Flashlight Fun

Luke loves to play with flashlights!
Gotta love such an easy and cheap toy!

Napping in the Laundry

I came downstairs to find Luke lying in the laundry hamper with his hands over his eyes. He wasn't really sleeping, just resting on his laundry inside his hamper.





Then he decided to try the laundry basket, to see if it was better...




Oh how i love my siLLy boy.

Addicted!

Ok, I'm addicted now.

I made 3 more today!

By the Way, I've been using Photoshop in order to create all my pages. If you were wondering.

I download free elements & papers online (places like Here & Here).

I originally used THIS tutorial to learn how to make a page because I knew NOTHING about Photoshop and nothing about digital scrapbooking.

And then I found the tutorials HERE to be very helpful in making some of my photos awesome.

sweet sweet scrapbooking action.

Scrapbooking Pages

So I've actually started my scrapbooking. I'm WAY behind, but I don't really care because I like doing it. Besides, unless someone finds a way to stop time, I'm always going to be behind. And, IF it weren't digital, I would never ever do it. I just don't think I could ever be a real scrapbooker.

My goal is to do at least 3 pages a week, but right now i've been doing a lot more because I'm really into it. I'm not really doing it in order, either. I'm just kind of jumping around and doing whatever i feel like. Hence the reason there are 2 Engagement day pages and 3 Luke pages.

Here's the pages I've done so far, they are 12x12 so i can get them printed off someday, so if you want to see them bigger just click on them!

(the rose backgrounds for these pages are actually a picture of the roses he gave me in addition to the daisies)

[pages done in Photoshop]

Proud of his New Trick

Cousins

Alexander & Luke had a great time playing together, it's really too bad Alexander lives in Georgia.

(Luke was clapping for the picture)

"you pick it up" "no YOU pick it up"

Winter Fun

Scott's brother, Kevin, and his wife, Amy brought Alexander (only 2 weeks younger than Luke) came to Utah last week from Georgia.

We took the opportunity to go skiing and snowboarding with Kevin and Darcy (Scott's sister who lives in UT) while Scott's dad, who also came out, watched Luke and Alexander. We went skiing up at The Canyons in Park City and then drove straight from there to Altonah to stay with Scott's grandparents for a night and go snowmobiling the next day! Quite the 2 days.

I've never gone skiing, so I did snowboarding--which totally wore me out. I did really well on the green runs, but after a blue one I was completely done for the day. I'm thinking I should try skiing just because it doesn't expend as much energy as snowboarding. OR I just need to do a million lunges before the next time I go snowboarding so I don't get worn out so fast.

Getting ready to leave--Luke & Alexander trying out the snowboard

Snowmobiling was great too. Scott took me up there to go snowmobiling for our second date way back in 2006 and we haven't gone since. This time I had my own to drive and i had a good time with it. I only wiped out twice. The first time I almost hit a fence and bruised up my leg pretty good (oops), but the second time I basically just fell off into a bunch of snowy powder.

Scott, Katie & Luke (and Max)

Amy, Kevin & Alexander

Scott and I tried some 'stunts' --he tried to snowboard behind me as i pulled him with the snowmobile.

Overall it was an awesome 2 days and great to spend with Kevin & Amy (they stayed up at the Grandparent's for the rest of the week and then came back to our place the following weekend before going home) but man, I was SO SORE.

We also got some great pictures of the boys in the snow. And some with the mommies who never really make it into pictures

making a funny face as grandpa tries to take his picture

crawling to Alexander--
Luke: "Hey come play with me!"
Alexander: "Dude, I'm trying to get my picture with my mom"

I love how fat Luke looks in all his snow gear--
usually he has a tiny body and a big head, but here it's the other way around!


Grandpa & his favorite boys

Road Rage

This makes me laugh...I guess even a 1.5 yr old gets road rage

18 Months Old

Today, Luke is 18 months old!!

It's been 6 months since our last update so there's lots to share

He has his 18 mo checkup on the 20th, but when i weighed him here at home he was about 22lbs (i'll update this later after the official stats). He's had a growth spurt over the last month and a half so he is actually wearing 18 month sizes like he should be! That's a first.

He is talking a LOT more these days.

He says (when he feels like it):
Uh-oh, cracker, quack-quack, meow, vroom (when playing with cars), momma (used sparingly), dadda, ow, wow, no-no, nummy-nummy, yay, awwww, tickle-tickle-tick, shoes, bzzz, outside, bebobebe (belly button), and various other language that sounds like German and Chinese.
He still uses sign language and learns more as I teach him. He signs: hungry, bath, more, "ask nicely", drink, phone, hat, bonk, light, up, down, all done, blow kisses, bye-bye, yes, no

He points to his nose, eyes, hair/head, belly button, tummy, fingers, toes, and sticks out his tongue.

He loves doing the motions for the itsy-bitsy spider, popcorn popping, and if you're happy and you know it songs.

He LOVES loves LOVES music. If i sing him a song he claps and says "YAY!" after I'm done. He'll do the same thing after one of his toys plays a song. He loves to dance to the music and is just naturally drawn to all music anywhere.

At nighttime, he still loves his bath and watching the water drain. After we get him all dressed he'll give the parent not putting him down for the night a hug and blows kisses as we leave.

He loves giving hugs and kisses and he likes to hug and pat our shoulder and then say "awwww" (probably because we do)--he hugs his stuffed animals and says awww and gently pats them. He also is fascinated with baby dolls (but only when he's at playgroup or with his girl cousins because we haven't bought him a baby).

He is fascinated with my toothbrush and gets upset when I don't give it to him when I'm getting ready.

He knows which remotes he is and isn't allowed to play with. When the remote he isn't allowed to have is within reach he'll bring it to me and say "no-no". Such a good boy.

He's getting better with eating with forks and spoons and drinking from cups. All are a work in progress though...and very very messy.

There is SO so much he is doing these days, he is constantly doing new things, saying new things, and finding new ways to entertain himself. I've decided i LOVE the age between 12-18 months. It's my favorite age so far.

ALSO, today was his first day in Nursery!!! He was really tired because we now have church from 11 to 2pm and he usually takes his nap around noon...but we dropped him off and he was mostly fine. He did get sad after almost the whole sunday school hour and they brought him to us, but I took him back a few minutes later and he was fine the rest of the time. (though I checked on him several times!) I'd definitely say it was a SUCCESS! On a side note: I can't believe he's old enough to go to nursery! Jeez he's growing up so fast!

Passing Time

Yes. my son is standing in the drawer.

i let him climb all over the desk and make huge messes with the drawers while I blog or edit pictures on the computer. (Scott hates when i let him do that)

December Projects

Two headbands for a secret santa gift for a young girl

(red one not my fav)

Headbands for me





Tech/geeky art I made for Scott's office (christmas present)--this is an XKCD comic he liked
see HeRe

and HeRe.


Pictures I framed for Scott's office (he didn't have ANY of Luke and the kid is 1 1/2 yrs old)


A wintery clipboard


Family Trees--One for each of our parents and the last one I made for a friend so she could give it to her in-laws for Christmas too.