Excercises

My Uncle Garland enforced a strict exercise routine for Luke to lose some of those extra chunks.  Well I guess he didn't really enforce anything... he just discovered that Luke really liked doing this... here is my beautiful Auntie Gene demonstrating...

He would pull himself up and lay back down... working his muscles to the core! Go baby boy!

The More the Merrier

The Bells were able to make it down for Christmas this year which was totally awesome! We all love them so much and it made the holidays even that much more fun to have family celebrating with us!

Great Auntie Gene.

 Playing around in Grammie's room.

 Sibs.

 Playing with Auntie Kelly.

Good morning Kel... thanks for letting me take your picture!

Love.

Grammie love is the best kind.

Oh Christmas Tree...

Grammie still needed a Christmas tree, so Aaron and Aubrie headed over to a nursery down the street with her to check out what was available. Surprisingly, they were no longer selling trees (I guess because it was the week of Christmas?!!), but they were giving them away for free... so here is the free beauty that they ended up with! 

Here they are admiring my lumberjack husband hard at work!

Ready for Church

Lauren picked us up from the airport on Saturday night and we headed over to Grammie's house for some love, treats, and of course a yummy dinner and razzleberry pie!! It was delish!  Then we went to Nana and Papa's house to see all the aunts and uncles and cousins... and of course Nana and Papa! Luckily church didn't start until eleven the next morning... we even had some time to take a few pictures before...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my handsome men! LOVE!

Doesn't Luke look like such a little man?!!

Hate my frumpy long hair in this photo... so glad I chopped it a few days after this was taken!

What were the kids looking at?!!

 Hangin with Papa after Sacrament meeting!

The guys! So sweet!

Flight to Vegas

I really dislike flying with kids. I guess that sounds pretty harsh, but it's not that we have bad kids or anything, it's just crazy how much extra stuff you have to bring.  We had to bring 2 carseats, a double stroller, 2 checked bags, 2 large carry-on bags, my diaper bag, Aubrie's backpack, and Aaron's backpack.... oh and 2 kids! Security checkpoint was awesome! It took us like 20 minutes to get through... shoes and jackets on and off... stroller broken down, baby out of car seat, aubrie out of stroller, bottles out of diaper bag so they can be breathalized, computers out of backpacks, once they realize that the stroller won't fit on the conveyor belt (which we had already told them before we folded it down), we had to reopen it to have it scanned... fun times! It really wasn't all that bad, but then waiting to get on a 2 hour delayed flight with 2 babies was lots of fun! Overall Aubrie was pretty good on the flight to Las Vegas. She got a little restless, but did pretty well for the circumstances.  Luke slept the whole way! :) Here are some photos from Luke's first flight...

 Aubs with her apple juice... in her own seat... on her first paid flight!

 Super baby!

 Love these 2!

Such a good daddy helping her figure out her headphones!

Celebrating Early

We wanted to celebrate Christmas early as a little family before heading off to Vegas (mainly because we knew we wouldn't have much space to bring extra stuff back with us), so the night before we left we opened our stocking and presents for each other.

Here is our little "Santa Baby" who didn't get too much from us this year since he doesn't really know the difference.  He did get some new jammies though and a cute little box of Lego's is on it's way for him! Everyone in Las Vegas spoiled him to pieces so we don't feel so bad!

 Aubs was so excited to see what was in her stocking! 

She wanted to play with it all right then.

 The spinny light thing was my favorite!

 She of course loved the "lipstick" (chapstick)!.. and the bath markers... etc.

Oh and I loved the IKEA reindeer puppet, too!

P.S. Please excuse her lack of pants in this picture... we were getting ready to head over to our Ward Christmas Party and got too excited about opening presents to finish getting dressed! 

Aaron majorly spoiled me and I was shocked to open my beloved Silhouette machine plus extra accessories for it that i've been drooling over for months.  I didn't even know what to say when I opened it... I could hardly believe it.  Then the frustration set in that I would not be able to play with it for 2 weeks cause we were leaving town the next morning. I played with it anyways and just stayed up extra late packing! :)

Aaron got a new tennis racket (his other one broke), balls and new Nike Free Run shoes! They are pretty rad.  My mom hooked him up with an iPod Nano so he can use them to track his running. 

When we were all done opening presents, we went to our Ward Christmas party where the kiddos got to see Santa! Aubs did really well, but she froze up a little when she sat on his lap.  She didn't answer any of his questions so I helped her out a little, but she didn't cry and she was super happy about the candy cane he gave her!

Luke was a champ.  He just sat on the jolly man's lap like he had done it one hundred times before! Ha!

It was a fun night.

Oops!

When you're the BABY brother you might end up wearing your BIG sister's jacket when you have a blowout at church and your mom forgot to pack you an extra pair of clothes...

Sorry Luke! Try not to have blowouts and this won't have to happen again! Ha!

Luke- 2 months

I'm a little behind considering that my little boyfriend will be 3 months on the 12th of January, but here are some stats from his 2 month check-up!  

