Life as a Plowman

I never got around to posting most of July's photos, oh well. Not happening now. So I thought I'd do a quick re-cap of August. When I opened up my "August" folder (I am extremely OCD when it comes to organizing my photos), there are almost 40 sub-folders containing all the events from the month, with about 2,000 pictures within all the sub-folders. Yeah, way too overwhelming. I take a lot of pictures. So I decided that I would post one picture per relevant event. Here we go...

First up, Luke's blessing. He was blessed on August 1 and Nate did an amazing job. Really cool side fact: Nate's mom saved his blessing outfit all these years, so Luke got to be blessed in it. We didn't bless him with the hood on, but I secretly love the cone head. :) We had so much support from family and friends. Thanks again for coming everyone.

Next was Luke's blessing photo shoot. This deserves its own post, so I'll post one for now, but watch for a dedicated post later.

A few months ago as I was putting a book together for Claire's birthday, I noticed that I don't have any pictures of Nate's parents alone. So when they were in town for Luke's blessing, I made them do a short photo shoot. More of these photos to come on my photography blog.

Next, a BBQ at Nate's Aunt Maurine's house. These three cousins love each other. And they love Aunt Maurine's swings.

Later on that week, we went up to Logan to visit Nate's grandpa and attend my cousin's wedding. While driving, I found this striped wall that I fell in love with. I wished I could do a full photo shoot with it right then and there, but the rain was coming. Instead, we pulled over, I grabbed Claire our of her carseat and made her do some photos.

Then spent the night at Nate's grandpa's house in Logan. Here's Luke with Great Grandpa Plowman. Luke is the first great grandson to carry on the Plowman name.

The next morning was my cousin's wedding at the Logan Temple. This was after the ceremony. Claire was hyper. Luke was starving.

I have the same problem with my parents - not enough photos of just them. So they got a few quick shots.

The next day I had my 10-year high school reunion. TEN years. Its still totally surreal to me that its been ten years since high school. But we had a fun night. I just wished more people came. I was asked to photograph the event, so there aren't very many photos of me. But here's a group shot with most of the attendees. Can you find me?

The next Monday, on 8/9/10, my nephew Dylan James was born. He's so, so sweet with tons of black hair. We are in love with him. Click here to see some shots of him from the hospital. And here's a family shot with the DJ.

My youngest brother, Brandon, is serving a mission in Lima, Peru. He sent us a package with beanies for all the grandkids. Here's the picture I sent him of Claire and Luke modeling the hats. Claire walks all around in August sporting her "Huancayo" hat.

We hit up two SL Bees games. One where it was raining and we had to stay under cover for most of the game.

And the other game had beautiful weather. Claire and Corgan had a great time!

The day after that, Claire got to sing at a rest home. She sang four songs for them (I'd upload the video, but I'm having problems with the audio). The songs were:
-The Star Spangled Banner
-How Great Thou Art
-A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief
-Joseph Smith's First Prayer
Then after she went around and met them all. Yes, I cried through most of her performance.

We made chocolate cupcakes one day...

Went swimming at my sis-in-law's pool. Claire loves her cousin Annie.

We compared sizes of Luke and cousin Dylan. They are exactly three months apart.

Nate and I hit up In N Out on one of our dates. Yummmm...Double-Double.

We visited new baby Dylan and I got this shot of the four oldest grandkids (Luke and Dylan were in the house sleeping). I can't believe there are six now!

Claire loves my brother's dog, Koda. Well, more like she loves him from a distance. I wanted to get a picture of just Koda.

Claire played with her cousins a lot this month...

We found out that Luke l-o-v-e-s the exersaucer. Just look at that concentration.

I went to a taping of Good Things Utah with the Activity Day girls from our ward. The ladies were so nice. I think it was the perfect activity for these girls!

My sweet nephew Drew ended up in the ICU at Primary Children's after a severe asthma attack. He's a photo of him when he was feeling much better. I got to spend a lot of time with him there. So glad he's back to his usual self!

Most of the time when I wasn't in the hospital with Drew, I was home watching cute Annie. She and Luke loved spending time in the backyard.

Claire learned how to write her name. Its so fun to see her progress, but it ALWAYS makes me sad too. She's growing up so fast. I especially love the backwards, upside down 'e'. And her awesome bedhead.

Nate played on a county softball team with a bunch of friends. He played almost every single Friday night from the first week in May until last weekend. Here is most of the team after their last game.

The last weekend in August was our ward campout. Besides the torrential downpour and hurricane-like winds (seriously. Claire kept saying a helicopter was landing by our tent), we had a great time. I didn't want to take my camera out in that, so Nate set up the good old timer for our family shot. Just look at how drenched Nate's shirt is. It was still really fun. I look forward to it every year.

One of the last events in August was orientation for Claire's preschool. I have to say I am really excited about her teacher and the preschool. The orientation was a full-on carnival with a bounce house, duck pond, fish pond, face painting and prizes. Claire was in heaven. She especially loved the t-shirt she got with the preschool's logo on it. She keeps asking to wear it. Miss Kara seems very creative and oh-so-organized. Can't wait for Claire to start next week! Here she is taking her turn in the bounce house.

Whew. So that was most of our August. Can't wait for September!

He turned two months a few weeks ago, so its about time I post some new photos.

Here are some fun facts about Luke:

*At his two-month doctor appointment:
11 lbs, 12 oz <--50% percentile
24.5 inches <--90% percentile

*Beginning to hold his head up like a champ and loves the Bumbo.

*This little man smiles all the time.

*He's starting having "conversations" where we coo and he coos back.

*Claire and Luke get along wonderfully. She's such a good big sister.

*Luke loved the fireworks on the 4th. He just stared at the sky.

*He started sleeping through the night (10 pm - 6 am) at 6 weeks and hasn't looked back.

*He can't help but smile even when he's sad.

*And at 10 weeks, he sleeps 12 hours with one feeding at 7 am. He loves his sleep just like his sister.

*He seems to like the shower better than the bath.

*Started wearing his first pair of shoes and kicks them off constantly, just like his socks.

*We're not sure if he's going to be a binky-lover like Claire, he's started sticking his thumb in sometimes.

*He is starting to have more time awake: usually eating for 20 minutes, staying awake for about 45 minutes, then sleeping for two hours until we start all over again.