Little t's first haircut

Today we took Titus for his first haircut! He got called a girl a couple of times, so I decided that it was finally time for his first haircut.

Titus is looking a little scruffy!

This is Laura. She does my hair and gives me advice on raising boys. She has two high school boys. Titus was a little nervous and squirmy at first.

Here he is all clean cut. Thanks Laura!

Everywhere!

Titus crawls so fast and gets into everything so quickly . I used to have all of my shoes organized, but I don't even try anymore. Disorganizing the shoes seems to be a favorite for him. He's also a fan of salad dressing. What a stinker!

Mema and Pa

Mema and Pa came to visit us last night. Pa (Jake McNiece) was a paratrooper in the 101st airborne during WWII. He was a member of the notorious filthy thirteen. He signed a copy of his book for Luke and one for Titus. It will be a very long time until I let them read it. They were called the Filthy Thirteen for a reason.

I tried to explain to Luke that Pa used to go up in the sky in an airplane and then he jumped out to help people on the ground. Luke said that scared him berry, berry much. Pa replied that it was fun and that Luke would probably like it if he tried it. I can't wait until Pa tries to talk Luke into the signiture mohawk haircut. (see book cover above)

Luke really enjoyed the attention Pa gave him as he looked at all of Luke's cars.

Luke and Pa coloring together.

Mema and Titus- Show us your muscles big guy!

Mema and Luke work a puzzle.

The King

Luke has a new blue race car called "The King". He was talking about it and I told him that Jesus was my king. I told him that means that I do what Jesus wants me to do instead of what I want to do. (I try!) So Funny- Luke told me, "Jesus said, No give me swats!"

Why did you do that?

I am going to start a series called "Why did you do that?" I think I ask Luke that question at least three times a day. Maybe that will help me laugh about it more insead of getting frustrated. The first installment is below. It is a little fuzzy, but study the picture for a minute. What is missing? ..........buttons.....He bit them off his shirt. When I asked him why, he just had a puzzled look on his face that says "Did I need a reason?" ...and no, I have not found the buttons.

Summer Activities

The Ele-fun game:
This is our new favorite game. Luke likes to play it with daddy and mommy after Titus goes to bed. Josh, Debbie, Will and Andrew gave this game to Luke for his birthday. The Elephant shoots butterflies out his trunk and you have to catch them with your net.

Now that Luke is the old and wise age of 3, Micah and I have decided he is old enough to play on the computer. He has an Easy Link. It is a toy that allows him to go to different web pages by putting the different figurines on the "stage". It blocks the kids from having access to your computer, so he can't rearrange the desktop or anything. I set the timer for 30 minutes and he had fun. Mostly he enjoyed changing the webpages. He is not very good with a mouse. Hopefully he'll figure it out more as he practices. Kids seem to pick up on these things quickly.

An earthworm decided he wanted to slip and slide too. Luke had to stop and

talk with him for a little while.

Titus will be up and running soon, but for now he just splashed and splashed in the little pool.

Luke's 3rd Birthday

Today was not quite as exciting as yesterday's party, but we had a little cake left over. Luke didn't seem to mind. He enjoyed blowing out the candles again. He was excited that there were new presents too.

Luke spent most of the day playing with his new toys. He got a couple of new cars here with some of the old ones he's earned from his sticker chart.

This is Rocket. It's from the Little Einsteins series. It plays classical music and uses words like "adagio" and "crescendo". Why not? Luke likes to make it fly.

Later in the day, Micah went to help a family from our church move. Luke, Titus, and I went out with the wife and the little girl from that family. Here they are enjoying a birthday pizza playdate.

Here's our little guy completely pooped. We didn't get him into p.j.s It's been a fun few days. Here he is in his normal sleep position. He sleeps on the floor between two beds with his yellow blanket and his puppy. The puppy's name is "My Favorite Puppy". Good night and happy birthday!