Height: 22.8 inches (53%)

Weight: 13 lbs. 10 oz. (90%)

Head Circumference: 15 1/2 (49%)

I don't think our kids have a chance of being petite (as babies) since we were both chunky babies ourselves!

At 2 months our little Lukie is:

-smiling all the time

- cooing and gurgling like a mad man

-only wakes up once a night (for the most part)

-is a snuggler

-loves to be held

-loves looking at lights and out windows

-likes his binky (only when he is tired though); if I try to give it to him while he is wide awake he will spit it out and stick his tongue out over and over again

- wearing size 1-2 diapers and we switched him to size 2 diapers last week!

-loves standing and building his leg muscles! ;)

Luke's doctor said he was growing perfectly and that he had no concerns.  He said he is very strong and healthy after he held him in front of the mirror and Luke pretty much stood there with a little balance assistance for a few minutes without fussing.  When the doctor asked me if he was smiling yet, I barely had time to say yes and Luke was smiling at the doctor.  He laughed and said, "Nevermind, I guess there's my answer." He got 3 shots and a rotavirus vaccination (oral vaccine). He was shocked when they gave him the shots and it took me a while to calm him down... even to nurse him... he was pretty hysterical and he wouldn't even eat to calm down.  I was surprised since Aubs has never been too wimpy about shots! It was a good appointment though and Aubs was a good little helper.

Hours ago

Here is my little man just a few short hours ago.

 Evidence of what happens when those socks come off his hands... look to the right (your right) of his nose... poor baby! No worries though. He is tough.

 He is growing so fast... what happened to my teeny little guy?!!!!

I am in love. 

That's supposed to happen though, right?!!

Swing

Luke loves the swing.

...and falls asleep in it sometimes. 

I am grateful because having Aubrie makes it hard to hold him all the time... even though I wish I could. He is my little bundle of chunky cheek love. ;)

Festivities

It feels like Christmas should be next week since we have been keeping very busy with Christmas activities since the day after Thanksgiving! 

Maybe we should have waited til at least the 1st of December...

Aubs loved painting these .50 cent ornaments from Hobby Lobby and was so excited to add them to the tree. There was a tree and a candy cane... and a snowflake that I am saving for her to paint next week.

Gingerbread House decorating.

So happy about all the different colorful candies at her disposal.

She was so excited about this... It was a lot of fun...

She was a pro at eating (or as she would say "just a little taste") the candies for the gingerbread house...

The final result...

A little rough around the edges, but a lot of fun went into making it!

Showing off the adorable reindeer cookies that her buddy Atticus and his mom Cindy made! 

They were delicious too!

Aubrie has been watching little clips on youtube of frosty the snowman and rudolph and can now sing the songs.  

She was so excited that she got to see Santa at the mall... we just walked past and looked in on him and she was happy with that... when he waved at her she nestled her head in my neck, got shy and froze up... we'll see what happens when we take her to meet him!!!

We were walking in from buying her Christmas dress tonight and she said, "I like reindeers." I told her I did too. 

She has been eating a chocolate from her advent calendar every day. Fun times.

This year has already been so much fun because she is really into holidays and it makes it so worth the time and effort to do fun things for her when you see her cute face light up!

Luke @ 2 months

Well he's almost 2 months... technically 8 weeks tomorrow... but 2 official "months" next week.

The boy is growing like crazy... and chunking up nicely.

Aaron and I were both baby chunks.

Aubrie was a chunk...

Luke is a definite chunk...

That's how we roll in this family

About the boy...

-he still sleeps a lot.

- he smiles and coos.

- we still have to cover his hands cause when we don't he scratches himself... and makes himself bleed! It's sad.

-his eyes still look pretty blue... not super light blue... but blue for now.

- he loves his sister, he always smiles when she talks to him

-he's wearing a size 1-2 diaper now

-we put away all his newborn clothes the other night. tear.

- he's wearing 0-3 months in clothes

-he is a good baby.

-cries when he is hungry or tired and if I feed him/cuddle him up he will be super happy and fall right asleep

-growing hair nicely in the front... still has hair on the back of his head. 

-takes his binky only if he's really tired or hungry and waiting to be fed... or being gassy!

-has his 2 month check-up on Tuesday next week... I will update with stats then.

Her Smile

She was watching something on my computer...

...then realized I was taking a picture...

...and there you have it... one of her "for the camera" smiles...

the other is a toothy grin!

Although Aubrie has only seen Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog she can name off every Disney princess as if they are best friends! 

Her inner princess has been shining brightly these past few weeks... 

she loves all things  princess!

...and dancing to all the music! 

This skirt or her tutu are a MUST as soon as the songs come on... 

then the dancing ensues...

I love this girl!

The Sibs

These pictures sum up their relationship pretty well...

 She is always loving on him.

 Sometimes he is unsure about all the love bestowed upon him...

 ...but he knows there are worse things like being gassy... or getting shots...

He can handle the LOVE ...for now.

obsessed

Please do yourself a huge favor and go buy these... maybe you should get two bags cause if you're like me one just isn't enough!

Trust me on this.

You can thank me later ;)