Matching Cuteness

These outfits were a Christmas gift from Grandma. The boys wore them to church today. I have NEVER seen anything cuter than Paul's face in this picture. He's excited because big brother is sitting next to him and holding his hand. Luke is looking pretty pleased with himself as well. Happy boys.

All Partied Out

This is a shot taken on December 23rd after the big Christmas party we attended. There were about 70 people and Baby Paul was completely enthralled with everyone. He fell asleep on the way home and actually made it to his crib still sleeping. This is very rare for him. And the results are pretty adorable. We did remove his coat eventually. :-)

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration that began with singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and Luke blowing out the candle on the cake. He didn't actually want to eat any cake though! He had waffles instead. Baby Paul, meanwhile, had rice cereal. Yum!

Lest I bore you with a play-by-play of the morning, I will just tell you that it took Luke over six hours to get through the gift opening. There was too much fun to be had with each item opened. We had lots of breaks and enjoyed a leisurely morning.

Paul's first Christmas was exciting for him. He sat in his saucer and chewed on a variety of gifts. Good times.

Here are some shots of Luke putting together his wheelbarrow with Daddy, Paul being cute in his saucer and Luke enjoying his trains the day after Christmas.

Gingerbread and Visitors

Luke made his first gingerbread house with Oma today. It was a surprise for Mommy and Daddy who were out shopping when the process began. It was so much fun to arrive home and have Luke so engaged in the "building" and decorating of his house. Mommy and Daddy couldn't resist the urge to get in on the action. Too fun!

This decorating business is very serious work.

Daddy joins in the fun.

Two architects and their masterpiece.

This afternoon we had two very special visitors. Jean and I have been friends ever since her son Paul was in my class as an 8th and 9th grader. No, he didn't flunk! He took German. That might be worse. Anyway, Paul was a good kid and grew up to be an amazing person, so we named our second-born after him. Big Paul and Baby Paul met for the first time today.

The Pauls

Big Paul, a junior at the Airforce Academy, can't actually be squeamish about a little baby drool, can he?

A good time was had by all, except perhaps Big Brother Luke who sat in his crib for two hours straight refusing to nap and was rather manic by the time the guests arrived. Oh dear. Such is the life of the two year old. Hopefully tomorrow will be different as we are headed to an evening Christmas party with 70 attendees. At least it will be noisy enough to drown out his screams. :-)

Waking a Sleeping Giant

"Is Daddy asleep?"

Don't look now, Luke...

GOTCHA!

Five Months Old

Paul turned five months on Sunday. Check out the cute!

I'm so glad he can't talk yet. I would be in BIG trouble. :-)

Tree Traditions

We actually did acquire our Christmas tree last weekend. Sunday after lunch, Erik and I braved the gross weather and drove to the tree farm nearby the one we thought belonged to our BSF friend. Stay tuned for the crazy conclusion to that story. When we arrived it was pouring down rain. I spotted the tree from our vehicle. Small, easy to cut. I didn't notice the red tag denoting that the tree farmers wanted to give it another year to grow. So we didn't cut it down. When we shared with them that we were interested in a small tree, they pointed to a few they had already cut and asked if we wanted a "less than perfect tree". We picked the Charlie Brownest tree they had for the amazing bargain price of $5. While writing the check, I asked whom I should make it to. Turns out this "nearby farm" IS the BSF dude's tree farm. Funny.
We brought our little tree home and had it up in its stand before Luke awoke from his nap. When he came out to the living room he said, "Oh, my Christmas tree." We spent the next few hours decorating and dancing. When it was all done, we turned off the lights to enjoy our handiwork. Luke said, "And now we will sing the song." Fortunately I was prepared. He had been talking about singing "the song" for the Christmas tree all week and I had figured out that he was referring to the Charlie Brown Christmas Special when all the characters gather around the restored and decorated tree to sing. Having discovered that this was Luke's expectation for the Christmas tree event, we all sat around the tree and sang "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." Great family tradition. Thanks, Luke.

I love the less than perfect trees. They remind me of...me. And Jesus picked me out of the "less than perfect" pile, and He is restoring and decorating me, turning me into the person I was made to be in Him.

Some Snow and Sleeping Sons

It snowed for approximately 20 minutes this morning as we were finishing breakfast. We immediately bundled Luke and sent him out. You have to take what you can get in this neck of the woods. Oma went with him and we took some pictures of Luke in the "snow." That dandruff looking stuff on his shoulders and hood really is snow.
Shortly after the snow moment, we piled into the car to go get our Christmas tree. Sadly this did not happen! Our tree farm of choice, owned by a friend from BSF, isn't open until next weekend. We were contemplating another choice when Luke fell asleep and we thought it best to head home. The hat is courtesy of Grandma. When we first put it on Luke and showed him his reflection he said, "I'm a bunny!" He changed it later to, "I'm an elephant!" Either way he's adorable. Paul has a matching one, but he wasn't facing forward or wearing it, so that picture has yet to be taken.

