Baby on the Loose

Every age in the first year is "my favorite."  I laugh as I say every month, "OH I LOVE this age!  It's my Favorite!"  And then I say it again and again and again.  I love having a baby around the house.  Spencer has had a double dose of cuteness lately.  With his birthday coming up, I can't help but be sad my baby is growing up. So I tend to smother him and to enjoy him a little more. 

He was helping me unload the dryer and he found his blanket.  It was SO cute!  He made this giddy noise and stood there sucking his thumb with it.  

You can always see his two top teeth.  He has this cute teethy look about him. Something about his teeth/smile is so different than my other kids

He wouldn't look at me, but he was just standing there sucking his thumb and would move. And did not want me to interfere with anymore unloading. Adorable.  

He makes this little face and make a little oooo sound.  

But most of the time we just see his cute big teethy smile.  Oh, I could just eat him up! :)

I Love to See the Temple

I love that we live close to temples.  We drive by them all the time.  We talk about them often.  Isabelle has been asking lots of questions and wanting to go in.  She was so excited to find out there was an open house where she would be able to see inside. We had a 7:45 pm session...yeah, a really really bad idea.  Isabelle was great, everyone else...not so much. The three boys were terrible. It was still a great experience, but next open house we will get in earlier. 

Really only one picture is necessary, but Michael's faces are just too funny. If you click on the pictures they're bigger.   

Another photo opportunity. It was fun to get to go with cousins. 

Isabelle, Sarah, and Michael got photo bombed by David and Luke 

First Soccer Games

So soccer is in full swing.  We've had a few games and we have the classic kiddos.  Suzie wishing she was dancing, oh wait, does dance.  Lots of ballet moves on the field.  She offers to play goalie because, "You don't have to run as much."  SO funny!  Once you get her going, she enjoys it, but this will be her last soccer season.  We are obviously getting our money's worth in dance.  We'll keep that one up. :)

Then we have Johnny soccer who runs circles around his teammates, scores often, is fast, and has great control for how young and inexperienced he is.  He does a fantastic job getting the ball turned around, gets it all the way to the goal, and then this girl on his team comes and kicks it in for him.  Haha.  He doesn't care that he doesn't kick it in, but he does keep count of all the goals.  After every goal, he holds up the fingers for how many they are at.  His team has creamed everyone they've played. He is SO much wigglier than all his teammates.  It's funny to see the amount of energy this kid has.  He's the "I wanna play" kid that could play the whole game, I think.  He runs with a smile on his face.  He just LOVES it. He also got in his first fist fight. Not his fault, he just defended himself, and did a dang good job at it.  It is good to know, he might be little, but he's fiesty.  Haha.  Happy soccer season! 

First day of School

Michael started preschool.  It's a 2 day a week gig, and he loves it.  It's up the street at a neighbor's house.  There are 10 kids, 7 of which are boys.  

This is how taking pictures went.  Luke's face is SO funny!

"Move Luke."

"Now Luke can have a turn."  Thanks Michael. 

What I should have done to begin with and just zoom in.  We had this issue with Isabelle's first day of school too.  

Cute, silly boys. 

"Woot! Woot!"

 For Luke's birthday we rode the Heber Railway. He LOVES trains, so this was pretty much the best thing we could do. We went with Mike's parents, Sharon and Joe's family, and Mike's cousin Chris and Shani's family. We went to a fun park to play for a bit first.  Then for dinner we went to a train burger joint.  It was cute.  It had an electric train going around the inside on the roof and a train table to play at.  It was PACKED, but Luke still loved it.  He just watched the train and sat and actually ate his food (while all the other kids played with the train table).  Then we rode the train. 

Luke kept saying, "Woot!  Woot!"  for the train noise, but what's funny about that is that's how he still says his name, The kids loved when the whistle blew and just had a blast.  Luke kept saying, "Dis is AWETUM!!!"  He told me he wanted to turn 3 again. It was such a fun night! 

3!

How is he 3?!?!  Mr. Luke just had a birthday.  We had pretty much the best birthday celebration he could ask for.  On Sunday we had Mike's parent's come out for Luke's birthday dinner, presents, and cake.  Monday we had the rest of his birthday including a train ride, which he was crazy about! (Next post) For his dinner, he chose BBQ chicken and rice, apples with caramel sauce, green jello, and salad.  Seriously, what 3 year old requests salad at their birthday dinner?  Only our little garbage disposal, Luke.  Haha!  Anyway, Luke got this guitar and a tool set from Grandma and Grandpa.  He was going crazy with excitement.  

