Some new tricks for Baby Luke!

Nothing much to update, except that daddy is home again.  Our long 6 weeks of traveling for both of us is finally over!  Now Melissa only has a trip at the end of October.  So that's good.  Our frequent flier and hotel miles could use a rest.  But in the mean time, we have taken videos of our kid's every waking second.  It's just so easy now that we can use our phones.  Just wait until we get the new iPhone next spring!  Should be even sharper!  Ralphie is excited to say the least!

Here is Luke playing in the bath for you.



And here is his newest trick! Brand new today!

BUSY past few weeks for a little dude!

Whew! Luke has been a busy little dude! Although the pictures are a bit out of order, Crazy Uncle Mike and his friend, Lisa, came to visit over Labor Day weekend. Our plan was to go hang out on the boat, but of course it rained. No big deal though because we had a great time chilling around the house. Mommy was still pretty tired from Baby CJ, so Crazy Uncle Mike did a good job keeping Luke entertained. Usually they wrestled on the floor, but sometimes, Luke just wanted to snuggle with him on the couch. After he left and Mike called, I would put him on speaker and he would smile and wave to the phone. I think the two of them are going to be dangerous when Luke is older!

The next week it was off to D.C.! My best friend, Jennai, was getting married, and I was matron of honor. It poured and poured when we got to D.C. Poor little Luke had no idea what that stuff falling from the sky was since it has been so long since we've seen it here in Louisiana. Luckily, the weather cleared and we had a beautiful trip. You'll notice the little green froggie in the pictures. Patrick volunteers at a local school, and the frog gets to go on trips with special guests. He got to see all of the monuments in D.C., and apparently, the frog thought it was more exciting than Luke who slept the entire time (no complaining here!).

Jennai's wedding was FABULOUS!!!! It was at a beautiful resort on the water, and the weather was absolutely perfect. Plus, I got to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a long time, so it was just a great weekend overall.

Then, Patrick had to leave straight from D.C. to head to Arizona to present a paper he wrote. Luke and I headed home to attempt to get into a routine again. Poor little guy couldn't keep his eyes open after his first day back at school and occupational therapy. Thankfully we have some time together here at home as a family before the next trip....

That means more blogs  :)!!!!!!

Sometines, Luke just likes to kick back...

And have a little fun.  Case in point: we got this really cool rocker from some friends of ours!  It's a big plush bi-plane that has little buttons on it that sings songs.  I put the little Duder on it to see if he appreciated rocking, and you can guess what the result was!



Well, that's not all!  After a long day of playing with his rocker and a few of his trucks, Luke decided that he was going to try his hand at playing fetch with Ralphie!  Now, he didn't take into account that he can't actually stand yet or really throw any sort of a distance, but there is something he can do...HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE!



So all in all, we had a pretty good weekend.  Melissa is ready for her first trimester done with.  She is super tired, but I leave her be and take a bigger share of work.  Although, I have to admit, she is way better with Luke than I am, so the Duder and I are in survival mode until she gets her energy back.  Ok, well that's all for tonight.  Hope everyone is doing good!

Busy Busy!

As you can imagine, things have been so busy around here!  But Melissa and I have been on the road opposite of each other for the last month or so.  In the mean time we have gotten DirecTV (love it! Melissa can even watch DVR in the bedroom!) kept our grass alive, kept all of our bills paid, and found out that Melissa is pregnant.

WAIT, WHAT?!?!?!?!

That's right!  Melissa is pregnant!  Yay!  The two kiddos will be just a few weeks shy of two years apart.  It seemed like a good round number.  We find out what the sex of CJ is in October.  CJ stands for Claire or Josh, so until we know, CJ it is.

Being a good big brother in training is hard and it has taken it's toll on Luke.  You can see him resting here:

The future gymnast!

And here you see his favorite place to put his foot when he is dreaming of Ralphie!

But with all of the extra attention from people finding out he is becoming a big brother, Luke has become a little camera shy!

But his biggest thing is that he needs to keep up his strength!  In order to do that, he eats so much now!  He is even trying out this whole "spoon" thing.  We will see how it goes.  Plus we are trying on looking like Harry Potter!  Bring on Voldemort!

Back to Reality

Poor little Luke....it is time for him to get back to reality. A few weeks ago, he got to spend the week in Kansas with Grandpa and Grandma Malone while Mommy worked out of her Atchison, KS office. Then, she had another trip to Houston this past week, so Grandma Godinez came down for a visit to spoil the little dude. They played, took a bath every single night, snuggled, read books, and the list goes on. When she left on Sunday, Luke cried the entire day because he was SSSOOO lonely!

Then, to make his life even more dramatic, it was time to get back to school yesterday! He graduated from Ms. Tina's room, so now he spends his day in the big kid room with Ms. Mary and Ms. Brittany. On his first day he colored a picture of a school, worked on standing, sat very nicely during circle time, and worked on feeding skills in the cafeteria! I don't know who was more traumatized - Mommy or Luke. Our little baby isn't so little anymore :(

More pictures to come soon...

Too hot to post!

So it seems like we only posted once in the month of July.  Wait, no, that's right.  We did only post once last month!  So sorry fanbase!  Anyway, we thought we would check in with everyone.  Luke has been, how do we put it...like a real kid now.  Let me explain: Luke has always been such a good little dude.  Always happy, always a good traveler, ate whatever, petted the dog, etc.  Well, now he is trying to figure out how he can best get mommy and daddy's attention!  Crawling to the dog's water bowl and splashing in it, pulling mommy's hair non-stop, throwing his food and sippy cup on the floor, you get the idea.  But when he is done for the day and fussing because he is sooooo tired, I get to get a movie like this:



But the best part, is when I go back to the living room, wait for him to start crying again (telling me he is done with his bottle)I realize that he hasn't peeped in about 30 minutes!  So I sneak into his room and I see this his little fat leg sticking out of his crib!  So funny.  Well, Grandma will be here next week, so Luke will be held the whole time!  Anyway, we promise we will post again next week!

Minot Reunion

FINALLY!!!! Two years after leaving Minot, we finally managed to schedule a reunion with some of our best friends. Although we were disappointed that Patrick couldn't swing the trip, it was awesome to see our friends. M-Rod and D-Rod (Molly and Doug Rodriguez), and B-Rod, their baby in the oven had Luke and I to stay the weekend in Warrensburg, MO. 

David and Angela Scott and their two beautiful twins, Anderson and Callie, met us for the weekend. To top things off, Lisa and Pat Hook and their kiddos, Jack and Charlie, invited us over for dinner Friday night. Our friends Maria and Joe McKenna and their kiddos Joey and Luke just moved from California to Leavenworth, KS, so they drove over for the evening as well. Somehow we all managed to throw Molly and Doug a little baby shower without them having the slightest idea!!!

All of the kiddos LOVED playing together!!! Luke was so lonely when we finally made it back to Shreveport Sunday afternoon.  Not only was he tired from the weekend with his new friends, but he had just spent a week with Grandpa and Grandma Malone while I worked out of our Atchison, KS facility.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from our trip: