Oregon Day 1 - Birthday Party

Watching planes and trucks out the window at the airport.

Walking with Grandma at the airport once we arrived in Oregon!

Playing cars with Grandpa.

Learning how to play the organ - there's a musician in there somewhere!

Playing outside with Grandpa - being outside is the BEST!

Opening an early birthday present from Aunt Jennifer - a cute surfer outfit!

Grandpa & Grandma got him a toy violin for his birthday - we'll see if all this musical influence pays off. :)

We brought Jennifer and Andrew birthday presents, too, since their birthdays are in June.

All the Maloney girls - together again!

Lots of Pictures

We went to Oregon this past week for my little sister's wedding, so of course, I had to clear off my camera's memory card for the 300+ pictures that I ended up taking while we were gone. Needless to say, I had no time to get them up here for you before we left, so this post will be those pictures from the week before we went to Oregon. Enjoy!

We found this LONG stick outside next to our building that Luke just LOVED to play with - he would play with it almost every time we stopped along there. It's gone now - I looked for it yesterday and didn't see it anymore, oh well - it was fun while it lasted.

I went in to get Luke one morning, and he had carefully arranged his blanket like this over the side of his crib - I have not touched the blanket at all. :)

Playing with the Savage kids! Vineetha is as cute as ever, and Vijay didn't mind Luke feeding him crackers. :) Luke also learned how to climb up onto their coffee table (which is allowed at their house), so that was fun to see. Unfortunately, it's next to impossible to get a good group picture of them these days. The first picture is an example of how Vineetha was nicely cooperating with a happy smile, while the boys would rather be doing anything else than smile for a picture. The second is the best attempt I got - where you can see everyone's faces (mostly) and no one is crying. :P

We saw this snail on our way to the car one day - thought it was cool!

There was a car-cart sitting outside the grocery store when we went to get a few things the Monday before we left. Since Luke was ENTHUSIASTIC about riding in it, and since we didn't have that many things to get this week, I abliged. He had SUCH a fun time - and it wasn't as hard to steer as I thought it would be.

Luke can climb up onto the ottoman and rocking chair all by himself now - that's good and bad. Only just yesterday was he able to also get off of the rocking chair successfully on his own, so for awhile, I was afraid to let him play alone in his room for any length of time, for fear that he would climb up and hurt himself trying to get down. This is mainly because his first major accident was when he fell off of the rocking chair as a baby and hit his head on the wooden foot of the ottoman - not something I'd like either of us to re-experience!

The latest outside excitement is "climbing" this tree. It's trunk is in three's and there's a large root in between this particular tree that lets Luke stand in the middle of the trunks. And the best part - he can do this all by himself! :)

Happiness in the dirt. And very seriously carrying this BIG rock over to Mommy - cuz you know I just love a nice rock. :P

Our last patio umbrella recently bit the dust officially. That particular one had a wooden pole and spokes, and two of them had broken when the umbrella fell over at different times (our porch gets these serious gusts of wind swirling in and out because of how it's inset in the building). Nathan patched them back together with glue and such, and the umbrella lasted quite a bit longer, but we finally threw it out this week after one of the spokes broke AGAIN after falling over AGAIN. We managed to find a smaller umbrella a month or so ago, so we put that up, and so far, we're VERY happy with it! We weren't able to find a small one before, and I don't know if we even thought it would work, but this umbrella doesn't get caught by the wind hardly at all, so I'm sure it will last MUCH longer than it's predecessors. BUT, since it is small, we had to rearrange our plants so that it would still be effective at shading the plants that need it the most (the main reason we have an umbrella in the first place). I actually like this arrangement better than it was before - more cozy or something. :)

Luke likes to drink the milk from his cereal bowl ALL BY HIMSELF now! Still quite messy, but he likes to be independant. :)

Bethany & Karis came over to play the day before we left for Oregon, since they would be watching our place (and kitty!) while we were gone. We walked down to the mailbox and discovered that some sprinklers were on! Luke LOVES sprinklers and showed Karis how fun they can be. He sticks his fingers in the spray, stands there and shivers in delight when the spray comes really close, and enjoys splashing in the mud that the water has created. Karis was much more girly about the whole thing - usually stepping aside when the water got too close, but bravely stuck her fingers in the spray a few times. :)

And Luke has learned how to climb over the little wall that we play next to. He still sits on top of the wall for awhile before trying to put his second leg over. Mommy is learning how to let him be adventerous and try all these things, even though I can picture the "worst case scenario" in my head. :P He's finally doing a good job figuring out how to move his body without his head messing up his balance, so it's fun to see him be brave and try new things. :)

22 Months Old!

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun! It's hard to believe it's been 2-1/2 weeks since I've posted last, but my large stash of un-posted pictures definitely can attest to that! I am just going to share the best-of-the-best in pictures since I have so many and I don't want this post to get out of control, but I will be uploading A LOT more pictures on the Hughes site as soon as I'm done here, so feel free to head over there to see the rest if you just can't get enough Luke and family pictures!

