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.

our new pool and a happy birthday...

whew - it's hot, folks!! well, maybe not quite yet where you are, but definitely here in texas! it's 100 degrees every day. who lives here??

thankfully, beamee came to the rescue and got us a new pool. we sure do love that beamee. here are some more pictures of us from the april visit...

luckily for beamee, i don't have very good aim yet!! grampee was trying to give me some lessons, though...

and, as usual, aunt aimee spent most of the weekend trying to hog luke from momma (understandably so!)...

but aunt aimee will have to fight off aunt elaina for that honor next week because we're all going to indiana!!!!!! yahoo! we are all so excited and looking forward to seeing everyone (and hoping uncle greg will make a suprise last-minute decision to come!!!). :)

and another exciting thing - yesterday was a special day for momma - her 30th birthday! :) let's just take a minute to reflect on what a wonderful mom we have, in honor of this momentous occasion. she's such a great mom, but also a great person in general. it sure was nice of her to forego that modeling career to raise luke and i instead. she's a wonderful cook too - definitely could have had her own show on the food network. and very smart, you could even say brilliant... super nice. thoughtful. giving. funny. pretty. witty. kind.... um, smells nice... buys us cool toys... let's us have some of those cool toys downstairs even though daddy wishes we kept them all upstairs... is otherwise very good to daddy, really the best wife ever if you think about it... um, humble, definitely humble... an all around great lady, folks - and now a member of the 30's crowd - yikes! :)

we had a great day celebrating yesterday but don't have too many pictures of that (or atleast not on the computer yet), but here are some other photos from may and june that show what good birthdays are all about...

balloons, especially really big ones...

ice cream, hand-delivered by the local ice cream truck...

shoving your face full of food (literally, as luke has been doing lately)...

swinging on the porch (these pictures actually from mother's day, ahhhh)...

more ice cream (push pops courtesy of the schwans man - just like when momma was growing up!)...

spacing out...

and crashing out on the floor at the end of a fun day... (or right in the middle of the morning, like a sick luke seen here, which has never ever happened before, by either me or luke - momma was amazed!!!)...

happy birthday, momma. and thanks everybody for stopping by. stay tuned again soon for an update on the birds in our garage, a visit from mimsie and grandpa, and more summer fun. bye!! :)

one.

well. momma thought if we never posted pictures of my birthday celebration on the blog, we could pretend like it never happened and that i am still a "baby." she eventually gave in, however, because she realized it would be a crime to not share pictures of me in the birthday hat...

...and to not share what a great time we had with our visitors. it sure was fun having relatives from the lehman side here for easter and my birthday and house-welcoming. this picture tells a good story because it shows what i was most interested in - cuddling and snuggling - and what ben was most interested in - sharing anybody's sonic ice that he could get his hands on. we are quite the pair...

and grampee brought me my very own german adidas outfit - thanks grampee!! ben still loves his and where's them all the time, and now i can too. :) here are too many pictures of me just playing in the dirt...

clearly i am still underfed and try to get additional nourishment when i can...

we also got to dye eggs for easter - so fun! actually ben had more fun doing this, but it was neat to watch...

and one of the neatest things was that everyone painted a birdhouse for us while they were here! they sat at our kitchen table and painted during naps and bedtimes (ours, not theirs!) and then left them for us as gifts. we were so excited about this and really love them all. i realize now that this picture doesn't do the finished pieces justice, so i'll have mom get a better shot of them and post an update another time...

so back to my birthday! yes, it happened. i am now one whole year old. momma said she will continue to call me a "baby" until i start walking, and that hasn't happened yet! so she is holding on to my youth a little bit longer. beamee and i think she is so silly...

i did enjoy celebrating on my special day with my special visitors, and i actually loved wearing the birthday hat! i never keep hats on, otherwise, so momma was happy about this...

obligatory shot of me trying to get momma while she's taking pictures... i sure do love her and can't get enough of her holding me... :)

grampee getting busted sharing some bagel with me... (while ben's belly makes an appearance in the background!)

i also learned to climb stairs all by myself! gabrielle helped me climb our indoor stairs all on my own, and then i did it with our little stairs outside - so cool!

and i got some really neat gifts too - thank you everyone! here i am wondering why this box is empty and hoping there's something better in the gift bag next to me...

me saying "roar" to a little lion friend...

and we all got to eat cupcakes for dessert - yum!!!

no picture of me shoving the cupcake in my mouth - sorry! but here is a very civilized shot of grampee feeding me a tiny spoonful of homemade strawberry ice cream! not nearly as exciting, but we started the dessert portion of our celebration way too late in the evening, so i didn't get to down a whole cupcake minutes before (an already late) bedtime...

and a nonsequitor to a shot of me downing my milk, which i love. the one thing momma loves about first birthdays is getting rid of all bottles, which we did actually a few days before my big day! and now i am downing milk like a champ (which is to say, like my brother!)...

and that is all for now. we still have more pictures from the visit, so you will have to check back again soon! bye!!