27 Reasons We Love Our Birthday Boy

In honor of his 27th birthday today, we present to you 27 reasons we love Dallin!

1. He works super hard to support our family.

2. He suffered through school, not always enjoying it, so he could get a good job to support our family and has always worked hard so that I can stay home with the kids.

3. He can fix anything.

4. He is the ultimate outdoorsman.

5. He has an amazing smile.

6. He loves his boys.

7. He's willing to change diapers.

8. He lets Jack help him on projects, even when it's more convenient for him to not.

9. When I was in the hospital having the baby, the nurses loved him because he helped them so much.

10. He made Luke laugh first.

11. He is passionate about guns, cars, and tools.

12. He'll watch some of my shows without complaining, even if he doesn't like them.

13. He is happiest when he has a project to work on.

14. He does little things to make me happy.

15. He is a worthy priesthood holder.

16. When he gets into a show, he really gets into it and ends up watching the whole series within days (Sons of Anarchy, ahem)

17. He is willing to get up in the night with the kids.

18. He rubs my back for me.

19. He loves his family and is a little bit of a momma's boy.

20. He will deep clean the house when he gets in the mood.

21. He is always willing to help someone in need.

22. He likes to wash the cars and work in the yard.

23. He is patient when I am grumpy.

24. He is great on the grill.

25. He is awesome at Just Dance 2.

26. He is great son, brother, brother-in-law, and friend.

27. He is the best husband and daddy we could ask for.

We love you, Dallin!

Happy Birthday!

On the Move

I put Luke down on his playmate by the zebra, under the hanging toys, and went in the kitchen to get something done. Jack was watching Mickey Mouse

When I came back, Luke had scooted himself to get a better view of the TV.

We have a mover on our hands!

Cute And He Knows It

Conversation while Jack was in the bath:

Mommy: Has anyone ever told you how cute you are?

Jack: Yes...in nursery...during singing time

I'm glad he knows he's so adorable!

We've also started working on our ABC's and I got the idea of Pinterest to make the letters. First off, A is for alligator!

3 Months

It's crazy to think that it's been three months since this little man joined our family.

at 2 months

He's grown so much even in the last month.

Luke is an active little man that loves to kick.

He likes to lay on my bed, his changing table, or his playmat and kick like crazy.

He tries to maneuver himself where he wants to be.

He is starting to scoot backwards on his back.

If someone is holding him and he wants to get to another person, he lurches his little body in that direction.

He still hates tummy time, although he can hold his head up pretty well.

He can roll from his tummy to his back.

He grabs at things now and is discovering his hands.

He eats about every 3 hours.

At night he sleeps for a 5 hour stretch, wakes up to eat, then sleep for 3 more hours, before sleeping with Mommy for another 3 hours.

Naps have turned into a battle.

He used to take 2 two-hour naps each day.

Then last week he just stopped and I can't get him to sleep longer than 30 minutes without a struggle.

We're working on fixing this situation.

He's got a big grin that we love to see.

He adores his big brother and is fascinated by the things that Jack does.

He is wearing a size 2 diaper and is in between 0-3 months and 3-6 months clothing - he fits in both.

He hates riding in the car and his favorite place to be is held by Mommy or Daddy.

He has recently started laughing.

This is the best video I have so far, although my phone starts ringing part way - dang!

He's still cute anyway!

We love our Baby Ukey!

Two and a Half Years

Jack is now officially two and half years old.

He is a very grown up boy these days.

It seems like in the last few weeks he's matured a lot.

He is throwing fewer tantrums.

He is a busy guy who likes to watch shows, play pretend, throw balls, drive cars, and help out Mommy and Daddy.

He loves going to nursery on Sunday - most kids get upset about going to nursery; he gets upset about leaving nursery.

He loves to eat grapes, popsicles, egg and cheese roll ups, and cheese, and he likes to drink juice.

He takes one nap a day, and still wakes up multiple times a night.

He has been talking up a storm.

He speaks more in sentences now.

He recognizes his feelings. When he's crying, he says, "I feel sad."

He's a great big brother. I trust him so much more around Luke now.

He loves to sing to "baby Ukey" and Luke will just sit and stare and smile at him.

He can identify his shapes and colors and is working on his letters and numbers.

He can count to two and will tell you that he is two years old and reminisce about his Mickey party.

He has big boy underwear that he'll wear occasionally, although he'll only tell you he has to go after the fact. One of these days he'll get it.

He loves to sing songs now.

Here are some videos:

In the first, he is singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" but he keeps getting distracted.

