1st birthday party!

What a fun day we had! My girls had their very first birthday party on Sunday, and let me tell ya - mom had more than a little fun with all the pink. :) We had pink and green plates, cups, and cupcakes - not to mention matching pink outfits!

The whole family:

Mom and the girls (Lily on Left, Payton on Right)
Mom and Payton
Mom and Lily

Aunt Carolyn and Payton
Breckin eating celery (!!!)
Dad and Lily (who wanted no one else BUT dad yesterday)
The big kids eating lunch
Presents!

Hangin' with Cookie and Elmo

Cupcakes!

After the party


In their jammies from Grandma Genia (Lily just wanted a bottle!) :)

Happy birthday girls!

How can they possibly be a year old already? I realize the past year has passed in a haze of sleeplessness, although I expected it to last a little bit longer than it has.

Payton, my oldest (by a whole 3 minutes!) is a little climber - she can get up anywhere. Almost every day we find her on top of something else. And she just looks at us and smiles like 'What?', knowing full well that she maybe shouldn't be there. It'd be a lot easier to scold her if she weren't so darn cute.

Lily, my 'runt' (who now outweighs her sister - although Payton is about an inch taller) is walking like crazy. Walking is her current hobby - she's lost interest in toys and words and everything else at the moment. She can walk across the room holding on to a sippy in front of her, or two couch pillows at her side.

Payton has no interest in walking. Lily couldn't care less about climbing. They're really very different girls at this stage. Both are talking - 'Uh-oh' is a favorite - which tells you a little bit about what goes on at our house. Both are fully eating everything our family eats. They LOVE pizza and pasta. Lily's not crazy about bananas. Payton takes her time and eats nicely, Lily shovels in and asks for more (while half of her first helping is on her lap.) I can feed payton without a bib - I would be buying Lily an entirely new wardrobe if I tried that.

Breckin is doing well - learning more words every day. We're currently working on colors, but he can count up to 10 (and sometimes past that), and say all of his ABC's. He can also tell us what about 10 of the letters 'say'. I thank Sesame Street. :)

Ashley has started ballet and still loves taekwondo. She's getting so big - just celebrated her 8th birthday, which threw her dad for a loop. I think she'll always be 2 in his mind.

Alec is playing basketball this winter and loving it. He's doing well in school and is such a huge help with the little ones at home. The little ones adore Alec and Ashley (and I think the sentiment, for the most part, is mutual.)

Mike is doing well - his back has been feeling a bit better. He has found a night job, and seems to enjoy it (twice a week), although it does make for a few long nights.

I'm doing well also. I quit Gallup (20 hours a week being away from home and family was just too much), and am now sitting at home in my jammies, picking my own hours, and freelance writing for an internet retail chain. I love it, and it helps pay the bills, so I can't complain.

And since you didn't come here to read this riveting commentary (I know you all come for the pictures!), here's what you're looking for!

Payton my climber:

The girls:

And Breckin:

Upending a can of formula on his head:

Helping dad put the cheese on his shepard's pie:

And hanging out in the toy box:

Fall is here!

I think the more the year goes on, the busier we are! The kids are back in school and so far loving it. We've had both kids' parent-teacher conferences, and both teachers had good things to say, which is always a relief. Ashley is reading at a much higher level than she was at the end of the school year last year, and Alec had top marks in Math. We're so proud of them; we just hope the other three will follow in their footsteps.

Sports are finally over for the year for Alec. He'll start basketball in January, but for now we have some downtime, which is nice. The little stinker can beat me at Hangman now, which is fun. Ashley is still in taekwondo, and she's at a blue belt level, complete with sparring gear. She's so proud of how she's doing, and we have seen a marked improvement in her focus both at home and at school.

We're getting ready for Halloween here. We'll have all 5 kids dressed up this year, so we're very excited about that. Hopefully it won't be too cold that night! I'm not going to tell you what they're going to be - you'll have to wait (hopefully not 2 months!) for the pictures.

