hello there!

hello there! well, i guess i already said that, so let's just get right to it - - things have been going swimmingly lately... well, except for this duck... who was not swimming, but was playing on a playground with us in a neighboring neighborhood. we like to park-hop and recently ventured into a residents-only park in a different subdivision down the road. they have white sand in the play areas!! that was really cool but also a bit weird and unexpected. also unexpected was the lone, perfectly white duck that came quacking up from the nearby "lake." it's quite possible he was keeping a close eye on us because he could sense that we were trespassing...


that was a neat park. we will head back there again soon. we sure do love our house and yard, but we also like to go exploring around the area (and run errands). sometimes momma forgets to pack a snack for the road and we have to make do with what's available...

busted!

i think at least one of our regular readers knows where luke is coming from on that (you know who you are - alexis!!!!!!!). :) we also like to go to a play area in the woodlands, which is a nearby town. they have a splash pad, where water shoots out of holes in the ground, which both luke and i LOVE. i also like to ride the donkey...

and here are some pictures from the splash pad one day...

back at home, as you've seen, luke is now walking! he started walking officially on july 4th. but he was standing on his own starting in the middle of june. these are pictures of his very first time standing alone. momma just had to share because it was a very exciting moment and luke was just so proud of himself!!

and as you can see, i was really proud of him too. exciting stuff!! and momma would also like to point out, for another one of our loving readers - luke's gimongous thighs. and knees. this kid is super cute, to be sure, but let's be honest - those things are big. but look at that smile and that pride!! and with no pants on, even! the moral of this story is, lots of cute people have chubby legs, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. work them. own them. :)

moving on... it's been pretty hot here, so we like to eat push pops (as you saw in a previous post) and homemade yogurt popsicles too. momma was a little freaked out by how much i look like The Joker in these pictures. i don't know what that means, but the popsicle sure was good!

and here is one sad, lonely picture of mimsie playing with us during a visit she and grandpa had a while ago. momma is good at taking pictures when it's just us, but she (frankly) really stinks at it when people are visiting us or when we're visiting other people. let's not dwell on that too much now, but we'll encourage her to be better in the future and will enjoy this one picture we have. and aunt aimee, if you're paying attention, could you please email momma some pictures from our IN trip so we can share those here too?? thank you. :)

and finally, we are starting to get some rain around here now - yea! i love to play outside when it rains, and luke actually does too. but i'm not a huge fan of thunder when i'm trying to sleep, however. this is really the only thing i am afraid of so far, so that's not too bad. but i am pretty wimpy about it when thunder comes around at the wrong times. once i even hid inside my closet with blankie. but anyway, i think i hear some rain coming now... gotta go!

and if you haven't seen the luke video below, check it out. it's not really that exciting, but sort of cute if you are bored at work or just surfing the net at home. okay. bye!! :)

video of luke...

we're working on a real post with pictures of what we've been up to lately (besides going through our car wash, of course) and thought we'd try a video again. momma takes cute ones of us often but we thought it took to long to upload on here. this one wasn't too bad. and it's really funny!! although the quality is not that good, so i don't know if you'll be able to really tell what's going on or not - but it's worth a shot! i (ben) would NEVER have done this, but luke has done this a couple times lately at lunch time when he's really sleepy before his nap - check it out. :) and then check back again soon!

daddy rocks...

since moving here, daddy has had a modified work schedule where he gets every other friday off. usually we run errands together. or daddy mows. or i get to go with him to the car wash. today was a little bit better. today we made our own car wash...

momma saw this idea a long time ago and filed it away for the right time. when she and daddy realized (this morning) that we had no plans for today, the matthys car wash was born. score one for awesome...

everybody took a turn driving their respective vehicles through. me on my bike, momma with the stroller... (at first luke wasn't so sure what to make of it all)...

(but he started warming up to it and kept a cute face, although nevermind the giant road rash on his forehead - more on that another time, but he's fine mimsie and beamee...)

...daddy with the lawn mower, of course...

