Special friends

As we are preparing to head back in 2 weeks (yikes!) Olivia and I made a trip to visit some dear friends in Nashville. Here are some good pictures. I'm kicking myself because I didn't get one with Ashleigh. These pictures are a bit out of order but I'm too tired to redo it tonight. :)

Brooke's son Beau (who is 6 mo older than Luke) took to me quickly and called me "Emi Emi". Even my own son doesn't want to love on me this much. Brooke said the same thing about Beau and her. Wonder what that means?
Sweet Erin drove from Memphis to meet me for the day. We had a blast talking and drinking coffee. She is such a source of wisdom for me about many things in life, especially parenting.

Brooke holding Olivia , who was about comatose at the time. Brooke and I had a great time hanging out, taking care of babies, and catching up on life, marrriage, parenting, etc. It was some special time with a special friend.

Brooke's baby Cade fell head over heels in love with Olivia. Well, she is a cutie!

Cade and Olivia hanging out together.

I couldn't resist this picture. I just love this sweet little face. She smiles ALL the time now. Especially when you talk to her. A little bit of God's grace in my life during a crazy time.

Creative Discovery Museum

We recently went to the Creative Discovery Museum with my dad. Luke actually enjoyed this more than a lot of other things he has done this summer. They were having a Clifford special exhibit, so that made it more fun.

Hanging out with Clifford, the big red dog. Ever since this day, Luke has called the Clifford show, "doggie tv".Was he wanting to put this tarantula on his head??
Working hard with Pop, aka "Bobby"

face painting fun

Olivia was along for the ride

When there is water around Luke is always happy.

It's picture time!

At this point Luke was really sick of pictures. So instead he decided to put pine bark on his head (we were at a park). He was a complete mess afterwards, but at least we got some cute pictures out of it!

Sweet Olivia and Sarah Katherine - looks like they are telling secrets to each other. This is a precious picture!!
Olivia is really a happy baby!
Sweaty Luke

Seems like we've been taking a lot of pictures around here lately. I had Luke's 2 year pictures made (is he really about to be 2??) and a few family shots plus my sister and I got our kiddos together for some cute shots too. I guess we've got to take advantage of this while we are here in the US. Here are some pictures from yesterday. Tracie Ancelet took them in Knoxville Friday night. Unfortunately it was stinkin' hot and my boy is a sweat -er so, his head is completely wet!

http://www.anceletphotography.blogspot.com/

She's smiling now!

Big Boy Bed!

Luke is on his way to being all grown up...ok I guess we do have a few years. But last week he officially started sleeping in the big boy bed and the crib is gone! This is great timing , so Olivia can have the crib when we return to Central Asia in September. The funniest part of all of this is that Forrest took down the crib when I was gone with Luke one day. When we got home he didn't even notice that the crib was gone...and has yet to even mention it!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

The best part of a party ...cake!

Olivia in her party dress from Erin.

Pop snuggling with Olivia.

Olivia and her cousin Sarah Katherine were really excited to be at Hannah's party. **Note that each baby has a giraffe blanket. We found a pink version for Olivia to match Luke's beloved giraffe. For some reason he calls his giraffe "doe" and so Olivia's is "baby doe". He wanted to be sure that Olivia and Sarah Katherine both had a "doe" to sleep with since he has to have his to sleep!

My very poor attempt at a picture of Jacob and Luke. Guess this one will have to do.

Fun visitors !

Our former teammates Shannon and Tricia visited us this weekend. It was sooo fun to be with them again and talk about our experiences in Central Asia. And Luke absolutely loves Shannon ( and would adore Tricia too if he knew her more!) . He definitely thought they came to town to see him, but maybe they did! Of course Olivia got a lot of hugs and kisses too.

Outside Art

Here are some recent photos of Luke finger painting and drawing with sidewalk chalk outside. He seemed to enjoy both but it only lasted a few minutes. Maybe Olivia will be the one that will craft with me. :)

Before Olivia was born we heard about a million times, "you are going to have your hands full!", which honestly got kind of old to hear all the time. Well the way I describe Luke these days is a handful! He's the one that's more challenging for sure. Sweet Olivia sits and stares at the mobile or light or sleeps and eats and poops. Basically that's her day. But sweet Luke is ready to GO the moment he wakes up and hardly ever sits down or is quiet! Although he's challenging us a lot these days, we absolutely adore our almost 2 year old little Luke. You can guarantee though that we're praying daily for wisdom to raise, train, and develop our little wild man!!

Sweet Olivia, finally with her eyes open!

Luke is pretty obsessed with cars, trucks, motorcycles and anything else that he could possibly drive. He loves the idea of this lawn mower, until Forrest turns it on and the sound freaks him out!