professional

Okay, now I know that I am sooo far from being a professional hair stylist, but in recent cost cutting measures, Keith and I decided that I should try my hand at cutting his and Luke's hair. We ordered a great hair-buzzer-cutter-thing from Amazon (L.O.V.E. Amazon!) and on Thursday we had our first go at it.

Keith was up first mainly because he could sit still for an extended amount of time while I was trying to figure things out. Poor guy has a few spots on his head that are a smidge shorter than the rest, but its mainly due to the crazy way he wanted me to blend the two sections.

After he was done and I had some idea of what it was that I was doing, it was Luke's turn. Keith thought that I hadn't used enough force when using the buzzer and he thought that he could do better, so Keith started Luke's cut. Soon after the buzzing began, Keith realized that things were more difficult than he had originally thought. I finished off his cut with the scissors.

In all, I don't think the cuts turned out too bad. They are a little shorter in some areas and I had to go back on Friday and clean up a small section on Luke. For it being my first time, I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.

Getting cute is tiring work.

luke

Luke is now obsessed with "Big Yuke." He loves spending time with Big Luke while he's home. Big Luke gave our Luke this Notre Dame hat when we went to dinner at the Seibolt's last Sunday night. This picture was taken the next morning at breakfast. The hat was the first thing Luke asked for when he woke up in the morning. Not the typical "Where daddy?" or "Yuke tired." Nope, first words out of his mouth were "Big Yuke hat."

a visit

Luke's godfather, Luke (I know...we were real creative with names, right?), is currently in medical school down in Dominica. Andrea and Luke decided to surprise their parents by flying him home during his first break and I was lucky enough to get to be included in the surprise. Tom and Gail had absolutely no idea he was coming; they had been told that it would be December when he would come back for the first time due to the expensive cost of plane tickets and the ever-changing weather situation down there right now (hello hurricane!). Luke was quite the trooper and started his journey from Dominica at 4 something in the morning and was on multiple planes throughout the day until he finally landed in Phoenix at 6 in the evening.

Tom and Gail's reaction when Luke opened the door was absolutely priceless. That is one of the coolest moments that I have ever had the opportunity to experience.

I am so glad that Luke made it home safely from Dominica. Now that I have kids myself, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to be away for your child for such an extended amount of time. Andrea and Luke, from a mother's perspective, you gave your parent's the world with this surprise. And to Tom and Gail: you raised two absolutely amazing kids.

seven months

Our sweet Reagan girl is now seven months old (really seven months and one week if we're being specific) and I feel like we are starting to get into a really good pattern. Or at least a really good daytime pattern. Reagan consistently follows a 3.5 to 4 hour pattern and will take two solid two hour naps during the day. Granted, we don't really leave our house -ever- so Reagan's schedule doesn't get messed up at all. I attempted to go shopping with both kids on a few occasions and it is too disgustingly hot to attempt that anymore until it starts to cool down a bit.

Night time sleep is a completely different ball of wax. I can liken it to riding a roller coaster. At times, she'll sleep a solid 8 to 10 hours a night without any issue and we're golden for a few days. Then, without warning, our sleep roller coaster takes a swift nosedive down and she's either up multiple times throughout the night or she screams for nearly an hour straight until she finally wears herself out.  Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike roller coasters? This is no different.

Luckily for both of us, she's this cute throughout the day. And I can't hold a grudge when I get to wake up to this each day.

Reagan and Luke still love to be around each other, but things are definitely getting more interesting in their sibling dynamic. See, Reagan became a champ at the army crawl recently. Her favorite things to go after? Luke's beloved trucks. I have to hand it to Luke; those trucks and cars are his prized possessions and he does share them fairly well from time to time, but he is only two years old and we're trying to work on this. They still beam at each other and there is a true love there already even if they don't understand what that is yet.

Not really an update towards anything milestone related, but man. I love those eyes.

Reagan is no longer swaddled for sleep and loves to roll around in her crib. She's figured out how to turn on the mobile and her bear light in her crib. It's nice to have those in there to occupy her when she wakes up when it isn't quite time to get out of bed yet. It's just too bad she doesn't always want to play with them when she wakes up. :) Now that Reagan is more mobile and is stronger by the second, we lowered her crib for safety purposes.

Peek-a-boo...we see you!

