Luke getting seconds

Tonight at the dinner table, Caroline briefly abandoned her plate.... Luke calmly climbed down from his chair, grabbed HIS plate, climbed into Caroline's chair and dumped her macaroni and cheese onto his plate. He caught us looking and laughing at him, and gave us a knowing look of mischief. He returned to his chair and casually finished off sissy's plate. Nicely done Luke, way to survive in this crazy family!

Potty Training and Roly Poly

There seems to be no time for comprehensive blog posts these days, so I'll just take a moment to post a quick update.
Caroline: Potty Trained!!! Hurray!!!! Now that she's trained, she will only wear dresses-- I think she wants quick access to show off her big girl panties to anyone and everyone. They told me that she took off her dress at school last week and they let her walk around in just her underwear for a lot of the day. Caroline also just figured out how to turn on the water in our bathroom downstairs, and now proceeds to "wash her hands" practically all day.
Luke: Rolling over!!! He flips over on his tummy the second we lay him down now. It has been a little bit of a problem in his crib, he'll flip over and get stuck like that and just do a little fret cry until we go in there and get him sorted out. He is precious-- his personality so far is so laid back and sweet. He smiles all the time and loves to "talk."

Easter

Today's Cuteness (and it's only 1:30)

Ear-greens = earrings. Used in a sentence "Mommy I ike your ear-greens"
Dimon-sore = Dinosaur. We went to the library today and the theme of storytime was dinosaurs.
Caroline's current request = Mommy I want a ittle snack.
Luke gave me his first hug today-- he grabbed my arm with both of mine while I was rocking him to sleep. He coos and smiles now all the time, especially loves music.

Better run and go get a ittle snack now.

Recent Pics

I've finally downloaded a few of our recent pics and thought I'd share:
Mom, Caroline, Luke and I at the Zilker train:


Luke with a little smirk:


Family picture at Grammy's house:


With Grammy and Ron Ron:


Caroline in her petti-skirt at the Zilker Playground:


With Poppy and Dee Dee at Shady Grove:



Melt my heart:



Did I ever share these two from Christmas-- I love them:
Happy girl


Sad boy

1 month stats

He's going to be a big guy! Luke is in the 95th percentile of weight, and the 75-90th percentile in height at one month old (22.6 inches and 11 lb 7 oz, respectively). He has already outgrown a few 0-3 month onesies, and we've moved the straps up to the 2nd notch on the carseat. He's such a cutie and I'm really enjoying his newborn-ness, like the gurgles and coos, and stretches with scrunchy faces. Caroline is a great big sister already- she tells Baby Luke that she loves him, and brings me his diapers when it's time to change him. She's also abbreviated her name for him from "Baby Luke" to "B'uke"-- pretty darn cute. I'll post pics someday.... we take them, but getting them onto the computer seems like a big task for some reason.

Luke Douglas

It's taken me this long just to get the pictures from Luke's birth onto my computer!!! Announcing the arrival of our precious son, Luke Douglas, on Dec 22nd at 5:18 am. He weighed a whopping 8 lbs 15 oz, 22 inches long. He is perfect! My good friend Elle took some amazing newborn pictures of him-- check them out at her website: http://www.ellabellaphotos.com/blog/2009/01/happy-newborn-year/

Some Caroline conversations

Caroline is cracking us up each and every day with the words that she says... most of the time Jeff and I look at each other and say "who taught her that? did you??!!" Like today, she fell and said "I trip." Not an SAT word, but definitely not one that we have said often since she's been around. The other night, she exclaimed "Daddy, doggy go pee pee outside." We were proud of this very long sentence. She's also learning her colors, so we asked "What color is Mommy's hair?" Caroline: Bown; "What color is Daddy's hair?" Caroline: Bown; "What color is Caroline's hair?" Caroline: Piddy (pretty)! She replies to every compliment with "It's piddy." Yes, she is. We are really soaking up these last few weeks of her being our only child. We can't believe that in just a few short weeks she will be a big sister-- so fun!

Pumpkin Patch Pics!

We had a great time at Play Group yeserday at the Pumpkin Patch. Here are some fun pics of Caroline and her friends!
Georgia always has the best snacks to share--
Palmer chewin' on a piece of hay :)
Resha's Caroline posing pretty
What a doll!

Here's my very favorite shot of Caroline from that day-- thanks to Olivia for getting her to look UP!!

What is she doing now?

Forgive me, but I have been using this blog for a bit of a dual purpose-- one, to update family and friends on the happenings of our family; two, as an "online baby book" for Caroline. So this post is mainly a log of what Caroline is doing now.... so I can look back on it later and feel good that it's written down somewhere :)
1. She can do some fun dance moves: reach up high, touch her toes, shuffle, jump, shake, turn in circles.
2. She can identify most shapes.
3. We're working on colors-- most everything is still "lello"
4. She can count to five-- from memory, not from really counting.
5. Loves to sing ABCs and Itsy Bitsy spider. She has made up a new song called "Mommy Daddy." Love it!
6. She can answer "What's your name?" LALINE!!! (Caroline) "Where are you from?" Axxes!!! (Texas)
7. Knows so many words, animals, noises, items in her favorite books. It's so fun to watch her learn new things and recall things from a book we haven't picked up in a while.

