Luke David Payne

Luke David Payne was born 11/1/11, 8 lb 6 oz, 21 in long.

No dramatic birth stories here, thank goodness! I was induced the morning of the 1st (I actually started having inconsistent contractions that morning, but they went ahead and induced me to get the contractions really going). The pain started picking up so I got my epidural, and everything went great! I actually think he could have came a few minutes earlier (I kept feeling lots of pressure). I told the nurse, but she didn't want to check me just to have to check me again and again. So she waited, and by the time she checked me she told me not to push!

We think he looks a lot like Brek. What do you think?













We actually took Luke home without a name! Go figure, huh? We've come close with the other two, but we actually did it with Luke! He was born on Tuesday and he finally got his name on Friday. I had to go back to the hospital to fill out the paperwork. We finally decided he looked like a Luke. We chose the name David because of all of the good Davids Brock has known and been close to.

Luke is turning into a good, little baby. He sleeps really well at night now (Brek actually wakes up more than he does!), and he is a good eater. I just wish he would not spit up so much. That's okay though, because he is starting to fill out and turn into a chunky baby!

The kids love Luke! They are constantly right in his face talking to him, kissing him, and touching him. We feel really blessed to have this beautiful new boy in our family!

Update

For some reason I can’t get pictures off of my camera anymore. I don’t know if it’s because of my old junky computer or because our camera card has a million pictures on it. Either way, today all you are getting is an update on our life.

Football is going awesome! Brock is really enjoying coaching this year, and the team is having lots of success so far. We’ve played 6 games so far and lost one (can’t remember if it was by 1 or 2 touchdowns). Anyways, close game. We started district last week and won our first game 48 to 0. Go Panthers!!!

Other than football, life is pretty boring. Our highlight of the week is being able to get out of the house and go to the football games. Brek loves to play cheerleader and knows lots of cheers. She makes Tyce be our mascot, Petey the Panther.

It has been getting cooler here lately (thank goodness), so we have been playing outside more. I really enjoy this except my children think that every time we go outside we have to play in the mud. It gets pretty old cleaning up mud off of my children, the floor, the bath tub…

We’re still waiting on the baby, of course. Grandma’s coming the 25th, ward trunk or treat on the 26th, and football game on the 29th. So I guess it would just be best if he came when he was due on the 30th. We’re super excited for the baby and can’t wait to see Grandma soon!

To end this boring blog post, I’ll leave you with some funny quotes from my darling daughter (she is quite hilarious here lately)…

Me: “Goodnight, my dear.”
Brek: “I’m not a dear. I’m not an animal.”

Me: “Brek, I’m thinking of an animal. It’s pink and likes to play in the mud.”
Brek: “Me!”

While at Walmart the other day, Brek asks me if I want to see the pirate. We’re heading out of the pharmaceutical isle towards the Halloween stuff. “Yeah, where’s the pirate?” (I say this quite loud.) She points behind us. There’s a guy with a patch over his eye near the medicine!

Me: “Brek, do you need to go potty?”
Brek: “No, because…my tongue is hurting. That’s why I don’t need to go potty anymore.”

Storm

About a month ago, we were in the playroom playing when I noticed a storm coming in. The wind was starting to pick up, and I thought, "Oh no, my chairs that are still sitting outside by the trampoline are going to blow away." Next thing I know, my trampoline lifts off the ground and starts flying away!!! The net hooked onto the roof of the house, and the trampoline was perpendicular with the ground just blowing against the house! After the storm was over, the trampoline came back to the ground, but this is what it looked like...


Boohoo. At least the trampoline part is still good. No hope for the net, though.


The kids had fun in the mud! For some reason Tyce is always so much dirtier than Brek after they have been playing outside. :)

Brek’s Birthday

My baby is 3!!! Can you believe it? I still can’t. We made a pink cake with sprinkles. I’m pretty sure the theme was pink. We had all of the coaches and their families over, and they spoiled her! She got barbies, Tangled, a fishing pole, a fun book from Nana… Yeah. Pretty much everything she could have ever wanted!





Every time I have a candle lit, Brek wants to blow it out! She’ll even say “Happy Birthday!” as she blows it out. Well, for her birthday she wouldn’t blow out her candles! She was a little too shy (great. she’s inherited some of her mother).
It was a fun day, and I’m so glad to have this little girl in our family! She is so fun and keeps life entertaining!

Summer

Here are a few things that we did while Brock was home with us towards the end of summer break…



We went to Sea World and had lots of fun. The kids weren’t too sure about it to start with, but then they ended up loving it. Brek especially liked the alligators?


We’ve been having a drought here along with everywhere else in Texas and this is one of the few days it actually did rain. Here is Brek all dressed up for the rain…

Welcome to the Country...

