Yo Baby

Move over Gerber Baby! I have 2 new Yo Baby babies for you! They LOVE smoothies and they think they are big shots holding their own and drinking out of a straw! I could just squeeze both of their little faces in these pictures!

Blake's Graduation

My cousin Blake graduated from USC on August 7th. We didn't want to miss it so we loaded the kids up and drove to Columbia for the day. We enjoyed celebrating his accomplishment and spending time with family. Here are a few pictures from the day.

The babies did GREAT during the ceremony! So how do you keep them entertained for an hour?? Open up Gabby's purse!!! They found all sorts of goodies in there!

Madison is our people watcher so she was in heaven!

My aunt Sharon, Uncle Greg, and my cousin Chad, Blake, Brent, Chandler, and Blake's wife Megan and Brent's girlfriend Nikki

"My mommy told me not to talk to strangers or Gamecocks"

I know Luke and Madison look SO excited about this picture but I wanted to get a family shot.

We are so proud of Blake and can't wait to see where God leads him next!

What Are the Chances??

As most of you may know by now, my sister Jennifer is pregnant with TWINS!!! It was such a shock to us all! I still don't know if it has really sunk in for any of us! The day she told us was a BLAST! She went to her 6 week appointment and was very surprised to find out there were 2! After going to tell her husband, Ty, at work she drove to my house to surprise me! After that we went and delivered the news to a lot of our family. I was able to catch some fun pictures along the way!

What a blessing it will be to share the joy of having twins with my sister!

Luke and Madison are SO excited to have twin cousins!! Luke was trying to see if he could tell if they were boys or girls :) Madison's thought bubble says "Two more??"

Telling my Aunt Sharon who had twin boys. Chad and Chandler were also there to hear the fun news!

This is Sharon saying "Shut up, shut up" over and over again!

We went and surprised Austin at school and picked him up early. He is going to be the BEST big brother to twins! He is always SO helpful with Luke and Madison! He loved sitting in between them as we rode around telling family :) I love that kid!!!

We went to tell my mom at work! We went around 5 when she was done seeing patients because we knew there would be a lot of screaming...and we were right!!! This was taken right before she fell on the ground behind the door! I love her face in this one! Priceless!!!

Telling Dr. Lokey and the nurses

There are your two little peanut grand babies!

We met my step-dad, Jackie, for dinner to tell him!

He was so shocked he had to lean on the car! He is so good to us and our kids! He buys them adorable clothes all the time and diapers, wipes, and anything else we need! I think his thought here was that he needed to get a second job to buy fun things for 2 more!

Jennifer, we are so excited and can't wait for these two precious babies to enter the world! You are already the BEST mom to Austin and adding two more is going to be amazing! You will have 20 more toes to tickle and 20 more fingers to count!!

A Little Mommy and Daddy Time

We went to Hilton Head a couple of weekends ago with some great friends from Clemson. We had a wonderful time hanging out on the beach, eating yummy food, and just laughing and telling stories. The only thing that put a little damper on our weekend was our poor Luke started running a 104 temperature! Thank goodness for an amazing Gabby that took good care of him and spoiled both Luke and Madison rotten.

Here are some pictures from our long weekend.

It was good for us to get away and spend some time together but we sure did miss our little ones!

Group pic at dinner

Bruce and Lauren

Lynn and Daniel

Chris and Katie

Some male bonding

At the beautiful harbor with the lighthouse in the background

I would just like to end with this picture. No need for words. Just smiles :)

We had a BLAST with you guys! We feel very blessed to have such great friends in our lives!

15 Months Old

When we took the babies to their 15 month check-up yesterday and they kept saying how they couldn't believe they were 15 months already! I am glad we are not the only ones thinking this! We are enjoying each and every day with the two blessings God has given us! They are like 2 little sponges soaking up so much right now! So, here are their stats and what they are doing now!

Luke

Weight: 22.75 pounds (25 %ile)

Height: 31.5 inches (64 %tile)

*Luke is doing great walking! He has not completely let go but he will walk all the way across the room to Jonathan and I and he will let go and walk a few steps to a toy. He gets a little more brave every day!

*Luke says: mama, dada, ball, door, more, please ("peas"), Madison ("Mason"), book, bird, and bye bye

*Luke can sign: please, more, all done, help, and thank you (well he gets that one confused with blowing a kiss)

*Luke is SO loving! He always wants to give hugs and kisses. He is shy to strangers. He loves to play hide and seek and peek-a-boo! He loves to be thrown in the air! He loves to read books and he could sit by himself for 15 minutes just flipping through them! Another funny thing Luke does is he will say "uh oh" every time my phone rings!

Madison

Weight: 21. 75 pounds(33 %ile)

Height: 29.5 inches (22%ile)..not sure that measurement was right

*Madison is ALL over the place! She can walk forwards and her new trick is walking backwards. She also amazes me how she will turn sideways and scoot when she know she can't fit through something!

*Madison says mama, dada, bye bye, and babbles a lot!

*Madison can sign: please, more, all done, help, and thank you (also confused with blowing a kiss)

*Madison LOVES people! She smiles and waves at everyone! She is a mess! Full of personality. She loves to sing (hum) when we do! When we clean up we always sing the good ole' clean up song and she hums right with us. At night when we put her down she will hum as we sing. It is so funny! She understands a lot! We will ask her to go get us things (like a ball, book, block, baby, train, monkey) and she will go get it and bring it back to us.

So here are some pictures of what we have been up to :)

We had a play date in Columbia with some of the girls we went to college with. It was a bit crazy! We had 11 kids under 4. Somehow we managed to feed them all lunch and go swimming! It was a great day!

I love Cason's face! Luke was trying to give him a hug!

We have made several trips to the lake! Jonathan is teaching Luke how to drive already!

We went to Lake Russell with Jonathan's family one day. This is Justin, Jonathan's nephew, with Luke. This was the day they took a nap inside their camper in the same pack-n-play!! I wish I had a picture of how they feel asleep. Luke was curled up in one corner and Madison was all sprawled out in the middle! So stinkin' cute!

Uncle Kevin showed Madison what a real man's truck looks and sounds like.

Can you say RAVIOLI!

We introduced spoons and they are doing really well with them! I think they like the independence!

Luke was really focussing!

This is their new fort! They love to hide back there and play together!! Side note: Every time I take a picture with that chair I realize over and over just how ugly it is! We have had that chair since I was in middle school I think! It is really comfortable and fit just right in a play room! I need to cover that thing bad!

Madison will eat ANYTHING! The funny thing is that we don't think she really chews half of the stuff she puts in her mouth. She will grab handfuls with both hands, shove it in, and then just swallow. Here she is eating broccoli! Yum, yum!

This is Luke's new favorite place to be! He loves to rub Jonathan's hair!

I think this picture is hilarious!!!! "Whooo Daddy!"

Did I mention how sweet they are to each other!?! Madison thought Luke needed a little hydration :)

"Uh oh" Luke figured out a new trick! I was in the kitchen and looked in the playroom and this is what I saw. The funny thing is that he left it like this and kept playing and crawling around the room! I think I laughed for 10 minutes!

Oh how silly they are now! Madison loves to walk around with hats on. She also likes for monkey to tag along for the ride :)

We love these two little monkeys!