The girls are on the go now; they started crawling early this month. They both still prefer to scoot on their tummies, and Lily has some amazing upper-body strength, but they both can crawl. They both also had their first bath in the big bath together in September, AND they both have two bottom teeth. They're keeping right up with each other on the milestones, although they are totally different babies. Lily's very center-of-attention, get-up-and-go, and Payton will wiggle to a toy she wants and just hang out there for awhile. Lily's biggest pet peeve is being restrained, while being ignored is a very close second. Payton's incredibly laid back and willing to sit back and watch the fun. Neither one of them has mastered sleeping through the night yet...we're waiting on bated breath (no, really.)

Breckin is learning more every day. He now knows and LOOOOOOVES the song 'If you're happy and you know it'. He's learning to walk in his brand new cowboy boots, and dad is so proud. He picks up a new word every day and is quite accomplished in hopping all day.

...and Mike had a field day with the whole Missouri/Nebraska 'incident', as we call it here. He still hasn't shut up about it, and a Journal-Star newspaper article declaring 'MAULED!' is tacked to our corkboard now. You know why those Tigers celebrate so hard after beating the Huskers, right? 'Cause they never do.

And now for the pictures!! :)

The girls at 7 months:





...and 8 months:





On the go...
Lily:


Payton:


I'm not listening!


Lily's silly face (look closely...can you see her teeth??)


The first bath (battle)


Lily splashing:


...and soaked


Payton


The girls hanging out (7 months):


Attacking their brother:


I leave the room for one minute...








...and yes, that makes twice in one week...


Alec's prize for selling an item a day for the first week of his fundraiser:


Alec, fall soccer 07:


Hope this finds you all happy and healthy!
K+6

Crazy days!

Happy Fall!

School has started, fall sports are in full swing, the kids (I'm including Mike here) and I are all busy, busy, busy! Somedays I think it'd be nice to just have a quiet, peaceful day at home, but I honestly believe I'd go crazy for lack of things to do. It's chaotic around here, but it's fun and we've pretty much gotten used to the constant flurry.

Ashley has earned her green belt in tawkwondo, and has made another (and hopefully final) elementary school switch to Arnold Elementary. She seems to be doing well and she really likes her teacher.

Alec is in both soccer and flag football, add in practices and CCD and we've got a busy little boy! He turned 8 on 9/9, and I can't believe he's so old already!

Breckin is having a good time being a toddler. He's really into FOOT!BALL! right now, and if he so much as hears the first three notes of the Missouri Tigers fight song he goes ballistic and starts screaming 'Touchdown!' and dancing and jumping. (I'm sure his dad had nothing to do with that.)

The girls are 7 months old already. They can get just about anywhere they want to go on the floor by scooting, which is fun. I've found both of them stuck under the couch this week so far. They're loving baby food but aren't too keen on anything with any texture. I've made Lily throw up twice, once by giving her a piece of banana that wasn't soupy, and once by giving her a small puff (kind of like a super-dissolvable, fruity Cheerio). I've decided we'll wait a bit longer to do real solids.

Oh, and Elmo is the 8th family member in this house. My three youngest have an insane love affair going with the furry little guy.

Mike's ok. And JUST ok. He threw his back out in July and has been really hurting since. He's done PT, cortizone shots (which don't seem to be working at all), and now is looking at surgery. Hopefully SOMETHING will work.

I'm doing well. Still working at night, which gets a little tiring sometimes, but the paycheck helps. I absolutely love being able to stay home with the kids during the day - I haven't regretted that particular decision at all.

So that's us, and since everyone just comes to see the pictures, here we go...

The girls at 6 months.

Payton:


Lily:


Lily (that bar she's holding on to is supposed to be above her head...)


Party at the crib! (Whoop! Whoop!)


Learning how to sit up:


Learning how to hold their bottles (thank GOD!)


Breckin's first pair of cowboy boots (dad's so proud!)


Crazy sleeper:


Alec's 8th Birthday party at the bowling alley:

Busy weekend!

Busy weekend at the Lukehart household! Dad took Breckin to get his very first haircut on Friday evening. Mom about hyperventilated, but everything worked out, and Breckin came out really no worse for wear. Apparently he hated the scissors and loved the clippers - nothing like being a unique kid! :)

Mike's sister Tara graduated from UNL on Saturday, and we had a big reception for her afterwards. Congrats T!!

A few pictures of this weekend.

Lily (on her tummy) and Payton (on her back):





Breckin's First Haircut:

Befores:




You want to do WHAT to my hair??!