If you are wondering why I never update the blog anymore, it is because we have moved! We are now officially living in "Hill Country." I thought that living in Childress was pretty much living in the middle of nowhere, but I was wrong! We now live in a town with no stoplights, no fast food restaurants, one tiny grocery store (where milk is about $5), and one gas station. Population: 704. We have to drive 45 min to get to Walmart, church, hospital, you name it. And I am too cheap to fork over the money for internet (it'll be more than double what I paid in Childress). So here I sit at the library with my kids pulling books off the shelf while I enjoy what little time I have connected to the real world. :)

I know. It sounds like I am complaining. It's really not that bad. We have actually really enjoyed our time here so far. And we have done lots of fun things. I've made some friends and they treated us out to a multimillion dollar ranch where the kids got to go swimming and play on a playground made by the people who made the sets for Pirates of the Caribbean. So yeah. Pretty cool. Couldn't have done that in Childress. We are renting which sounds like a down side to living here, but I am LOVING it! Because that means no living in a construction zone!!!! The shower head pops off...call the landlord! The hot water not working...call the landlord! I say that until rent collection time when I cannot believe how much more it costs for us to rent than to pay TWO mortgages!

There are deer everywhere, and Brock is really looking forward to shooting one. He has set up a feeder in our "backyard" (we live on 18 acres). It's been great until last night when Tyce broke Daddy's binoculars. Sad day for Daddy.

But yes, we are loving it. We do miss all of our family and friends in Childress though! Sorry about the rambling. Like I said, no internet at home. Makes people go crazy. :) haha!

By the way...

Yes, I'm terrible because I haven't talked about the fact that we are pregnant again!!! And the terrible part is that I'm already 25 weeks! So this post is to tell all of you who may not know that we are having a.....

BOY!!!

I'm due October 30th which means that I'll most likely be having a November baby! Who knows? Maybe on my birthday. :)

Dance Class

Kyler was at our house playing one day when I caught this...





Brek had taken the boys upstairs to play and it had been a little too quiet for a little too long. You know how that goes...you don't really want to check on them because they've either gotten into trouble and you don't want to see what kind of havoc they have created or they're actually playing nice and once you check on them they're done playing and need attention from you. This is all of them dressed up for dance class! Brek had put headbands on herself and the boys (Tyce took his off immediately so I missed that picture).

Sticky

My daughter has some funny, little quirks and this happens to be one of them. She loves sticky stuff. She has gotten to where she cannot go to sleep at night without having something sticky. It started with the sticky tabs on her diapers. If you look way back on my posts you can find exactly when it started. I didn't realize it then. We thought she just liked to sleep with diapers. Anyway. They changed the diapers so that the tabs are not sticky anymore. Disaster! She started asking for fruit snacks. She would just get one and play with it in her fingers until it became sticky. Same with marshmallows. She loved to get the stickers off of things in the store (i.e. bananas, clothing). She can find sticky stuff anywhere! So we have rotated through many sticky things to give her at night. We quickly ran out of tape, bandaids, and stickers. We have been remodeling our house (never ending!!!), and Brek found the sticky tiles. She would play with tape in her hand and put the sticky tile at her feet. I am beginning to really hate this habit of hers because she gets the sticky junk all over her legs and feet and they get all gross. Cross your fingers though because the last couple of days she has gone to bed without anything sticky! Maybe all of the sticky stuff in our house will disappear and she will forget all about it! I love my little girl and all of her quirky habits though! She definitely keeps me entertained!

The Boys Dancing

This video is Tyce and cousin Kyler dancing at April's wedding reception. I really hope the sound works because that is part of the reason it is so funny. This was during the father daughter dance (slow music).

Easter

I realize that Easter was forever ago, but I am forever behind. So here are Easter pictures. We went out to Nana and Papa's for a yummy cookout and then Easter egg hunt afterwards. Lots of fun!


Brek with cousin Tesema

Fishing with Daddy

Brock has taken the kids fishing here recently and they absolutely love it! Well, at least Brek does. Tyce doesn't quite understand yet. One evening Brock took Brek out and it was getting pretty dark. Brock texted me and said that Brek kept saying, "Let's keep fishing, Daddy." I thought he was totally making that up since I know how much he loves to fish. I was sure he was using her as an excuse to stay out there fishing. Nope. She really did love it!


I think this tackle box is the real reason she likes to fish. She'll sit there and play with Daddy's "sharpies" while he fishes.


Tyce wasn't quite sure about this fish.


The kids have also really enjoyed riding with Daddy in the bike trailer.

California

California

Brock's Great-Grandpa Ball died a few weeks ago and we were blessed to be able to go up for the funeral. It was beautiful, and I learned so many more wonderful things about the man that we named our son after. What a great example he was to so many people.

Here is Tyce at the beginning of our trip...


And here is Brek...

We could not figure out why she was being so quiet and reserved...until she threw up 3 times our first day of traveling. Poor girl. I felt so bad for her. I guess she gets pretty car sick. She was a trooper.