Okay, thanks for letting me document Caroline's life :) I guess that's what these kinds of blogs are all about! :)

Swinging in the Backyard in a Pretty Dress

Jeff and I went to Cancun a couple of weeks ago and came home to a much more talkative toddler. She now asks "What's mommy/daddy/doggie/etc. doing?" and "What's that?" all day long. It's so fun and causes each day to be a constant dialogue. She also loves to sing-- it's always to the tune of "ABCs" (which is the same as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) but the "words" are ever changing.... usually the word "shoes" makes its way into the song a few times. We are really loving this stage and find ourselves laughing with her and at her all the time. Here's a pic of her-- she's great at saying "Cheese!"

We took her to Sea World and she loved waving to the big "fish" (killer whales).

Finally, she will wear bows in her hair! She even asks for bows in her hair at night when she's going to bed... a girly girl.

It's a BOY!!

We found out a couple of weeks ago that baby #2 is a boy!! We are so excited!!!

Are these shoes too big?

Happy 4th of July from Caroline

S..L..O..W..... D..O...W..N

I feel like things need to slow down. Caroline is growing up so fast. I know one day I'll look back and think that she's still such a baby right now, but for now I feel like she's getting to be a big girl so fast. She is learning new words every day. Yesterday it was "bug" and today it was "ice" and "bye guys!" She's also really enjoying her cousins and friends. This is a fun age and I'm loving her new communication skills so much (and her newest relief for my back-- she's walking up and down the stairs on her own!!!)
Oh and for anyone that reads this that hasn't heard yet, she'll be a big sister this December!!! We are so thrilled and thankful!!!

Caroline in her Big Girl outfit:

























A special outfit from Karen and Katherine for her 1st birthday that I've been patiently waiting for her to grow into:
























Getting ready for the swimsuit competition:
























Happy on the swing with her cousins, Cameron and Ashlyn:

18 Months Old!

Happy 18-month bday, Caroline!!! We love you so much and count it a blessing to spend our life with you and watch you grow!
Some of the things you do now that I want to remember: You say "no" when you mean "yes"..... you insist that everyone wears their shoes at all times, and you bring them their shoes and put them at their feet... once everyone's shoes are on, you declare that we're going "bye-bye"..... you always greet Casey by shouting "hi dog!!!!"..... sometimes you lean your head into Casey's so that he'll give you a bath by licking you-- gross!.... you grab anything with a handle and pretend that it's a purse, then you'll usually start saying "bye-bye"... you always have a sippy cup with milk in it..... you've gotten really good at getting things you want by signing "more, please".... you love to crinkle your nose and sniff every time you see a bunny in a picture or stuffed animal....you ask for Daddy constantly and when I tell you he's at work, you say "okay"....you love to "lello" which means color-- you think that's why we're at a restaurant (to color).... you love to play with your friends of all ages and especially your cousins....you love to "talk" on the phone....you snuggle and give the best hugs and kisses, especially right before bedtime....
WE LOVE YOU!

Summertime???

It sure does feel like summer around here. Caroline is really enjoying being outdoors and playing in the water. Mommy and Daddy, on the other hand, prefer the air conditioning :) She seems to have a new word every day. Our favorite thing she says now is "Mommy, Daddy, Dog".... like she's taking attendance for our family. Sometimes she'll do the sign language sign for "more" while saying "dog".... nope, sorry Caroline, but we're not getting more dog right now. Here are some recent pics-


She loves her new water table in the back yard

We went to the Strawberry Patch and Caroline really loved her homemade popcicle!!! What a sticky messy face :)


Getting ready for church one morning


She's really enjoying our piano

Happy Easter!!!

A girly girl

Bracelets, shoes, bows and purses.... these are a few of Caroline's favorite things. We have a girly girl on our hands!!!!


Caroline started Mother's Day Out this week-- here she is holding her lunch box on our way out the door. I think we both had a great time-- when I went to pick her up she was outside on the play ground having a ball with the other kids!

A few of the cute things Caroline has been doing lately... she really loves books, and there's a picture in one of her books of some puppies. She started kissing the puppies every time we got to that page. Adorable. In another book, there's a picture of a Mommy, little boy and a little girl with their hands in the air and the text says "We like to give thanks to God for His love for the shoes on our feet and for Heaven above." Well, she puts her hands in the air just like the kids in the picture. Adorable again. And slightly charismatic ;) Lastly, sometimes when I'm on the phone with Mimi or Grammy, I'll put it on speaker so Caroline can hear their voices and "talk" with them. The first thing she does when she hears their voices is blow them a kiss. How cute is that?!!?