How Much Do They Look Alike? 8 Months

I thought it was time to look back at pictures of Andrew when he was 8 months.  There is no mistaking they are brothers!!  We always joke about Lucas's blonde hair, but I think it is starting to get closer to Andrew's color.

Lucas is on the left and Andrew on the right.

I need to try and find some baby pictures of Mark and I around this age.

Story Time at the Library

I decided it was time to get Lucas involved in something for him. Andrew was in a playgroup with babies his age starting at 6-8 weeks!! Obviously it was more for the moms in the beginning, but it turned out to be fun for him as soon as he starting interacting with the other babies. Most of our activities today revolve around Andrew. At the beginning of February we decided to give the library story time a try. The one we went to was for babies up to 12 months, but siblings were still welcome :)

The boys had so much fun! It melted my heart watching Andrew help out his baby brother!!!! It is amazing how much your heart grows with each child. It was so cute watching Lucas interact with the teacher and the different activities we did.

The last story time we went to we stayed a little longer because Lucas fell asleep in the stroller. Andrew and I played a full game of checkers. I was pretty shocked that it held his interest for a whole game. We found a few new CDs to take home for a little variety in the car. Such a fun day with the boys.

 

 

Lucas 6 Months almost 7 Months

 

Time is flying way too fast for this Mom!! This post is a little delayed because Lucas's Dr appointment wasn't until the beginning of January! I am not going to post for 7 months because we have already past that too. My next post will probably be 9 months, unless he does something fun that I need to share. We have had so many changes around here since 5 months. At the Dr appointment Lucas was 23 lbs 4 oz and 28.5 inches long. Of course his weight and head were off the charts and he was 95th percentile for his length. He did have all of those awful shots again and he didn't like it at all. He was so angry this time. Nothing else to really report from the Dr.

After the five month post we bought Lucas a doorway jumper. This kids loves to jump!! He gets so crazy in his exersaucer that we thought he needed something with a little more spring. He cannot get enough of it!! It is so fun to watch him go. I posted a video of him jumping at the end of the post. His other new trick in the exersaucer is rocking. He will rock forward and backward. He is definitely putting some wear and tear on that thing.

 

Lucas has also started sitting up!! He is so cute to see sitting up. He loves to reach around for toys or really anything he can get his hands on. He has so many new toys from Christmas so that has really helped him because he loves all of them. He has also mastered going from sitting to laying. A few times he has fallen straight back and, of course, he didn't like that very much. He also moves all over the place. He isn't close to crawling but he sure gets around rolling and pushing himself around with his feet.

 

 

Lucas decided to drop a bottle during the day. Now he is only taking four bottles of about 7-8oz. He is still eating baby food once a day and it is probably time to start doing 2 a day. The only baby food I have found that he doesn't like is bananas. I love how he has been kind of guiding me with eating and sleep. I wonder if it is because I am much more laid back with Lucas than I was with Andrew. I just kind of let Lucas decide when he sleeps and eats. It has worked very well!! I am sure each kid is different too. Lucas is still sleeping like a champ. He does about 11-12 hours at night and has started with two naps a day. He usually goes down for a morning nap around 10:00ish and the afternoon is just kind of when he seems tired. I also wouldn't be surprised if my next post is about 1st teeth. This little guy cannot stop chewing on everything!!

Lucas is wearing size 12-18 months now and I hoping that he will stay there for more than a month :) I really didn't think that I would be needing these sizes already. I had to go through our totes to find him some more clothes. He is now wearing the clothes Andrew wore when he was 1!! I just recently moved him up to size 4 diapers. I didn't want to and tried to convince myself that size 3 was perfect until he had about 4 blow outs!! He has also grown out of all of his super cute baby shoes!! I guess it is time to do a little shoe shopping.

Matching PJs

1st Christmas

Lucas and Mommy selfie

Hanging out with Charlotte

Hanging out with Andrew's buddies, Andrew was a little jealous he missed out on playing with Dylan!!

 

Lucas, your big brother loves you so much!! It melts my heart everyday watching the two of you together!!

 

Carousel at the Children's Museum

 

So precious!! My baby may be big but he is SOOOO cute!!

 

Lots of snuggles lately!!!

Look at that big boy!! So serious!

 

 

 

Here is a video of the jumping madness!!

 

Fun In The Snow

As everyone knows we had a major snow storm at the beginning of the month and we were snowed in for 3 days. We ended up with about a foot of snow and the city shut down. We all got a good case of cabin fever by the end, but we survived. One thing we had to do was build a snow man.

Love that little boy so much!

We were a little limited on the snowman supplies but he still looks pretty good.

 

Trying out the snow blower!

 

Of course, it hasn't stopped snowing since and it has been crazy cold!!

 

Happy New Year!! 2014 Here We Come!!

