I know I just put up his birthday post but I had to write some of this stuff before I forgot!

Luke has changed so much recently. His looks have definitely changed. All of a sudden the red hair Jason and I saw is now completely gone. This kid is blonde! Not sure how he got blond hair or what the heck it will be when he is older but right now it is completely blonde. Its like when we got his hair cut we cut off all the red. Then there is his eyes. Everyone says oh what pretty blue eyes. Well they are kind of blue and kind of green. They do change depending on what color he wears. I wonder what they will turn out to be or if this is it. I am still loving his hair cut. I love having the option to spike it or keep it down. I love that it makes him look a little older but still like my baby.

He also loves to talk. We can't understand a darn word he says but he gets really into it throwing his hands in the air and gets very loud. It is super cute and Jason and I just sit there and look at each other and laugh. We try to ask him questions and we pretend we know what he says. Sometimes it really does sound like he says stuff. Last night we grilled up some dinner outside and decided it was nice out and we ate our dinner outside. When we were done Luke starting chatting away and we swear he said Thank You. I know he didn't but it sure sounded like it. His new favorite game is to take clothes out of the laundry basket. Jason was trying to fold a bunch of laundry yesterday and Luke would take the clothes out and throw them down. He likes to throw everything. If there are any papers anywhere within his reach he will make sure to throw them on the ground. After about 20 minutes of fighting with Luke about the clothes I told Jason to go get the new drum Jason picked up for his birthday. So he got the drum and drumsticks out and Luke is for sure going to be a rock star! Funny because I always said I wanted him to be the guitar player or lead singer for the worship band at church and sure enough he just might do it. Hopefully he got my talent for playing instruments! So far so good. He can really bang those drums. The cutest part is that he starts singing too. Don't know how he knows to do that. He even did it this morning when my mom and brother came over. He likes to sing. If music is on he starts singing or humming along. He even hums while getting rides in his wagon.

He is really giving lots of kisses now. He started this a little while ago but it was always the super open mouth tongue kisses and the other morning when he woke up I went and got him and since I hadn't seen him the night before I kissed his cheeks so many times and meant to ask him to give me some love but accidentally asked for a kiss and he gave me a kiss right on the lips and his mouth was closed. Of course I asked him for kisses about 1000 times that day so he is a little over it now.

I am seriously so in love with this little man I can hardly stand it!! Well Wednesday we go to the doctors for his 12 month check up. Guess we will see if he has caught up in the size department. My guess is no because everyone always says how tiny he is which makes me laugh because Aurora is way smaller than him and I was way smaller than him. I kind of hope for a little tiny baby girl one day! Although I have recently decided if I have all boys and they look like Luke I am going to be the luckiest mama in the world!

One Year Old

Well I guess I'm 4 days late but Luke turned 1 on Tuesday. What a week we had. It all started on Saturday with his first birthday party. Now people warned me that they went overboard for their first kids first birthday and they would never do it again. Well I was determined to have a big party no matter what anyone else said. My grandparents said we could have the party at their house. Their yard is perfect for lots of people. So my plan was to make enchiladas and cupcakes and everything that goes with it.

Wednesday before the party my mom came over and we started the enchiladas. She fried tortillas while I assembled. When she was done with the tortillas she left and I was trying to assemble but Luke woke up and was in a very bad mood. He wanted to be held. I was doing the best I could while I held him but was so happy to have Jason home to take over Luke duties.

The next day was April 15th. The last day of tax season!! Jason's mom was also coming in. I had to work half day and Jason was going to work in the morning and then picking his mom up right before the annual tax day lunch he does with his coworkers. When I got off work I ran some errands with Luke and my brother Kyle. Over all not a terribly stressful day quite yet.

Friday. I don't even know where to begin for Friday. My plan was to wake up and get to making some cupcakes. I knew I needed to make about 80 of them. Well I wasn't able to get started until 12:30. Then my good friend April came over around 1:30 to help me make tags for the goodie buckets with her mom's cricket (I want a cricket so bad!). Then when she left at 4 it was back to cupcakes. I had already made two batches of Vanilla Bean cupcakes and was on to my Hershey's Perfectly chocolate cupcakes. I made the most beautiful batch ever. They were perfectly round and super cute. I did notice they looked a little dark so I tasted the crumb that came off the toothpick and that is when I realized I forgot to add sugar. I was so angry!! So off to another batch. Finally I had enough cupcakes and started making the chocolate covered pretzels. By the time I finished everything in the kitchen it was 8:30. I had to finish the buckets and put the tags on which took an hour and a half. I used a beach pail with a shovel and filled it with some treats and candy, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and for the older kids a little mini version of barrel of monkey's. Then I was off to bed before the madness.

