Dancing and Guitar

Here is a brief look into how excited Luke is about dancing and guitar. He loves it when Andrew gets his guitar out and practically drools over whoever is playing in church. He's only recently started to sing a bit too, and it just makes me laugh. You'll have to excuse the mess of toys (how does anyone with children EVER get a video of a clean floor?) and laundry and whatever else is visible. :) I love to see Luke love music. Also, the flapping arms move is something his Uncle Luke would be proud of, I think.

Cloth Diaper Extraveganza

In all my reading at Diaper Swappers, I have come across a new blog called Life More Simply. July is cloth diaper month and there are quite a few giveaways for cloth products this month. I'm pretty excited about it and wanted to share them with you! You can enter any or all of them. Maybe it will be a good chance to for someone to try cloth. Maybe it would make a great gift.

Life More simply is hosting a cloth diaper extraveganza! Join in! This first post lists all the sponsors and dates. It is quite informative. The posts this month are nearly all centered around cloth, with lots of info on how to use cloth, benefits, comparing different brands, and other useful information. Check it out.



Go here to win a really neat diaper pail liner that you can hang. I'd really love one of these. I'm sure it would be better than the tiny trash can we're using now! :)


Go here to win a hand crocheted diaper cover! I've so been wanting to try wool covers with my new prefolds...


Go here to win Sensi-Clean detergent. I had no idea what a pain it can be to find detergent that is compatible with cloth.


Go here to win a Monkey Foot Designs wet bag! These are too cool and can be used for many things.


Go here to win a Knickernappies new one-size pocket diaper. I would love to try one of these.


Go here to win a cute pair of wool shorties from Kristy Lynn. These are for newborns and are really cute!


Go here to win a fitted diaper from Monkey Bizness. These are cute but need a cover.


Go HERE to win a FuzziBunz dipe. This is by far my favourite giveaway! I love our two FuzziBunz diapers and would love to have a red one! If you want to try cloth, this would be a great tester diaper.


Go here to win a Wahmies one-size diaper in butter yellow. These are cute but what I like best about them is they are made locally! Drybees and Wahmies are shipped and sold in Bradley, WV only minutes from where I now live!


And finally, go here to win a snappi diaper fastener. I bought my first set of prefolds and covers a few weeks ago and got a snappi to fasten them. This is a really cool little gadget! You do have to be careful, cause the teeth are sharp, but pins are sharp, too, hey? I really like ours. It makes diaper changes much quicker. I'm still getting the hang of it, but it's wonderful if you go "old school" in your cloth diapering habits. :)

Carseat

A few weeks ago Luke and I went to Huntington for a whirlwind trip with mKhulu and nGogo. We had to take the car seat out so that I could install it in their car. It sat in our living room for a couple of hours and Luke though it was the coolest thing!


He climbed right in and made himself comfortable exploring from this angle.



It didn't take him long to find what we've termed our "travel soother," or, "soose" as he calls it. He was pretty happy with his find.

He had a good time sitting in his seat and I wonder what went through his little mind when he saw it sitting there instead of in the car... :)

Lukey Spins

Luke discovered a few months ago that he could spin around and make himself dizzy. He made me laugh so hard! I wasn't expecting him to learn to do that until he was quite a bit older, but it was too much fun when it came. He started spinning around in our family room and did it until he fell down repeatedly. He only stopped when he got so dizzy that he fell into a hard wooden chair. Crazy baby! But, here's some spinning fun. :)

Lukey...

is wondering what is up with ya'll. :)

Independence Day

This year the Mackay side of the Smith family decided to stay home from the family Independence Day celebration and take in the Fayetteville sights and sounds. We had a really wonderful weekend in spite of the sickness that has pervaded our house in the last few weeks. For such a quiet little town, Fayetteville puts on quite the celebration! We took a family walk to the nearby town park where they had vendors and rides and even a little kids tractor pull. It was just quaint and I enjoyed it. Luke loved getting out and about a bit and seeing lots of other kids. Kids are pretty awesome, in case you didn't know.



Lukey and I before our walk to the park.

Kisses for Mumma!



Daddy and Luke at the park watching the kids tractor pull. I tried and tried to get a good picture of them both with their hands up like Luke's but it was not to be. :)


I just think these two are so adorable. Plus I love pictures like this.


Just Luke.


Back at home. Daddy was grilling steak and potatoes for supper. Luke is staring at the grill in awe. Maybe one day Daddy will let him grill something.



Family picture on the 4th. We had a wonderful time together.

