Luke turned 5!!

Last month on January 13th our big boy turned 5 years old. I know, it's hard to believe. Something we have learned about Luke in the past couple of years is that he doesn't really liked crowds or lots of noise (kinda like his Momma). So we have opted to do smaller birthday gatherings for him & he really enjoys that. After Christmas we decided to do a little Build-A-Bear party with our TN cousins & then went to Chick-fil-a for dinner- YUM!

Luke getting his dog "Billy Blazes" stuffed. I don't know where he comes up with such names.

Quinn got a cute Monkey.

Here we have: Quinn, Luke, Elijah, Jackson, Maddy & Mason. I think a fun time was had by all.

Back to School Part 2- The first day

Luke gets on the bus at about 11:55 so we have to be home from outings & have lunch before the bus comes. Is kind of a crunch sometimes. He was really excited to go today.

Finishing up PB&J with Quinn on the porch before the bus comes.

Daddy even came home for lunch to see him off on the bus.

Ms. Sheri is his busdriver again this year. She's really sweet. Doesn't he look soooo small getting on the bus.

All in all it was a good day for him & me :)

Back to School Part 1 - Open House

So, we went for our back to school orientation this week. Luke is in the early childhood program at our public school. He says "I go to Pre-K now Mom, not Preschool". He's so funny. It's hard for me to believe we have a child old enough to go to school. Time is already flying.



There are 8 kids in his class. Max of 10. There's always a teacher, assistant, and either speech or OT in the class about everyday so there's lot of one-on-one attention given to the kids.

Checkin' out the tool bench.

Computers, looks like a big ole Mac screen. I've managed to keep him off my computer up to this point. Guess that will be changing.

Silly boy!

More coming soon about the first day....

Another trip to the beach...

Last Monday we went to Round Lake Beach for a couple of hours and had a lovely time. Gotta soak up the sun while we can. Quinn was really enjoying the sand. He is such a cutie!

Yes, he was a complete mess by the time we left the beach. This is a great sensory activity (for all my preschool friends :)

A nice shot of all my cute boys! So blessed.

Sporting some new specs....

Since it has been awhile since Luke got his first glasses & his prescription changed a bit we decided it was time for some new ones. I, of course, am way more excited about his new specs than he is. The first day he would have nothing to do with them, you know, change is hard. The second day he was happy as a clam in them. I think he figured out he could see better & they are very light weight. These things are amazing. They are completely flexible, sidebars, nose bridge, pads all plastic. The side bars have no screws to tighten, they actually pop off. Another cool thing about them is that we can change the colors if we get tired of the look (well, me mostly, Luke could care less). They also grow with him. The line is called T2, made by a company in California.

Yes, I took most of these photos while he was watching PBS.

Now he's all aready to go back to school.

Happy 4th Birthday Luke!!

This year we decided to celebrate Luke's birthday at the Choo Choo Restaurant in Des Plaines, IL. It's a classic diner in an older part of town. It's very popular because the kids can sit at a bar and a model train delivers their food to them. Perfect for my train obsessed boy. We invited our Illinois family the Wamsleys to celebrate with us. It was great fun! All the kids just loved it. The grown ups enjoyed it too.

The whole gang...boy, the group has really grown in 6 years 0-5 kids!

Quinn & Sammy can't wait until the can sit around the track & wait for their food.

The grand finale. The best part was the cupcake!

I'm Back...

Well, I'm starting to make some headway with trip/holiday recovery so I decided to sit here & upload pictures & play on the computer for THE ENTIRE EVENING. It's my mini vacation from the things that need to get done.

It has been snowing for close to 24 hrs here & I just love it! Instead of catching you up from Nov til now i'm going to share about this week. Now, I have to admit I don't get too excited about going out to play in the snow b/c it's cold, wet, & is a big hassle to put on all the gear. I love watching it fall, wearing my PJs late into the morning & sipping coffee for hours as I watch it. Today, since everyone was well & the wind wasn't blowing we went out to play. It was worth the clothing hassle. We had so much fun! Just to warn you...my boys are dressed in every shade of blue imaginable :) Aunt Amy, recognize the tool snow suit??...finally getting some real winter use.

After a snow face plant

I can pull him Mom!

The little red car glides nicely on top of the snow

King of the mountain

First snow angel

So, it's cold, but we are having fun this winter!! For our friends and family in TN...glad you're getting a taste of our cold but you'll probably never see this kind of snow :) come on up!! we'll share :)

More TN fun...Canoe ride for the big boy!

Since June we have been working on potty training with Luke. We thought since he was a bit older when we started training it might go faster. Well, not so much. Out of desperation we came up with some pretty lofty rewards to motivate him. His Daddy told him when he started using the potty like a big boy he could do some fun big boy things...like, go riding in a canoe with Daddy. So we held up our end of the deal this trip home -since he's now 95% trained on a good day. That's a victory in my book- it's been a long road & lots of laundry folks.

Brent & Granddaddy unloaded the canoe from the barn & transported it down to Horse Creek for launch. I didn't plan to go on this outing but decided I couldn't miss it & suspected Brent would need some help along the way. You see, Horse Creek is REALLY shallow. It ended up being so fun. The first hour we were able to float pretty easily then we hit lots of rock & trees down in the creek. This meant walking, wading & carrying the canoe in some places. Brent shouldered the majority of the the "dragging the canoe" load while I tried to keep Luke from falling or running up the creek bank :)

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Gotta love that cheesy grin!

I always thought I would have girls when I had children...I'm so glad to have my boys though. I get to explore and enjoy the great outdoors with them. Coming home wet & dirty from an outing is actually really refreshing sometimes.