Saturday was crazy. I feel like I was just there in the background. It was so surreal to be celebrating my baby boys first birthday. I think overall the party turned out great. The Jumper was awesome. I got it for the older kids but they didn't even get in it and all the younger kids loved it. Luke was hilarious, he would get on his hands and knees and bounce. He had a great day! He was not fussy at all and he went to anyone who wanted to say hello. The best part had to be the cake. He got so messy we had to give him a bath before he could return to the party! The best party for me was hiring my cousin Pam to take pictures of the party for me. I would never have been able to do it, not to mention I have some awesome pics now! Thanks to everyone who came hope you had fun!! I know I've left a lot out but my brain is mush when I think about the party. So enjoy some of the pics! I got a disk with about 400 on it so these are just a few. There are so many good ones it was hard to pick. I will post more another day.


This was after his bath.

Oops I guess the pics are out of order. Here is Luke in the bath after cake

Love this one. He looks surprised the camera is there

Love it he is telling everyone to keep it down while he eats

So happy!

concentration

Getting ready to get dirty!

This is my favorite picture. He just looks so beautiful!

According to Jason & Shirley this is his "Bad Boy" look

Luke and his friend Boston

Being silly with his new friend Rose

So serious

This is my favorite non Luke pic! Jason, Chris, and Ryan

Aurora and her Grandma Lynn

Some Grandpa Bob lovin

The cupcakes. Loralyn helped me pipe the frosting on. Thanks L!

I made Luke a 6inch Vanilla bean cake and frosted it with all white. The second Loralyn got there I begged her to decorate it for me and it came out perfect!

Pre-party bouncing with Luke and Rory

Dangerously close to toddler hood

One week from today my little baby boy will turn 1 year old. I have been feeling so emotional the last couple of days. When I say good bye and head to work I get teary eyed when I think about how much he has grown. I feel like Jason and I really started living when Luke was born. Why does time have to go so fast once you finally have everything you have wanted?

As we are crazily finishing up tax season (ok so not me but Jason!) and working really hard on prepping things for the huge party on Saturday, I find myself just really soaking up all the Luke time I possibly can. He has the most infectious laugh I have ever heard. He has a new thing he is doing when he is around a bunch of adults and he hears someone laughing he has to laugh like he knows why we are laughing. He is such a little ham. He has 4 teeth now (well the top two have broken through and the top left is about halfway down and the right is trying) but now the next two top teeth are trying to come through. He has been giving me more and more kisses. We have this game where I throw him down on the bed and then he grabs my hands and pulls himself up and kisses me then goes back down just to do it all over about 15 times. As gross as baby kisses really are (you know the open mouth sometimes tongue kisses) I love them! He is still giving "Love" to anyone who wants it and the cutest thing was when he gave sissy aka "Sophie" love the other day. He really has a gentle sweet side.

Then there is the not so sweet side. I'm not going to sugar coat it and pretend he is all kisses and love. He has a very bad habit of slapping me in the face. He seems to be getting a little better and hasn't done it out of anger in awhile but does it to get my attention now. He has also been biting. Now its a little hard to bite when you have 2 teeth on bottom and the two on top aren't really all the way down but he tries. If he doesn't get it the first time he will try a few times until he feels like he bit you. Then there is the bully side. We had some fantastic friends over the other night for Jason's 31st birthday and to break in the new grill and fire pit, and Luke was very mean to Rory. Of course the sweet little angel that she is rolled with the punches and didn't get upset. Luke would see Rory playing with one of the push toys and he would come over and pull her hand off and take it from her. Well she would just move on the the next push toy and he would come take that one. I felt really bad when Jason was trying to tell Luke not to do that and Rory thought he was getting after her and she got very upset. Not quite sure how to handle this. I'm really hoping he grows out of this soon.

As part of our discipline guidlines we try to avoid yelling NO at him. Its hard for me because I'm usually doing something else and the first thing that comes to my mind when he is getting close to doing something bad is to yell No quickly. We try to say Luke, we don't do that or Please don't do that. It actually seems to work a little better. Guess I have to try harder to stick with that instead of the yelling.

He is eating 3 meals a day now. He eats everything. I still have not found something he doesn't like. The only time we feed him anything is breakfast when he has oatmeal (and not the baby oatmeal anymore he has moved on to real people oatmeal) and either applesauce or yogurt. Then for lunch and dinner he has just about anything. His favorites are: cheese, any fruit, cooked veggies, toast, chicken, burritos, quesadillas, eggs, and just about anything else we eat. Its been a lot of fun to make him what we eat and just chop it really small.

I could go on and on with all the cute fun things he is doing now but I will spare you since I've already written half a book. I will say the cutest thing he has done recently is starting to sing along to music. Obviously not actual words but hums along and carries out long notes. So cute!
Well tomorrow I will try to post a before and after picture of his new haircut. We are going to get it done tonight. I'm nervous and excited!