As most of you know, once you have kids everything changes for New Years. I always laugh when people ask what my plans are for New Years. We could get a sitter, but the kids are still going to be up at their normal times. This year we decided we would let Andrew stay up until midnight if he wanted. Of course, he wanted to. We put on a movie for Andrew, then Mark and I played Monopoly. Don't be jealous of our wild New Year's Eve!! Andrew started to fade a little around 10:30. He snuggled next to me on the couch. He never fell asleep and then got a second wind of energy. We cut up some paper to throw in the air at midnight and he was super excited about that. We had so much fun staying up with Andrew!! After midnight he was ready to stay up. We had turned on one of the countdown shows so Andrew could watch the ball drop. Right after Mariah Carey came on and Andrew started a little dance party. We all went to bed around 12:45. Lucas slept through all of it. Andrew did sleep in a little, maybe an extra 30 minutes, the next day. He was a little grumpy on New Year's Day but it was worth the fun time we had.

 

 

 

Here is a picture of the boys earlier in the day.

Here's to an amazing 2014!!! Happy New Year!!

 

A Couple Things To Remember

Andrew just informed me that he is going to work at a construction site when he grows up. I love it!! The concerning part was that he went on to say that he would scoop up dirt and throw it in his own eyes!!?? Then he would throw it at other diggers to make them dirty. You can't make this stuff up. I love my 4 year old.

The other thing is Lucas seems to like music! When music comes on he bounces to the beat! So cute! I hope at least one of my kids is musical in some way.

I am going to try and start blogging little things like this that I usually forget. One of my favorite things to do is look back at my blog.

And because you can't do a post without a picture...

This picture was taken at the Dr for Andrews 4 year appointment. Andrew wanted Lucas to lay next to him on the table.

 

Christmas As A Family of 4!

This month has been so busy!! I hate that the holidays are so busy. I just want to take it all in and enjoy it, but sometimes I find myself going from one activity to the next just wanting to be at home. I love everything about Christmas and I love having a Christmas baby but sometimes it gets crazy. Every year I also say I will have Andrew's birthday party planned by October but that never happens. I think that sounds like a great New Year's resolution! This year I was so excited for Christmas as a family of 4! Andrew is at the best age for having a great Christmas spirit. Of course, Buddy the elf came back to our house this year to watch over Andrew. Finding Buddy was the highlight of Andrew's day and he loved to hear where Grandma's elf was everyday too.

 

This year my family decided to come stay with us for Christmas. My mom, sister, and Justin came out on Christmas Eve and left the day after Christmas. We all went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. It was too funny at times because Andrew and Justin were so excited that they could not stay quiet. Andrew loved singing along with the Christmas songs. They also had all of the kids up on stage for a Christmas story and I about lost it watching Justin help Andrew up to the stage. It was so cute! Every Christmas Eve since Andrew was born I find it hard to keep it together because I am so overwhelmed with how blessed I am. I know that there are so many people out there that are missing loved ones!! I am so thankful to be able to look down the row at church and see my family smiling back at me.

 

 

After church, everyone put on their PJs and then we read the boys a story. The boys also left cookies and milk for Santa and then they were off to bed. Andrew was the first one up on Christmas morning! I think it was about 7:30 so we were lucky. We spent the morning opening gifts and eating breakfast that Mark made. We all pretty much stayed in our PJs the entire day and played games. It was great to spend time with everyone.

 

Listening to the story

Santa ate the cookies

 

 

 

He was cracking me up with opening the gifts. He wouldn't even have a reaction until all of the wrapping paper was off and then he wanted to look at the back of every box. It was so cute!

 

 

Andrew looks pretty into Justin's new Nintendo DS

One of his favorite gifts!

Here is his other favorite!!

Mark's parents also came for a visit on the Friday after Christmas. It was great spending time with them!! They gave Andrew and Lucas a membership to the Children's Museum!! On Sunday after church we went to show Mema and Papa what it was all about.

 

Their reactions are too funny!

 

 

 

Love these fun moments with Papa!!

 

 

Ice fishing

 

 

 

I was also able to take a trip out to Cincinnati for the day to visit all of my friends from home!! I decided to take Lucas with me because some of them had never met him. It was so much fun!! All of the girls were able to make it! When we get together it is like we were never apart. I love them all so much!!

 

Charlotte and Lucas hanging out!

 

Love her!!

 

Group shot!! Just like homecoming!

 

 

I guess not just like homecoming because we didn't have this couch full of kids then!

Not only do I love my friends, but they also have pretty amazing husbands too!!

 

Christmas was great this year and I love that our family has grown to four now!! I loved watching Lucas with his new gifts and Andrew's reaction to all of the new toys. I also loved watching Andrew get so involved with the real Christmas story. After we opened presents he said, "wait, we forgot to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus before we opened our presents!!" We all stopped what we were doing and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. That kid makes my heart so full!!