Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter this year! We spent lots of time with family and enjoyed some great food, as usual. Saturday night I tried dying Easter eggs with Luca, but it was past his bedtime and he wasn't all that interested in it. Oh well, he is only 5 months old. I'm sure there will be plenty of egg dying in the years to come :-)

We got up bright and early on Sunday morning and drove up to Cle Elum to go to 8:00 Mass with Tony's family. After church, we hung out, took pictures and had a delicious brunch of scrambled eggs, sausage, fresh fruit and homemade huckleberry muffins.

That evening, my dad, sister and brother-in-law came over to our house for dinner. Tony smoked a ham on the BBQ and we had twice-baked potatoes, grilled asparagus and fruit salad along with it. For dessert I made a triple-layer coconut cake from scratch. It turned out to be a lot more work than I expected and the final result looked nothing the picture in Better Homes & Gardens magazine, which is where I got the idea and recipe. Oh well, it tasted good so I guess that is what is important. By the end of the evening, Luca was exhausted and so were we! It was a great day to spend with family, celebrating the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

Mom, I am so done with this!

Our Easter Baskets :-)

Looking cute as ever in their Easter outfits.

It will be so much fun next Easter when we can do an Easter Egg Hunt with these two (and Leo).

Peek-a-boo Luca!

Luca pushing Alli...

...and Alli pushing back.

Easter family photo :-)

Checking out his Easter basket.

Of course he was more interested in the "grass" than anything else in the basket :-)

Happy Easter!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Looking good in his St. Patty's Day jammies.

Look at that precious little tush :-)

St. Patty's Day outfit #2 - Go Notre Dame!

4 Months!

Our baby boy is 4 months old already! I can't believe how quickly the days go by. Sometimes I really wish that time would slow down because my little baby is getting so big so fast! Luca is so much fun! He is really starting to develop a little personality and it is so amazing to watch him as he becomes more and more aware of the things that are going on around him. I took him in for his 4 month check-up today and these are his stats:

Weight: 14.1 lbs (50th Percentile)
Height: 25 inches (50th Percentile)
Head: 16 inches (30th Percentile)

He did not grow as much between 2 and 4 months as he did between 0 and 2 months. The pediatrician said that is fairly common and he is still very healthy and everything looks good, so not to worry. Whew!

Luca is still just nursing - he wants nothing to do with formula. We have tried giving it to him a few times because I am concerned that I am not making enough milk for him. The pediatrician said that at this age he should be able to go 3-4 hours between feedings during the day and 6-8 hours at night. Well he is definitely NOT going 6-8 hours at night and sometimes during the day we barely make it to 2 hours before he starts to get hungry, so I have tried to supplement with a bottle of formula here and there, but he will not take it. I feel so bad because he gets so excited when he sees the bottle (which he takes just fine from anyone when it is filled with breastmilk) but as soon as it touches his tongue and he realizes it is formula, he spits it out, closes his mouth and turns his head away. He is so smart - he knows that's not the good stuff :-) The Dr. did say that if we think he is ready we can try giving him rice cereal once a day. I definitely think he is ready because anytime that we are eating in front of him he is constantly reaching for our fork/spoon and he is really interested in what is on our plates. So, I will probably try the rice cereal with him in the next couple weeks.

Here are some of the things Luca is doing right now:

• Cooing/talking and squeaking/squawking with delight
  
• Smiling with a big, open mouth grin
  
• "Standing" - we can prop him up with his hands on the couch or ottoman and he will stand there for several minutes without falling down
• Rolling over in both directions
  
• Grasping things - he is able to grab things like his binky and turn it in his hands to put it in his mouth the right way
• Sucking on his hands/fists (and thumb - which we are really trying to stop)
  

Two of my favorite things in the whole world :-)

Being silly with dad before his bath.

Morning smiles for mom while she is working.

He loves bath time.

Luca and his Auntie Erin.

I love this picture! He is so cute I just want to eat him!

Hanging out at Grandpa's house.