Two weeks ago, Joanna and I met up at my mother-in-law's house to play and visit. We had fun together and showing Vijay and Vineetha all the fun things to do at Phyllis' house. :)

Luke was on a "dress-up" kick for a couple weeks with this sweatshirt my Aunt Kathy got him for Christmas. It's still too big for him, but it has a light-up Spiderman and *best of all* a ZIPPER! He loves working zippers, taking jackets on and off, and putting the hoods on and off also. Even though it's much to warm already for wearing jackets. :P

Random. Luke started taking his Thomas book (his first non-board book that I let him look at on his own) into this corner and "reads" it all by himself. So funny!

Nathan and I were having a "graham crackers and milk" snack on Sunday afternoon, and of course Luke had to try also. So, I unscrewed the cap of his sippy and let him dunk the graham crackers. Now, if we're home, he REFUSES to eat graham crackers without some milk to dunk them in!

Just can't get enough pictures of my boy! He turned 22 months old on the 2nd - even though I forgot to take pictures for that milestone until the 4th. Oops. :P

I made some Baked Crescent Churros for Cinco de Mayo (the first time I've ever personally done anything different for that holiday) and of course, Luke LOVED them!

We watched Carson last week during the morning (his mommy is on bedrest), and took a trip to the park. I was impressed with his skills and independence on the playground equipment - and he's only 3 months older than Luke. And, of course, I managed to get a few cute pictures!










Family dinner last week was the first of many large Hughes family gatherings this weekend! The best "attraction" - meeting our new neice Madeline for the first time! She's almost two months old, but this was her first trip down from Northern California for us to meet her. :)

On Friday, I didn't really have any errands to run and I didn't feel like going out anyway, but Luke needed something substantial to help entertain him during the long morning hours, so we made a fort! Most of the time, he needed me to be in it with him, but I had fun playing with my boy. :)

Saturday was the BIG gathering! Every close Hughes relative was in attendance and we celebrated Nathan's grandma's 85th birthday, Evelyn's 3rd birthday, and BJ's 1st birthday (even though he went home sick before he got to open his presents or blow out his candle). They rented a bounce house for the kids (Nathan and I went in for a bit also - it takes a lot out of you! I think I'm getting old!!!). Nathan's cousin & his wife brought their little dog along, who was a HUGE hit with the kids! We all wore matching clothes and took a large group picture - it's kind of hard to pull off, but I for one LOVE the results! Our family picture. And pictures of the birthday girls and their cakes. :)










Mother's Day, we went over to Nathan's parents house again for lunch after church (take-out from Grand Panda - their tradition!). Not quite as many people were there this time, but almost. Nathan managed to get a CUTE picture of Luke and I - Luke wasn't cooperating for the picture, so I swung him down in my arms and back up, which resulted in this adorable smile! I'm so thankful to be his mommy!!! He was also enjoying playing in the play house while we waited for the food to arrive - he can get into these little rocking chairs all by himself! That evening, we played on our porch and blew bubbles for Luke - while this picture doesn't have any bubbles in it, I couldn't resist that smile! If you want pictures of Luke chasing the bubbles, head on over to the Hughes site - there are lots. :)

Yesterday, I repotted one of the little plants that came in the basket my Aunt Kathy had delivered after our miscarriage. It seemed to be the heartiest one - and we need hearty around here! Hopefully, it will live a long time and be a nice reminder of our little one who's already enjoying Jesus in heaven. I did the repotting outside, so I gated up the stairs and Luke had a fun early morning playing on the porch (before it got too hot to survive out there!). I found these gloves of mine for him to play with and he happily wore them around all morning.

Later in the morning, we headed over to the mall to meet up with Nathan's parents, Dan, Evelyn & Dan's mom, Donna, for some kid fun. We didn't actually do any shopping, just rode the escalators, played on the toy car rides (without putting quarters in - they loved "riding" in them just as they were!), explored the toy store, looked at puppies in the pet store, and ate lunch in the food court. Luke didn't want to try his corn dog, so Dan suggested trying to feed him with chopsticks, and sure enough, he ate three pieces that way! Then, he just played with them a bit (until I took them away when he started to get ketchup in his hair!) and I got this super cute picture. :)

And lastly, Luke has been growing increasingly picky over the last month or so. He had been happily able to eat Cheerios in milk for a few months now, but suddenly decided he doesn't want to eat them that way anymore. He wasn't a fan of toast. So, I finally gave him some dry Cheerios in this special cup we bought for eventually teaching him how to drink out of a real cup. He'll even eat half of a banana - if it's cut up and put in the cup, too. :P It's kind of weird figuring out how to make sure he eats his food - especially coming off of his really hungry stage when he would eat a big kid-sized bowl of cereal with milk, a whole banana and a graham cracker before filling up at breakfast. So, now, at least he'll eat breakfast again!