduled for his very first cleaning. Everyone at the office treated him so great, answered all of his questions, and the dentist even let him choose a prize out of the treasure chest afterwards. He left so excited to come back for his own appointment and to get his own toothbrush - a blue one according to him.

Choosing a prize after his cleaning. The woman who cleaned his teeth said she's never had a kid his age do so well and she would be bragging about him for a long time!

He got his blue (and green) toothbrush! He immediately called his Daddy to tell him all about his cleaning!

We found a centipede outside the hospital when we went to register for the twins delivery. Luke wanted to take him home so bad!

But I convinced him to leave his new friend on a pretty flower where he would be happy.

May 17, 2013

Jump On In with Boston and Kayla

This kids is always trying to climb up the slides!

The balls float on a jet of air for batting practice. Luke couldn't get enough of this!

This boy looked about 10. He and his friend were so sweet to Luke and Boston! Luke started crying because he wanted to play air hockey, so one of the boys let Luke take his place. And then, the other boy played with Luke and kept letting him score and telling him how awesome he was, while the boy who gave up his spot to Luke played foosball with Boston.

May 18, 2013

Luke and I went to the Pasadena Strawberry Festival while Jeff took his church teachers quorum (boys 14-16 yrs.) out on the boat.

It was a long drive and we didn't have the Expedition (and DVD player), so we set up a movie on the laptop.

"Don't eat Mommy's dress!"

This guy was amazing! He did a back flip on that pogo stick!

Luke's face while he watched pogo stick man. He was thoroughly impressed!

Luke went on his very first solo train ride. It was so weird to stay on the platform while he went out of sight for a few minutes driving around the festival grounds! My Luke isn't a baby anymore!

Train whistle.

Luke was really excited to find that the steering wheel on this little boat actually worked! He would drive straight at the edge of the pool and then turn really sharp at the last minute (just like he does in the car grocery carts at HEB - of course in that case, whether or not the steering wheel works is entirely up to me).

Texas is CRAZY! This is called Mutton Bustin' and it's essentially bull riding, but with sheep and 5-year-olds. It's nuts! These sheep BOLT out of the gate and the kids hang on for dear life while two young cowboys (the guy in the white shirt and jeans in the picture) do their best to keep up in case they need to intervene, but there is really very little they can do in most cases. One girl held on so long that one of the boys chasing her kind of panicked and just tackled the sheep right on top of her. After the sheep had rolled over her, she just got up and ran her little victory lap like nothing had happened! She totally earned her first place title!

1st (girl) and 2nd place - brother and sister.

HUGE strawberry shortcake!

Out in the parking lot waiting for the car to cool down (it was a HOT day!) with my giant 26.5 week pregnant belly!

May 20, 2013

Making wishes on the way to the pool.

Who would have thought we would run into friends at the pool at 9:30 in the morning?? Luke was so excited to see his friend Dax!

We found a turtle wandering around in the grass on the way home, so we brought it back to the lake.

Luke: "He's smiling at me!" I didn't have the heart to tell him the turtle was really just threatening to bite him.

Apple, Mr. Turtle?

May 21, 2013

Renita invited Caitlin and I to a Relief Society activity with her ward where we made photo mats with our family pictures to frame a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I copied about 100 pictures to a word document to print for the project, but I didn't manage to get them all re-sized in time for the activity. In comes my knight in shining armor! Jeff is always saving my booty and picking up my slack! Love him!

The final result. Now I just have to find a frame.

May 24, 2013

[Facebook post] Luke and Becca were SO excited to have a sleep-over at our house last night and then spend all day on the boat together today! Luke woke up at 5am asking, "Is it time to go yet?!?" and Becca, who is normally NOT a morning person, got out of bed on her own at 6am and RAN down the stairs, happy as could be when she heard Jeff getting things ready!

Luke had no problem helping feather-weight Becca out of the water onto the back of the boat over and over again ...

