4th of July

We love popsicles!

Luke's new buddy Madden who moved in across the street!

Pizza Time... Madden's brother Morgan is sitting next to Cole, they haven't decided if they are friends yet :)

Cole LOVES sitting on Luke's bike, he will be riding it before we know it!

Obviously Cole is not happy at Morgan!  haha! Check out Luke... he's making sure Cole is ok!

Luke playing Angry Birds on his Nook... Tyler is also our new neighbor (They have 5 kids)

Sprinklers!  (as Luke likes to call them)  Cole was in bed, he slept through all the fireworks!



Best Buddies!

Ben was in charge of all the fireworks!  He did an awesome job!

Pool Time Fun

We've definitely been taking advantage of our neighborhood pool this year!  The first week it opened we were there every day!  It's about a 1/4 mile from our house so its an easy walk!  Luke is quite the little swimmer!  We keep his life vest on him most the time, but we have taken it off a few times and he can definitely swim :0)  Cole loves the water and is fearless, he likes to dip his face in and will even jump to us!  We are definitely greatful to have the pool nearby in this hot hot Charleston heat!

ONE!

Luke can walk on water!

Yes I am plugging my nose!

Life

I'm not going to be too hard on myself for not keeping up with the blog, we've had a busy schedule these past few months :0)  I won't delve into everything, but wanted to put up a quick post to update everyone on the boys! 

Cole officially looks like a toddler and has lost his "baby" look.  He eats completely on his own and usually refuses help even with his yogurt.  In the past few weeks he has started saying a lot of words more clearly and will repeat everything!  He loves to mimic people, for example, if I put my foot up on a chair to tie my shoe, Cole will come over and try to put his foot up on the same chair :0)  He thinks he can do everything that his big brother does, which sometimes ends up with Cole getting hurt.  Speaking of getting hurt, the kid is tough, he rarely cries when he gets hurt, and typically will laugh the pain off.  I know if he is crying that it is bad!  He is a dancing fool and loves music and singing!  His new favorite song is "ashes, ashes, DOWN" he screams "DOWN". (ring around the rosie)  Cole can occupy himself well and will play by himself in the playroom for long periods of time.  This is new to me, because Luke did not do this when he was younger.  Cole is doing great and brings a lot of laughter into our house!

Luke is a spitfire and continues to amaze!  We have new neighbors that have a little boy the same age as Luke and he is ecstatic!  They play together everyday and love driving their hot wheel trucks up and down the street.  Water balloons are also a big hit and after I spend an hour filling them up, they are gone in about 1 minute.  Luke will start a preschool program at the end of August and we are all excited!  His golf game is continuing to get better and he loves playing!  Luke likes helping me cook, clean, and pick up around the house.  He is a great helper! 

Both the boys keep us on our feet and they normally play great together.  Luke shares well and we are working on sharing with Cole!  We are working on a lot with both the boys, but right now Cole is at a challenging age and has been testing everyones limits :0) 

Charleston is HOT HOT HOT right now and our energy bill can prove it!  We are trying to stay cool by going to the pool, eating lots of popsicles, and drinking lots of water (and beer :0)  I will do better posting and pictures will follow!

Gotten behind

I was doing so good keeping up with the blog, and then I realized I hadn't posted since March 1!  We had a lot of visitors the first week of March, Uncle Matt, Papa (Edgy), and Murph (Luke's new best buddy)!  Ben was supposed to go on a training trip to Atlanta for a week, it had been planned since October, and last minute it was postponed.  I had lined up people to come stay with us so I wouldn't have to be alone.  We had a lot of fun with our company and can't wait until next time :0)
We've been playing a lot outside and can't wait until the pool opens.  Our subdivision got a new playground that the boys love, so we've had a lot of fun breaking that in.  Luke and Cole love playing in the water and we fill up the water table, sand box, and buckets with water for them to enjoy.

Luke's golf lessons are finished and he did great!  Ben and I are so proud of his athleticism and determination.  We will probably sign him up again in May, and then soccer in the Fall.  He also is going to start Preschool in the Fall, it's so hard to believe!  He is looking forward to preschool but he thinks that I am going with him... I figure I've got a few months to tackle this issue so I'm not making a big deal about it.  He is very self sufficient, he can get dressed completely by himself, is fully potty trained, takes showers (with close supervision of course), turns on/off lights/tv/games... you get the point!  He also is a great helper, and is a supportive big brother (most of the time).

Cole is growing up so fast!  He climbs everything, and just today he figured out how to climb the ladder into Luke's bed!  He climbs onto the kitchen chairs, all of the couches, and tries to climb up everything else :0)  He tries to do everything that Luke does and is mimicking all of us.  He is so funny and loves to get a laugh out of us!  Cole loves music and dancing and will often point to our stereo for me to turn it on.  He too is quite the athlete and loves to throw balls, chase balls, and even hit balls off the ground!  It won't be too long until he is giving his big brother a run for his money.  Cole had his 15 month check up a few weeks ago and is doing great!

I can't believe that March is already more than halfway over!  It is so true that the older you get the faster time goes by.  We've got a pretty crazy April/May/June/July with a couple trips and visitors and can't wait!  I'll post new pictures soon! 

Playing

I know everyone is sick and tired of hearing me talk about the weather down here, but what can I say, we love it!  Summerville/Charleston has a lot of fun things to do and a great array of parks to choose from.  They are actually building another huge park about 2 miles from us, should be finished next Spring!  Below are some pictures I've taken over the last week of the boys playing :0)  They aren't the greatest because sometimes I see them doing something, run and get my camera and have to snap quick. 

Cole continues to be a climber, and climbs on everything including the couch!  We have hardwood floors downstairs so this is somewhat of a problem since he loves to jump on all the cushions when he's on the couch :0)   Luke loves playing with his Mobigo, "Ipad" (which is really a Nook but he calls it his Ipad), and Wii.  Enjoy the pictures!

 

Golf

Luke had a lot of fun at his first golf lesson.  There were three other kids in his group and all of them were 5.  The instructor, Coach Perry, was great and they actually didn't even hit "golf" balls this first lesson.  They hit beach balls, and kick balls through hula hoops, and baseballs off of tees.  Of course Luke was the best one there :0)  One of the dads came up to Ben and said "you've got quite the athlete there".  Of course Ben was beaming!  I really didn't get that many good pictures but you can get the gist :0)

After golf we went to Perfectly Franks (which was featured on Diners, Drive-in's, and Dives on Food Network) and Cole was being his cute self!  Thats a straw in his mouth :0)

Happy Birthday to my darling Ben!

Today was Ben's birthday and we had a fantastic day!  He took off and we went down into Charleston to have lunch.  We ate at the Noisy Oyster and it was delicious!  While we were driving through downtown we noticed there was a festival going on with lots of bounce houses, so of course we had to stop by :0)  The festival was about a mile and a half from where we parked so on our way back we decided to take a rickshaw (sp) back to the car!  It was a lot of fun and the boys loved it!  Tomorrow we are going to dinner at a restaurant on the ocean with Ben's parents and will have ice cream cake to celebrate :0)  Happy Birthday Ben, the best father and husband in the world :0)