Luke's Visit

Last weekend we had the greatest treat when Luke and his kids made a trip to Mattawa. Our kids spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in cousin heaven. I took over 400 pictures and it was so hard to sort through them. So, like I end up saying at the beginning of so many of my posts these days, get ready for picture overload.

 The whole weekend was filled with lots of motorcycle riding. This is Luke with Sam. 

 This was the first time I turned my camera towards Sam when she wasn't on a motorcycle, and she immediately snapped on her perfect smile and pose. It surprised me for a second (because my kids fight me about taking pictures) but then I took advantage of it for the rest of the weekend. I have about 20 cute pictures of her like this. She is too cute!

 Luke took Darcy and Whitney for a walk through the vineyard to the windmill.

 A little playing in the leaves

 Michael checking out the flat bed lift thing (technical term?)

 Darcy tried a little roping.

 She was pretty happy when she got the rope on the horn.

 Sam is such a brave little girl! She jumped right on the motorcycle.

 Whitney loved the horses and probably could have ridden them the whole weekend. I took a billion pictures of her and my dad riding together.

 She had absolutely no fear. She asked my dad if they could go over the motorcycle jumps.

 The weather and the lighting on this day was so beautiful!

 Michael was next and there was no fear in that boy either. (This no fear thing for the kids around animals is all so foreign to me.) 

I was trying to take pictures of Jase on the swings, but he had just woken up from his nap and he kept putting his head down and scowling a little in the cutest, funniest way. Haley and I were cracking up. 

 My mom got some new legos for this get-together and they were a hit. Whitney was pretty serious about her creation.

 The legos

These three girls spent a while working on their little houses together.

 Michael went with the guys to do some work and got to be the guy to unhook the trailer when they came back.

 My grandma has had some issues with her health over the past couple months. I guess when you're 94 that will happen. One of the main reasons Luke came was to come visit her with his kids, so we went over and got a picture all together. (There are a few people in this shot that might not be too happy with me for this one, but it was the best I got.) :)

 Michael spent a lot of time working on the adding machine. He would make a great accountant some day! :)

Popsicle time!

 Michael and Ezra went for a ride and did some digging with my dad in the excavator.

 The guys went to the track and we went to watch. Since I have lots of pictures of the other guys riding already I decided to only post pictures of Luke since I don't get those regularly and I already have a million pictures in this post.

 Darcy and Michael hung out this this cement thing while they watched.

 Luke with his kids at the track (I like to take advantage of that sign in my pictures when we're there.)

 Ezra, Sam, and Michael.

Ezra and Sam got into yelling at the guys to stop and thought they were pretty funny.

 Luke wheely

 Michael's turn on the motorcyle

I liked this picture of everyone running along with him.

 Ezra and Matthew on the trampoline

 Michael and Luke

 On Saturday morning my dad measured Ashley and discovered she was officially over 5'9" now. We decided to take advantage of those long legs and had her do some modelling. She's a natural! :)

 Whitney's turn on the motorcycle.

 Some tricky riders! Drew, Ezra, and Luke with Sam.

I brought Parks outside after his nap and realized he was watching the motorcycle riding so intently and squealing and squirming when they went by. We decided it was time for his first ride and he squealed happily the whole time. He loved it!

Sunday night the girls decided to get fancy for our dance party. This picture of Darcy makes me laugh every time I look at it. We've got to work on our makeup skills! Less is more girlie. Less is more. :) Unfortunately I had put my camera away by the time Whitney joined the fun and painted her whole face with bright red lip stain! 

Cousins are the best! (And brothers) We hope we get to see them again soon!

Valentines Sap

I try not to get tooo sappy on here, but every once in a while I just can't help myself. With this Valentine's Day coming on I have been thinking a lot about my main man and what an incredibly lucky girl I am to have snagged him.

Drew is a really amazing husband. I hope my boys will watch him closely and become husbands just like him some day. I wanted to jot down just a few ways that he shows me he loves me that might not be the normal fluffy things we think of, but they make me feel like a million bucks.

1. He really gets into the things I'm into. I wrote a small children's book a while ago. No one is a bigger fan than Drew. He is trying desperately to convince me to get it published. I studied dance in college and love dance. He has learned to appreciate and love it too because he knows I love it. He thinks I am an amazing dancer. (I am truly mediocre at best.) I love volleyball, so he has gotten into it. He has encouraged me to go play on a city team, and says how much he would love to come watch.

2. If our arms aren't loaded with kids and kid things, he still grabs my hand.

3. He listens to me. I talk. Kind of a lot. I used to hear about stay-at-home moms talking their husbands' ear off when they got home from work because they had spent their day with little ones. I used to think that was silly. Well that is totally me! I tell him about significant things that are happening, and lots of insignificant things that are happening. Sometimes just after I've told him a story I realize it really wasn't worth telling, but you would never know it based on his reaction. He happily listens to all my ramblings (if they are happy ramblings that is) and has told me many times that he really believes we are supposed to tell each other everything. Significant and insignificant. Since I like to talk, I am really glad he feels that way.  

4. He isn't embarrassed of me...even when I act like a fool. I am embarrassed for myself often enough that it really means a lot to me that I don't have to worry about embarrassing him too. This might seem like a joke, but I am really serious about this one!

5. He wants me to be with him. If Drew is going to play some kind of sport where it would be possible for me to be there, he always wants me to come too. And he wants me to play. It's not just a courtesy invite. Even if I protest, he gives me a hard time until I agree to come. We have played on lots of softball, volleyball, dodgeball, raquetball, and tennis teams together because he has wanted me there with him which I think is really so sweet. If he has a work party, he wants me to come. If he is going boating, snowboarding, snowmobiling, etc., he wants me to come. If he's taking the kids for a bike ride, he wants me to come along too. Riding a rollercoaster? "Just come on. It will be so fun!" Jumping on the trampoline? "Lindsey get out here! Do some tricks!" :) The list goes on and on. After all these years, I am so happy I am still his favorite buddy. :)

Sometimes I can't help but believe that we were really meant to be. I'm pretty sure we must have worked out a plan in heaven before we were born to make sure we found each other here. We did a good a job! :) I love you Drew. Happy Valentine's Day!

10 Months!

For some reason the ten month mark freaks me out a big. I just can't believe how close he is to being a year old!

Some things we want to remember about Parks at ten months:

- 20.4 lbs. When I weighed him I was thinking, "Wow he's a big boy." Then I plugged his weight into a baby percentile calculator and it said he is in the 29th percentile for weight. What? I thought that was a high. One month he's high the next he's low.
- He is a good sleeper. He generally sleeps until around 7:00 in the morning which is sleeping in around our house, so I'll take it. He is taking two naps now.
- He is crawling on all fours now, but reverts back to the army crawl here and there. I just think crawling is so cute!
- He pulls himself up on everything and walks along the furniture.
- He loves the stairs. He would spend all day going up and down if we let him. If he gets to the top and can make it into Darcy's room he is one happy camper. He loves all the little things to play with in there. He could stay upstairs for a long time.
- He is starting to say, "Ma ma ma" and "Da da da." He continues to squeal and babble all day long.
- He loves to be outside. I don't go outside much at all during the winter (I'm a big baby when it comes to the cold) but we have had a few nicer days in the past couple weeks that have pulled me out which means he gets to go out too. He thinks that is the biggest treat ever. Today I let him go crawl around and explore the backyard and he absolutely loved it, especially eating the dirt! :)
- He loves to eat almost anything we offer him. He only has two teeth at the moment which is sadly limiting what we can feed him, but I can feel that his top two teeth are about to come though. Yay!

 This month we had his photo shoot right after church.