Pictures

I got a new camera and having been annoying the kids by asking them if I can take their picture (or just taking it anyway). I need lots of practice! I'm not used to looking through the eye piece and am not very good at holding the camera steady. I'll get there. :)

Luke's new 'do. There's not much to work with but Chris found a little at his crown...

Playing in the backyard with the sprinkler

Anna and her friend, Arianna
Posing for the camera
Not sure why they do this but they think it's fun to get their butts wet with the sprinkler. They usually run over to the swingset and go down the slide right after. It makes you go down the slide really, really fast! Jaden found out the hard way that if you're not ready for it that ground sneaks up on you and you can hit it hard!

Ready for kindergarten...almost

Anna had her last day of preschool today. When I arrived at the school some of the parents from her class and the woman at the front desk were talking about how emotional the kids had been. One child would start to cry and then another would see them and start to cry and so on. I tried to prepare myself for the comforting I was sure Anna would need. She is constantly shedding tears when it's time to go home from playing with a friend. So much so that I find myself thinking "is it really worth all of this to let her play with other kids?" (yes, it is) and "are my boys going to be this emotional?"

When I got back to the classroom the only tears were from the Mommies! The kids that were still in the classroom were laughing and having fun. Later, when I asked Anna if she was sad that it was her last day of preschool she said "No". Whew! I think she's looking forward to visiting with her friends this summer and going to kindergarten in the fall.

Jessica, Anna, and Cody Belle

(with the sunvisors Cody Belle made for everyone!)

She's learned so much this year. We are very proud of her. We certainly owe it all to her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Pena!

End of the year interview with Anna (I typed exactly what she said!):

1. What was your favorite thing about preschool? "playing on the playground"
2. What is one thing you learned this year? "I learned about undersea animals and rainbows and frogs"
3. What are you going to miss the most about preschool? "the playground and contract time"
4. What did you think about your teacher? "She teaches us stuff and she does it very, very well."
5. What are you looking forward to about Kindergarten? "I've never been to kindergarten before. I'm just going to learn about it. I'm a little bit afraid"

There's definitely nothing wrong with him physically

...or cognitively for that matter. But my little Jaden is a little delayed with his speech. Rather than continuing to wait-and-see if he would start speaking more on his own I decided to have him evaluated. What could it hurt? If he didn't need services all I was out was 2 hours of our day. Though I'll say that he thoroughly enjoyed every minute of individual attention he was showered with during the evaluation! Individual attention is a prized commodity around here. And if he did need the services than he'd get the help he needs sooner and he might start talking sooner. It turned out that he did qualify for services. He will be seen by the Speech-Language Pathologist twice a month in our home for 45 minutes. She came for the first time this week. Jaden had so much fun! I'm sure he had no idea he was receiving therapy. He thinks he's got a very cool playdate - just for him!

Because the sessions take place in our home I can easily observe what the therapist is doing with Jaden. Anna does too! This way we can continue to practice with him during our normal activities. Chris and I have recommendations to follow as well. We've already started to notice some small improvements. He is trying to say more words but he is still very difficult to understand and he usually only says the beginning sounds (mostly ones with "b" or "m"). I've noticed him say the end part of some words a few times (e.g., with "k").

I was a little slow to realize it but yesterday he got his foot caught in a toy and was hollering "stuck". Still kinda in "jaden-ese" but much better than I've heard before. He is trying to say "yes" and "please" (with a prompt) and he tried to say "muffin" this morning at breakfast. When I called about the evaluation he was pretty much only saying "mama", "dada", "baby", "gaga" (dog), baba (bottle/drink), "uh" (up), and "me" (if prompted). He could sign "more", "please", and "thank you".

Saturday morning donuts

The kids looove Shipley donuts! We got used to Krispy Kreme donuts when we were living in Knoxville and didn't think there were donuts out there that tasted as good. I won't say that one is better than the other because they are different but they are both DELICIOUS!

Every once in a while we'll get them for a weekend breakfast. Nutritious, right? Chris took Jaden with him to get them. As they were checking out Jaden started munching on his special treat - donut holes! He tossed those aside when he got home and saw the bulls-eyes (donuts with chocolate frosting and cream in the middle). Anna's favorite is one with pink strawberry icing and sprinkles!

Chris bought a dozen donuts. Anna ate almost 3 just in the morning. They ate another after lunch and finished them off later in the afternoon. Good thing we really only get them once in a while. When Luke is old enough for donuts we'll probably have to get 2 dozen! These poor kids were born to parents with a terrible sweet tooth (sweet teeth?).

Yum!!!!!

Anna's last soccer game of the season (5-16-08)

Houston zoo

cutie patootie!

The last game of the soccer season

...and probably the last of Anna's career. She did so much whining and crying before every game because she didn't want to go. We had asked her like 30 times before we signed her up if she wanted to play and every time she said "yes"!

Today she was really into it. She actually kicked the ball and seemed to genuinely have fun! In every other game she pretty much just followed everyone around the field at the back of the pack. We sank so low as to bribe her into kicking the ball. Chris said he would give her a dollar if she kicked the ball and anything she wanted if she scored a goal. That didn't even work!

