Halfway to Two!

18 months old and in just over 2 weeks he won't even be the baby in our family anymore!

We've watched him go from a crawling baby to a wobbly walker to a running toddler before our eyes.  And we've enjoyed {almost} every second of it :)

He loves the swings at the park...

And Eskimo kisses, aka "noses" are one of his specialties...

{With his Papa}

{With Aunt Lisa}

He loves to wear hats...

and he thinks he's hot stuff in Mama's sunglasses.

He loves his stuffed animals, aka "lovies" that his big brothers are constantly bringing to him...

He definitely isn't afraid to get dirty...

but {in my humble opinion} he sure does clean up well :)

He definitely has been able to hold onto his pacifier a LOT longer than his two big brothers did...

It must be that messy smiley face that charmed us into that one...

Or perhaps it's those sparkling blue eyes.

He loves animals... 

and blogging 

{Mama's been so tired lately that he's helping her out!}

making it near impossible to get a decent picture of all three boys together...

helping with the laundry...

pitching in to put away dishes...

and doing Arts & Crafts on the kitchen table!

We're thrilled that he seems to have overcome his extreme fear of costumed, fluffy characters...

because this past Christmas, I'm pretty sure he thought Santa was the devil.

Did I mention that he loves to SLEEP?  I know, pinch me... 12 hours straight every night!  And if we're not running here and there and everywhere for his big brothers, he'll nap all afternoon {though not in his highchair of course!}

When he plays, he really gets into his toys... literally.

And he has been told that he's got the moves like Jagger :)

 

  He's full of giggles, squeals and squeaks when he sees his dogs, runs to the door to greet Daddy at night, blows us kisses, charms me by calling "Mama!" a million times a day, and gives the best hugs.  As soon as he hears music, he does the funniest little dance.  He adores his biggest brother Sam, but sometimes is a "Baby Bully" with his bigger brother Jake.  Poor Jake gets so sad- we're working on overcoming this :(

   He has about a thousand nicknames- Lukers, Boo Bear, Bucas, Bubbas, the list goes on and on.  

One thing is for sure... we adore our Little Lukers!

And we're all anxiously awaiting to see how he'll respond to his new role of BIG BROTHER in just two weeks! xoxo 

Making an easy photo display!

Well, hello there!   

I cannot believe that April is almost over already.  We've been busy around here- Spring Break, prepping for a new baby, and celebrating Jake's 5th Birthday.  His actual b-day is in a few weeks still but we had to celebrate early since he could actually get a baby brother for a birthday gift this year!  

I love, love, love celebrating birthdays.  Normally I stay up until the wee hours for a few nights before my boys' birthday parties making sure every.single.detail is in order.  For Jake's party last weekend though, as excited as I was, I just couldn't keep myself up all night like that so I decided to cut a few corners.  I probably shouldn't reveal what those cut corners were because if I don't tell anyone, no one would know except for me, right?  

But this is one cut corner that I LOVED...

Instead of making a photo book of Jake's last year to display at the party like I do every year, I made a super quick, inexpensive photo display.  I still plan on making a photo book since I make one every year for each boy with a typed letter to them in the back of the book {a fabulous idea from my sweet friend Michelle}.  But I ran out of time and I only order photo books when I have a coupon for a free one, which I didn't have :)  So with a few minutes and a few dollars, I made this photo display instead.  

I was so pleased with how it turned out.  Plus I think more people saw it than they would've seen had these same photos been sitting in a photo book.  

The hardest part of this display was choosing which pictures to use because he is one happy, smiley cutie pie!  I had the pictures printed at Costco for $1.65.  I mounted each one on scrapbook paper from Michael's {on sale, 7 sheets of 12x12 paper for $1}, and strung them up on my vintage chalkboard {read more about this darling here} using jute and mini clothespins that I leave up on the chalkboard ALL the time now.  I just recently pulled down all of the boys Easter artwork... I love, love having this quick and easy place to display their creations!

The balloons and lanterns were from Polka Dot Market.  I bought them for Jake's party, but I originally wasn't going to use them with the photo display.  Once I had hung the pictures I loved the display so much I decided to add some decorations around it.  Quick and easy, memorable, and it was a fun display of Jake doing some of his favorite things from this past year {hanging out at the zoo, playing with his best bud- his big brother, fun, muddy times at home, getting a hug from his current crush- his cousin "girlfriend" and more}.  

Don't you love when a last-minute, Plan B project comes together even better than you had imagined?  xoxo

Spring Break 2012: Day One

Yesterday was Day One of Spring Break here and it was one of those days... 

No, not one of those "Do you boys listen to me at all?" days

Not one of those "I can't believe I went to college to change poopy diapers all day" days {yeah, sometimes I think that thought in my head... bad mama}

It was one of those amazing days where the kids behaved beautifully, 

the birds were chirping,

the sun was shining,

and all was right in our little corner of the world.

We broke our Spring Break Rule #1 {NO alarm clock} and got up early to go check out the Butterfly Jungle at the Wild Animal Park before the crowds starting pouring in {it's now called the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park, but if you're from San Diego or have lived here for awhile, you'll probably still call it the WAP forever}.

Butterflies landed on all of us...

{no pic of Luke & I because it was too hard to juggle a purse, squirming 17-month old with a butterfly on his head, and my prego belly... I'm sure it was amusing to watch though!}

Luke napped like a champ in his little stroller...

while his big brothers wormed around a little...

Springtime babies were adorable...

But my favorite part was listening to the boys be silly...

Like when Sam pointed out the vending machines and said, "Wow, even cheetahs need Coke!?"

Of course the Mama in me had to remind him that no one actually NEEDS Coke.

"Oh, but I had it once Mom and it was soooo good!"

And when Jake found this tail for himself...

And when we discovered this cute little Wet Zone that we had all to ourselves and I left the boys get "a little bit wet."  See that yellow bucket in the background?  It emptied on Sam's head :)

Ahhh, Spring Break... we've been waiting for you! 

Are you on Spring Break too?  

What are you up to?  

I'd love to hear! :)