Mommy-hood

With Mother's Day fast approaching, I find myself thinking a lot about how much my life has changed in just 2 years! I have 2 wonderful children and could never have imagined how much I love being a mom, even during those times when I read the same book 27 times in one sitting, or clean oatmeal out of someone's eye/ear/nose. I am so thankful for my family.

I will cherish this picture forever. Me with my blue-eyed, blondish-haired kiddos. My heart overflows with love for this little gal. This picture was taken on my blackberry and I probably look at it, on average, 12 times a day.

Ah-Dorable

I love these pictures of Jane - she is so stinkin precious to us. Her and Evan have a ball doing silly things and she loves making him put on all his hats (one at a time) and then take them off. Here, she picked this Cubs one and loved having it on!

"Go, Cubs, Go!"

I mean, how cute.

Easter

We had a wonderful time last weekend celebrating Easter. The weather was cooperative and it was nice to see the sun for a little bit. Here are some Easter pictures....finally!

The morning started with Jane getting a fat lip. You can sort of see it here.

The only picture with the 2 of them looking at the camera and kinda smiliing
Luke playing with his Easter bunny!

A halfway decent family photo. At least 2 of the 4 members are looking at the camera. Apparently I missed the memo about wearing blue and green combo; which is interesting because I thought I was the memo-sender....

On the steps at church.

Happy 1st Easter, Luke!
Jane getting a taste of her 1st jelly bean, blueberry, of course.

Jane starting her Easter egg hunt. She was SO good and fast at finding the eggs!

Jane with all her loot. What a ladylike pose.

Jane discovered this rock to sit on and it was all over after that. She treated it like her very own special chair

Her new look these days is a smile and scrunched up nose, seen here.

This was the scene only minutes into the car ride. If you look closely, you can kind of see the yellow Peep dust (sugar) across her mouth. A very wonderful day!

Miscellaneous

Here are some random pictures that I wanted to post. Hope to get our Easter pictures, and possibly a video, up soon!

Grandma with Luke

Such an innocent look. Her eyes are SO blue!

Jane with Papa. If you look closely, their eyes almost look identical.

Jane hanging out by the fort her cousins and Aunt Leslie built in the woods. She did not scavenge the trash that is sitting beside her, but don't put it past her to do so in another year or so. Check out the fort! Evan, myself, and Franz just jumped in for the picture, but the real architects were Katie, Maddie, and Leslie. And Jane supervised.


Ok, so we have established numerous times that our kids love to read. This was such a cute day. Luke was laying on the blanket and I told Jane to go sit by him and I'd read a book. Apparently Jane heard "sit on him" and I quickly needed to move her into a laying position near him. They both just laid there and let me read the fan favorite book to them - so adorable! And both are actually looking at the camera here! (A rarity) And yes, Luke. Is. Huge.

I put this picture up too only because Evan and I could not believe how much we think Luke looks like my dad in this picture. Maybe it's just the way his face is looking, but we both said it as soon as we saw the picture. What do you guys think?

Weekend Trip

Well, we survived another weekend trek down to Nky to visit family and friends last weekend. We had a great time (minus the car ride, where Jane still cannot seem to be content for the 3+ hour car ride) and as always, it was great to catch up with everyone. Here are some of the highlights of our trip: - Evan and I enjoyed a kid-free day of shopping and errand-running. Sounds glorious, I know, but it was actually very fun for us both! - An evening meal with my siblings (sans Katie) and their spouses; and most of the time spent watching Keegan and Jane continuing to figure each other out. - A wonderful morning of Mass, a cemetary visit and breakfast with the majority of the Scheper clan to honor the 28th anniversary of my Grandpa's passing. The weather wasn't so hot, but it was great to honor such a wonderful man. I know he would be proud of all his family. - Saturday afternoon Evan and I took Jane to the Newport Aquarium - it was a very crowded day, but we weren't in a hurry, so we just relaxed and had a good time. Jane absolutely loved it - the very first tank we came to, she just kept giggling and giggling the whole time, which of course drew a crowd around us. I am sure we will be visiting the aquarium MANY more times! - Saturday evening we visited our friends Jamie and Andy and met their precious new baby girl, Clare. We enjoyed pizza and lots of laughing and catching up.

