Flashback Friday

It's been several months since I've had time to do a
Flashback Friday post,
things are beginning to settle down a bit,
so hopefully these posts will return for good.

These are a few of Luke's favorite things to do at
3 months old

Helping daddy work
Sitting in the Bumbo

Taking a bath...he would always hold on to the side of
his bath seat
Relaxing in the recliner
Trying out the exersaucer
As you can see from the look of shock on his face,
he was a bit overwhelmed with the exersaucer.
In fact, for the first few weeks I put him in it,
he would scream his head off,
but eventually he got used to it and loved it!

Snoozing...he went through a stage where he slept with
his hands behind his head

4 Months

Aubrey turned 4 months old on the 19th!

She is such a good baby, is a great sleeper and loves to watch and smile at her big brother.
I was trying to get Aubrey to look at me and smile, but she wouldn't take her eyes off Luke!

Luke, on the other hand, isn't content to just watch her,
he has become very "hands on" with her.
Twice in the past week he has given her a big red mark on her forehead by either
head-butting her or whacking her on the head with one of his cars!

At her 4 month check up she weighed a whopping 15 lbs 2 oz (90th percentile) and
was 24 3/4 inches long (50th percentile).
She's a chunk :)

Aubrey was NOT thrilled about the 4 shots she received;
she was all but inconsolable for about 10 minutes
after the shots.
It was as if her little feelings had been crushed!
She was very moody the rest of the day.

Luke always took his shots like a man; he would cry for about 10 seconds during the shots
and it wouldn't phase him a bit after that.
It's so funny to me how different boys are girls are
from the time their infants!

4 month chair picture...
every girl needs a pretty hairbow to dress up her PJs :)

Kisses from big brother

Our sweet chunk!

Wordless Wednesday

Afternoon stroll in the big red wagon

Adventures in Indiana, Part IV

The last installment of our adventures in Indiana,
involve these two things:

Yes, my 20 month old son was flying high in the sky,
miles away from his mommy, in this tiny 6-seater plane.

Ryan, Uncle Andy, and Big wanted to take Luke and Parker
on a short plane ride over Madison.
So, they set off for a local airport.

While Luke was exploring the hanger,
Parker was getting an up close and personal
tour of the plane wing...
yes, she is getting her diaper changed on the wing
After everyone had been freshly changed,
Big showed his muscles and pulled
the plane out to the runway

Boarding the plane

Ready for take off!


Studying the gorgeous views

Parker wasn't satisfied to just sit back and enjoy the view...

She wanted to climb up in the cockpit and learn
how to fly the plane

Flying can wear you out!

Halloween Preview

Growing up, my sisters and I always had homemade Halloween costumes;
they were much more economical than the
sometimes very pricey store bought costumes,
and if done properly they turn out just as cute
or even cuter than store bought ones.

My mom and I threw around several idea for a
homemade costume for Luke and
I finally decided on a football player,
because he already has several college football
jerseys and hats.
My mom found some real football pants with pads in them and everything.

We were invited to a kids Halloween party Sunday,
so Luke was able to try out his costume early.

I made a deal with Ryan that if Luke could wear his Auburn jersey to the Halloween party
then he could wear his Kentucky jersey on Halloween Day.

We have one mean-lookin' football player,
wouldn't want to mess with him ;)

Think he could make a tackle, dragging his blanket with him?

Now, what to do with Miss Priss?

I was just going to let her wear my niece's old costume, but then I started thinking...
what does every Auburn football player need to get them pumped up for the game?

An "Aubie"
My mom found this tiger sleeper at WalMart and
I thought it fit perfect with Luke's costume.

What a ferocious tiger

No more growling left in this tiger

War Eagle!

Pumpkin Patch

Friday afternoon we headed to the pumpkin patch at the
Old Baker Farm in Harpersville.
Luke was so excited to go pick out some "punkins".

When we arrived, we went straight to the barn
to see some animals.
The kids were able to see some
ducks, geese, turkeys, and chickens.

Luke was very surprised at how LOUD the geese were!

Luke watching the ducks,
he thinks that ducks say "Aflac" and we think it's too cute to correct

Luke even got to pet a baby chick!

After visiting with the animals, we set off on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch

Yes, Luke is wearing redneck mittens (socks) on his hands...
we were not prepared for how cold it was!

When we arrived at the pumpkin patch, Luke went straight for the giant pumpkins
That one was too big, so he tried one a tad bit smaller

Still too big to pick up, so he tried one that was more Luke-sized

So proud of his "punkin"

Aubrey didn't miss traipsing through the extremely muddy pumpkin patch or
picking out the pumpkins in freezing cold,
she was nice and warm strapped in the baby Bjorn :)

I dressed the kids in cute orange and black Halloween shirts for a Pumpkin patch photo shoot,
but it was way too cold to take off all their layers

Aunt Jemima

I grew up in a family of 5 women, my dad was WAY out numbered! I loved every minute of being the oldest of 4 girls and wouldn't trade it for anything!

Although there was an extraordinary amount of estrogen at our house, my sisters and I were not, what you would call "girly girls". We all loved sports, are all very competitive and can perform bodily functions with the best of the boys...just ask Ryan (he was appalled the first time he met one of my sisters:).

Even though we all had a tomboy side, we did wear dresses and my mom ALWAYS had a bow in our hair. As you can imagine, with 4 girls, you need a lot of bows.

We had thousands of bows, one for every occasion; ones with our names on them, ones for school (with rulers, chalkboards, & apples that you could velcro on the bow), fancy ones for church, red & green ones for Christmas...you get the picture.

It seemed like the older we got the bigger the bows became, by the time I was at the end of my elementary school years some of my bows were bigger than my head!
Wish I had those pictures and a scanner so you could get the full effect, but just trust me, we had some GIANT bows :)

I never thought there was anything wrong with a girl wearing a bow, that's just what you did if you were a girl. Well, apparently not everyone grew up thinking like that...for instance, my husband. Ryan does have a sister, but I guess she never wore a bow, because he is ANTI-bows!

Aubrey has not had the pleasure of wearing too many bows since she graced us with her presence, but recently I have been slipping a few headband bows in her hair and Ryan hates them.
The first thing Ryan said when I put the bow in Aubrey's hair is, "she looks like Aunt Jemima", "take it out!".

Aunt Jemima, really?!?
Does my precious daughter really resemble the syrup lady when she wears a bow?

I'll let you be the judge:


Well, they do both have the same round face and chubby cheeks!

I like the bows, so I think they will stay!

Aubrey's bow repretoire isn't quite what mine was as a child,
but thanks to my friend, Kerri, who gave her several headbands and tons of bows,
she has a great start!

Aubrey and I cheering on the Tigers Saturday...notice the Auburn blue and orange bow

Adventures in Indiana, Part III

With all the moving chaos I never had a chance to finish up the series about our last trip to Indiana. If you missed our first two adventuress go here and here to read about them.

After Parker's big Nemo birthday bash, the kids wanted to watch Finding Nemo before bedtime.
So they took a quick bath and got into their PJ's, but not just any PJ's, their matching animal PJ's.

Kissin' Cousins

What's a movie without popcorn?

So, they got their popcorn bowls and patiently waited for
Big(Ryan's dad) to make the popcorn

This wasn't just any old microwave popcorn, this was Jiffy Pop that daddy and Big
had used on their fishing trip in the wilderness...more about that later

When the popcorn had popped, they filled their bowls with popcorn, sippy cups with milk
and grabbed a seat on the rug

Luke was very intrigued, he'd never seen Finding Nemo before

Watching a movie on the Big Screen is over-rated, it's much more enjoyable to watch
Nemo on a laptop screen