At Last!!

Two weeks shy of his first birthday, Luke has finally started saying "mama"!! I seriously wondered if he would ever say it! Now, granted, he has not said it in front of Jonathan, but he did say it while I was on the phone with my mom, so she is my witness! This must be my early birthday present from Luke. :)

As Promised...

Here are pictures of Peyton's third birthday and a belated Father's Day.

Okay, we aren't totally weird. We were actually dog-sitting for Jonathan's sister's dog; we did not invite him over especially for Peyton's party! :) And my cousins came and spent the night, hence the random bed in the middle of the floor.

Luke was not exactly in the mood for pictures. These were the best I could get. Luke does love his daddy very much, though, and thinks he's the greatest in the world!

Luke's Eleven Month Pictures

Here they are finally! A little late, but here none-the-less. :)

Luke at 11 months:

*eats all his meals with us and eats what we do (so much easier--yea!)

*still refuses to say "mama"...whenever we ask him to, he just laughs

*is not walking by himself and doesn't even seem close yet, though he still loves walking with help

*loves to laugh and thinks that when we raise our eyebrows up and down, it's the funniest thing in the world

*likes looking at books

*is into everything!!!!

*drinks from a sippy cup

*is starting to learn his animal sounds. So far we are learning what ducks, monkeys, sheep, rabbits, and lions say (those are the animal toys that he plays with a lot). Sometimes we get confused, though. This morning we asked him what a rabbit says (he usually sniffs and wiggles his nose) and Luke goes, "roarrr!!". Oh well, close enough. :)

We love you baby boy and can't believe you are almost ONE!!

Lets Go Back!

While I was trying to unpack from our vacation, Luke decided he's ready to go back!

And just for fun, some pictures of Luke trying to break out. He goes over to the baby gate every day and shakes it. He recently has been messing with the knob, trying to figure out how to open it that way. Thankfully, it's a sturdy gate and the knob is tricky even for us to open!

Weekend In Indiana Part II

These are just a few pictures my sister took our second weekend in Indiana. We went out to my uncle's farm for a huge family bonfire. (Not sure why one is larger than the rest...oh well.)

I love this picture Emily took!

She's the best sister. Ever.

The Rest of our TN Pictures!

Okay, here they are! Enjoy...

Luke was super excited to get the trip started! (His face in this picture cracks me up.)

Chillin' in Cherokee, NC

I'm sure I was telling him something very wise...

The scenery was breathtaking...God does awesome work!

Our companions for the trip: the Chrises and Linnea. (Don't you love how she's looking at her parents so adoringly? Too cute!)

We looked at lots of cool cabins and other buildings, which was fun. Peek-a-boo!
Cooking us some grub on the grill. Luke and Linnea had a great time together! They became great playmates. :)
I love how Luke is stuffing his face in this picture!

We went to Gatlinburg for a day to walk around and look at all the shops (and get some free fudge samples of course!).We decided to ride the tram to Ober Gatlinburg. The view was beautiful on the ride up!

Once on top of the mountain, we had a snack and looked around some more. (Don't worry, Luke didn't actually eat the Twizzler!) :)
After a bit, we decided it was time to head back down. We were excited because we heard the view down is even better. About that time we heard a loud boom and:

Pretty sure we were stuck on top of the mountain waiting in line for over two hours!! One would assume that they would have a good back-up for getting people down the mountain when the tram isn't able to run. Oh no, instead they have one short bus that seats about 20 tops. It takes a good 20 minutes round trip to take one load. After an hour or so, they started running a 15 passenger van as well. I must say, the kids were amazing! They were so good--they even got compliments by the people standing in line behind us. Well, we finally got in the van to ride down. Once at the bottom of the mountain, we looked up to see the tram working again. Sometimes the cards just don't fall your way. Speaking of cards, once we got back to the cabin, we needed some serious down time to recuperate. So Chris and I beat the boys in some good ole euchre. :)

We drove through Cade's Cove, which was really pretty. Everyone else saw a bear, but I was in the back of the van with Luke and by the time I got out, the bear was gone. We did see lots of deer, though, and a few wild turkeys. I love that I went all the way to the Smokies and the only animals I saw are ones that I see in the field behind our house all the time. haha

After Cade's Cove, we stopped for a picnic.

Some pretty shots of our picnic area.

I couldn't resist taking this one. :)

Waterfalls

We hiked to two waterfalls:

Laurel Falls

and Grotto Falls (not sure who Luke's waving at in this picture!)
Jonathan climbed pretty high to get this shot (that's Chris and I and the kids down below).

Hiking

We hiked a couple trails, which was really fun. Luke fussed for five minutes or so of our first hike, but after that, he loved it!

On the left: the Chrises' Taj Mahal of backpacks. On the right: our ghetto hand-me-down backpack. :)

Where We Stayed

Some pics of the cabin we stayed in with the Chrises. We would highly recommend it! :)

Our bedroom

Hot tub out back--woohoo!