3 Months!

I can't believe Luca is 3 months old already! Where has the time gone?! He is growing and changing more and more every day. Here are some of the things he is doing:

• Cooing/talking to us all the time
• Smiling a ton
• "Standing" - he is really good at using his legs to push himself up from a squatting position to a standing position. He has some very strong quads!
• While on his tummy he can push himself up on his forearms and turn him head in both directions.
• Grasping at things (usually my hair or sweatshirt string while he is nursing), and man does he have a grip! He is starting to grasp toys as well, but doesn't hang on to them for very long.
• Blows bubbles and mimics (or tries to) movements and noises that we make with our mouths.
• Sucking on his hands/fists (and pretty much anything else that goes near his mouth)

Such a sweet face!

Hanging out in the Bumbo while mom works.

I spent 15 minutes trying to get him to smile at me, but he was too interested in staring at the camera instead.

He is just so precious! We absolutely adore him and are having so much fun being parents!

Weekend in Lynden

This weekend we took a trip up to Lynden to see my best friends from college and go to a baby shower for my friend Courtney. We left Friday after I got off work and arrived in Lynden just before 10 PM. It is a long trip, but always so worth it to see all my best girls! Julie and Chris were so nice to host all of us (5 couples and 8 kids - all age 3 or younger and all boys) at their house. Our families are all growing so much these days that Courtney had to bring her parent's motorhome over so that we had more places for people to sleep. Our time together these days is pretty low key - a lot of taking care of kids, feeding babies and sitting around chatting - but it is so nice to be able to catch up with each other since we are all spread out around the state. The husbands/dads always enjoy getting together as well and spend a lot of time drinking beer and playing poker :-)

It seems like every time we get together (which is only about 3-4 times a year) there are new babies to meet or someone is pregnant. This weekend was the first time that all my friends (except Jess) got to meet Luca and also the first time that most of us got to meet Kyler and Gavin as well. All three boys were born within a month of each other - Luca was born in between Kyler and Gavin. It will be so much fun (and probably a little crazy) when all 3 boys get older and can really play with each other. I am sure Jax will be right in the mix too since he is just a few months older than the other 3.

We had a great weekend with great friends! As usual, it went way to fast and we are already planning and looking forward to the next time we can all get together.

Mommies feeding their babies.

Gavin (born 11/18/09) and Kyler (born 10/17/09). Gavin has bright red hair just like his mama!

Wyatt & Colt

Carolyn & Jax (7 1/2 months)

Luca hanging out with dad in the morning.

Pretty much what the boys did all weekend :-)

Showing the little guys how it's done.

Me, hanging out with Luca (in the bouncy seat) and Jax.

All the older boys playing outside.

Courtney, the cutest mama-to-be!

All the Price boys - Crew, Brody & Kyler.

Courtney's Baby Shower

The main reason for our trip to Lynden this weekend (other than to see all our great friends) was so that I could go to Courtney's baby shower. Julie and Kassi put on a great shower with lots of fun people and fabulous food!

Carolyn, Me & Luca, Jess & Gavin, Julie, and Courtney (with Carolyn's baby, Jax)

Me & Luca and Jess & Gavin

Love this little man!

Courtney, Tracey and Julie's baby, Kyler

Jess and a sleepy baby Gavin

Random Pics

So, I know I have been absolutely terrible about keeping up with the blog. I still have a lot of back posts to catch up on, but I thought I would at least post a bunch of random pictures from over the last couple months. I do have a little bit of an excuse for not posting pictures lately - we were unable to find the charger to our camera for almost a month and the battery was dead, so the only way we could take pictures was with our phones. Some of these pics were taken with my iPhone, so that is why they are a little larger. If you want to see more of the most current Luca pictures, those of you on Facebook can check Tony's page because he is pretty good about adding the latest pictures of our little man. Enjoy!

Alli snuggling up to Luca. A rare moment when they are both awake and happy :-)

I just love his face!

This is the face he makes when he "talks" to us.

Sporting the Jordan's and basketball shorts that he got for Christmas. He is ready to play for the "skins" team :-)

Smiling at his dad.

First time in the Bumbo seat. He was still a little wobbly so we put a bunch of pillows behind him. He is watching football with dad.

Sweet smile.

Half smile.

He is just so darn cute!

Sleeping in the Boppy.

All dressed up in his Basketball sweatsuit from GE and his new Jordan's. It also looks like he is flashing gang signs :-)

I just love him!

Smiley man!

Trying on his new baseball cap. It's still a little big!

All clean after a nice bath.

Nice in warm in his fleece football outfit and sporting a faux-hawk.

Wide awake!

Sleeping in his swing with one eye open. He doesn't want to miss anything :-)