Happy Birthday Grandma Blum

Luke and Ben's Great Grandma Blum (Cindy's mom) came in town last week to visit.  While she was here we celebrated her birthday (her birthday is one day before Luke's birthday).  We are so thankful that she was able to make a trip down to see the boys and meet Benji for the first time.   Here are some pictures from the evening.

I love Luke's expression in this picture!

 Making monkey faces!

Here is a picture from the last time Great Grandma Blum was in town.

Elmo & Cookie Monster

We recently re-discovered our Elmo and Cookie Monster hooded towels for after bath time. Luke loves the "new" towels and insisted that he got to be Elmo tonight!

Here are some pictures of Luke in his Elmo towel at ~5 months old.  He has grown so much!

Back to the Park

Mom and I took Makayla and Luke to the park after church this past Sunday.  The weather was beautiful and I know the kids had a good time.  Luke is doing more and more things by himself at the park.  He had no problems going up the stairs on his own holding the rail and he went down the slide multiple times.  We had one close call with the slide though -- Luke forgot to sit down and started to walk down the slide.  Luckily he fell backwards (instead of forwards) and just slid down the slide, albeit slightly sideways and a little rough.  After that, Luke's favorite thing was throwing rocks off the bridge into the creek below.  I foresee many more afternoons looking for rocks to toss over the edge!

1/4 of a Year!

Benjamin is now 3 months old!!  It is hard to believe that it has ONLY been 3 months because it feels like he has been a part of our family forever, but at the same time I cannot believe it has ALREADY been 3 months.  He has changed so much and is doing so many things.  First off, he now weighs 14lbs, 3ounces (75th percentile) and is wearing his 3-6 month clothes.  Ben goes to sleep each night between 8-9pm and I wake him up in the morning (6am) to give him a bottle before I go to work.  He eats 5 times each day and eats ~5-6 ounces at each feeding.  He is a happy, growing little boy.

Benjamin loves to see the world.  He wants to be sitting up (either propped up or me holding him) so that he can take in the room.  He likes to look at new things and he loves to go outside.  He is a little chatter box and tries so hard to talk back.  He loves bath time and I love it when he splashes the water with his feet.  He likes to swing in his swing (Luke is a good helper with turning it on and keeping the stars on), watch his mobile, and lay on his mat.  He has a big smile and I get warm fuzzies when he laughs :)

I remember always looking forward to and almost rushing Luke to the next step -- boy was I naive.  With Benjamin, I am trying to treasure every moment because I know it is all going to go so fast.

Stop growing so fast Ben -- you are only 3 months!  We love you!

Thankful

I am so thankful for these sweet, sweet boys!

First Week at Grandmas

Cindy sent me this picture of the boys one day during my first week back at work. Luke is so sweet to his little brother. I already love to watch them play.

12 Weeks and Back to Work

I went back to work full time last Monday.  It was sad to see my time home with the boys come to an end.  I will really miss the cuddly days at home watching them grow and learn new things.  We are thankful that Grandma has agreed to watch both of the boys for me and that Christina is still willing to help out, too.  Knowing that the boys are in the care of people that love them makes the transition back to work a little bit easier. 

Dinosaur Dig

At the FW Children's Museum there is an area where kiddos can go outside and dig for dinosaur bones.  Luke really loved this part of the museum.  In fact, I think he would have dug in the sand all day if I would have let him.  This was a great activity for Luke while Daddy stayed inside to give Benjamin a bottle.

This picture of Luke's face really made me laugh :)

FW Children's Museum

Last Saturday we took Luke to the Fort Worth Children's Museum.  We went right when it opened so it wasn't too busy and we were gone by lunch time.  It is always fun to watch Luke explore new things.  He went pretty quickly from station to station to see what they had.  He seemed to enjoy driving the ambulance the most.  Andy said he had to make him get up so that the other kids could take a turn at being the driver!  Benjamin did really well on our outing.  He spent most of the time in his stroller.  I can't wait for him to be big enough to go exploring, too!  We actually bought a family pass to the museum so I anticipate many more trips in our future.

Outside in February

One day after school, Luke and I spent some time outside while Benjamin was napping.  I was so proud of him when he went straight to the slide without hesitation.  I guess that the itty bitty slide is nothing compared to Caleb's playroom slide!