July 29 - Water Baby

First, I have to share some fabulous news-Greg and Nicole are having a....GIRL!!! Congratulations guys, we are so excited for you! We cannot wait to meet the newest Yamo due in mid-December. Maybe she'll have dimples like her Texas cousins? We'll find out soon enough!

On to my fabulous kiddies..so last night I put some of the lavender baby wash in Luke's bath that is supposed to "calm baby" before bed. It had the exact opposite effect-my normally sweet little man became a wild water baby for 25min straight.

He was slapping the water with one hand, both hands, standing up and splashing, sitting on the edge of his little tub splashing. I was completely soaked after about 10min and he was literally dripping from head to toe and LOVING every second of it.

As for Julia-she is convinced there are monsters in her room so I've been "asking the monsters to leave" the last few nights before bed. I talk to them in the closet, her princess tent and under the bed. It is hilarious!

Happy Friday everyone! Please enjoy these adorable photos of Victoria and Andrew at their recent beach vacation. They are beyond adorable!!

Andrew & Victoria

Greg & Andrew

Greg, Jill and my gorgeous niece and nephew - We love you guys!

July 25 - Any Day Now

Happy Monday everyone. How was your weekend? Hopefully fab! We had a great weekend here in HHH (my new acronym for "hot-humid-Houston"). J.D. installed the new tub faucets in our master bath before he left for Germany so we now have a working toilet and tub. Yay! He is going to finish the shower fixtures when he gets back so we *should* be showering in our own bathroom by mid-August. Check my house blog (Our First Place, link is on the right) for pictures soon. I'm doing a happy dance in my living room just thinking about it! We still have a lot to do in there (shower door, vanity, mirrors, lights) but it finally feels like progress.

In family news, I think Luke is very close to walking. He was strapped into the cart at Target yesterday and somehow stood up and tried to climb out of the cart. When he's done eating/drinking in his highchair, he stands up and tries to crawl over the tray.

And most telling, he is not content when I put him down to crawl. He wants me to hold his hands so he can walk. He's also trying to push up into a stand from the sitting position. That little stinker!

In Julia Bean news, she has her first ballet/tap class tomorrow after school. She has to wear a black leotard, pink tights and black ballet shoes with her hair in a bun (that will be interesting..I tried to do a bun last week and she pulled it out immediately). She is VERY excited and runs around the house "practicing" ballet. I've been calling her 'Julirina Ballerina' and she giggles and says "No mommy, I'm a princess!" Unfortunately, JD has the camera so I cannot take any pictures, but assuming she likes the class and we stick with it, I'm sure we'll get a picture soon. She is also moving to a new gymnastics class this Saturday. She is currently in the parent/tot class but she can do everything by herself so it's time to move up to the 3/4 class. She's also excited about that.

Here is another picture of Jules in her princess dress (I snapped a lot of pictures when she was wearing this, she looked so beautiful I couldn't resist!):

July 19 - Little Joker & Little Man

Greetings dimpled munchkin fans! We've had an exciting last few weeks so I'll dive right in. Luke and I traveled to Florida at the end of June for work and had a fun trip. We flew into Tampa and had lunch with Grammie, Aunt Katherine and Uncle Chad before we trekked to Gainesville. WE stayed at Hannah and Mark's house again and had a fabulous time. They are expecting their first baby boy at the end of July so they had fun playing with the little man. Luke had fun playing with Nanny B (Amelia old BFF, Bailey the pooch) and loved their rocking papasan chair. My girlfriend Suzanne also watched Luke fo ra few days and she spoiled him rotten. She let him nap while she was snuggling with him I was worried he wouldn't npa solo again but no worries.

She has 3 kids so Luke was a baby on the move going to swim practice, picking the older kids up from summer camp, taking walks and Suzanne also took him to the pool. As for me-I always enjoy my time in the office being around people. It was great to catch up with everyone and of course, seeing my Gainesville based friends. Jill and I were able to hang out Sunday night (just like the old days, it was fab!) while Hannah and I spent almost every night chatting until 11pm.

Luke and I drove to Tampa on Friday 7/1 and got stuck in major traffic. It was combination of b

ad weather (heavy rains) and holiday congestion so a 2H drive took closer to 4H. When we arrived in Tampa, Grammie had a delicious dinner waiting and we were able to visit with Uncle Greg, Aunt Nicole, Uncle Chad, Gram

mie and K.C. (the cat).

Luke and I flew back to Houston on 7/2 and it was a whirlwind weekend. We all went to Hannah's birthday party at the Jumpin' Jungle (bouncy house place), a going away party for our friends who are moving to Milwaukee (I didn't realize there was going to be a water slide so I jumped in there with my clothes to play with Jules) and had a grill out with the Root's. It was a fab weekend!

Last weekend J.D.'s best friend's Andrew and Ben flew into town. They drove to Austin, went boating and ate a lot of delicious food (for those foodies who read this blog, Austin has the most amazing food, I highly recommend a visit if you haven't been there before). I was home with the kids and came down with a stomach flu (that put the kibosh on my milk production so Luke is 100% on formula now).

Julia is flourishing in her new class and absolutely loves school. Most days I pick her up she tells me she wants to go back! It's amazing how much she has developed in the last month or so. Most mornings, she wakes up, goes to the bathroom on her own, and sometimes evens gets dressed. She has also become quite the little joker. She tells us she wants to give us a high five, and when we put our hand up, she kind of pokes it with her fingers and squeals "I gave you a baby five!" She also likes to practice different faces and will show us happy, sad, crying and surprised. It is hilarious.

Luke is also doing fab. He discovered the stairs the other day and can race up them unassisted (don't worry, we're behind him). He crawls extremely fast, can pull himself up on almost anything and walks along stuff very quickly. He did a loop around the downstairs the other day pushing Julia's grocery cart. Pretty impressive! He had his 9mon check up last week and it's become clear that he inherited the small Cook genes. He is small and mighty with advanced motor skills.

Oh-we also buzzed Luke's hair a few weeks ago. His hair is very blond and looks super handsome! He's also discovered his tongue and sticks it out all the time. Beyond adorable!

Who Needs Bathing Suites?

Blondie (he has a lot of hair, it white!)

Mommy gives Luke a bottle for the first time

Julia Helps Make Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jules and Luke

Silly Pool Fun

Another picture of Julia in her princess dress (she insisted on wearing this all day last Sunday) - She is so beautiful!