 ..But when they tried it the other way around, it wasn't very successful. They decided to just have Luke help Becca after that.

Haha Oh, Luke! So much cuter in person! He and camera's just don't get along!

27.5 week pregnant lady on a boat! (probably for the last time this pregnancy) I got a little bit of a tan on that big white belly by the end of the day!

Becca thought I looked like a comfy seat!

Jeff's wakeboarding audience. "Jump Dad!/Jump Jeff!" (and repeat 25 times)

He did as he was told.

We had a friendly visitor swim out to the boat while we were anchored near shore.

The kids LOVED him!

I did too.

Repeating my instructions to the dog to stay only on the back of the boat (Jeff was not about to allow dog nails and hair on his vinyl seats!)

Luke shared the whistle he found with Becca.

And made sure she knew how to use it (this kid is going to have no problem filling the bossy/know-it-all big brother role!)

"Yeah, you got it."

My tube riders preparing to abandon ship! The little ones thought it was SO fun to jump off the back of the tube at 5 or 10 miles per hour!

Jeff has less fun, since this is what they did to him every time they jumped off while they waited for me to swing around to pick them up.

Jeff THREW the kids back onto the tube each time! They LOVED it!

The pouty faces that accompanied, "We don't WANT to go home! We want to do it AGAIN!"

They couldn't resist Jeff's efforts to make them smile for long!

They both gave up and dozed off on the way back to the dock.

May 25, 2013

May 27, 2013

Memorial Day at Greg and Renita's House

I got a little scraped up in the bushes catching this lizard for these kids like in the days of my youth! Haha!

Drawing rainbows

Pool time next door at Elaine's.

Shark attack

Jeff was surprisingly good at hitting these things! (Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, considering who we're talking about)

"I'm going to wish that I can have a doggie." Did you hear that Jeff?! ;)

Quality entertainment! Especially Kyle's amazing faces!

See those scratches on Kyle's left side? Yeah, Jeff did that.

Big pregnant bellies don't mix well with this game, but I had to try it a few times! I caught this one! (we'll pretend that it wasn't only because Jeff was only allowed to use his left hand).

May 28, 2013

Luke got an early birthday package from Grandma and Grandpa Lamb!

A pop-up book, a head lamp, two puzzles, and a few cars. Grandma knows Luke well!

Grandma watched Luke open all of his knew toys via Skype.

May 29, 2013

28 Week pregnant belly!

May 30, 2013

Luke LOVES helping me at the gas station! From paying with my credit card ...

... to answering questions on the screen ...

... to selecting the fuel grade ...

... to pumping the gas ...

... and finally, watching those cost and gallon number go higher and higher.

Sometimes a rabbit eating a leaf is more interesting than whatever animal is in the zoo enclosure.

This chimpanzee made Luke laugh looking at him upside down.

Being like the big kids (or should I say older kids? Luke is as big as most 5 year olds!)

Luke was delighted to find out that the zoo added a new splash pad! We'll come prepared next time!

We watched this poor, bored tiger walk in the same exact circle over and over again.

Get into the water ...

Wade all the way to the end. Climb out, walk back to the other end on land, and repeat.

This baby elephant was kind of destructive and unruly.

He kept annoying and getting into trouble with his mom.

He would obnoxiously stay just out of her reach. It was so funny to watch!

Meanwhile, this this guy was a momma's boy and stayed snuggled up to his mommy, perfectly behaved the entire time. I bet the other little elephant thinks this one is such an annoying goody-two-shoes.

Playing cars by the Komodo Dragon.

Cougars

These are pictures I took of my 28 week + 1 day pregnant belly because I just had to document how fake and plastic I thought it looked! I never got used to it throughout the pregnancy. It caught me off guard every time I walked by my bathroom mirror! Also, I am shocked that I made it through the entire pregnancy without stretch marks! If my pregnancy with Luke didn't do it, I thought for sure a twin pregnancy would!