No-Kids Trip

Even though I haven't been blog posting, I still have been taking oodles of pictures and sending the weekly picture link out to family. I generally include a little blurb about our week, not only to let those seeing the pictures know what we have been up to, but also as a mini journal of events for me. I am trying to go back through those little paragraphs and expand a little for the blog, but since I am almost 2 months behind, we'll see how much I remember!

From Nov.2-8...

There aren't very many pictures this week because David and I weren't home with the boys to take many pictures (Mia and Papa may have some pictures to share with me from the week.) Mia and Papa arrived just before Halloween to visit and get used to the 'daily routine' before David and I left for our 'no-kids' trip. Papa had talked about taking Jacob fishing for the first time at the neighborhood pond, but after seeing the lures and being warned about the danger of little boys playing with fishing hooks, Jacob decided he wasn't quite ready for fishing.

It was my first time to leave Luke overnight (actually for any amount of time more than 6-7 hours, the length of a Texans game outing) only the 3rd time Jacob had been left overnight, and the first time in over 2 years to leave him.

We had a great trip and the boys had a lot of fun with Mia and Papa. I expected that Luke would have a harder time with us being gone, but as it turned out, Jacob was the one who was asking for us to come home. The boys are very comfortable with Mia and Papa so they behaved (or didn't) the same as they would have for me. Mia and Papa got to know the boys better and really saw the busy-ness of our lives. I really missed the boys while we were gone, but that doesn't mean I won't be ready to go on another trip again soon!

Luke continues to wake extremely early....by 5am most days. I know it is another phase, but boy is it tough on all of us. Thankfully, he wakes up happy most of the time.

Here are the pictures from the week of Nov. 2-8

Pizza boy and the stepping stone

From Nov 9-15...

We were so fortunate to have Mia and Papa stay with us for over 2 weeks. David and I got spoiled with having extra sets of hands and eyes on the boys all the time and the boys were spoiled with all the extra love in the house for them. I know I loved having some restful time and kid-free errand running time.

Papa and the boys worked on a special project for David and me during their visit. It was a stepping stone with the boys' handprints, names, and decorative hearts. Jacob had fun making it and was very excited to show us what they made.

We didn't do much with our friends while they were here so we could spend a lot of time with them, but Jacob did go to a birthday party where he got to make, bake, and eat his own pizza. It was so cute.

The weather was fabulous for the first 2 weeks in November so we spent a lot of time outside. Luke LOVES playing outdoors, especially in the dirt. Jacob happily joins him there too.

Naps started getting strange again this week. Luke had moved from one nap to 2 the last 3 weeks, but since he continued to wake up at 5am (earlier on time change day) he was ready for a morning nap at 9:30 or so. Makes planning our day harder. Jacob still naps on non-school days, and often times falls asleep after school too. I'm not ready to transition him away from naps completely (he's not physically ready for it either.)

Here are the pictures from Nov 9-15

Fall Festival

From October 18...

Our neighborhood has a few activites through the year to celebrate a particular season and get the community together. One of these is the annual Fall Festival. Though we don't always make the activities, we were able to take the boys to this one. The weather was gorgeous (almost a little warm, if you are wearing a costume) and Jacob was excited since he was going to wear his tiger costume for the first time.

It took place at one of the neighborhood parks, so of course, the boys had to play on the equipment.

The festival also had snacks, music, a few jumping houses and slides, a rock climbing wall, and pony rides.

We didn't try the rock wall or jumping houses (there were too many big kids) but the boys enjoyed riding the ponies.

Overall, it was a great day.

3 week hiatus

Of course, I didn't mean to be off the blog for over 3 weeks (and before that, only posted twice in a 6 week span) but life has kept me busy and tired and I haven't taken the time to complete the numerous posts I have either started or planned out in my head. So, hopefully in the next few days while my in-laws are here and David is not working, I can make myself sit down and finish a lot of posts. Here is one picture of the extended Armstrong family that I just had to share though.

Luke's First Full Head Haircut

About 8 weeks ago, David trimmed up Luke's bangs for his first "official" haircut, but today was Luke's first "full" head haircut. I took him to Cool Cuts for Kids and I have to say I was very impressed. We used to take Jacob there until he no longer needed to be watching a video and sitting in a taxicab to sit still for a haircut (about 2 1/2 years old). Like many places, some people did better than others. I made an appointment with the one girl who always gave Jacob good haircuts.

I was fully expecting Luke to throw and fit and cry, but he did awesome. No tears at all, and only towards the end did he even show any resistance by pushing away the girl's hand as she took hold of his bangs to trim up.

He even smiled some of the time.

So, we went from this

to this.

Most of the curl is gone in the back, but she didn't get it all that short (by mommy's request) so hopefully they'll return in a more tamed fashion.