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!

June 23 - Nanna

It's official-Julia has an imaginary friend she calls "Nanna." Driving home from school yesterday she told me that Nanna was up in a tree and she (Julia) needed to get her down when we got home so she could feed her and play with her. It was hilarious! She's been talking about (and "to") Nanna for the last few days. I wonder how long this will list..only time will tell.

Our little Julia Bean also has a new favorite book about a little puppy called "Muddypaws." She loves it so much that she insisted I read it to her last night while J.D. was giving her a bath. Adorable!

In other news, Master Luke is moving around the house quickly.

He loves to go for the dog water, Laptops, cables/cords of any kind

, XBOX, remote controls, nightlights and tried to get behind the fridge last night (to pull the cords). We have to watch him like a hawk. He also has a penchant for teething on our furniture...our beautiful new coffee table has nice little teeth marks all over it now. I've given him all different types of teething rings, toys, washclothes, etc...but he only wants to chew on furniture or our fingers. And let me tell you, his teeth are sharp. I like to joke he's my little vampire baby because he loves to sink his teeth into people. He also loves to pull my hair!

Luke had a giant PE (poopy explosion) last week and we had to get a new carseat. A few people questioned our inability to clean the old one so please believe me when I say there was poop everywhere and it was beyond gross. The new carseat will be sent to Greg & Nicole for their baby Yamo this fall. This picture is from Luke's first time in the carseat....he's passed out cold and looks pretty comfy, so it's safe to say he likes it!

June 14 - My Little Man is 8months Old!

Happy 8month old birthday baby Luke-we love you bunches!

Please enjoy these pictures of our dimpled munchkins, I love them!

Julia's First Pinata [she was the only girl at the birthday party and she collected more candy than all of the boys!]

Watching Curious George with her best buddy, Ruby

Julia walking Ruby

New Uniform

Going for the XBOX

Luke snuggling with Aunt Sarah

I tried to get him crawling through the tunnel but he was too fast!

I love this picture of him -he is really starting to chub up

Have a great week everyone!

June 11 - My Name is Julia Elise

The things she says.....

*"You're not my friend today" or "You're not my friend anymore" or "I don't like Mommy, I like Daddy." - She usually says stuff like this after we tell her not to do something or to do something she doesn't want to do. I knew she'd say stuff like this eventually but not this young!

*"My name is Julia Elise." - She's been introducing herself like this since she started her new class at school. The teacher has been calling most kids by their first and last names but since our last name is a mouthful, they are going with her middle name. She loves it!

*"I want to wear my unicorn." - Unicorn = uniform in her world and I'm happy to report she enjoys wearing it to school. Friday is free dress day and eve

n more thrilling, she actually wanted to wear a skirt yesterday. Very unusual!

*"Mommy, I want two braids please." - She requests that I braid her hair every night now, I love it!!

*"I'll feed baby Luke. You can go play with my toys if you want." - She said this to Sarah multiple times when she was in town for Memorial Day weekend. Hilarious!

*"I want to hold Baby Luke. I want to hug him. I want to play with him. Can he take a nap with me?" She loves her baby brother...except when he is trying to play with her toys or turning off the XBOX when she is watching a dvd.

Last weekend we went to the zoo to see the elephants (Julia's fave) and ride the merry-go-round. Although we got there right when it opened (9am) it was very hot (record breaking 100 degrees). We decided we'll wait until the fall to go again, it is just too toasty right now!Sarah and Ruby came in town Memorial Day weekend and we had a blast. Saturday we went to gymnastics, danced around the house and took Julia to her friend Lincoln's birthday party. We went shopping on Sunday and swimming on Monday. Julia loved hanging out with Aunt Sarah and Ruby, and Luke loved snuggling with Aunt Sarah! He was very spoiled when she was here.

J.D. and I went to the new parent orientation last week for Julia's new class and I left wishing I was going to pre-school! Every month they have a classroom

theme where the decorations and activities are related. June is "rain forest", July is "under the sea" and August is "outer space." They do something fun every day of the week in addition to their regular schedule:

*Monday - 'Mad Science' science projects

*Tuesday - 'Dynamic Arts' which is either gymnastics, martial arts or hip/hop dancing

*Wednesday - 'Mouse Club' which is leaning to use computers to make comic strips)

*Thursday - 'Monart' art class

*Friday - different activities like splash day, pizza parties and even clowns that come to school.