It pays to have talented friends

Version II (I loved them both!)
Okay, I realize I am biased because I took the pictures and my good friend, Dana, designed the announcement but I think these are sooo cute!! I was way more than tickled when I got them in the mail. I have known for some time now that Dana is very talented but when she showed me some of the announcements and invitations she designed I was impressed, to say the least! She has always had an interest in photography. She felt like this was a good way for her to use her creativity to make a beautiful product with photographs and generate some extra income. She is a stay-at-home mom with two gorgeous girls and I say "you go, girl!". I am fully supportive of stay-at-home moms who want to find a way to work and be at home with their children. She is committed to providing beautiful, quality, custom announcements for much more reasonable prices that you can find on the internet. Please check out her website if you are interested in photo announcements. She has designs for birth announcements (you'll see little Luke here), graduation announcements, birthday announcements (all ages), christmas cards, and the list is growing. They are all adorable and she has more in the works. Her site is currently "under construction" (she is in the process of moving to a new state - I know how that is!) but I will be sure to let everyone know when it is up and running!

http://www.everythingpictured.blogspot.com/

The big fat lip

I'm sure that everyone in my family will laugh when they see this picture and say "That's Julie!". I caught a lot of flack growing up for sticking out my lip and pouting. Apparently I did this a lot. I can't say that I'm surprised - especially since Anna's face should be frozen this way as well. Must run in the family.
My little Luke is so sweet and sensitive. I'm not sure what happened but he must have gotten scared. He was probably tired of me taking his picture! He just happened to stick out his lip when I snapped the picture because I didn't even realize it until I looked at them on the computer. Of course, then I held him a little and we played and things were "all better" ;)

Go figure

I admit that I am not very good at putting my kids to sleep. I love to hold them and have them near me. They're little for such a short time! I've been trying to be better with Luke. Some days are better than others. I'll always be a sucker!
While Jaden was sleeping I took the opportunity to play with Luke and have some floor time on his little exerciser. The day we bought this we also bought something special for Anna and Jaden too. Despite our best efforts to think ahead and curb toy fights those two will not leave Luke's toy alone. Most days he's got only one (of four) little dangly things to look at/bat at/kick - if he's lucky. They take them all off and toss them around the room. This poor little guy doesn't stand a chance right now! I'm sure he'll be more than able to fend for himself one day (especially if he keeps up at the rate he is growing).
Anyway, I had gotten up to do something while Luke was content playing. When I came back he was sound asleep! I couldn't believe my eyes - I wish it were always that easy. He looks so sweet when he's sleeping :)

Anna and Luke

The other one wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a picture. I'm going to have to work on learning how to use the "action mode" on my camera if I have any hope of catching Jaden in a picture that doesn't capture him as a blur!
I got a new camera the other day and have been playing around learning how to use it. I think Anna is already getting tired of me using her as my test model. I still need to order a different lens and a speedlight. It will be much easier for me to get good shots with those. Right now I've got to have my camera pretty close to them to get the kind of pictures I like. And, I don't like to use the flash but I don't have good light inside in most rooms so it's easy to get blurry pictures. The speedlight will allow me to use the flash but have more natural looking pictures because you can divert the light upwards and use a diffuser. I'm having so much fun learning how to take better pictures. I'm definitely an amateur with tons to learn but I love taking pictures of these little guys. I hope I'll have some nice ones for them to share with their kids when they're all grown up one day.

Two months old

Luke in Chris' outfit from when he was a baby.

Each of the kids have gotten their picture taken in it. Somewhere along the way - I think with Anna - the zipper broke. It's stuck down near one leg and won't go up or down. So, the outfit is strategically placed on him to try to cover him up a little. He looks so cute as a little blue mouse. I love how the ears stand up. I can't believe Chris was this little once.

He'll probably hate me for this when he grows up!

Luke turned 2 months old yesterday. Today he had his check up at the doctor. It's official - He's growing like a weed!!! He is now 24 1/2 inches long (95th percentile) and 13 pounds 10 ounces (90th-95th percentile). Last month his weight was in the 50th-75th percentile.
New things Luke has done this month:

• he's more alert and squirms around- we see a lot more of his eyes these days


• he's starting to hit at mobiles hanging in his reach and tracking things


• he's cooing


• he's eating lots and lots and lots...


• he's settling into a little better sleep pattern (good for him and Mommy!)


• he's smiling: He smiled for the first time the day before he turned 6 weeks old. then we got just one smile per day - usually at night- for a while. But now we get smiles all throughout the day. It's wonderful. He seems especially enthralled with Mommy and Anna - we get lots of special smiles but then again he's stuck looking at our crazy faces all day long (and all night long in Mommy's case!).

For Mother's Day I asked for three things: I didn't want to cook, I didn't want to clean, and I wanted a picture of me with all the kids. Chris did a great job cooking and keeping everything cleaned up and he tried to get a good picture. The kids just weren't on the same page. Hey, this is what they usually look like, right? We'll keep trying but I'm still really happy to have a picture of me with my babies :) (I still can't believe I have 3 kids!!) I am so very, very blessed to be their Mommy.

Oh - and I wanted a nap. That didn't happen but it was okay. I was rested!

Where did Jaden's curls go?

Well, we did it. We took Jaden to get his first "real" haircut. His sweet curls are all gone. For now... (at the rate I was having to trim it I don't think it will be long before the "wild man" curls are back!) It has been so hot and so humid down here and it's just going to get worse. His hair has been getting plastered to his little head with sweat when he's out playing. We just thought that he would be a lot more comfortable with it a little shorter. So, today after Anna's soccer game (at 3:00 in the afternoon in 92 degree heat) Jaden and Daddy both got their hair cut!

This is the "before"

"During" - he ended up needed a purple sucker to keep him still and cooperative.

The "After"
He still looks super cute! He just looks so much more like a growing little boy instead of my baby :(