Just layin' around!

Here are some new pictures of big brother Luke lovin' on Emmalyn. He is such a great helper and he loves his little sister so much! He understands that she has to eat and I have to hold her and feed her and can't always help him all the time. He also likes when I feed her because it keeps her from crying... his favorite thing to say to her when she is crying is "Aw...whas a mattor wittle goool..." it is so cute...he tries to so hard to make her happy! May that always continue!

Emmalyn is doing really well gaining weight and tipping the scale at a healthy 10 lbs. 15 oz. We have her first well baby check up on Monday and she will officially be 1 month old, and in celebration of that mile stone will have to endure her first round of shots! What a bad mommy making her appointment on her "birthday" not a very good gift! She is sleeping okay, we had a rough night last night, but two really good nights of rest in the two previous days, so you win some you lose some!

The pictures of her do look torturous, but really weren't all that bad. She was so happy and as soon as I got out the camera, she decided she most definately did not want to pose for pictures!

Tired Dad and All Dressed Up!

Here is a picture of Harley and Emmalyn after a hard day at work for both of them... For Emmalyn her hard day was made up of eating...LOTS...sleeping...LOTS...and well you know...For Harley that meant working hard all day after LITTLE sleep...



Emmalyn got to wear one of her super cute dresses...she has so many clothes...(this girl is so well dressed) before she out grows them all! She looked so cute and was pretty comfy!

Special Morning for Luke...

Luke had a great surprise this morning. The Drexel Heights Firefighters were outside our house checking on the hydrant that is across the street from us. Gramia took Luke outside to see what they were doing. We watched them test the pressure of the hydrant and drive down the street in a rescue truck and the fire engine. We came back inside and about 30 minutes later a firefighter knocked at our door and brought Luke a firefighter helmet, some pencils and some stickers! He was so excited...we watched them through the window again, then one of the firefighters came to ask if Luke would like to go see the engine. He was so excited, so we threw on some shorts (he was still in his pj's) and his boots, and headed outside.

He got to "drive" the fire engine, and sit on the firefighter's lap to check out all the buttons. Needless to say, he has been playing with his fire engines all afternoon and running around the house saying "fire chief...fire chief...fire chief..." (that is what his hat says). So Luke had a great morning, and had a personal tour of a fire truck! Awesome experience! I am sure he will be talking about this for a while! A big thanks to some great men from Drexel Heights Fire District, Engine #162! Emmalyn got in on the action too...but just for a second 'cause Luke "needed" his fire chief hat back!

Sweet Sleeping Pictures...

Enough said...she sleeps a lot but she looks so cute doing it huh!

Bringing Baby Home!

Luke and Nana Julie came to the hospital to help bring Emmalyn home for the first time...you can see from the pictures below that she loved her carseat for the first time. Since we have been home she has grown to like her carseat which is a great thing since we live pretty far from everything!

Emmalyn Grace Allsup Arrives!!!

Emmalyn Grace was born at 2:17 P.M. on Friday, May 8, 2009. I had a c-section, and despite a rough start with the spinal, everything went really well. I am having a good recovery, and only stayed in the hospital for 2 days. My mom has been here with us taking excellent care of "her baby" cooking, cleaning, and basically slaving away from dusk till dawn! It is so much help to have her here and she is keeping me in check and not letting me over do it!

Emmalyn is doing great! She is gaining weight and is already over 9 lbs. Luke is a great big brother and is so gentle with his baby sister. When Luke first met his baby sister, he brought her a baby horse that he picked out for her. He is always bringing it to her to "play with" and makes sure she is never too far from it!

BIG belly!

These pictures were taken 5 days before Emmalyn was born...check out that big belly! The "experts" tell us there is probably a 9 lb. baby in my belly...we shall see!

...and the winner is...

We have settled on a name...Emmalyn wins!!! Our choice was pretty much made for us since big brother Luke REFUSES to call the baby anything but Emmalyn...but also because we like name! As of right now, since I am playing catch up with the blogging, Emmalyn has arrived, and we are so happy to have her with us!

Easter in NM

We had a great Easter in New Mexico visiting with Harley's side of the family! The trip started off with a stop at Grandpa Tim's house where he had brought home a bunny and a bunch of colored chicks! Luke thought they were great! He liked the bunny, and thought the chicks were pretty interesting, but wasn't too keen on holding them for very long!

We had a great time dying Easter eggs at Nana's house...Luke's favorite thing about dying eggs was eating them and taking the egg and saying "crackle, crackle, crackle" while banging the egg against something, cracking the shell! Then his second favorite thing was eating the hard boiled egg he just broke to bits! Dad didn't mind him breaking the eggs too much because Luke was really good about sharing!

On Sunday morning we went to church and the to have lunch at Aunt JoDee and Uncle Robby's house! We had some yummy steaks with all the fixin's and enjoyed eachother's company. Luke and Shelby hunted easter eggs and had a great time looking around the yard!

Cowboy Days!

When we vistited Las Cruces in March for Adam's 4th birthday, we went with the Springler Family, and Gramia to the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum for their big Cowboy Days event! The kids saw a cow milking, went through a "petting zoo", made crafts, got their faces painted and had a great time learning about cowboy culture!

