Trunk or Treat (among other things!)

So here is what's been going on at our house...
Stephen and his old boss and friend, Craig (who Elijah seriously thinks is the cartoon character Mr. Incredible - every time he sees a Mr. Incredible picture, he says it's Mr. Craig!) have worked hard to put up a fence at the house...

Elijah helped a little bit too...

We have made the most of playing outside now that most of the backyard is enclosed - we'll finish the gate this weekend.



Luke has become quite the climber....

The other day, he pushed Elijah's high chair over to the island, climbed on top, and tried to reach for the crackers that were on the island!
At his 15mo check up, he was 30% in height, 50% in weight, which is the norm for Luke. He is growing so big and getting more vocal everyday. You better watch out if you have a box of crackers around b/c Luke will say "cracker" as many times as it takes for you to give in and give him one (at least one).

We've been gearing up for Halloween... this was a trial run on Elijah's face paint as a lion...
(can you hear his roar?)
We had a good time at Hunter Street's Trunk or Treat! Daddy had to work a little late ;) so it was a fun little Mommy Date.

Luke was the cutest horse I've ever seen... (his cousin, Riley, comes in a very close second... I'm a little partial to my own boy!)

We found Elijah's Sunday school teachers, Mr. Mark, Mrs. Janet, Mr. Gage, and Mrs. Molly...
He hadn't seen them in 2 weeks b/c Luke had croup for 2 Sundays in a row, so he was overjoyed to see his teachers! He had been asking about them all day!

That's about it...more pictures and silly stories to share soon!

Our Cruise and Boys Updates

Stephen and I recently took our first vacation without the boys. We went on a cruise to Cozumel and Progresso, Mexico. It was the most relaxing vacation we have ever had! It was hard leaving the boys, but it was really nice to have a little husband and wife time. The boys stayed with their Grammy and Gramps (Stephen's mom and stepdad) the first 3 nights, and then went up to Huntsville with their Nanny and Poppy (my mom and dad) the last 3 nights. They seemed to have a lot of fun! But here are some highlights of our cruise...

We got to dress up for formal night... takes us back to our senior prom - same outfits, different dates... (well, Stephen actually wore a white jacket...)
Here we are by the boat in Progresso. We thought we might enjoy some authentic Mexican cuisine, but then Stephen remembered how much he enjoys having the FDA in the US and we opted to eat on the boat. =)
We had a fun shopping, finding sea shells for Elijah, and, of course, taking some silly pictures in Progresso.

We met some really fun friends that we had dinner with every night - Leila & Mark, and Tammy & Tal. Dinner was fabulous! We enjoyed our chocolate melting cake most every night. And the wait staff was so fun, entertaining us with song and dance every night.
We had fun in Cozumel...just took a taxi downtown and then enjoyed our 4 mile walk back to the boat. So relaxing!
Stephen was excited to play basketball on the cruise!

And I was super pumped to lay out! And we tried to catch a sunset on our last night...Other highlights - Stephen surprised me with a massage for my bday. (so sweet!) We had fun running on the boat, but it was SO windy! So 1/2 of the track was a cinch, and the other half was SO hard! It was a GREAT vacation and it was so nice to enjoy some time together, actually focusing on one another, rather than our boys. If you have toddlers, you know how exhausting parenthood can get, so it was a fabulous way to recharge our mommy and daddy batteries. In the past, I've always been so bummed when my vacation's over; but this time, it was so exciting coming home to our boys!!! We were SO happy to see them!!! It's nice to be back together as a family again.



So here's an update on the boys...

Luke

• is saying so many more words! Cracker, cookie, car, cup, good girl (to Sage), more, bird, ball...a lot of things are still "dat!" but he's getting there!
  
• can now open doors...
• can blow bubbles on his own
  
• is climbing a bit on furniture and chairs (Elijah size chairs). I looked over from the kitchen into the den and I see Luke, standing on top of Elijah's chair, smiling w/ his hands in the air.
• can put his hands up in the air during the "hands up song" at the library (don't know if I've mentioned this)
• knows most of his facial features and his head, hair, tummy, hands, and feet.
• has been in 18 mo clothes for a good month or so now.. which is weird considering that was what Elijah was in when I had Luke! Brings back some memories...
  

Elijah

• went into Luke's room the other night at bedtime, with his guitar, and so gently sang him a lullaby, then whispered "I love you sweet boy" and walked out
• accidentally pulled the fire alarm at church the other night when we went to a packing party for a group leaving for Africa the next morning. (We don't think he's ever noticed a fire alarm before or knew what he was actually doing). The fire dept had to come to turn it off, but had difficulties finding a key...He was so upset about it that he couldn't eat dinner, and then got sick outside! Our poor guy!
• has had difficulties taking his nap... so we've started waking him up btwn 6:15-6:45 and it has helped tremendously! (He used to wake up around 7:30/8). He still doesn't nap some days, but overall, he does. Yeah!!! (Mommy needs that time to clean!)
• is fearless! He will climb anything on the playground and jump from it. He thinks that nothing can hurt him. I've had several parents at the playgrounds comment on how gutsy he is...do I hear injury coming? =)
• can still sit and read forever. I love that.
  

• Both boys think it's funny to run from me... =)
  

The boys recently painted pumpkins...

And then Elijah drew faces and glued eyes, a nose, a mouth, and hair on the pumpkins...

This picture was taken right after we got back from a fun carnival a local church hosted at our clubhouse - Elijah called the face painting his "alabama fan".