Luke is Two!!

Lukie turned two on Dec. 31. We were in Utah at the time so we had a mini celebration. We went out for pizza with my family and opened gifts and had cake. Lukie got one of those big basketball hoop stands from Nana and Grandpa. It's being shipped to us, but I think Taft and Luke will have a blast with it.

We had Lukie's Birthday Celebration Part II when we were back home with Seth. We took him for games at Chuck E Cheese and then to In 'n Out for a healthy dinner of cheeseburgers and fries. We gave Lukie a scooter, which he isn't quite ready for. Taft has gladly taken over the job as "scooter-rider" until Lukie is ready.

Not looking like a baby anymore! 

Ready whack a shark

We love, love, love our little Lukie. He is funny, cuddly, crazy, silly, dramatic, and sweet. His vocabulary is really coming along, although most people need an interpreter. My favorite thing he says right now is "Low-lit" for "blow it" when his food is hot. It's just the cutest the way he says it. He still loves trains (choochoos), loves fire engines, and helicopters and airplanes (both known as "hellos"). He will settle for cars if need be.  He is a decent eater, but is slowly becoming pickier like his big bro. Lukie loves to play with Taft. He is becoming Taft's little shadow and will do exactly what he does and is constantly mimicking what he says.

Lukie no longer uses a binky. He was getting a rash around his mouth and though the binky might be the culprit. Not so, he still has the rash.  Regardless, Luke is now binky-free. I thought I'd slowly cut the binky down, but even after the first little snip Luke no longer wanted it. Sometimes I really wish we still had it. He can still have a pretty impressive meltdown.

He finally likes nursery and doesn't cry when I drop him off at the gym day care. It helps if Taft is with him, but he does really well on his own now too.

Luke loves to sing songs and knows a lot of tunes to different songs we sing. A friend of mine is a speech therapist and said Luke is learning to talk "whole to part" which means he learns phrases before individual words. This might explain why one of the first things he clearly said was, "I don't want to". Most kids perfect single words and then put them together in phrases. Luke puts hard to understand phrases together and will eventually say the individual words more clearly. It's kind of a game figuring out what he's trying to say, but I kind of like it. He clearest word is definitely, "Yeah".

Luke can still be shy around some people and gets very embarrassed when told not to do something or is scolded. He'll hide his face, bury his face with blankets, or will just face plant on to the floor. Overall, he is much less fussy than he has been in the last two years.

We love, love, love Lukie. LOVE.

Winter Weddings

 The little boys and I headed to Utah on Christmas Eve. Like I said in my other post, Seth wasn't able to come with us at all. We celebrated our Christmas Eve and Christmas a day ahead of everyone else. Lucky for the boys, they got two Christmases.

The boys were unbelievably good on the first flight. Like, I read a magazine. It was the in-flight magazine, but still. They just happily played with their trains on the tray table. The second flight was  a different story. They weren't bad, but I was feeling more and more sick as the flight went on. I seem to always get a cold right as I'm heading to Utah or get one within the first couple of days of being there. As I felt progressively crappier, the boys got progressively more hyper. It wasn't the best combo. But, we made it.

The boys opened their second set of Christmas jammies from Nana and Grandpa. We tried to get a cute picture but it wasn't happening.

We opened gifts the next morning, had a delicious brunch, and some of us took off for sledding. Taft had a good time, but Lukie fell off on his first run and WOULD NOT have any of it for the rest of the time. 

Jayda is such a good big cousin. She played with the boys non-stop. I feel so lucky that my boys have such great older cousins on both sides who actually seem to like playing with them. 

Isn't she the cutest?

Pretty soon after the spill. Doesn't he look so sad?

The REAL reason we were even in Utah in the first place was because Lanx got married!! I am so glad we could be there. Lanx looked so beautiful, the sealing was peaceful, the reception was gorgeous and fun, and Travis and her make a great couple. My boys love, love, love Travis. We all think he's great. 

I did shoot a couple of shots when they came out of the the temple but they are blurry. It was absolutely freezing and since I figured they had a professional photog they didn't need me to snap any. I'll post some when she gets them back. I'm sure they'll be stunning. 

Sadly, the best photo of the night. I wish I had shots of the inside of the reception. It was so beautifully done.

Cute Jay, Butter (aka Alex), and Taft. Luke refused. 

I also had another wedding to attend to while in Utah. Jamie and I have been friends since 1st grade. She had a small wedding with just family and a few friends. I was honored that she wanted me there. The wedding day was a nice break for me from the kids. My parents was so nice and watched them ALL day long. I got to hang out all day with my other dear friend, Amber, who Jamie and I have known since 7th grade.

It was so great to be with my family for an extended period of time, but we (the boys and I) really, really missed Seth. We were gone for 2 weeks which is just too long to be apart. 

Highlights of the trip not photographed:

1. Playing with the Herway cousins

2. Meeting up with a few friends 

3. My friend, turned personal trainer, who kicked my butt one day

4. Staying up late with my family

5. Visiting my grandma in St. George

6. Celebrating Lukie's 2nd birthday! (more on that in another post)

Christmas Season 2012

Our Christmas season was kicked off the same as last year. Santa arrived in Coronado via the ferry. There were lots of activities for kids at the Ferry Landing, visiting Santa, painting ornaments, playing on a snow hill (real snow), and hot chocolate and cookies.

Dane and Taft. Dane's family used to live on our street but moved a little north a couple of months ago. We've missed having them on our street so it was fun to run into them here. 

I don't know what it is with Taft and Santa, but he is always SO serious when he talks to him. 

Following the activities at the Ferry Landing, there's a parade along Orange Avenue. 

Graham Cracker Gingerbread House making

We visited the Temple on a Sunday night to see the lights. The night we went they had performers singing Christmas carols. The boys went in their pajamas to this because we're classy like that.

Speaking of classy, check out our neighbors.

Taft was a sheep in our ward's Christmas Nativity program. Seth had to work this night so he had to miss it. It was adorable!

Instagram quality, sorry. Seth's work threw a very nice Christmas party at a hotel downtown. While everyone very much enjoyed the cocktail hour, we enjoyed a Cranberry Spritzer. People got really nice, friendly, and quite happy as the night went on...if you know what I mean. 

This picture makes me laugh. This was our Christmas Eve dinner. Seth and I are overly smiley because we were trying to get the boys to smile.

Since the boys and I were headed to Utah for my sister's wedding, we had our Christmas Eve on the 23rd and our Christmas morning on the 24th. We had a nice dinner Christmas Eve, the boys opened their jammies and a Christmas story from The Elves, and we headed out for a walk to see Christmas lights. The boys fell asleep on the walk, but we made sure to leave cookies and milk out for Santa.

Santa brought a gift for the boys to share this year. They got a fully loaded train table and it has been the best thing Santa ever spent his money on...er...made.

I went to load some video, but turns out our version of iMovie is too old for our new camera. Grrrr. So, until I upgrade iMovie we'll just have to keep our movies to ourselves.