Calling All Avengers

Luke had a really hard time deciding what kind of a party he wanted.  He first thought he wanted a tractor party and the equestrian center, but it wasn't quite finished yet and the weather is always questionable with an April birthday.  Finally, he decided on an Avengers party.  Poor Lukers was devastated a few days later when he realized that he wasn't getting both tractor and Avengers parties.  Only Lukers would think he was getting both!

This party he was really into the planning.  He was involved in every detail and if I didn't do something just right he let me know!  We have a lot of kids in our neighborhood that are Luke's age...26 to be exact...and it was hard for Luke not to invite them all.  We tried to just invite the friends on our street, his primary class, and preschool class.  When we were passing out the invitations he realized that we hadn't invited one little boy and he said, "Mom, Spencer has to be there, he is the best fighter I know."  Luke is a very social kid and knows just about everyone in the ward and neighborhood so it was not easy narrowing it down to just thirteen friends.  Hopefully all of our planning paid off and we can have an awesome Avengers party...as Luke says!  

I like to document everything before the party.   While I was taking pictures of the party decorations I asked Luke to sit on the table by his cake.  He absolutely refused to smile and insisted on a Capt. pose.  Totally Luke so we went with it!  Love this kid and his big personality! 

Birthday Present

For Luke's birthday we had two showings at our house that night so we had to be gone anyways.  We let Luke decide where to go and he chose Five Guys and Boondocks.  If you ever give Luke the choice of where to eat he'll always pick Five Guys...and yes we ate there twice in two days for his birthday!  I think we let him party too much because by the time we got home he was exhausted and beyond difficult.  Instead of giving him his present and having it not be a fun experience we waited until the next morning.  

I had him get his helmet on and told him he would need it for his present.  Surprisingly, he still didn't guess what his present was going to be!  His face when Mark brought it up was priceless.  He was so excited and couldn't wait to give it a try!  Lukers kept saying how big it was and couldn't believe that he had a big boy bike now!  All he needs to do now and is learn to ride it!    

Birthday Breakfast

This year we woke Luke up with birthday pancakes and a present to start to his birthday day!  When we sang to him you could tell he soaked it all in and loved it!  I love the look on their sweet faces when they know they are the center of attention.  Luke loved that he got to eat coconut sprinkle pancakes with Hawaiian coconut syrup.  He requests them on a regular basis now!  It was also fun to start his day with a present.  There was not question that at least for this fifteen minute breakfast Luke felt very loved and special!      

Luke's Preschool Party

Luke was able to celebrate his birthday at preschool!  We planned a couple activities and he insisted on eating donuts as well!  Our first activity was playing pin the sticker on the birthday boy.  It took the kids a bit to figure it out, but once they got the hang of the game it was a blast!  One child was blindfolded and given a sticker.  Then they would call out "birthday" and Luke would shout back "boy."  They would walk towards Luke's voice and try to get the sticker on him.  We had lots of peekers so the kids did a pretty good job and Luke was covered in stickers by the time we were done!  

He also wanted to bring his favorite book...at the moment...which is Tickle Monster.  I read the story while Miss Darcy put on the tickled gloves and tickled all of the kids!  They thought it was hilarious and Miss Darcy got quite a workout.  

When our activities were done the kids sang Happy Birthday to Luke and then ate donuts.  Brody was very bugged that everyone was eating a donut and not him.  He kept trying to steal the kids donuts and ate just about every sprinkle that fell.  It was so much fun to visit Luke's class.  I love to see how they interact together and how much fun Luke has a with his friends.  I also got to see his cute handprint that he put on Miss Darcy's wall for his birthday.  I love that he chose yellow...his true favorite ever since he learned how to talk!  I love my little birthday boy! 

Baby Horse

It's always exciting when Spring comes and a baby horse is born!  Something about baby horses just makes me happy.  I love their long legs and how they try to walk just moments after birth.  The boys got to visit Grandpa Hansen's equestrian center when this little guy was a few days old.  Luke could hardly wait to get over there to see him.  He kept saying, "I am just so excited that Pops finally got me a horse that I can ride that's just my size."  Lukers was a little disappointed when he realized the horse wasn't ready for passengers.  

I love the first picture with Brody.  The little guy was in awe of the baby horse and wanted to get at him.  I fell in love with the first picture because Brody is actually standing on his tippy toes to try and get closer at the horse.  The funny thing about Brods is he wants so badly to get close to them, but once we finally give him the okay to pat their face he gets nervous.  After Brody realized he wasn't going to be getting close to that baby he gave up and played in the rocks.  

