precious!

Jackson asked to rock Luke to sleep right before bedtime. He sings "Jesus loves You", gives kisses, snuggles him and then tells our cat to "get away from the baby" - the best part if you ask me :) Sorry the quality is so bad but we had the lights turned down since we were getting them ready for bed.

one on one

Tonight Ben and Jackson are out and about having some "dad and bear" one on one time. We try and give the boys as much individualized attention as we can, but man, it's so difficult to feel like you're really letting each of them know how special they are. While they were out I got to have some very special one on one time with Luke. My little man. Gosh I just love him. I love how he calls for me when I leave the room, how he lets me snuggle him as much as I want to and how easy going his spirit is. The house was so quiet with the two big boys gone, we were able to just love on eachother until he drifted off to sleep. My little Luke...snug as a bug in a sleepsack rug. :)

one rainy day in july

I have so many blog posts swirling around in my head but thanks to two never tiring little boys, I rarely get them down in print. I take pictures to support what I plan on typing buy many never make it to this screen. I'm going to work on that from here on out and even if I have to backdate them, I don't want the memories to fade. Here is our day from last week. It seemed like it rained for 38 days straight and we were forced to be creative inside. Don't feel too sorry for us though, we made out alright :)

We baked cookies

Got a great picture of Jackson's stinky face

played with our train table

watched brother play with the train table

and just had a really great day together. I love our fun days inside but am realllly looking forward to the cool, fall days we're going to spend out!

I miss my daddy

Yesterday was hard on Jackson. Really hard. He was missing his Dad even more than usual and let me know about it most of the day. Here is a video I got of him (he didn't know I was filming) where he got his play fireman radio out and asked, "Has anyone seen my daddy? Can you send him home for me?" Then I started filming (you may have turn it up):

7 months. Well 7 1/2 but who's counting?

Our (not so) little Luke is 7 1/2 month's old. He is so stinkin cute and continues to be such a sweet boy. He will however tell you a thing or two about a thing or two when he's hungry. Speaking of his appetite, homeboy is over baby food. He wants real food - my sandwich at lunch instead of pureed butternut squash.

I've decided it's because I went to the time and effort of making all his baby food. When I was pregnant with jackson I was fortunate enough to stumble across a target coupon for organic baby food that had unlimited prints - needless to say I had 3 rubbermaids full of fab-o premade preservative free, organic baby food before he was even born! I waited till closer to 6 mths to really start in on baby food with Luke since nursing was fulfilling all his needs and somewhere around the 7 month mark he would start throwing these crazy fits when I would feed him the purees I had made. As you can see in the picture below he just wants to eat real food. Diced bananas, avocados, cheese, puffs, etc, he's all over it.

He's just growing up too fast for my taste. He has been crawling since 6 months, pulling up on everything since 6 and a half and just today he took a step from the ottoman to the couch! Our ped told us that the first one is the talker and the second one is the walker. True that Dr. P.

He's getting his top tooth in which will make a total of 3 teeth and is back to sleeping all night after a 2 week moving upset. Praise the Lord for that one.

My favorite thing about having two boys is getting to see their bond develop.

They love each other so much and even though Luke messes up his towers, train table and tries to steal his food on a regular basis, Jackson never, ever gets mad at him. They just really love each other so much and I could not be more proud to be their mom :)

"but he's so comfy that way"

jackson loves to be naked. Or should I say half-naked. Maybe love isn't a strong enough word. I say, more than 10 times a day, "jackson, where are your underwear?" He takes them off when he goes to the bathroom and then just conveniently 'forgets' to put them back on. He doesn't understand why he can't walk around visitors or even outside without pants on. The other day at nap our convo went like this,

Me: You can't nap naked, where are your undies?
Jackson: Nah, it's ok, I'll just cover my winkie with a blanket.

Me: sigh. go get your undies:
 
Need further proof? Exhibit A while making cookies together, he somehow lost his underwear during the baking process:
 
"Can I turn the light on and see if the cookies are ready?"

Put your underwear back on son...

"Now can I have a cookie?"

picture update

Here are some recent pictures of the boys that I love:

Luke smiling and crawling

I love this little boys laugh

mr. serious

ben took this shot and said, "that's a lot of hair in one frame, lol"

my biggest and littlest love

and a few of the beautiful northwest arkansas sky:

this is the view from our front door