Lest we forget how adorable Paul looks while sleeping, I just took this picture of him in his swing. He often spends time in the evenings down in the basement with Mommy and Daddy. Sometimes he sleeps, sometimes he doesn't. Tonight he does, hence the post. :-)

Action Shots

Paul has been rolling regularly for almost five days now. The challenge is that he can roll from his back to his front, but has no clue how to reverse the process. This poses a slight problem. I used to be able to leave him on his back in the living room while I went to change Luke's diaper. Today I came back to him screaming in frustration while eating the carpet. No good. I think the saucer or his infant seat will be his new hang out while I do quick Luke things. I decided to get Paul in action today, so here he is in all his glory. I also took some pics of Luke driving his car. I love his imagination.

He's so fast that I couldn't even get a shot of him flat on his back!

He does all his own stunts.

When Mommy is right here, I'm a very happy boy.

Luke's car even has a steering wheel. It's also proof that I folded the laundry.

NOT the Christmas Card Pic

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we took the opportunity to do a family photo shoot in an effort to capture the picture for our Christmas card this year. Have you ever tried to get a two-year old and a four-month old to look the same direction at the same time and maybe even possibly smile? This is the definition of insanity. I can't even begin to describe all the hilarious shots that resulted. I will share one of them with you, along with my personal commentary.


Could we look any sillier? Baby Paul is doing his Elvis sneer combined with utterly confused look. Luke says, "Talk to the hand." Not exactly the Merry Christmas message I wanted to send out this year. I promise you all that the actual shot is much warmer and friendlier. :-) But this one makes me laugh.

Thanksgiving and a Milestone

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom's place with my sister, her husband and our nephew. They came all the way from the east coast! It was such fun to see all three boys together for the first time. Uncle Ed had never met either Luke or Paul. He was quite smitten with Baby Paul. Who wouldn't be? He just smiles and smiles. Luke did an awesome job behaving well. We were thrilled. He shared with cousin Joey and didn't play rough with either of the small guys. Here are just a few shots from the first evening we were all together.

All three cousins together at last.

Joey and Paul giving big cousin hugs.

More cuteness from Joey and Paul. Luke couldn't sit still that long.

In other news, Paul rolled over for the first time today! He went from his back to his front via his left side while holding a yellow foam letter R. I'm pretty sure he was trying to communicate the concept that roll starts with the letter R. Genius. ;-)

Playing Catch-up

I fell off the blog-0-sphere for a few weeks there and now feel the need to play catch up a bit, hence the double-post day. We are currently looking forward to Thanksgiving at my mom's house with my sister and brother-in-law and nephew who are coming all the way from the east coast. I am so excited about having all the grandsons together in the same place. My sister's comment about Luke's behavior concerning an additional grandchild at Oma's house is totally warranted. I have no idea how he will respond to this newbie. I can tell you that the first time Oma spent more attention on Paul than Luke deemed necessary, there was an outburst from the two-year-old corner. Oh dear. It might be a long weekend. Perhaps we will be able to convince Luke that sharing Oma isn't such a bad thing.

Regardless, here are the cute pictures I took of my boys today.

Paul is totally checking out the Baby in the Mirror. This has become one of his favorite activities.

Blissfully unaware

Such a Good Sport

Baby Paul is quite amazing. He continues to need his nebulizer treatments about every other day, but he is such a sweetie about it. Sometimes he even falls asleep during it. He totally looks like some sort of alien experiment, but he's still cute. It's the cheeks. :-)

Down One

Our friends, Bob and Liza, are expecting their second child in about a month. They have a two-year-old who is exactly six days older than Luke. Liza thought it would be a good idea to see what life is like with two kids, so she and Bob borrowed Baby Paul today. We dropped him off with our best wishes for success! Luke hasn't really asked about Paul and I have the feeling it would take him a few weeks to wonder about his whereabouts. Oh dear. Fortunately for all of us, we will be reacquiring the baby later this afternoon. Daddy and I are both missing him! And Luke has had enough of a vacation. Although this picture was taken last weekend, I think it perfectly summarizes how Luke is feeling today. A little too gleeful, but terribly cute.

