Big Brother Luke and Baby Jake

We've been trying to prepare Luke for becoming a big brother.  He's not even quite 2 yet, but he is a pretty smart kid- so he knows something is up with my belly.  We got him a little baby brother doll, just to give him the general idea of some things we might be doing with the baby.  He points out babies all the time when we are out, and he even seems to like them!  Luke is such a sweet boy, so I know he will be a great big brother.  Most days he kisses and hugs my belly all on his own, and says "Hi Baby Jake."

We pulled out the infant carseat so I could get it cleaned up.  Luke immediately jumped in- I think he is a little big now though... Then we practiced putting the baby in and buckling him up.

This one was completely his idea.  He wanted baby brother doll to ride the bike with him.  He was even trying to sit him on the seat and teach him by himself.

This will be Baby Jake's going home from the hospital outfit.  I thought it was adorable.

And here is the cutest little face that I just can't wait to see.  Ok, I can wait 2.5 more months for him to bake, but then I can't wait to see him!

And his little baby feets all curled up.  For the half a second that he wasn't kicking me and moving around in there.

We can't wait to be the parents of two crazy little boys.  Chasing each other around, playing with some sort of ball all day long, playing race cars, and hopefully lots of cuddling will continue!

Brown Sugar Body Scrub gifts

This year I wanted to make something for my female friends and family that was fun and easy and girly.  I also wanted to make it so I could use it myself!  I love using the sugar and salt scrubs in the shower.  Through the magic of Pinterest, I learned that they could be pretty easy to just make at home as well.  It took a few tests of different types of oil and different smells. 

I liked the smell of coconut oil in them, but in the shower it really smelled awful.  It could be the pregnancy nose, but there was no way I was going to give that to people I like.

So it turned out that I just used pure glycerin and Vitamin E oil for the moisturizing part of the scrub.

Here is the final recipe:

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

4 Tablespoons Pure Glycerin (I found it at CVS)

2 Tablespoons Vitamin E oil (Trader Joe's)

2 Tablespoons salt (to preserve)

A few drops of Jasmine oil to your smell preference.  

I found the little scoops through Etsy.  Got the jars from the Container Store.  I found the free printable labels through this site.

I was pretty happy with the way they turned out, and I use mine in the shower almost every day.  Feels especially good as a foot scrub.  I like that it's natural and not full of the chemicals you might find in store bought varieties.  It was really simple and easy to tailor to your own smell preferences as well.

Helicopter Christmas Ornaments

Anyone who spends some time with Luke will know of his obsession with helicopters.  "Helicop" is generally the first word we hear every morning.  We have multiple remote control helipcopters, and lots of toys as well.  So we had to make this years Christmas ornament a helicop.

Luke had fun rolling out the clay and painting the ornaments.

Here's how the final product turned out after some paint and mod podge glaze.

 We all had fun making the ornaments.  Next year we get to make two types!

November

We didn't post much for November, but here were a few things that happened.

Jon and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary.  We got some take-out and I got these lovelies at the front door.  Good job husband.

We also had another ultrasound to see baby boy.  He was doing great in there, and everything looks just perfect.  He is measuring tall for his gestational age, so I think we will have another tall baby rather than him actually being due early.  All of his organs look just right, and he moves non-stop like a little boy should.

We went to Modesto for Thanksgiving and Luke spent all day chasing around the dog and the cat, as usual.  He's pooped by the end of the day when we stay with Nana and Grandpa, and he actually wants to get some sleep.  Another highlight of the trip this time were the tractors across the street where construction was being done.  Luke kept saying "tractor?" to everyone to see who would take him back to see them some more.

November 25th was Luke's 22nd month-iversary.  I didn't post the picture on facebook in time, but here it is.

December has been good so far, and we are just busily working on some homemade Christmas gifts.  I'll post them after we give them out so I don't ruin any surprises.

Air Museum and Halloween

At the end of October we travelled up to Sacramento for a visit and for our Lish siblings 1st Birthday party.  We got to hang out with Grandma Jolene and go to the Aeronautical museum at McClellan Air Force Base.  I'm pretty sure Luke had the time of his life, and said "helicop" about 5,000 times.  It was a really cool museum, and we all enjoyed it.

 Then we headed back down to Bakersfield and Halloween was a few days later.  We just ended up going to a little Harvest Festival with our friends.  Luke was a bit unsure why people were wearing weird costumes, so he mostly just walked around looking at everyone.  Very observant little dinosaur.

Pumpkins!

I have called Luke "Pumpkin" for as long as I can remember.  For some reason, that's the nickname that just stuck.  He answers to it just as well as he answers to Luke.

These last few weeks we've had the opportunity to visit a pumpkin patch twice and make some pumpkin crafts of our own for the upcoming holidays.

The middle picture makes me crack up.  It's probably the worst picture Luke has ever taken in his life, and I still think he's adorable. :)

We also made some pumpkins with Jelly Belly's inside for our friends.  An idea borrowed from a picture I saw on Pinterest.

We had some fun making our Pirate Potato Head pumpkin as well.  Luke had more fun poking him I think.

And finally, he got mashed in.

Luke has a little dinosaur costume for Halloween.  I'll try to get some pictures of him in it tomorrow.

Let's see if we can figure this blogging thing out....

I've always enjoyed reading other people's blogs.  It's fun to see recipes, and kids growing, and what people do in their every day lives.  I wanted to start this blog so you can keep up with the things that we are doing, and also so we can turn it into a book at the end of the year to remember how much fun we had.

I'm sure Luke will take over about 90% of this blog, but he is definitely the cutest one of us.

I'll start with some catch up of some of the things we've done over the last few months, and we will eventually get to present day.

So Luke is completely in love with helicopters and planes.  He wakes up almost every morning saying, "Helicop? Where's helicop?" We spend a lot of time flying this little remote control guy around the house.  The second he hears a plane or helicopter outside, we have to go out and search for it in the sky.

We spent some time visiting the local Natural History Museum.  They have a fun area for kids where they can search for fossils and play with some educational toys.  We enjoy this little indoor escape from some of the hot days down here in Bakersfield.


Then one day I had the bright idea of starting a painting project with Luke....

He, of course, had the time of his life!  He did decide to do a little running across the carpet.  Oops.  Luckily, I was smart enough to get the washable paint and it came right out.  He dove right in and started painting with his hands and his feet.  We decided to get the letters for his name too, since we are working on learning them. I think he's a pretty good little artist!

That'll be all of the catch up for this post, we will continue more in the next post.  

:)