Who does Luke Favor?

I think this slideshow will prove without a doubt that Caleb and Luke could be twins (just born 5 years apart).

Baby Luke - Hospital Day 2

Day 2 in the hospital was calm and quiet. We had a few visitors and took some well needed naps. Luke is a good sleeper and is eating well, but the nurses and techs kept barging into our room at all hours of the night. We're hoping tonight will be much calmer since Emily doesn't have an IV anymore and things are settling down.

The boys came by yesterday to meet their new brother. It was a pretty exciting time. They both enjoyed holding Luke, and were very interested in Emily's tubes, bed, and surgery wounds. It was a lot to take in for a 3 and 5 year old. They both were very interested in the chair/bed convertible that I sleep on at night.

The exciting news for us right now is that we just got moved out of the "overflow" room that we were in and into the 3rd floor newly renovated nursing pod. So we left behind a typical hospital room that was small and basic (for which we were completely grateful for and had no complaints), and we moved into a room that is nicer than many hotel rooms that we have stayed in. All the furniture is new, the bed is much lower to the ground for Emily, the bathroom is almost as big as our old room, and the room itself is probably twice as large as our old one. Oh, and did I mention that we now have a flat screen TV and DVD player instead of a tube TV with a VCR. We are excited about the remaining two nights of our stay at Le Grande Rex.

Thanks for everyone who visited. We enjoyed the company and the conversation.

Baby Luke is Here!

7 lbs 10 ozs
21 inches
Luke Reed

Happy Birthday Jellybean

Today is Jellybean's birthday. As in the literal day he or she is born. We have a C section scheduled for today around 10. If you are reading this, please say a prayer for Emily, the baby, and the doctors. As soon as I can I'll upload some pictures and let everyone know if the baby is a boy or a girl. The voting of family and friends is definitely in favor of a girl right now.

Watermelon

Here are some great pictures of our Watermelon party we had. It was a perfectly ripe one. Bet you wish you had a bite!

Rocket Rocket

Gi Gi and Pa Pa (Emily's parents) gave the boys these rocket launchers, and they had a good time playing "rocket rocket" in the back yard. I was surprised how well the could both shoot the rockets.

Give Him a Chair

This was the most generous wrestling crowd ever!


via videosift.com

Softball Prospect

Ben and Caleb have both enjoyed coming to the softball games this past year. Caleb likes to come and play with the other kids there. They both like to run the bases at the end of the game. Ben likes to just sit in the dugout with the players and watch the game. He also likes to drink "sports juice" (Gatorade) whenever I come in from the field.

Help with the yardwork

Caleb has been helpful with all the landscaping and yardwork lately, but Ben has been my buddy. He wants to get out there with a grown up shovel and do whatever I'm doing.

We planted a few trees in the back yard and he was right there with me getting them in the ground. He liked the pots that they came in and carried them around putting stuff in them. I think he could have fit in the largest one. He's a hard worker.

Einstein or Monroe

Look at this picture from your regular computer chair and you see Einstein. Now get up and stand about 10-15 feet away from the screen. Marilyn Monroe. Pretty cool huh!


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Diggin some holes

You know a true friend is one who will spend the large part of his Saturday standing there just looking at you while you dig holes with an auger. It was hot. The ground was very hard. We persevered though, and dug about 50 holes in the yard. It was amazing how one hole would be easy and nice rich dirt, and then eight feet over you would be digging in hard, dry, powdery limestone type rock.

The boys thought all the holes in the yard were really cool. Caleb would ask every time we went out in the yard if he could go around an look in all the holes. Whatever thrills you man.

Thanks again Jonathan.

Cheesy Rap

Rhett and Link are on their summer tour writing songs for alka seltzer. This one was pretty good I thought.



If you enjoyed this, you should also check out their BBQ song.

