Giddy Up, Cowboy!

Jack found a rope and decided he was a cowboy.

So every cowboy needs a hat and we found an awesome hat at WalMart.

I thought he looked like a true Southern gentleman when he wore that hat with his suit while getting ready for church.

Watch out Tim McGraw!

And here's our mini-cowboy - for some reason he reminds me of the Prospector from Toy Story 2.  It must be the cheeks - or the fact that I've seen the Toy Story movies too many times.

P.S. Happy Leap Day!  I won't post on this day for another 4 years!

The Big Sand

On Sunday evening, we headed down by the lake to take a walk on the boardwalk there. Jack was really excited to dig in the sand. The view was beautiful (check out the sunset in the picture) but we never made it to a decent amount of sand.

We promised Jack we would go to a bigger beach the next day for FHE. All I heard about the next day was going to "the big sand."

Dallin ended up having to work late, so I went ahead and took the boys to the big sand by myself. I knew I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't.

Jack had a blast digging and filling up his buckets and burying things. Luke, who has been very fussy, was happy sitting outside and playing.

The Big Sand Trip was a success!

If You Can't Beat'em, Join'em

 Last week Dallin was out of town.

We started to get lonely, so we decided to drive over and visit him.

He was staying just outside Baton Rouge, so I was able to drive over parts of Louisiana that I'd never seen before.  I thought it was pretty interesting.

I got to drive over this massive bridge over the Mississippi River.

I drove over the longest bridge ever - I think it was close to 20 miles long.

And it was over the swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin.

I kept looking for alligators, but didn't see any.

We made it to the hotel and were so happy to see Dallin again.

Jack loved the desk and writing on the hotel paper.

He also loved the lamps and turning them off and on.

Luke liked chilling on the big bed.

The bed was great for watching shows

And hanging out, being super cool.

There wasn't a bathtub, but Jack had a blast playing in the big shower.

Luke took his bath in the sink.

Since we were in close quarters, Luke took his morning nap in the bathroom to avoid his loud brother.

Yeah, he's cool like that.

It was Mardi Gras while we were there.

Don't worry, Jack didn't forget his beads.

Luke had fun doing tummy time on the floor

And of course, his brother had to join him for a photo op.

Luke's favorite place was sitting in this chair.

He thought he was pretty big stuff.

There was an outlet mall right next to the mall, so the kids and I went shopping while Dallin worked - yeah, spending his hard earned money!

Jack and I traded off - I would get to go into a store, then Jack would get to play on the mechanical toys.

Luke napped and checked things out.

Before we left, we decided to go to this really awesome park.

Of course as soon as we got out of the car, it started pouring rain.

Typical Louisiana!

It was a brief downpour, so we tried to play a little more.

Always looking cute!

Since the toys were wet, we found this cool fountain

And these awesome fish.

It was nice to get away for a few days and see Dallin after being apart!

And I have some awesome traveling boys!

Four Months!

Sweet baby Lucas is now four months old!

I can't believe how quickly time has gone.

It seems like he should still just be a newborn, but now he's a full fledged baby, trying to more things.

Luke has turned into a super drooly baby and loves to suck and chew on everything, fingers, toys, faces, my shoulder.  It almost seems like he might be teething, combined with being grumpy and not sleeping well, yet I feel like he's too young still.

He is constantly blowing bubbles and the front of his shirt is generally wet from all the drool.

He is doing great at tummy time. He can scoot around in a circle and tries to get to the toys I put out.

He is happiest when his big brother is around.  He loves to watch Jack play.  If he gets up from his nap and Jack is still asleep, he arches and looks around for him.  Yet he is a mommy's boys and wants mommy to hold him as much as possible.

 Luke is very chatty and talks very loudly to all who will listen.  He is a very social baby and loves to smile and talk to people that he sees.

He is getting good at grabbing onto to things, including toys and hair, so that he can pull them to his mouth to eat.

He also likes to sit in his Bumbo seat so that he can get a better view of the world.

He likes to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with his brother and will stop fussing if he hears the music.

He hasn't been sleeping well over the past week and has gone from sleeping a 6 hour stretch every night to only a 3 hour stretch, then waking up quite a bit the rest of the night, then up super early.  We're hoping this will pass soon.

Naps are still hit or miss - some days he naps great, other days we'll only get little cat naps out of him.

He eats about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

He wears size 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers.

In the words of Jack, "Ukey is growing weally, weally big!"

Slow down, Ukey!

Don't Rain On My Parade

Tuesday was Mardi Gras. I was really excited to experience the festivities and see what it was all about. Dallin was supposed to have Tuesday off (it's a big holiday here). I got a Mardi Gras wreath and hung it on the door. We got some King Cake. We made plans to go to some of the parades. The first one was going to be Friday night.

Then Dallin got sent out of town for work on Friday morning.

We were still planning on going to the parade with a friend. As soon as she texted me that she was on her way over, it started pouring rain.

And it rained all day Saturday, so we missed the dog parade.

Dallin's trip started stretching longer and longer. So we ended up driving out to join him, thus missing all the big Tuesday festivities.

Oh, well, there's always next year!

The awesome wreath

Check out those puddles! We definitely got rained out!

While Daddy's Away

Dallin has been gone for work since Friday. To help him feel like he's here, we take lots of pictures on my phone and send them to him. And now that I've discovered instagram, I can make the pictures extra cute too.

Here's a peek at what we do to distract ourselves from missing Daddy:

Like Weston

5 years ago today my cousin Weston passed away. Jack Weston is named after him.

When he was little, Wes loved flashlights. We'd always get them for him for Christmas because he liked them so much. He also loved taking things apart. Sometimes he'd take apart things we didn't want him to touch!

This week Jack Weston showed me how he's like his cousin. He was busy carrying around his flashlight everywhere. Then next thing I know, it's completely taken apart.

I told Jack about Wes and how he liked flashlights too and taking them apart. Jack thought it was hilarious!

We're thinking of Wes today as we play with our flashlights.

The Diaper Duo

Fingers, Kicks, and Drools

We got the camera out and took lots of pictures of our little Luke because, as Jack would say, he's growing really, really big.

He's gotten extremely drooly lately and he tends to soak the front of his shirt.

He also loves to chew on his fingers...

He's just a cute little chubby man.

Back to the fingers

He's becoming more interested in toys lately and liked his brother's camera

When he gets really excited about something or wants something really bad, he kicks his feet like crazy, as you can tell by the blur that is his little feet.

The paparazzi was going crazy taking pics

The face behind the camera