Set Back

Yesterday in our little potty training world was wonderful! Today, until about 3:00 was wonderful... After that- ALL downhill!

That's ok. We aren't giving up, we are back in the saddle first thing in the morning! I know Luke can do this- I am just waiting for a little light to come on in his mind.

No Accidents All Day???

You Bet!

Luke has been working SO hard at this potty training thing. My hat is off to all of you who have mastered potty training 101. It is super hard! We have been working and working and working on this and we finally made it all day accident free!!!! I thought this day would never come. Not to say that tomorrow will be this good too, but at least he proved that he can do it. I am so proud of my big boy Luke.

Needless to say, our treat jar is COMPLETELY empty. I have to refill it before tomorrow. That's a good problem to have though.

The Culprit...

Last week Brady's sleeping patterns were an absolute nightmare. Three nights in a row he screamed all night long. It was so bad that I took him in to the doctor to see if there was something wrong with him. NOPE! Nothing wrong, just possibly cutting teeth...
This is what I found Saturday:


His third tooth came in! It is on top and a little to the right.

Cutting teeth is MUCH more dramatic for Brady than it was with Luke. My goodness- I seriously thought something was terribly wrong with him last week! No- just a tooth! BRADY!!!

A Beautiful Day at the Park

This whole week has been so beautiful, so Kristen & I decided to take the kiddos to the park today. They had a lot of fun!

The BIG brother & sister.

The LITTLE brother & sister.

Brady had fun crawling all over the playground. His little feet were black!

Time out for a drink of water.

After playing at the park we came back to our house to eat and play in Luke's new sandbox. It was a ton of fun!

Potty Training- TAKE TWO

Alright, we are back on board for potty training! I decided we are not buying ANY more diapers for Luke. So, after some advice from a friend of another little boy potty trainer- I went and got some training pants. Not underwear, training pants. It seems like they may work. They are like underwear but with a little more padding in the middle in case of accidents.
Today is day one, and so far so good! We will see how this goes...

Night Time Blues...

Last night was another rough night for little B-ball. BUT! I did not give him a bottle. He woke up once, I went in and changed him and gave him a drink of water from his sippy cup. After that, I laid him back down and let him cry. After ten minutes of crying, I went in to try to calm him down- then laid him down again. He began crying again. After twenty minutes, I went back in to calm him down AGAIN. He began crying Again... After thirty minutes I went in and patted him back to sleep. He slept until 8:30 this morning.
Hopefully tonight will be less crying... I HOPE!
I am one tired mommy, and Brady is sound asleep for his morning nap!

Brady's 8 Month Birthday!

Look at my handsome little buckaroo! Already 8 months old. My how the time has gone by. People always say they grow up fast, well the second grows up even faster in my opinion. I keep thinking Brady is still a little baby, but actually he is starting to do some not-so-babylike things...

Like eat his first taste of dirt!

Notice- he had CRAWL over and PULL UP to reach this dirt. I think he decided he likes his food better.







Another thing he has been doing is "talking". He says "ba ba ba ba ba", sometimes we think he is saying bubba, but we aren't sure. He does love his big brother! Luke can make him laugh like nobody else. The sweetest thing about their relationship is that no matter how Luke is to Brady, Brady ALWAYS adores him. We are working on Luke's behavior towards Brady. At times, he can be pretty rough. Brady has lots of paybacks stored up for Luke one day real soon!

This isn't the clearest picture ever, but it is easy to see his two teeth. He also has another one coming in on the top. Boy will we be glad when he is done teething!

Which brings me to my next point... Brady is still not a consistent sleeper at night. A lot of nights he will sleep from 8:30pm to 6:00am, but not always. The past two nights have been terrible for him. So bad that I took him to the doctor today to see if their could be something wrong. He just screams as loud as he can in the middle of the night. Believe it or not... there is nothing wrong though. Except teeth coming in, I guess. Luke never had this much trouble cutting teeth. That just goes to show that no two kids are alike.

Usually I will go ahead and give Brady a bottle in the middle of the night if he wakes up, but not after today. The doctor said NO MORE BOTTLES in the middle of the night. So, blame it on the doctor! All I can say is pray for us the next few nights. They may be pretty rough. Brady doesn't give up without a fight.

As for food- Brady is eating mostly baby food, but starting to get some table food here and there. He got his first sippy cup two days ago and is still learning how to use that.

His weight today...20.5 pounds!

Happy Birthday Brady! Our goal before your next birthday is to get you sleeping all night, EVERY night!

Party Time!!!

Yeah!! finally it was almost Saturday...the day Luke had been waiting for- his party!
Well, the picture below is what our street looked like on Saturday, completely flooded. So, we had to change his party to Sunday. Luke was fine with that though because he hasn't quite figured out what day is what yet.


Here is his invitation.




The birthday boy in front of his train cake.

Present Time!

Madi

Grey in the bouncy.