(luke, still a bit not sure, wondering what on earth daddy is up to... also, momma honestly edited out the road rash in this picture because it was becoming too much to look at in photos...)

just like at the real car wash, i stayed under the water for a long time each pass, to make sure i got very clean... (momma thought this was one of the cutest parts - i always have to be so accurate in my pretending)...

and i towel-dried my bike each time as well, just like daddy and grampee...

after a long time of watching every one else, luke finally decided to give it a go on his own...

he's walking now (more on that later!) and ended up walking through it about 900 times!!!!!!!!!!!

by the end, he was loving it so much too and would turn around and walk through again as soon as he was done each time. momma had to pry us both away just in time for dinner. good times.

thanks daddy (and momma for the pool noodle scrubbers!). summer in texas isn't so bad after all. :)

hodge podge...

hi!! it's me, luke. lots of pictures to catch up on (from may - eeps! and even a couple from the last day of april - gasp!). here are just a few from our trip to the matthys ranch in giddings. we always have a great time there. here's ben in the dirt with cousins...

and me having a snooze on momma. i don't get in the sling too much anymore, but momma sure loves it when i do. and i still like my naps, any way i can get them...

here are a few cute ones from at home in the backyard...

momma and daddy are always trying to get the most smoochies from me, and i figured out a while ago what they were doing, so lately i like to give kisses to one and make sure the other one is watching (i honestly do that!). so here i am giving a kiss to daddy while momma looks on...

and here's ben with a cheesy smile...

and here's ben filling up his bike with diesel from the gas station pump (obviously)...

...while i am up to mischief on the porch (see me up there in that first picture of ben filling up?). momma often finds me like this, wondering what on earth is in my mouth and whether it's worth it to dig in there and find out or just let me be and learn my lesson (which i never seem to do!)...

after much questioning, i decided to show her. and as sometimes is the case, she still couldn't tell for sure what it was! oh well... :)

back inside, here's me cooking up some ben (see in the oven door?)...

and ben playing with a cute little thing momma made on one of the shelves from my bookcase...

cute face, just for general purposes...

painting with watercolors (we're back to spending a bit more time indoors since it's so hot here every single day!)...

some picture of ben wrapping up a pencil with an old tootsie roll wrapper... momma required that i include this, even though no one can remember why he was doing it. she just likes the picture because ben looks little and was being cute and quiet at the time. yay. :)

this is me trying to throw a football. some of you may remember a picture of ben doing something similar at about this age. well, i would have included that picture for comparison's sake, except that i dropped the external hard drive (where old pictures are stored) on the floor while messing around in the study, even though i'm not allowed to do that. the cover came off and the cords came unplugged but i don't want to tell momma because she'll be mad at me, so we'll have to try and find that picture in the archives another time... moving on...

so. i'm still not walking yet. everyone keeps asking momma about this. and momma keeps meeting random moms in target and the grocery store who tell about their kid that never walked until 18 months. that's going to be me too. and that's okay with momma (even though i'm not exactly getting any lighter around here, in case you haven't noticed). but i do like walking around while holding on to furniture or wheeled toys. i especially love pushing ben around on the airplane...

good times.

also, the birds in the garage flew the coop. i would have included pictures of them except that one day we came home from going out to dinner (it was actually momma's birthday night) and they were literally in our garage learning to fly at that very moment. we spent some time watching them, which was really cool. and then momma went back out to check on them later that night, and they were gone. and we haven't seen them since. truth be told, it had gotten a little inconvenient to have them in there, but it was still really neat. and now that they're gone, we miss them. ben and momma think they saw the momma bird out by the playground the other day saying hi. it was definitely her. and from now on we try to keep the garage doors closed as much as possible. :)

also, mimsie and grandpa came to visit about 400 years ago and we still need to put up pictures from that. and we just got back from indiana and need aimee and elaina to email momma pictures so we can post those too. and we're really missing mimsie and grandpa (and maggie dog!!) and hope we can see them soon. that's all. bye.