A plastic tool set is the best present for our tool magnet.  Anytime a tool comes out, Luke is glued to your side.  

I  mean, look at that face!  He was so happy with his cute pliers! 

I didn't have to make the cake!!!  All I had to do was put my order in at the store. :)  It was awesome.  He chose a football cake and requested "lots of green," and had mint chocolate chip ice cream (because it's green).  I didn't take a picture of it, but he was super happy with his, "Hitball" cake. 

The next morning, we did his birthday breakfast and birthday book and the family presents. He chose waffles.  So cute!  I cannot get enough of his sideways dimples.    

He got a baseball and glove among other random things.  He is definitely a sports fanatic.  He loves baseball, basketball, and football.  He has a pretty good arm for a little boy.  With the soccer season in full swing, his interest in soccer is increasing.  

All in all, Luke is a good sweet boy.  He tends to get into more mischief with a certain older brother around, but when it's just Luke, he's seriously so easy and good. He loves books, trains, and sports and following older siblings around in their interests.  He thinks he's older than he really is, and I often agree.  For being such a quiet baby, he sure turned into a chatty chatty toddler. He puts me to shame sometimes. He just plays around the house going from one thing to another and tries avoiding chores. His favorite color changes between yellow and green. His favorite movie is Wreck it Ralph. And his favorite shows are Paw Patrol and Team Umizoomi. He still loves food of all kinds.  He loves even spicy foods. He's always in my kitchen eating something (today sitting on my kitchen counter with a spoon and the jar of peanut butter.) He makes me laugh every day and is just cute.  I love my little Luke! 

Last Minute Camping

Friday of Labor Day weekend, Mike called me around 4:45, "Why aren't we camping right now?"  I responded, "I don't know, why aren't we?"  He was filling up for gas and noticed all the camp trailers.  He walked in the door after 5 and we pulled out at 6:30 ready to go camping.  Some of our best friends, Aaron and Star and family came along.  They are always up for a last minute camping trip with us.  We didn't even stop at a grocery store, it was just what we had, which included the essentials, hot dogs and s'mores stuff.  

What started off awesome took a turn for the worst when Mike had to stop at one of the stores to unclog a drain on our way out of town.  I took the kids in and they all had ice cream.  Then they had ice cream again.  Then we went outside and played in the grass.  Then we went and played in the car due to the sugar high damaging all listening ears.  8:30 rolled around and we finally had a clear drain and got to get back on the road. Mike also got an awesome phone call from the other store that their AC went out while he was at the frustration point of a stubborn clog. We were happy to leave it all behind for a vacation minus cell reception!  We ended up needing to hit a drive thru since ice cream doesn't quite count as dinner and it would be too late for kid hot dogs. We finally made it to a camping spot up Fairview Canyon, one of our favorite places, around 11:30/midnightish.  Definitely a long evening.  We got camp set up and started and fire and at that point all the sleeping kids were awake with a second wind.   We had hot dogs and s'mores after midnight.  Our original plans still happened, just a few hours later. :)  It was still fun! The kids all gradually went to bed and Mike and I got to bed after 2.  Despite the hours and the long evening, it was still exactly what we needed, a little family vacation! Everyone slept awesome.  There was not a single kid that ended up in our sleeping bag at any point in the night. I'm not sure that's ever happened, especially on a chilly night with a baby.  

The next morning Michael fell in the water first thing, we went and sat in the van with the heater on to warm up (it was only 45 degrees) and tried to dry his pants out.  I only had 1 extra pair of pants for Luke and Michael.  Luke already had them on.  Haha.  Spencer hung out with us too.  

  

Kids are so happy camping.  Dirt, fresh air, fire, and water.  Really doesn't get any better.

We were in a perfect spot next to this stream that was never more than a foot deep.  Star and I took all the kids on a hike up the river.

Star caught a fish with her hands, cleaned and gutted it with a plastic butter knife and cooked it for everyone to share.  She is always fun to have along. :) 

Jake was in heaven roaming around. He's definitely starting to slow down. He followed the kids everywhere they went.  He was actually really well behaved on this trip. You can tell his hips are starting to bother him. Sad.  

We had to leave Saturday afternoon, but had a blast.  We love camping!!!