Luke, was happy just to sit and stare at the horse all day.  He of course had a million questions and couldn't believe that the baby didn't have a name yet.  Luke spent the next serval days coming up with names.  Not that his will get used, but he had fun all the same!  

Brody Turns One!!!

I cannot believe my baby is one, I want to go back and redo this past year before we move on.  I miss the baby stage so much but I also love the new little personality that Brody is developing.  Brody is a pretty calm little guy and he was super chill at his birthday party.  I think he was a little overwhelmed and didn't quite know what to think.  When we sang to him he just stood on the table and stared at everyone with a confused look on his face.  Luke and I had sung to him about twenty times that day and he would laugh and clap along with us, but this was a little different.  Brody also wasn't too interested in eating his cake.  He hadn't really eaten his dinner so I thought for sure he would dig in, but he chose to gently pick off a few little pieces and eat them.

When present time rolled around Luke was all over that part and very willing to help Brody.  We kept asking Luke to slow down and let Brody have a turn but Brody was in such a daze that Luke did most of the work.  Brody is a very blessed little boy and was given lots of wonderful toys and books from his family.  Our boys are so lucky to have supportive family that lives so close and is willing to help them celebrate!  I love my little Brody bug to pieces and can't imagine our lives without him!  I am sad this year is over but I can't wait for the next year as I get to watch Brody learn an grow!  Love you my sweet baby boy!   

Brody's Cookies and Milk Party

If there is one thing I love it's to plan a party.  I have known for a while now that I wanted to do a cookies and milk party for Brody's first birthday!  It was so much fun deciding on which cookies to bake and enjoy.  In the end we had chocolate chip, lemon sugar, s'mores, chocolate rolo, and chewy coconut oatmeal.  They all turned out delicious and were perfect with a glass of milk!  

The day of the party life was super crazy.  That weekend we had decided to try and move and buy a house in North Salt Lake...not the best weekend to decided that but oh well.  Even though I wasn't near ready for the party we had to run out to the model home and sign paper work for the new house.  Luckily, the boys took great naps on the drive!  I was very stressed, but amazed how well everything still came together.  The birthday cake was also a major stress because it wasn't coming out of the pan correctly.  At one point I was considering just running to the store and buying any cake they had available.  I'm so glad the cake finally turned out...it was perfect for the theme!

I know that Brody won't remember anything that we did that day or the party, but it was still fun!  Hopefully, he'll appreciate it someday!  

Brody's Cake Smash

When I did Luke's cake smash pictures he was all over the smashing and eating cake so I was excited to do Brody's and see how much fun he would have.  However, Brody wasn't that into the smashing and eating.  He kept wanting to go play with Luke.  My mom came over to help me and she kept breaking pieces off and giving them to Brody or putting his little hand in the frosting.  It helped, but the photo shoot only lasted a few minutes because Brody was bored and didn't care about eating.  I made sure to do the shoot during his lunch time so he would be extra hungry, but that didn't seem to motivate him to dig in and eat either.  This is my little Brody's personality to be careful and methodical about things.  He is such a blessing and I can't believe he is getting so big!  Love this little bug!

Easter Morning

Easter morning was pretty much a blur.  Luke got the entire family up pretty early and was ready for an egg hunt.  It was near impossible to get a good picture of Luke because he was running everywhere and in constant motion.  We had to keep hiding the eggs after Luke found them just so Brody would have some to find.  Brody wasn't fully awake yet and he was happy just to sit and bang the eggs together.   

After the egg hunt and digging through Easter baskets we had our traditional Easter breakfast of Eggs a la Golden Rod.  Everyone gobbled it up and was ready to eat candy!  It was a wonderful and relaxing Easter!  Luke gave his first talk in Primary today also and did an amazing job.  He spoke on the resurrection and had his entire talk memorized.  Such an amazing kid!!!  Love these boys!  Happy Easter!

Easter Eggs

When it was finally time to dye Easter eggs I told Luke to take his shirt but, but he didn't stop there.  I turned around and Luke was naked at the kitchen counter ready to dye eggs!  I finally talked him into at least putting underpants on...backwards as usual.  Luke took the egg coloring process very serious this year, and he was getting very bugged that I was letting Brody in on the fun.  

Brody thought this was the coolest thing we had done in a long time!  He wanted to touch and taste everything.  We only had one accident that was cleaned up quickly!  It was so fun to see how excited their little faces were when they saw the colorful eggs.  Luke was trying to set a new record for coloring eggs and only wanted the eggs to be in the dye for a few seconds.  It took a lot of convincing to get him to leave them in a little longer.  There were very few eggs left without cracks by the time we were done, but the boys had a blast and that's more important!