Luke's 6th Birthday

We hope you had a fun birthday Luke!  We can't believe you are 6 years old already. 

To sum it up, Luke is:

-our 'Curious George'- always getting into something just out of pure curiosity. 

-our 'Energizer Bunny'- he never takes naps, never slows down, always has to be doing something productive, and only watches maybe '30' minutes of  TV per day because there is just too much to explore and do each day.

-an inventor.  He lies in bed every night for hours dreaming about all the rockets and robots he is going to build some day. He especially wants to build a robot that cleans his room for him.

-our Garbage Man.  He digs through our garbage everyday looking for items to salvage and reuse.  He says there is no such thing as garbage...only things that haven't been used or created yet.

-our magical rock finder.  He finds new 'magical rocks' almost every day and stores them in his pocket until Mommy finds them in the wash machine every time she does the laundry.
 

-a great detail-oriented artist, a great reader, a great learner in the classroom and a great big brother to Tyler and sometimes to Ashlynn:)  He wears us out, keeps us laughing, inspires us with his deep thinking, tests our patience, and warms our hearts. 

Happy Birthday Luke

Ashlynn's Birthday Present

Check out this gorgeous bike!  Ashlynn saved all her birthday money from friends and family (and a little extra from Mom and Dad) and this what she bought!  It even has a small attachable Barbie bike for her Barbie to ride with her.  It is the cutest thing!!!  She loves it and so do we.  It sure beats the $5 garage sale  bike we bought for her a few years ago.  Now she wants to ride her bike every day.  Ashlynn tells us how 'bewful' it is every time she jumps on it. 

Are Your Toenails This Long?

Luke never ceases to amuse me.  This is just too dang funny NOT to share.  Yesterday while I was clipping Luke's nails, he said, "I want to grow out my toenails to be as tall as Daddy so that I can lay in my bed and shut the light off without getting up."  I laughed so hard I thought I was going to have to make a bathroom run.  The image of him doing that is so gross but so hilarious.  It reminded me of an SNL act. 

Oh, Luke.  You are too funny.  Your Mama loves you.

Too Much Love???

"OK...so here's the deal!  I'm wearing this disguise in hopes that my crazy fans won't notice how cute and wonderful I am.  All day long I am smothered in kisses and sometimes it's just too much.  What's a guy to do?  I can't run away or even crawl away to escape.  Just take a look at these photos.  The proof is in the puddin'! "

"Here comes one of them now.  Ugh!"

"Oh no...the other one is coming too. He's got his lips all geared up and ready to go!"

"Ughhhhhhh, somebody help me!"

"Now they are fighting about who loves me more. I always hate this part".

"Here we go again!"

"UGH!  That's it!!!  TOO much love.  I can't take it anymore.  MOMMMMMY!!!"

Happy Birthday Ashlynn!

Ashlynn was born 4 years ago on an early Easter morning.  It was a beautiful day!  When I looked out the window of my hospital room I saw snow covered mountains and down throughout the valley I could see so many trees bursting with pink blossoms.  When we brought Ashlynn home from the hospital, our two trees out front were covered in pink blossoms also.  I felt like the earth had given me a beautiful pink bouquet to celebrate not only Easter, but the birth of my baby girl.  I LOVE spring time.  So many wonderful events to celebrate!  Every year Ashlynn and I look for these pink blossoms because they always arrive on or around her birthday.  The first 4 blossoms opened on her birthday this year! 

This year we decided to make her a princess castle cake.  In the beginning, I was going to assemble a 3-D style castle cake...but with a 5 week old baby and not much sleep and time...I decided to make this one instead.  Maybe next year I will attempt the 3-D version.

SHE LOVED IT!!!

This was Ashlynn's first birthday party.  She shared a party with Luke when she was 1, but this was her first party all by herself. She loved having her friends come over to be princesses with her.  They decorated crowns, colored princess pages and ate some cake.  It was pretty low key...just the way I wanted it.  These girls were all so adorable.  Ashlynn had so much fun with them.

We love this little girl!  We love her little sweet voice and all the funny & cute things she says on a daily basis.  We love her blue eyes.  We love her wonderful hugs and her concern for others.  She is very thoughtful and loving toward her family and friends.  We feel so blessed to have her in our family.

Crazy Birthday Family

Yes...we are the Crazy Birthday Family!  All of us celebrate our birthdays within 8 weeks of each other.  If Tyler had been born on his due date, we would have had all five of us celebrating birthdays within 6 weeks.  It's kind of exhausting, but atleast we get a whole year of birthday-free stress! The kids don't get jealous of each other being in the spotlight because they know their birthday is right around the corner. 

Ben and I both had pretty low key birthday celebrations.  Although I did buy Ben 2 giant cookies for his special day.  One to eat at home and one to share at work.  Happy Birthday Ben!  He has been such a big help to me with a new baby.  He has let me sleep-in whenever possible and yesterday for the first time, he made me breakfast AFTER sleeping in til 9:30 because I had had one hour of sleep all night!  Yahoo!

One Month Old!

I know I said I was going to create shorter posts for 2010...but how could I resist sharing more than enough pics of our little Ty guy??!!  There are so many changes and adjustments that happen in the first month, so why not celebrate a little?  Here's a quick overview of one month of life from Tyler's point of view.

A few members of my fan club displayed posters to welcome me home from the hospital.

Loves from Grandpa Ed.

Loves from Grandma Marge.

All of my clothes are too big for me and I can do a disappearing act in my carseat.

Abundant offerings of the best toys ever created as a token of acceptance from my fan club.  

I was one of Mommies best birthday presents ever.

I think I found my twin brother even though we were born almost 6 years apart.

I discovered my fan club may not love me as much as I thought.  They put me through some torture routine they call a 'bath'. 

One other thing I discovered...there can never be too many naps with Mommy!

Happy One Month Tyler! We are so happy to have you in our family.