Luke and I managed to listen to part of a concert downtown while waiting for Andrew to get off work. He had a blast. It was fun. We missed the fireworks cause we were all in bed by 9. How sad is that?

Lovely day.

Happy Anniversary!

Back Yard Fun

Have I mentioned that Luke likes to play outside? Cause he does. This past week he has done better when it's time to come in, but he is just heartbroken. Crazy kid. I've been trying to spend more time outside and it's made me realize how short our outside time had been before that. I feel a little guilty. There were days we didn't go out at all. Lots of days were limited to my laundry time, so he'd get ten minutes or so. We are now in the process of trying to get out for at least 30 minutes a day. I'm embarrassed by how hard that can seem some days. :( But Luke loves it. And he's happier and I'm happier when we spend a good chunk of time out of doors. Although, yesterday we were out for a long time and he had a really rough night sleeping...



Me and Luke!


Our little adventurer.


Head shot. :) I'm pretty sure he was making a cute face and then turned around before I could get the picture taken. Our camera is slow and I thought this was funny.


Dada teaching Luke how it's done. One of their first games of catch.


Question: What is this expression? Answer: I'm getting ready to make a break for the neighbors' back porch! Hope mom can't tell.


I think he actually kissed the football.


"Sooooooo big!" Doesn't get old. Or at least, not yet!


"What's going on, anyway?"


Happy family!

Luke's eyes crack me up in this picture. He's a sweet kid.

Luke loves to go outside with Daddy while Daddy grills supper. It has become the new norm that we all just go out and play while Andrew cooks and I rather like it. It gives us all a little together time. Plus, it's outside, so Luke is thrilled. Before Luke and I would stay inside and Andrew would run back and forth and Luke would cry every time Daddy went back out. So we shall enjoy our new found Mackay family tradition. Here's to many happy grilling sessions!

Blue Eyes

Just cause.

Water Play

I've been talking seriously about getting a baby pool for Lukey for a few weeks now. Still haven't done that. Still hoping to, though. Although, he did seem quite happy with his bowl of water and cup! I put his swimming trunks on him, just cause I wanted to see how they looked. They are super cute, but still too big for him. I bought them last summer on sale and they're 18 months. He's got such short little legs and a really long torso!

















I love this last picture. He's just so sweet. He LOVES water and we need to do this more often. I still can't wait to get him into a pool. One day... Anyway, here's a closing video. Not the greatest, but he just made me smile. I need to take him out with more bowls to play in. :) Last weekend we were all outside while Andrew was cooking hotdogs on the grill. It started to rain a bit and Luke managed to discover our neighbors' rain barrel (a 5 gallon pail, I think). Oh my goodness! He was hysterical. It was SO cold I almost couldn't stand to be out and his little arms got cold quickly, but he had such a good time splashing in the water and falling in puddles. It was too funny. Since it was almost bedtime, we brought him in and gave him a nice warm bath to take the chill off. I really enjoyed that, as did our elderly neighbors. They like Luke a lot and let him play in their yard (which has much better grass than ours!).

Climbing

His momma didn't raise no fool! Luke has repeatedly dumped all the blocks out of the activity table and flipped it upside down to use it as a step stool. He thinks he will be able to climb over "juvie" and get at the electronics.






Methinks this means it's time to send the activity table back to Sam and Gina's for baby "M" to use... :) Luke has since learned that he can actually get higher if he leaves the table right-side up. Crazy kid.

Father's Day

So Luke and I got Andrew a "Dads Rock" shirt for Father's Day. Jessi gave us a "My Dad Rocks" shirt for Luke (it's still way too big, but it was adorable anyway!). I really wanted to get a picture of them together. So we had a photo op in the back yard... Yeah, it just didn't work out so great. I'll have to try again sometime I think.



This one actually isn't bad, if Luke's eyes were open.



Another not too bad, but obviously Lukey's not looking at the camera. He's starting his escape.


At this point, he's definitely had enough and is off to explore the neighbors yard!

Oh well. I tried. And at least these were taken on Father's Day. Luke and I were not well that day so it's a small miracle we got that far!

How'd I Get Here?

So, Luke has discovered that he can climb in and out of boxes. Here he is showing off his new skill in a toy box...


Just hanging out...

Happy with his conquest.



This is so fun! :)


He is a trip. Until he wants out. He usually either falls out sorta on purpose or yells for "Help!" Which, by the way, doesn't sound much like "help." It's also difficult to distinguish his sign for "help" from his sign for "more." But there is a slight variation. He's just so funny!