[Emily, be sure to show this to the boys]

First of many days of school

One down and about 3,000 to go (assuming he goes to college). Caleb's first day of Kindergarten was today. He did great at drop off in the car pool line. We went and met his teacher on Friday of last week and I think he will do great in her class. She seemed very kind and very structured (qualities Caleb thrives under). So if you are reading this on Monday, please say a prayer for him as he gets acquainted with his new school, teacher, classmates, and schedule. (I'll have pictures from his first day soon)

Our Super Singer

Caleb went to New Life Camp for the first time this year. He had a blast at day camp. The days were long (9 to 5 I think), so he was exhausted by the end of the week. He got to swim in the lake a lot, play games in the gym, and of course go to the snack shack twice a day! Here he is on the last night for the closing assembly. He's holding up his ribbon, which says he got the "super singer" award. Ironically, during the closing assembly when the kids were all standing up in the crowd to sing some of the songs they had learned, Caleb chose to sit quietly and watch the others. Turtles are shy animals you know.

Front Wall Landscaping

There are a lot of home improvement projects going on right now before the baby comes at the end of the month. The first was to build a landscaping wall across the front of the house. This is the wall right after it was built, but before it was filled with dirt (from the fence project), so it looks even better now.

Moose in the Sprinkler

This is in someone's backyard in Alaska. I can't imagine. These two baby moose (meese??) remind me of my two boys in the sprinkler. They run when the cold water hits their backs but keep coming back and try to drink the water.



Bonus points if you can figure out why they picked this song for the background music. I have no clue.

Puppy Puzzle

One of the smaller presents that Ben got for his birthday was a puppy puzzle. Ben loves anything with puppies on it. He wanted to do this puzzle, so Emily and I jumped in to help him. It was 100 pieces and was much more difficult than I thought it would be. He sure does look happy though.

Octo-bike

How cool is this bike! Every kid in the US would want one. What keeps him from falling off the bike when he rides upside down though? I'm sure he's strapped in somehow. Very cool.

Birthday Presents

Here are just a few of the pictures of the boys opening some of their birthday presents. I love Ben's excitement in the first picture!

Boys Birthday Party

Here are some pictures from the boy's birthday party at Adventure Landing. This was the first time we had been to a party at Adventure Landing. We were pleased with it, although it was a little crowded and loud. We had to do the party in the late afternoon rather than the morning because that was when they had openings. That meant there were lots of teenagers hanging out on their Saturday night, especially at the go cart track.

Transformer Waffles

One of the perks of doing the grocery game is that you can get the "fancy" grocery items when they go on sale and you have a coupon. Emily picked up some Transformer eggo waffles for cheap the other day. The boys thought they were really, really awesome. Caleb got bumblebee and Ben got optimus prime. The box says there are 25 different designs, so who knows what autobot they will get next.

She was also able to get the half chocolate and half regular waffles, which probably tasted better, but let's face it, the transformer waffles were a lot cooler in the boy's opinions.

Slow Times at the Zoo Blog

I promise, I'll try to get some new posts up soon. Things have been really busy around our house with a fence project on top of regular life. The pictures just haven't made it from the camera to the internet yet. Stay tuned.

Creating the Victory

This little girl knows how to overcome obstacles. She's a true winner because she perseveres no matter what stands in her way. Even though the machine is many times her size, she finds its weakness and exploits it fully. Then she lounges in the spoils of her victory while others look on and only wish they had the courage she showed.

Bible Story Time

If you were to ask me what the one thing we have done as a family that has made the biggest impact on them spiritually, it has been reading Bible stories to them before bedtime. They love it because it is part of their routine. We started when Caleb was about 1 and a half or 2 I think and have stuck with it since. We usually just read one story (2 pages) from their kids Bible each night. They love to look over the pictures and see what is happening. We've had to get a few new Bibles because Caleb has memorized the first few we had. That is a great problem to have. the first Bible we got that I would highly recommend is the NIV Read with Me Bible, and now we are using this one, which is a little more advanced and has many more stories. I'll be honest, we chose those more for the pictures than the text. We made sure that they just stuck to the text and didn't say anything heretical, but I wanted some pictures that would help grab their attention and just help me tell the story.

[Note: I usually don't read the text written in the Bible to them, but just tell them the stories and sometimes elaborate on how that story applies to us or what it teaches us about God. I try to keep it more casual. We'll switch to a strict reading someday I'm sure.]