Mohawk


Hey - what's that on my arm??


Are we done yet?


Hot shot!


Tara's Graduation:

Receiving her diploma


Payton with Grandpa Jack:


From left: Steve, Judy, Grandma Lennie, Grandpa Jack, Tara, Aunt Mary, Uncle


Tara and Mike


Mom, Lily, Payton and Rebecca:


Mom and Lily


Grandma Judy and Lily


From Left: Breckin, Mike, Rebecca, Tara, Liz, Evan and Alex


Dad and Breckin sharing a laugh

Summer update!

I know it's been forever since I last posted. The summer has been total chaos, but it's gone so quickly that I'm not even sure I had time to catch my breath! The girls are 6 months old now, which is hard for this mommy to believe.
Daddy Lukehart just turned 30 this month, and we had lots of fun celebrating with him.
I got a new job a couple of nights a week at the Gallup Polls, which I really love. So far I'm the only one in my training class who has been promoted to 'Tracker' status, which basically means more money, better bonuses, and I can make my own hours instead of setting up a schedule. Plus, I can pick the projects I want to work on, which is a huge plus.
Ashley's on her way to her green belt in taekwondo (she got her yellow belt last month!), and is loving it.
Alec played baseball this summer, and was a regular 'Baby' Ruth.
Breckin has learned how to splash in the pool (and, unfortunately, the bath) like a pro, and has added quite a few words to his vocabulary ('please', 'thank you', 'pizza', 'juice', 'milk' - to name a few).
The whole family seems to have gotten into a pretty good groove, and now we're switching things up again with the start of school next week! Our 'babies' are going to be second graders, and Alec will be 8 years old in less than a month. Again, where is it that the time goes??

I have tons of pictures to share, and hope to have the 6-month pictures of the girls soon. We'll go in order by age:

Dad's 30th Birthday

The dinosaur cake I made:


All the kids in their dinosaur hats:


The man of the hour:


Grandpa and his girls (Ashley and Lily):


Alec getting ready to dive in:


Chadly, hanging out:


The family:


Like father, like son:


Ashley swimming:


Alec swimming:


Alex and Tasha:


The family:


Dad and his cake:


Dad blowing out the candles:


Alec

Our little Babe Ruth


Running like the wind:


Covering Third:


In the huddle:


Ashley

With her yellow belt and certificate:


Hi-yah!:


Block:


On stage:


Breckin

With our neighbor Hayden on the 4th:


After the pool:


'Coloring':


Hanging with the girls:


Shirt head!:


Payton and Lily:

Payton 5 months:


Lily 5 months:


Girls 5 months:


With Great Grandma Jody (dad's mom's mom):


All of us:


On the 4th:


Payton sleepy:


Lily sleepy:



With cousins (mom's cousin's kids):


Hope you're all healthy and happy!
-Kasey

4 months!

I've set up a seperate 'Twins' blog to post their latest growth pictures. I still haven't figured out the table parameters, so the pictures are getting cut off a bit on the right side, but you get the idea. :)

http://lukeharttwins.blogspot.com/

I can't believe it's June. I know we had a May at some point this year, but for the life of me I can't remember it. I've been home with all three little ones for about 6 weeks now, and am ready to complicate things even further. I will have both Ashley and Alec at home with me full time this summer. It will be fun to have all the kids together, and hopefully we'll be able to find enough to do to keep everyone occupied. I'm excited to have the big kids home all day.

Breckin is getting so big. His new favorite thing to do outside is to roll down the hill in the back yard on his tummy. He and Alec roll down that hill and run back up and roll down again over and over. We really need to get our back yard fenced though, as he LOVES cars, and tends to bolt for the street when he sees one go by. It sure ups mom's heart rate, which is fun.

Lots of pictures this time around. That's what happens when I don't update for a month. :)

The 'Big Kids':

Alec, Ashley, and their friend, Justice:


Me and the brood on Mother's Day:


Breckin:

"Coloring":









Eating like a big boy:



Practicing the stairs (he's a pro now!):



Hanging out with Payton:



The girls:

Lily taking a nap:



Sharing a laugh at Grandma Genia's house:



Hanging out at home:



Enjoying their 4-month photo shoot:



Hope this finds all of you healthy and happy!
-The NEW Lukehart 7