18 Months

Somehow our baby is already one-and-a-half years old — how can that be? At his well visit a few weeks ago we learned that Luke is now 33.5" tall (84th percentile) and weighs 25 lb. 12 oz. (49th percentile). This little boy is full of personality and sillies. He knows no fear and has SO much to say...

(at his Little Gym class)

Goodness, he's grown since his first birthday!

 I truly cannot imagine life without this precious little person. What an incredible gift he is!

Picture Overload

I realize that a single post sharing an entire month's worth of pictures is not really how blogging is supposed to work, but it is better than not sharing at all, right? The boys had a wonderful October filled with lots of time outside and plenty of costume wearing. Spooky Lukey learned to say, "Ghos (ghost) Boo!" and "Hoween." His version of "trick-or-treat" is a straight-to-the point "Treat!"

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Last weekend we took the boys to Zoo Boo at the Houston Zoo. The weather was beautiful (so beautiful that it took us a very long time to find parking — many other Houstonians wanted to enjoy the day a the zoo, too!). Despite the crowd, we had a blast...

One tired puppy...

My mom's group at church hosted a family picnic at a local park a few weeks ago. While I didn't manage to snap many pictures, I did capture Super Nathan chowing down on his candy apple...

We also took the kids to Dewberry Farm in mid-October to carry on our pumpkin farm tradition...

(mining for marbles)

We stumbled upon a beautiful nursery one morning that had lots of pumpkins and even some animals. We stopped to look around and stayed for quite a while... 

Logan came over to play...

and we painted pumpkins...

  

I came across a box of chocolate graham crackers at the grocery store and thought it might be fun to turn them into haunted houses. (I think the scariest part about them was my terrible construction — yikes!) Nathan loved decorating his. In fact, I think each family member's house had several Nathan touches added to it — ha!

 

Luke just wanted to eat his...

The next day I walked in the kitchen to see Nathan using his LEGO men to play with the houses. Mysteriously, several pieces of candy seemed to be missing from each one...

Last night the boys finally went trick-or-treating. Our whole cul-de-sac of kiddos went out together as a group, which was really fun...

 Spiderman Nathan

and sweet Puppy Luke

Good Times

I have tried to resist the urge to sign the boys up for a million different activities this fall in an effort to give them more time to simply play and be kiddos. I know that the crazy days of practices and meetings after school are just around the corner, so we are doing our best to cherish the relative simplicity of these days (which still tend to feel pretty hectic somehow).

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Both of the boys love to play outside. Luke is constantly telling me, "Want side (outside). Want walk. Peeeese side (please outside)." It is seriously impossible to tell him no!

 

He lives to be tackled.

 And isn't afraid to do the tackling either!

Smooch attack! 

This weekend we went to the Founder's Day Festival at our church, which was great fun. Nathan surprised us by declaring that he wanted to climb the rock wall as soon as we got there. He tried very hard, and we were so proud of his courage. His favorite part was letting go and gliding down in the harness. I'm pretty sure he was pretending to be Spiderman the entire time.

He also got to tour a fire engine and 

was awestruck listening to the fireman. 

 

 

And, of course, he played tons of games and earned a pocketful of tickets.

 

 Luke was thoroughly entertained by the polka band (ha!) and was boogying along to the music.

Aunt Heather drove out to meet us there — hooray!

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Since I have been so slow to update the blog (as usual), here are a few other recent, random pictures I've been meaning to share:

Nathan was excited on his day to be class leader at school (he brought his toy excavator for show and tell).

Glow-in-the-dark bath time is always a crowd-pleaser at our house. Every time Nathan spots glow bracelets in the "dollar" section at Target, he tells me we need to stock up — ha!

Our little monkey likes to climb into his high chair and buckles his seat belt (check out his little calves!)

I love how he leads with his belly when walking

Yogurt goatee!

Both boys have loved playing with new friends

but still reserve the title of Best Buddy for one another