Here Lauren and Luke climbed up on the fence to check out some big Long Horn bulls in a pen. The both were amazed at how big the horns on the two animals were! We finished up the afternoon with Luke getting a ropin' lesson from one of the kids from NMSU rodeo team...we had a great afternoon and a great time together!

Dressed up and ready to go!

I am terrible...I have neglected this blog for months, so I am going to back track a little and try to catch up with all that we have been doing since March...yikes!

Here is a picture I just had to share of my handsome cowboy dressed up and ready to go to church! Luke is such a great kid! He is so easy going and well behaved. We are truely blessed to have him in our lives!!! We have been keeping him with us in church (vs. sending him to the nursery) and he loves the music that "Mr. Frank" (Frank Hernandez, the worship leader) does every Sunday. Luke sways and "sings" and with the music and with some bribery...snacks...he stays quiet all through church!

Zoo...lovin' the monkeys!

So for Luke's birthday, one of his presents (from Gramia and Grandpa) was a membership to the Reid Park Zoo here in Tucson! We went with a group of friends from my mom's group a few weeks ago and had a great time! Luke loved the monkeys...hummm...enough said with my little monkey below...

Notice any resemblence???

I do see one difference...mine is wearing clothes!

We were there early in the morning before it got too hot (our temps had been in the 90s...yes it was only February). The monkeys were going crazy and swinging from the fences and ropes not to mention each other! We sat there for a good 20 minutes just watching them! It was great to see Luke get so excited about them.

We also met Bali, the resident male Lion at the zoo. He is 21 years old and has a 17 year old son that both live at Reid Park Zoo. Luke got a lion stamp that was definately a hit!

Luke also really liked the elephants. They have an African and an Asian elephant. We watched them eat breakfast and water and mill around their area playing...well as much as elephants play...they are big animals!

Luke turns 2!!!!

This is so long in coming, I obviously fell down on the job but here goes! Luke turned 2 at the beginning of February! We celebrated on his actual birthday with his favorite meal....hamboombooms (hamburgers) and french fries! We had our neighborhs from across the street over for dinner and cake (chocolate of course!). I was actually planning on making his big birthday cake for his party, so this was a good practice cake!

Luke was so excited as you will see in this video, he loved us singing to to him and being the center of attention!

Just the Day to Day!

Luke LOVES to color so he is hangin out in his chair coloring "Hano Manny" (Handy Manny) one afternoon! He is also pointing to his mouth where he is sporting a wonderful shade of blue or green marker! Gotta love those washable markers...his shirt was covered too by the end of our coloring session! So far it looks like his favorite color is orange...we will see if that sticks!

Finger Painting ADVENTURE...

For some reason, I have never finger painted with Luke so on Saturday afternoon we embarked on our first finger painting adventure! He made four lovely pictures that will be finding themselves on the way to grandparents soon! He had a lot of fun, though he was cautious about getting more than one finger in the paint at first! I encourgaged him to be "messy" because that is what finger painting was supposed to be all about right??? Well when his hands got dirty and sticky he said that he was done finger painting and that mama should do it! He tried as best as he could to "clean" his own hands but that didn't get him very far.

While daddy was taking these pictures Luke stood up and turned to look at me bumping me with one of the fingers he had "missed" cleaning...needless to say he thought that was hillarious!!! So in the future, we are hoping that he paints more on the paper and less on mama...well at least that is what I am hoping for! When he watches the video he laughs so hard...it makes me tear up and laugh too!!! Ah these times are the best!!!

It's a GIRL!!!

Or so they tell us....We are so excited to share that the baby we will be having in May is a GIRL!!! We were both a little shell shocked at the news, I had a feeling it was a girl, but Harley was so sure it was a boy! We had our ultrasound on Dec. 17th, but I finally got my pictures all squared away and scanned to share! Our little girl is due on May 14, 2009 but only time will tell as to when she arrives!!! The doctor told us that she was in the breech position, which isn't a big deal considering how early it is. I have an appointment on Thursday with my OB so we will see what she says...

This little girl is sure active! I don't remember if Luke was a pro at kickboxing like this one or time has just softened those memories! Anyway, everything is going great! I am feeling well and I have lots of energy thank goodness...with Luke around I NEED it!

LOOK at me GO!!!

Luke loves his vroom vroom cycle and is really, really fast! He can't reach the pedals but that doesn't stop him he just "Flinstone's it!" We went to the park in our neighborhood and had a great time riding around and playing peek-a-boo at the climbing structure!

The weather here has been really nice so we have been taking advantage of the warm afteroons and getting out doors!

Lovin' the dirty boy!!!

So this is a picture of Luke while "helping" daddy work on the truck! This kid loves to help his daddy, and Harley loves spending time with Luke as he works...the jury is still out as to Harley's efficiency during the times when Luke is "helping" daddy work, but they enjoy their time together!!! Obviously mommy was out of the house because this kid is just too dirty for my liking!!! (Notice the slightly cleaner thumb on Luke's right hand...yep you guessed it...he is a THUMB SUCKER...gross!!!)

New to this...

Greetings! I have decided to jump on the band wagon and join the blogging world!

We had a wonderful Christmas!!! We traveled to visit our families and had 3 great Christmas celebrations. Here is a picture of our little familly under the Christmas tree. We are finally getting back to normal so expect more to come!