In the second, he talking on his play phone to Dad.

He is hopping and singing, "Popcorn Popping."

Luke is upset in the background, but listen closely and you can hear Jack's cute voice.

Take Two

We made a second attempt at getting a good Sunday picture shot, with much better results.

I love how they are holding hands!

Luke has really grown to love his older brother and gives him big, cute grins all the time.

I love that my boys love each other!

If You Could Have Dinner With Anyone, Who Would It Be?

LUKE!

His favorite place to sit in his Bumbo seat is at the kitchen table on a chair.

I think it's hilarious to look across the table and see that adorable little face peeking over the edge at me.

"What's for dinner, Mom?"

Baby Bear

It's been cold the last few days.

We found this cute little bear.

He's a cuddly little bear.

Sometimes he puts on his scary face.

But once he heads out for a walk, he goes into hibernation.

And for good measure, here's the baby bear's big brother at 4 months in the same skin...

My Day to Day View

Throughout the day, I end up taking a lot of pictures on my phone of the very cute things I see at my house.

I don't always end up loading them on the computer until much later.

If you are friends with me on Facebook, I tend to load them there.

Here's a view of the very cute pictures taken recently from my phone:

Jack got big boy underwear for Christmas.

He's kind of hit and miss about wearing them, but when he does wear them, his little bum looks so cute!

Mr. Chubbers

Just want to kiss those cheeks

The cutest, most lovable smile I've ever seen.

He's such a happy, smiley boy!

Jack loves his brother and was singing "Rock-A-Bye Baby" to him.

Luke was loving it.

They are seriously the cutest little boys I've every seen!

Luke's hair is pretty crazy.

If I don't comb it down within the first 3 minutes of getting out of the bath, it stands straight up.

We love him anyway!

How Not to Take a Sunday Picture

On Sunday morning I tried to take a picture of the boys because they looked so cute in their Sunday best.

It didn't go so well.

Luke was not having it.

But you can still see how adorable they look.

And what a good big brother Jack was trying to be during the pictures.

"Shhhh, it's ok, Baby Ukey."

"Baby Ukey, what's your problem?"

"Um, Mom, can you take this kid? I don't know what to do with him!"

Falling Leaves

Since we moved here in the fall, the leaves have basically been dropping like crazy the entire time we've lived here. It's been hard to really see what our yard looks like because the leaves were so out of control.

Until last weekend...

Dallin spent 3 hours raking.

Then I came out and joined him for another 3 hours of raking.

The final result...

We can see our yard!

And to put it in perspective - we bagged 29 bags of leaves!

And our kind trash man actually took all 29 bags on trash day!

Whoa!

The Man in the Mirror

When Jack was a baby, I was very diligent about tummy time.

We did it every day and I even timed it to make sure he got the full 15 minutes.

Things are not so organized when you are the second child.

Poor Luke doesn't necessarily get it every day and it definitely isn't timed.

It's hard to get down there when you have to watch out for your crazy big brother.

Plus he just doesn't like it.

Despite all that, he is still doing great and his neck is getting stronger.

And sometimes he even rolls over to get out of doing it.

I remembered how much Jack liked having a mirror during tummy time, so we got it out for Luke.

Of course, vain as he is, he loved looking at himself.

In the picture above, he's not angry - he's busy talking to himself.

So cute!

It's amazing how much stronger he gets every day.

Puddle Jumper

Yesterday we got a very big rain.

Lots and lots of rain.

The plus side - it left us with lots of fun puddles for jumping in!

Jack had a blast playing in the puddles.

He loves stomping.

He even had fun throwing acorns in the puddles.

But we discovered that snow boots that worked in Utah don't work so hot in the wet Louisiana.

Time to change them in for rubber boots!

Luke hung out and watched.

He tried out Jack's old snow hat.

Still a little big, but by the time it fits, it will be sweltering here.

Cute nonetheless!

It's All in the Cheeks

Luke went in for his 2 month check up this morning.

The stats are in...

Weight 12 lbs. 9.6 oz. (that would be almost 5 lbs since birth and 3 1/2 pounds since we moved to Louisiana)

Height 23 inches (4 inches since birth)

Head Circumference 16 1/4 inches

He's a big, healthy boy and everything looked great!

And he was a smiley happy boy for the doctor!

Dressed in White

Luke wore the wonderful blessing suit that Gma got Jack for his blessing.

Isn't he handsome?

I figured out that Jack was 2 months and 5 days when he was blessed and Luke was 2 months and 6 days on his blessing day.

Here is Jack:

Can you tell they are brothers?