Luke {3 months}

Wow! I kept thinking all day about how if you divide a year into 4 chunks, Luke is already one chunk of the way to his 1st birthday. And what a cute little chunk he's becoming! He is so sweet, calm, smiley and he makes the cutest little cooing sounds ever heard.


I can no longer say that he has never cried without me being able to calm down though... there was this one night, far from home in the dark, me and the three boys and Sam and Jake covering their ears and saying, "Make him stop pleeeease Mommy!" But back to today... here's our little Lukey Boo at 3 months! Jake really thought this was a photo shoot of the two of them. He was so sweet posing with Luke and he wanted to see every single picture as I took them so I gave up trying to crop him out of most of them :)


Jake is precious beyond words in the way he takes care of Luke. {The other day I left Luke on Jake's bed and ran downstairs to get the camera. Jake came running down to say, "Mommy, there's an emergency upstairs... Yuke is crying!" Yuke... that's Luke in Jake speak.}


I looooove these stickers I bought to mark each month of Luke's 1st year. If you're looking for anything like that (holiday iron-ons, stickers for shirts, etc.) I recommend lilbabybumble on Etsy.

heart garland

I've had "make heart garland for mantel" on my to-do list all week. Lucky for me, Sam wanted to draw these sweet little hearts this morning.


His little creations are always so adorable, plus actually displaying them in our house is such a great compliment to him. I mounted his little hearts on red cardstock so they show up better, traced hearts onto some leftover scrapbook paper I had, and strung them all onto baker's twine.

Check that off the to-do list! Plus I think it's super cute, and freeeee! I didn't use my Cricut because I didn't want to bring sick kids to Michael's for new mats {you're welcome!} so I traced hearts with a cookie cutter instead.

oh sugar!

The boys are sick this week... boo! PJ day #1 was a nice little break from the world, PJ day #2 was unexpected because I actually thought Sam was fine and took him to school. Welcome to my first call from the school nurse :( PJ day #3 was yesterday and we were ready for some fun... otherwise known as the end of my sugar cookie baking hiatus. It's been MONTHS! Here are the boys creations... {and if you get sugar cookies from us, don't worry- they weren't part of the boys baking fun!}


Jake put enough sprinkles on his {E} to shake onto his {A} and still had extra.

A cookie a day keeps the doctor away, right?

salty sweet.

Valentine's Day is my very favorite day of the year, so this year for once we got started on it in January! The boys and I made salt dough ornaments for the first time and they loved it. What's not to love? Paint, glitter, and messy little hands!


I found the idea and recipe at The Long Thread, emptied out every salt shaker in our house to come up with a scant 1/2 cup of salt {our pumpkin shaker, snowman shaker, bird shaker... all of them!} clipped some branches off of a tree in our yard, strung the hearts with bakers twine from The Twinery and ta-da, our little love tree!

Salt Dough Recipe for Ornaments
-half cup salt
-half cup warm water
-one cup white flour

Mix all three until combined into a smooth ball. Roll out and cut using your favorite cookie cutters. Poke holes if you're planning to string ribbon on them later. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheet at 275 degrees for 2 hours, until hard all the way through. Cool completely, then paint. Put glitter on when paint is still wet.

Dry, string, decorate, enjoy!

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

When all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Luke was so cuddly, in his holiday jammies

While snuggled up closely with his Great Grammy.

Sam and Jake were giddy while looking at lights
But ready to go home and call it a night.

"Santa is coming, we must be in our beds!"

For visions of trains and Star Wars danced in their heads.

Our last stop was precious, reminding us of His Son,

while visiting a stable we marveled at "Small One."

And so we exclaimed as our Jeep drove out of sight,
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

How we spent our Christmas Vacation

Decorating

Baking

Napping

Attempting the annual "in jammies in front of the tree" picture

{much harder with three boys!}

And perfecting the art of piggyback riding!

One more time...

We had passes to Knott's Berry Farm this year. Honestly, after a year of Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm was just okay for Ben and I, but the boys loved it. We took Sam out of school one day in December to go before the vacation crowds. So glad we did too, since it rained and rained during vacation! Sam went on his first BIG roller coaster= what a brave guy!


Me and my sweet, brave Samuel


Jake's loving his first ride on the new stroller!


Enjoying one last ride on the steam engine. Bye-bye Knott's! In 2011 we look forward to enjoying lots of time at Sea World and getting our Zoo/Wild Animal Park passes again... and dreaming of the day we get passes to Disneyland again!