Scarlett

Ava

Luke & Lily. I have a picture of them like this in the wagon when they were less than a year old.

Mommy & Luke

B-ball!

Luke covered in silly string. All the kids really loved the silly string.

Luke Michael Allen

Age: 3

Favorite thing to do outside: Swing

Favorite thing to do inside with daddy: play "hutball"

Favorite thing to do inside with mommy: help with laundry

Favorite movie: The Incredibles

Favorite cartoon: Little Bill

Favorite song: Jesus Loves Me

Favorite toys: Batman stuff

Favorite Dinner: sausage,greens, ranch beans (cowboy beans)

Favorite Snack: grapes, cheezits

Favorite Restaurant: Chickfila

School Birthday!

Today Luke took cupcakes to school for his school birthday. He requested strawberry for today and "black" (chocolate) for his party. Here is how they turned out. Hopefully the blue icing with green sprinkles will make them manly enough for the pink cake part.

Luke went through and chose a special cupcake for EACH kid in his class. He loves school and was very excited for today.

Birthday Dinner

We finished off Luke's actual birth day with a birthday dinner at Grammy & Papa's house. Luke requested pizza for his dinner...


Another thing he wanted to do today, was ride the swing in Grammy & Papa's backyard, so that's what he did! He didn't even want to get off to open presents. He loves this swing so much- the higher the better.

Here he is blowing out the candles on his cookie cake. Now you see why I usually get someone to make birthday cakes for me. I am not the best baker in the world...

As we were driving home I started to get really sad that Luke's birthday is almost over. This has been the most fun birthday yet. Why? Because he has waited for this day for SO LONG! He has been asking when his birthday is since before Christmas. I let him do some special things today like lick the icing off the spoon, watch Incredibles (his favorite movie), listen to his favorite songs in the car, and stay up late. It has been a really fun day.

To top it all off, Luke thanked me on the way home for making his cake and cupcakes for school tomorrow. It was so sweet! I guess it's not completely over- we still have his party on Saturday!

2 Going On 4?

This morning when Luke woke up, I wished him a Happy Birthday. The first thing he said in response was... "mommy, I am 4 today!" For some reason he keeps telling everyone he is 4. We have been working on him saying 3 instead, but he is just stuck on 4.

Birthday At the Zoo

When we first arrived at the zoo!


Luke, Lily, & Brady

Baby Brothers first time to the zoo!

Carousel ride

A nice goat we met.

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to Luke;

Happy Birthday to you!

Today we went to the zoo with our friends, Courtney, Brian, Charlene, and Lily to celebrate Luke's 3rd birthday. It was fun and the kids really enjoyed seeing all of the animals. The tiger was their favorite!

The kids ran all over the zoo and were wiped out by time to go. After that, we had lunch at Chickfila (luke's favorite place ever!). Both boys fell asleep in the car soon after we left the parking lot.

After nap we got ready to go to Grammy and Papa's for dinner. More on that later.

Luke's Birthday Week

Tomorrow is Luke's 3rd birthday. We have plans to go to the zoo in the morning, then lunch, then finish out the day with pizza & cake for dinner at my parents house.

Tuesday we will take cupcakes for his birthday celebration at school.

Saturday is his birthday party.

For the past two birthdays Luke has had, he has been sick with a stomach virus both times on his birthday. Last year he was sick and I was in the hospital on his birthday, so I want to make this birthday extra special. This will be the first time we have actually been able to celebrate ON his birthday! I can't wait and the zoo is the perfect place for Luke's 3rd birthday.

As always, I will take lots of pics and post them when I can.

Happy Birthday Luke!!!

Easter

Brady's first Easter


I took the boys last week to take some pics of them in their Easter outfits. Thank goodness because it is really rainy today. I am glad I got a few good ones.


This one is one of my favorites!


The boys Easter baskets. Notice... the toy in the middle is for them to share. Luke is really struggling with sharing his toys with Brady. He is getting better, it is just such a hard concept.


Mommy, Luke, & Brady.

Happy Easter Everyone

Ok. I promise. This is my last post for today. There was just so much going on, I had to take time to write about it all! I can't leave out the true meaning of all of this celebration. Easter is when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord! The tomb is empty, HE defeated the grave! What a mighty God we serve!
I hope you and your family take time to celebrate the true meaning of Easter.

(this is a flower caleb brought home to me yesterday, wasn't that sweet of him! i wish you could smell it...)

Brady's First Cracker

Tonight as we were dying eggs, my mom wanted to give Brady a cracker. He does have 1 1/2 teeth, ya know...

So, we did. He LOVED it. He was supervised and only took small bites. After eating nothing but baby food a cracker must be really something!

Annual Family Egg Dye

Before...

Forget the dipper, Luke found it easier to use his hands!

The finished product!

I forgot that this stuff stains your hands.

Good thing these colors coordinate with his Easter outfit...