Happy with "Normal"

We've had two rather "normal" weeks lately, which has actually been very nice. We had a lot going on before that, and have lots coming up, so it's been kind of a treat to spend most of my time at home. I've even been experimenting with making my own cleaners - I'll probably go into that more after I've tried a few more. As always, I've also been cross-stitching up a storm! In the meantime, I've taken pictures here and there of some cute things Luke has been up to, and have gotten rather behind in sharing them with you! So, I hope you enjoy these fun snapshots into our lives lately. (Note on the walking front: after taking that last video, Luke kind of reverted back to not wanting to practice much, but is slowly working his way back to that level of skill. He now needs to just build his confidence and start branching out on his own. But, he's standing quite well on his own, which is always fun to see!)

Peekaboo! I'm ready to get up from my nap now, Mommy!

Playing with the thick dowel we have in the sliding door track.

Laughing hysterically when I "catch" him adventuring down the bed, or when playing peekaboo.

Playing with one of Karis' toys - we finally had a chance to hang out again!

Learning to eat yogurt with a spoon - some fine-tuning is definitely needed!

Photo-shoot with the fan remote control (one of his favorite things in the house!).

"I love my lion!" (please click on these to see the big version - his expressions are priceless - pure joy!)

"Here, kitty, kitty..."

Um, no words necessary...

Such cuteness!

Discovering the recycling box - and standing alone to inspect the water bottle!

He also likes Mommy's watering can - and the loud noise it makes when he drops it on the kitchen tile!

Playing with the animal noises mat Aunt Kathy got him - he really likes things with sounds and points to the one he wants me to press. Unfortunately, he can't make them turn on all by himself quite yet.

Looking for more treasures inside the lego vault I made.

Happy boy (and Mommy!) outside during a break from our family walk.

Also, I finished the Christmas baby bib and it's for sale on Etsy!

More Lake Arrowhead Pictures

My mother-in-law got some nice pictures of us on her camera over our vacation that I thought I'd share with you also:

This was fun because it shows how enthusiastically Luke was splashing! I think he liked it!

This picture shows how Luke would bend over and splash and play in the water while standing. :)

And I actually like her camera's version of our family picture much better than the one from our camera because Luke is actually cracking a little smile here! He's pretty stony-faced in the other one. :) And this picture has a nice blue in the sky - it's washed out in the other one.

WALKING!!!

FYI: Luke's starting to walk! Check out the video from yesterday! And watch the whole thing - he gets better towards the end! Yeah, Luke!!!

Lake Arrowhead Vacation!

This will be kind of quick (I hope) since I'm just antsy to move on with life. :) But, we did have a really good vacation last week in Lake Arrowhead. We were with several members of Nathan's family and stayed at a vacation home of some people at our church. It's only 2 hours away, so it wasn't too bad of a trip there and back. :)

We arrived late at night (we left right at Luke's bedtime, so he'd start sleeping in the car) and put him directly to bed when we got there. The next morning, we just hung out at the house for a bit in the morning with Nathan's parents and did a little shopping after Luke's morning nap while we waited for Matt & Tara to arrive in the afternoon. Here's a cute picture of Luke cruising around the coffee table. :)

That evening, all of us went to a little beach close-by and did some wading and playing on the playground they had there. No baby swings, so Luke had to swing with Daddy!

Thursday, we packed up and headed to Lake Gregory, where they had a nice swimming beach for kids. Unfortunately, Luke is the only one who still takes a morning nap, so we took along his playpen also, covered it with towels, and let him take his nap on the beach! I sat next to him and cross-stitched. He got a good hour in! Here's the Hughes family from my vantage point by Luke (using probably all of my zoom!).

Luke got into the swimming also once he woke up! I even walked him out a few times till he was waist deep (which he loved!) to rinse the sand off after he'd been sitting down, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of that. It was hard enough to ask Phyllis to take the few that I did get - all us adults had our hands full watching the kids and taking turns going out in the rented rowboat (Emma and Felicity got turns also). That's the drawback to being both the picture taker and the caretaker - you can't do both at the same time sometimes. :)

Playing in the shallow water with Sophia. This was great fun also - as long as he didn't stick it in his mouth!

Dry sand works, too!

Luke LOVED the spaghetti noodles I let him eat during our dinner that night! He couldn't get enough of them - and he'd already had a full toddler dinner before we started cooking!

Playing with Daddy before we got going on Friday morning.

We drove to the little zoo by Big Bear Lake on Friday, and enjoyed looking at all the animals. Here are a couple of the best pictures I got, along with a nice one of Emma, Felicity & Sophia where they were looking at a mountain lion (you can see all of their faces in the same picture - amazing!).

Since Luke had been cooped up in a carseat or stroller or held for several hours, we decided to let him stretch his legs a bit before getting in the car to drive back to the cabin. There wasn't any grass nearby where we'd parked, so we found this remarkably clean picnic table and let him "walk" around on it. And try on Daddy's sunglasses!

I finished this cross-stitch of The Lord's Prayer on Friday night during the Olympics opening ceremonies. :) I completed it from start-to-finish in 10 days! I'm selling it on Etsy - go check it out!

Saturday, we were joined by the Duncan family and made another trip to the close beach at Lake Arrowhead. Luke was close to his nap, so I didn't bother getting him dressed for swimming since we weren't staying long, but I wish I had! He had gotten so used to the water at Lake Gregory, that he really wanted to walk out farther than I could let him. :( I ended up taking his shorts off so that he could get in a tad bit deeper without getting them wet, but still couldn't go too far since he wasn't wearing a swim diaper. He liked playing in the sand for awhile though - isn't that picture cute!?!

That night, I gave him a bath and just HAD to take some pictures of my little boy all fresh and clean!

Sunday, BJ turned 3 months, so they were getting him to laugh and smile for some milestone pictures - I captured some too!

We also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary!!! Kind of a wierd day, since we didn't do many "anniversary" type things, but still nice to share it with Nathan! Here is a nice family picture of all of us.

I'll leave you with this funny picture of our little "Mountain Dude"!