Merry Christmas!

WHAT!?!

I finally remembered to throw my camera battery on the charger so tonight I thought I'd take a few pictures of Luke's new thing: Crawling, but over the last 36 hours he's gone from just crawling, to crawling over to something and rising up on his knees to a kneeling position. He rests on his bum and then rises back up again, so I got a couple pictures to show off my big boy:

Then....

I'm cleaning up his dinner, we tried meat for the first time tonight. Jury's still out for both of us. He ate half the container and was excited for each bite, but after it went into his mouth there was a definite moment of apprehension... And I just still don't know how I feel about some of these baby food flavors. (Gooey meat in a jar, and don't get me started on the mac and cheese??) Anyway, I'm not sure if he really liked it or was just excited to be playing with my water bottle between bites, so we'll try some more Turkey and Rice Dinner tomorrow for comparison. Daddy's discovered that Luke's going to be an artist. When he feeds Luke and is messy by dropping some on the tray, Luke takes the messiness to another level by finger painting! This too evolved a bit tonight when he put his finger in his mouth after a turkey bite and then painted on his tray.

Anyway! ...So I'm cleaning the dinner tray and I look up to see that he's crawled over to his 'drum' that I left on the floor for him (aka my big pot) and used it to do this:

Ahem! Little boy, are you STANDING?

All by himself, with something half his height to aid him up, not pulling up to a coffee table or couch - but he got his feet under him, his weight right and pushed up to stand!

"Excuse me Mister, Mommy is NOT ready for this!"

Family Pictures!

Aubrey took our family pictures last weekend!

Click here to see!

Thank you dear friend, you are wonderful!

Howdy!

Grandpa brought over a very old roasting pot and lid for halloween, to use for the lobster picture, but Daddy thought it looked more like a 'cowboy tub'... He shouldn't have said that, Mommy ran upstairs and came down with her camera and this silly hat!

Momma, no more pictures!

Lobster Boy!

Luke O'Lantern

Happy Halloween!

GO DODGERS!!!

Cold Little Punkin!

We took Luke to the Pumpkin patch... I think we might have to go back for the picture part of it and try again. It's been so cold and we found our pumpkins first so Luke was about done by the time we got to sticking him in the patch. There are a few more pictures, but they're really bad! He just looks miserable, but I promised my Mom I'd post these for her, so here you go Nana!

6 Months

Luke at 6 months:

28 3/4 inches

19 1/2 pounds

Rolls, scoots and twists to get where he wants to be

Thinks his Daddy is very cool! (the feeling is adorably mutual!)

Still only wants Mommy to snuggle to sleep at night :)

HUGE flirt

Always laughing... He's the happiest kid

LOVES to jump... in the jumper, off your legs... anywhere his feet get contact.

Jabbers, sings, and squeals just about every waking moment

LOVES bananas, and enjoys all fruits

Gags and cries on green beans and peas, dislikes squash & sweet potatos but tolerates carrots

Is the center of his Daddy & Mommy's universe!

pictures!!

In random order!!

Oh so tired!

On Daddy's new bike

Daddy flipping

Sleepy boy with Lexi

soon...

Just had to update, I know I promised pictures but my weekend (and birthday) was completely overshadowed by the awful case of Mastitis that I got Thursday evening! Feeling better but still on antibiotics... Which hurt Luke's tummy, and he's teething. (and got his 6 month shots) It's been an owie kind of week/end. I'm hoping tomorrow to get pictures up. Got to make room on the memory card for this weekend in Eastern Washington!

So long!

So the court thing went really well, even though we didn't think so at the time. God had a better plan and we were able to 'settle' with a signed agreement. At first Ben felt like it was giving validation to their outrageous stories, but it now holds them accountable for responsible, adult conduct AND they had to withdraw their rediculous claims to Ben's job. There is still an 'investigation' because they can't just ignore it... But I'm so thankful that these neighbors can't fabricate anything new to add to their interviews - matter of fact they can't even give an interview!
I have been trying very hard to understand what God was trying to teach us in this situation. Ben was over and beyond accomidating and diplomatic with this woman who did nothing but scream profanities at the back of our house, without provication, several times now over the past few months. His tolerance and cool temperment really didn't get him anywhere but smack in the middle of horrible, malicious prosecution. These people have brought out the worst in me on a few occasions (so maybe I can see what God's working on in me)... I pray nightly for them that they find peace with whatever demons they've got working on them... but that they find it somewhere else, in a different neighborhood... soon, hopefully... PLEASE!!! Ugh, probably not going to happen in this current housing market but I can always hope!

Anyway, you guys know what the difference between a 1GB memory card and a 4GB memory card? No? ...It means that there's almost 900 pictures of Luke waiting for me to upload them to my computer instead of 200 :o)

Luke is fabulous! He's so stinkin' cute, and sweet, and just perfect! He's rolling ALL over the place and is starting to get up on his knees and lurch forward... Though we're really not ready for him to crawl yet, we've fought the strong urge to stop him, for fear of being the bad parents that 'hold him back' (we're goning to save that card for something really worth it, like dating) ;)
Luke is still such a good baby! Cries only when he's in pain, too hot, or cold... Or if he's grunted and whined for food for more than 15 minutes and you still haven't gotten the hint. He's doing well at his Grandma's houses while I work and has a blast every morning with his Daddy! I notice though that on days I work, when we get home, I don't get to do much - like eat, clean, sit, etc. unless I'm holding him. He's whiney if I'm not 100% focused on him after work, until he goes to bed... and even then he doesn't sleep as good unless we're snuggling. So if it's Wednesday through Friday and you want to come over - bring food, and don't look at my mess :o)

Sorry, lots of words in this post and no pictures, but I'm pretty sure I've slacked off on this blog so long that no one reads it anymore anyway. Those that do, prepare for a huge picture post (hopefully) by the end of the weekend - I'm going to need Ben home to love on Luke so that I can have some decent time on the computer, like I said, 4GB is a LOT of photos!

Prayer, Please!

I realize it's been a while, but we have just been slammed preparing to go to court on Monday. We live in a home we got to customize, out in a community we want to be in, and just ONE neighboring home - from the 5 others that we love - have us hating to be home every minute. Our situation wouldn't have gotten to this point except that Ben's career puts him in a tight spot... Where not only is he not allowed to defend his home and family, but brutal lies can be said about him and people pay attention. Please, please pray for us that the judge sees past these malicious stories on Monday morning and that we may move past this awful garbage. I just can't imagine what will happen next if any validation is given to these people. We've been told in civil cases judges tend to error on the side of caution - so we have 5 people coming in to testify on our behalf, pray too that the judge will even let them speak.

Little Boy Laughs!

Papa making Luke laugh

Thanks Aunt Debbie for posting!

picture update

Baseball 'photo-shoot' for Papa's birthday frame

A cute outfit that was only worn 20 minutes before he ended up in just the onsie in this 98 degree weather!

Standing against the ottoman all by himself!

... And very pleased about it!

Who's a happy boy?

This kid!

Hanging with Dad at Mom's company picnic

Sleeping at the picnic

Almost too big for the bouncer!

Yummy carrots!

... and Peas