Luke enjoying Grandma Scheper

Practicing his whistling

Uncle Joel and Luke; I think Luke just barely weighs more

Jane reading to GrandPaul - she LOVES this book about a Little Blue Truck. She won't let us move past the yellow dump truck page, as she is pointing to it here One of Jane's favorite fish, we couldn't get her away from this one

She definitely preferred the tanks that were at her level

Jane loves penguins and knows them by name. She has a fun penguin shirt, and one of her many books has penguins in it, so getting to see them "live" and then kissing this one, was pure bliss for her

Jamie holding Luke, me holding Clare; only 10 weeks apart!

Bathtime!

Bathtime seems to be the most highly anticipated event in our household, for both Jane and Luke. Luke was a bit gun-shy the first few go-rounds, but he sure does love the water now! Here are a few snapshots of our bathtime fun.

On another note, Luke had his 3-month well baby check up on Monday and we have a completely healthy (and big!) boy on our hands. Our pediatrician likes to tease us about our ability to produce "off the charts" babies in the length department. Luke measured in at 26 inches in length, and 14lbs 5oz in weight. He has unusually strong muscles and neck control for this age, and his head is growing appropriately as well - must be all those "lessons"' from big sister Jane.

Luke getting ready to do some squats

So content almost all the time. By comparison, this was Jane at 3-months old; not quite nearly the same girth... ...but the length is pretty close!

March

Well, March has come and gone, and here we are already into April. I, personally, am thrilled at the prospect of warmer weather and greener grass, but a bit sad that "my kids are growing up so fast" (yes, I did just say that). Alas, it appears that my weekly updates on the kiddos are looking more like monthly updates. And, truthfully, I'm ok with that. To follow is quite an array of pictures from March, and here are some other updates:

- Jane is getting a ton of teeth. For a girl who only had 2 teeth at 11 mos, she has nearly 9, with at least 3 others on the verge of popping through. Molar teething has been horrendous for us.

- Luke hit some very fun milestones this month, including rolling over to his side (his definite preferred position), smiling all the time, holding his head up very strongly, rollings his hands into fists and constantly sucking on them, and lastly following Jane with his eyes wherever she goes.

- Evan and I had a monumental month, capped off by locking our children in our van with the keys inside. Yes, we did. We have no idea how it happened, as we pulled into the garage, turned off the car, and both got out to each get a kid. I guess one of us accidentally hit the lock button and there we were on a Sunday morning with our kids locked in our van with no spare key. Luckily, Evan remembered the police can help (I have no idea how) and we only had to wait about 15 minutes. Neither kiddo seemed too traumatized, and surprisingly, neither parent did either.

- Luke seems plagued by the same issues with reflux that Jane had. The spitting up is more sporadic, but at times he seems more uncomfortable with it, which is a heartbreaker. Our hope is the more time he spends upright, the more comfortable he will become.

- Jane understands everything she hears. Everything. Her vocabulary is unbelievable, and yet she doesn't really talk. Well, she doesn't say things any of us understand. We can say one thing once and she remembers it. I have a feeling we are on the verge of a very bold, determined chatterbox.

- Jane has many obsessive/compulsive tendencies. Most telling are reading the same books over and over, not being able to walk past a ruffled/scrunched up blanket without fixing it to make it lay flat, putting certain toys in the location she remembers them to always be in, and recently, the most evident - her obsession to be outside at ALL TIMES. We cannot distract her from being outside, she stands at the door and whines; she walks over to us, grabs our hands, takes us to the coat closet, gives us her coat and stands there until you put it on. She has actually opened the door to the garage, walked down 2 concrete steps and walked out to the garage and eventually outside. The cold weather doesn't bother her and actually she really likes it. We cannot wait for the warmer weather! Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks!

A fun trip to Ft Wayne, Jane's first Carousel ride. Nervous at first, then she loved it!

Merry Maids in-training Fascinated by all cleaning products with the exception of the vacuum. She is terrified of it. If I even say "vacuum" she runs to the couch and will then start obeying me. Insists on wearing the Baby Bjorn. And not just wearing it, but utilizing it in the fashion which it was intended, for carrying things.

The kids look real thrilled to be in this picture

Ready for Opening Day

All smiles! A weird angle, but you can also see how long his eyelashes have gotten!

A half-smile. Again, for the ladies.

The first night he rolled over. Sorry for the pink blanket, Luke. At least your ferrari is in the pic

Ok, not only rolling over, but somehow moving as well. I put him laying on this blanket with his head on the pink stripes at the top, and 30 minutes later, this is how I found him.

This face is delivered almost hourly. She wasn't happy about sharing her reading chair with her brother.

An interesting picture of Luke, but look how BIG he has gotten. Only 11 weeks old!

Such a sweet little boy