And finally sleeping...

I kept trying to push their heads back. It looked so uncomfortable. But they just kept plopping back down.

After driving for 10+ hours with no DVD players (I didn't have time to plan ahead and get them before we left) just Mommy singing to them and playing games with them (I'm sure they were quite entertained :), we finally make it to Flagstaff to stay the night. We called ahead to make sure the pool was open and ready for us (my bribery for the kids). Said it would be, but when we got there it was not! So wait around in our bathing suits for a couple of hours (they said it was heating up and should be hot enough soon) and finally call it quits and go to bed. Wake up in the morning in hopes of swimming before we leave, ha! Pool is broken! What a disappointing stay.

Our next day of traveling (I promise I will stop talking about the drive soon) was much better. We moved Brek to the middle seat so she could see out the front and we had no incidents! It was also better for both of the kids because they were close enough to entertain eachother (which also makes it better for Mommy and Daddy!).

We finally made it to Sonoma, CA and had a great time seeing family and being there for Grandpa Ball's funeral. Brek especially loved being spoiled by her grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles and still remembers waterbeds, bandaids, and big marshmallows. We love ya'll! Sonoma is such a gorgeous area and while we were there we were able to see a beautiful winery. I can't remember the details but I believe they said it was one of the first in the area (maybe even the first?). Too bad we don't drink! :) jk

Here are some pics of the winery...




After our trip to Sonoma we went back down to Clovis where we got to stay for quite a bit longer than expected. It was lots of fun being spoiled and hanging out with Grandma Kim, Brandon and Kristin.


One of Tyce's favorite things to do was play on the stairs.

Brek got a "makeover" while we were there. She got her hair trimmed and done and got lots of new clothes from Grandma Kim. This is her and Grandma with her new umbrella.




Family pictures after church...


The boys...


Grandma Kim and her grandbabies (this was by the end when the kids had enough. the best picture)...


One of the kids favorite things to do while we were there was to go on walks with Grandma Kim. They liked to ride in Grandma's stroller rather than their double. They fell asleep on one walk...

Brek and her babies...

Brek went through a phase a little after she turned one when she was obsessed with baby dolls. Then she grew out of it. Here lately she has become obsessed again. It is really cute. One night she kept bringing her babies to me one at a time. She would bring one and want me to undress it, then she'd bring it back later with a pair of her own pajamas to put on the baby. Then she'd bring another and do the same thing. Over and over... And if you can't tell, her pajamas are just a little too big for the babies (size 3T). When she ran out of baby dolls she brought her Mickey Mouse. I went upstairs and found this...


She's a good mother. :)

Happy Birthday, Tyce!

Tyce turned one on February 4th. We took advantage of a basketball game cancellation due to terrible weather coming our way and had a fun party out at Nana and Papa's. Thank you to all of you who braved the cold to come party with us.






This picture is funny to me because neither one of my children would blow out the candle. Every time Brek sees a candle lit at our house she will blow it out and say happy birthday! She might be a little shy (wonder where she gets that from). Thanks Papa for blowing it out!




This is the day of his actual birthday. We made him some cupcakes. I think he liked them.

At Tyce's 1 year checkup he weighed 24 lbs and was 30 in long. I think that puts him 50th percentile for length and 75th for weight. He was amazing for the doctor and just watched her quietly the whole time she checked him. So it was pretty weird to hear the doctor say that he had 2 ear infections! He is just the chillest baby....when he wants to be! :) I just love him to death and have to squeeze him every time he walks by because he is just so cuddly. He has just about caught up to Brek in all he does. He wants to do everything she is doing and have everything she has (and vice versa). He has now decided that he is a big boy because crawling up the stairs and sliding down is not fun anymore. He likes to hold on to the rail and pull himself up and down the stairs. He has also discovered his voice the past few days. He is talking all of the time and Brock has even taught him a few animal noises (pig, monkey, cow, bear).

Hanging out with the Family

Here are a few pictures of some recent fun times with cousins, aunts, uncles, etc...


Kyler looks way too happy to be playing with my kids. :)


We went to the park and had a picnic with Kenney and Elizabeth.




This is right before Brek dropped him on his head. Poor little guy's going to have to be tough.


Then we went to the playground where Tyce had fun playing in the dirt.


We met up with the Tipa's and Perkin's. Here are the kids having lots of fun on the swing.


One night we decided to compare Kyler and Tyce. This is the best picture. I'll spare you the booty shots. :)


Kacy invited us to come out and play in the snow. We went out to Mom and Dad's and took about 15 minutes getting ready. Finally headed out and lasted about a total of 2 minutes. After which we came inside where they cried for about 10 minutes. It was way too cold and windy to play in the snow! The next day though we went out and Brek had a blast. (I'm glad she got a good experience with the snow.)


Brek kept looking at Tyce and would say, "I don't like Santa Claus. Tyce is not Santa Claus."