Let's Party

Lots of pictures today! Luke's birthday is tomorrow and today was the big birthday party. This was his first "real" birthday party. He was so... excited to see us set up everything. He really jumped out of his skin when I took the cake out of the fridge. He wanted to see the cake so badly, so I sat down on the floor and let him look it over. He wanted to eat it right there on the kitchen floor!

Look at my cake!

I'm ready to party. I hope my friends get here soon.

When the first knock on the door came, Luke ran to the door. He wanted to open the presents right away. First the kids played inside for a little while and then they headed outside for the water toys and activities. The slip and slide was a big hit. As you can see, the kids got creative with the outdoor play toys too. They played outside for about half an hour before the cake started sounding good...

Luke runs down the slip and slide.

A little swimming and splashing...

Grammy and the other grown ups wish they could do the slip and slide too.

It's time to go inside...

Luke was so excited when we came in for the cake. He was just beside himself. He loved the attention. Happy Birthday to Luke!

Everyone eats cake and ice cream.

Time for presents!

Wow Emily! Look at that train! After cake and presents, the kids played inside for a while.

Allison is busy making a new track!

After everyone went home, Papa and Aunt Cara played cars with Luke until his naptime.

Tomorrow, our little boy will be three. I feel so blessed to have had three wonderful years with him. He is a blessing to our life and teaches me to find the joy in the simple things in life. He really is a good kid. Thank you to God for sharing him with us.

Luke and his Bible Stories

Luke is really into bible stories. We read about 5 every night. He then reads the pictures of the book until he falls asleep. He can tell the entire story of Jonah including that God told Jonah to go to "Ninny-bah". He is picking up random information too. He knows that the Philistines are the enemies of God and incorporates them into his play stories. I caught him telling all his cars to not pray to the green car because we would have to throw the green car in the trash. Maybe too much information for an almost 3 year old...

He also just got a super short buzz cut. It's buzzed to a 1 everywhere. The forcast for the next million days is 95+ and he really wants to go to the park every day. I'm noticing that all my "boy mom" friends are getting very tan this summer. Boys just need to romp whatever the weather!

Other family news:

• My parents (Alan and Billie) are moving back to Texas! They should arive in the Lone Star State tonight. Their home will be ready in about 6 weeks. Until then they will be in an apartment.
• My sister, Cara, is closing on her first home on August 1st. She will be moving to Allen and will only be about 15 minutes away from us. We're excited to have her so close. It's great that my side of the family is all of a sudden much closer. We need to ramp up our recruiting efforts toward Micah's side of the family. My best bets at this point would be Dustin or Randy, Betty, and Carolyn.
• We're preparing for our little Luke to turn 3 on Sunday! We're going to have a party on Saturday with all of his friends from church and the preschool.

Our boys

Micah is so sweet to read lots of books to Luke. He is patient as Luke asks questions like "What's her name?" or "What that is?" instead of listening to what Micah reads.

Micah and I love this goofy grin. It's hard to catch on camera, but this is pretty close. Don't mind all the squash on his face!

To the Rescue!

At our house we have a crazed armadillo that you have to watch out for because he will eat your face! Luckily, we also have Superluke! Faster than a speeding bullet, he will come to your rescue.

Oh no daddy! Watch out!

Look at my huge muscles! I got that armadillo.

I really love to protect mommy.

I love my cape. Mommy got tired of safety pinning my baby blanket around my neck. I got funny looks at the grocery store and the park. I still get funny looks when I wear my cape everywhere I go, but at least it is a respectable cape now.

On your knees? Really?

We have some good clean fun at the Hahn house! Needless to say, he's going to have a slip and slide at his birthday party later this month.

To the zoo!

Luke has a chore chart. His chores are cleaning his room, not getting out of bed at naptime, alone outside play time (that one is for mommy) , and various other things. When he gets 15 points he gets some sort of treat like a new car or a special outing. This time around his treat was to go to the zoo.

Luke shows daddy who is boss.

Luke compares his size to a penguin.

We're caught in a big spider web! I hope we don't see the spider that made this...

Heros in a half shell.

Alan (Papa) and Titus explore the bamboo.