Master Luke is doing fabulous. He is a speed demon on the crawling front and always on the move. He loves to try to get to the XBOX to turn it on and off. Sometimes he'll get to it when Julia is in the middle of a movie and she'll shout "No Baby Luke! You need to go to time out now!" He also recently discovered the stairs so we have to watch him like a hawk. He has 5 teeth and another 2 crowning. He also just started waving, it's adorable! He's still my little cuddlebug and loves to be held.

I'll post more pictures in the next few days, I have a lot of cute ones of Julia and Ruby, as well as Sarah and Luke.

Have a great weekend everyone!

May 24 - Pool Time

Big development-Luke is now standing! He figured it out last Friday evening and he now pulls himself up on everything. We are so proud of our little man! Good thing we lowered his crib last week, it's only a matter of time before he starts climbing last week. Now when I go into his room every morning he's standing there waiting for me. So adorable! He's also already trying to walk along things, I cannot believe how mobile he is at only 7months old. At this rate he'll be walking before we know it!

Enjoy these pictures from our first trip to the pool this past weekend. Julia had a great time and she doesn't seem as brazen as last year. Last year she wanted to jump off the diving board (if you remember she kept trying to run over to it) but this time around she told me it was too high. She was content playing with daddy while Luke snuggled with me. He pretty much clung to me and looked cold..he doesn't have a lot of chub to pad from the cold!

We love our kids!

May 20 - A Purple Unicorn, Monster & Little Girl Adventure

"I'm going to ride my purple unicorn and we're going on an adventure with the monster and the little girl. Daddy is coming too on his blue unicorn. Baby Luke is coming on his green unicorn. You can ride your pink unicorn and Amelia can come too on her black unicorn. It's going to be really fun!" This was our conversation the other night before Julia went to sleep. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this age?! She is hilarious.

We borrowed 'Monsters, Inc.' and 'Tinkerbell' from a neighbor and we've been watching them...A LOT...over the last few weeks. She constantly talks about going on adventures with 'the monster and little girl' and whenever she sees the Disney castle during the Tinkerbell intro, she tells us she wants to go

there to too. Between the two movies, I prefer Monsters (I love Billy Crystal comedy) but J.D. likes Tinkerbell. He likes how Tinkerbell is an engineer of sorts and encourages Julia to be a 'tinker' too. :)

In other Julia news, she is moving into a new class next month and will be attending actual 'preschool.' Currently-she is part of the 'infant school' at Montessori. In her new class, she'll have homeroom, eat in a cafeteria and go to different classrooms for computer class, Spanish, math, etc.

The biggest change though will be that she has to wear a uniform. As you all know, our little princess likes to wear dresses every day (preferably floral ones) so I'm nervous about the the uniforms. She has to wear either a polo, colored shirt with the Montessori logo (Emma' s parents graciously gave us some extras, Julia asked me if they were daddy's since they looked like boy

shirts) with navy pants, shorts or skirts. The only time I can get her in shorts is for soccer practice (and she changes back into a dress as soon as we get back) and she refuses to wear skirts or pants. Or, she can wear a plaid jumper or dress...I believe they are supposed to be paired with the collared shirts as well. I've been talking up "how awesome will it be when you can wear a uniform!" for the last week, and she seemed excited but yesterday she told me-"Mommy, I don't want to wear a uniform. They aren't pretty." I'll keep you all posted...I anticipate some challenges getting ready for school in a few weeks.

Master Luke is doing fabulous. He is crawling all over the place and already getting into trouble. He especially likes to get into the fireplace, J.D.'s electronics and Julia's toys. She isn't too happy about that, she tries to redirect him with baby toys but of course, like any little brother, he wants to play with whatever she is doing! He is also a little ankle biter, and I mean that literally. He prefers to bite me instead of teething toys! The little munchkin will crawl over and sink his teeth into my feet/ankles with a huge, dimpled grin on his face. He currently has 4 teeth and 2 more are about to pop through. We also lowered his crib to the lowest setting last weekend since he is almost able to pull himself up into a stand. He's a strong little guy.

I hope you are all having a great week. Here are a lot of pictures from Julia at gymnastics last weekend. She is doing great in the class and can do everything all by herself.

Daddy and the dimpled munchkins

We tried a sippy cup this week and he liked it!

As Tyra would say-FIERCE!

Playing together? No, Luke just wants to knock her animals down!

He's crawling for the camera, he loves gadgets!