Four Months Old Today

Baby Paul is four months old today. I know for sure that he weighs over 17 pounds. I don't have any of his other stats, but he certainly is adorable. Here he is posing in the chair with Sprout the Bear. He's getting better at smiling for the camera. In health news, Paul is doing really well on his breathing treatments. We have been able to cut back to only once or twice a day. His coughing tends to accompany his spitting up. We are pretty sure he's not actually aspirating the fluid because of his fairly clear chest x-ray. He will be seeing the pediatric gastroenterologist on December 4th to see if we can do a little more for his reflux. All prayers are appreciated. He's such a sweet little guy. We are praying that all his health issues will be resolved according to God's perfect will.

Solid Food

Last Friday evening while we sat around the dinner table eating, Baby Paul showed extreme interest in each and every bite being taken. He's been joining us from the high chair for dinner and we figured it was a good time to try some solid food. I totally expected the kid to push the majority of the food back out at us. Not so. Paul loves to eat. He took three or four big bites and then decided to finish off the bottle. He's an eater, folks. Here are the pics to prove it.

Paul opens up for the next bite.

Yum!

I'm stuffed. :-)

Just Pictures

Luke reads to Paul and Oma this past Friday.

Paul is figuring out how his hands work.

Brothers in the Bath

Our Little Pumpkins on Halloween

Crazy Daze

What an adventure we had these past few days. Monday morning Luke's cough, which started the week before as a nighttime thing, extended into the day. He coughed all morning, went to sleep and woke up with a fever. I called the pediatrician and got us an appointment for 5:30 pm. For the record, that's a pretty insane hour to be leaving the house with two in diapers. Daddy was in Orlando on business, so we were blessed to have Grandma come with us. Hugely blessed. Luke's oxygen levels weren't what the doctor wanted so he got nebulized. Meanwhile Baby Paul was sitting on Grandma's lap, wheezing away and the fabulous Dr. Frank decided it was time to do two for the price of one. Paul was nebulized as well. Paul's wheeze got better. Luke's oxygen levels didn't. Dr. Frank sent us on our way to the emergency room for a chest x-ray. We arrived a little after 7 pm and stayed until 12:30 am. Luke's chest x-ray showed slight traces of fluid in his lungs. That combined with an ear infection, about which I was completely unaware, earned Luke a prescription for antibiotics. He also got a new inhaler and "puffer."

I seriously don't have time to go into all the details of the next four days, but basically Baby Paul got his own chest x-ray and ended up being prescribed two different inhalants. The saga continued this week as the doctor decided it was time to see a specialist. More details to come. Paul is crying in the swing next to me, letting me know that he is WAY more important than this silly blog!

Lazy Sunday

Both boys have mild cases of pink eye, probably the most contagious thing they could have; hence we were unable to get to church this morning. We were tired out anyway due to Paul's somewhat difficult night. We would like to explain that this means he woke up every three hours to feed like a normal three month old. Normally he sleeps for a five-six hour block, eats, and sleeps for another four-five hours. We know we are spoiled. Nonetheless, when he deviates, we feel it BIG time. We were zombies this morning. It was fine with Luke. He got to shoot baskets with Daddy and enjoy many books with both Mommy and Daddy.

After nap, we were all pretty much climbing the walls and decided a trip to the park would be a safe and sane activity. It was so much fun! Paul rode in the baby swing for the first time and Luke spent time in the mock Jeep driving us all to Oma's house "in four minutes." We haven't a clue where that amount of time originated. We give him five minute warnings for transitions. Perhaps he thinks those take forever and it takes less time to get to Oma's. I wish it only took four minutes. We would be over there WAY more often! :-)

Happy boy with his burp rag

Luke loves driving anything and spent the bulk of our outing sitting behind this steering wheel.

I love this shot. Luke is pointing and saying, "Oma's house is this way." Erik is looking like his oldest son is driving too fast!

Happy Family

100th Post

Well, this should be about something monumental and amazing, it being our 100th post. My reason for posting at this moment is that both children are asleep and I have cute pictures of Paul. If that isn't monumental enough for you, I can tell you that I'm learning all sorts of amazing things about God's mercy this week. This has everything to do with napping children and time to blog. :-)

The story behind the pics: Paul spit up all over himself this afternoon, thus instigating a complete change of clothing. Due to the fact that nearly none of the clothes in his dresser actually fit him, I placed The Cute in his bassinet and began searching his closet for hand-me-downs that fit. When I noticed how adorable he looked in just his diaper with his soft fuzzy blanket, I forgot about the clothes and went straight for the camera. This is a mother who has her priorities straight! I don't think you'll disagree when you view the results. Enjoy!