Reagan continues to be a champ eater. Nurses like a champ, chows on her food like a champ, and is even now eyeing and grabbing for our food like a champ. She cracks me up with some of the things that she does while she's nursing. She like to point her toes on the foot that is free and barely touch them to my shoulder. She'll hold them there the entire time she eats. Reagan also like to have chats with me when she's finished eating. She'll pull off and start making soft grunting and babbling noises and likes when I mimic her. Eventually she starts to laugh because she thinks its so funny. And her laugh. Oh my goodness. Her laugh is amazing. Its a combination of a deep laugh and a cough. I could listen to that for days.

Reagan has made some great progress this month and is growing so quickly. I love that she's able to interact more and seems to be learning so many new things each day. Maybe its because I'm a teacher (or was...whatever), but watching my kids learn is seriously one of my most treasured parts of being a parent.

slip and slide

A few weeks ago, Andrew brought Luke this slip and slide and we finally got the chance to set it up and let Luke get his first chance to slide on it. He and Keith spent some time in the pool and watched the slip and slide for awhile so Luke could get warmed up to the idea.

Keith helped Luke out at first by flinging him down the plastic. This method actually worked out really well.

Luke is his mother's son. He hated having the grass pieces on him and started to spaz out. Once he figured out he could jump in the pool and they'd come off, he was much happier.

Luke tried to help Keith slide down.

Luke and Keith had a blast spending time together in the pool and on the slip and slide. Thank you Andrew for your sweet gift!

messages

I have been in quite a funk the past few days. Kids are great, husband is great, but I've just been blah about some things we're having to face the reality of. Maybe blah isn't the best description; defeated, stressed, panicked, overwhelmed...those are much better adjectives to verbally express my feelings. Keith has been wonderful through it all and he sent me these verses from the Bible over the past two days.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done."

Philippians 4:6

"Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you."

1 Peter 5:7

It seems that both Keith and God have a message for me: Give my worries to Him and don't bear the burden alone. I am surely going to try.

a little snip snip

On Monday night, I'd finally had enough. Reagan's hair was out of control. Perhaps I should clarify that it was her mullet that was out of control. The long, straggly pieces in the back in comparison to the short pieces that were growing out on top and on the sides did not make for a good look for her. And nervous as I was, I wasn't going to take her somewhere to have it cut/trimmed/whatever when it was something I assumed I could do on my own. I've had my hair cut hundreds of times. I could surely figure out how to do it for Reagan...right?

You're going to do what to me?!?

The before shot. See her curls? Someday they'll be cute...

First snips

Finished product

Proof that she doesn't hate me

All in all everything turned out well. Reagan was a trooper and took the haircut like a pro. I didn't cut anything other than her hair (no ears, necks, or eyes were harmed in the creation of this blog post.). Believe me though, I  am in no way looking for a career change. Trims are just about where it stops for me.

growing stuff

And we're not talking about babies here either. The Waltemeyer family has attempted our first foray into growing some of our own fruits and veggies. Please don't think that we've started a garden of any sorts. We don't quite roll that way yet. We someday aspire to get there and have one, but for now we plant stuff in the wells of our citrus trees that line the side of our home.

Since Keith loves watermelon and can plow through a single large melon completely on his own in no time flat and because I have a slight obsession with all things pumpkin, those were the two plants we started out with. Plus I think we started out with those because they are fairly difficult to kill unless you forget to water them, but seeing as how they are on the drip system with the citrus trees, we have nothing to worry about. (Unless someone turns the water off and forgets to turn it back on. It was a close one there. Luckily Keith caught it in time before I caused any real damage to the plants. Oops. See; there is a reason why I don't work at Treeland.)

I am amazed at how fast these plants are growing. I was able to get out one morning this past week and take some pictures of the progress they've been making. We even had to separate them because they were beginning to violate each other's personal space. :)

First the pumpkin. Jack O'Lantern style to be specific. I can't wait to carve these babies in October. I'm already counting the days!

The pumpkin bloom

A little baby pumpkin sprout

And now for the watermelons, Keith's pride and joy.

The watermelon bloom.

The "Where's Waldo?" of watermelons

A bit closer up. Looks tasty already.

So they're looking good, but the true test will be when we go to eat the melon and carve the pumpkins. Fingers crossed it works out!

the girl and her momma

I was lucky enough to get to take pictures for my friend from high school, Kristen, and her adorable spit-fire daughter, Karis. Ever since Kristen was pregnant with Karis, she has referred to her as "the Girl" on her blog. I love it. Such a simple nickname but so fitting. The girl and her momma were brave enough to weather a storm to get these pictures and Kristen was even nice enough to share some new places to take pictures. I know there are a lot of pictures and I'm (almost) sorry for that. They were just so fun that I can't pick just a few of my favorites. Enjoy!