Luke is three!

Our little Luke celebrated his third birthday yesterday. I can't believe he is three already. It seems like Rachel was three not that long ago! He was a little sad because he was expecting his little buddies to come over for a party (like Rachel had the week before). But I told him we would do a friend party next year. I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said, "the dinosaur museum!" So we played hooky on Friday afternoon. Ben took the afternoon off of work, we checked Emma out of school early, and Luke ditched his nap--all for some serious celebrating! We went to Pizza Pie Cafe first (love their pasta sauces!), followed by the dinosaur museum. Then came home, ate birthday cake and ice cream for dinner and opened presents. We watched a slideshow of pictures of his first three years and then called it a night! It was a good birthday and he is loving all of his new gifts. Thank you to family and friends!

Dinosaur museum


Aunt Sue and Grandpa stopped by.


Luke's cake. I made a racetrack car cake this year and it was a cinch to make! Luke loved it.




About our Lukey:
He LOVES puzzles these days. Here he is with his favorite one--Cars, of course! He can work them almost all by himself and it keeps him busy forever! It's the best. :)
He is a pretty good eater, although he would probably be content just to eat cheese at every meal for the rest of his life. He likes to play in the sandbox and ride his bike. He loves playing with his sisters, but also likes to play on his own. Cars and trucks are still his favorite toys. He can be a bit mischievous at times and can get into stuff he's not supposed to on occasion. And he's very active. Getting him to be somewhat quiet AND still in church is next to impossible. He's adorable, but he's definitely a bit of a handful these days. I think age three may be harder than age two for us--we'll see. But we love him nonetheless! Happy birthday buddy!

September happenings

My dad came into town for the sad BYU vs. Utah game. But I was proud of my dad--I think he wore a different BYU shirt every day he was here. THAT is loyalty!!!


We had a big family dinner at our house one Sunday evening while my dad was here. It was so much fun!




Cameron (my bro) got engaged! This is the best picture I have of his cute fiancee (in the light pink shirt). They are getting married in May and we can't wait!

We've been enjoying Max so much! It's great to have a little baby around the house again.

Rachel and Luke have fun playing together when Emma is at school. And they get along pretty well, for the most part--until it's time to share something....

My grandma reading to Luke. My g-ma is so awesome at bringing the kids little things, especially around holidays. This past week, she brought over big fresh peaches, string cheese, and a few fun Halloween toys/books. The kids love it so much!

I love this one of Rachel and Max snuggling together. The kids love to share their blankies with Max.

Enjoying peaches! Fresh peaches are one of my most favorite fruits! Delish.

Happy birthday Rachel!

We had a little friend party for Rachel's birthday last Saturday. She was so excited to have a "princess" party.

The party-goers (minus one, who came late)

My princess doll cake. It really was pretty easy, even for me (I am very much impaired in the cake department).

And Rachel loved it.

Present time! Thanks everyone--she got some fun new toys that she's been enjoying all week.

The first game we played was a silly dress-up game. Two "princesses" were chosen, and everyone else was blindfolded with the task of getting dress-up clothes from the basket and putting them on the princesses. This was quite a hilarious process!

We did another game that involved two teams drawing and decorating their princess step by step. It was really fun and we ended up with some cute princesses!


We also played pin-the-crown-on-the-princess and did a pretty craft. It was a fun party!

On Rachel's actual birthday, we opened presents from family.

My amazing mom crochets these adorable bead socks for little girls. My girls have grown up wearing these; I love them so much. And my mom did a whole new batch of socks for Rachel in every color! This is especially neat because my mom's eyesight is not the best. Thank you so much, mom! These are a treasure.


Daddy was so cute and invited her to lunch at Wendy's on her birthday. She couldn't be more excited for her daddy-daughter date!

We love our miss Rachel so much! She is still called Ray-Ray quite a bit (those baby nicknames stick!!!), but she doesn't mind. She loves to draw pictures, put on her play make-up, play with stickers, play with Emma, read, go to school, make up stories, ride her trike, and snuggle. She LOVES to chew gum and asks for a piece almost every day. She also loves masking tape these days--she's either taping up her pictures all over the house or she uses the tape to decorate her pictures. She's starting to write words. Her favorite movie is "Cinderella." She's such a good girl and is so obedient. Her huge, dimply smile lights up my day! We can't imagine life without her! Happy "five," Rachel!

Three months

Sweet Max is three months old today! Isn't he cute? I'm having a hard time getting a good picture of his darling smile. Oh well.



Several weeks ago Rachel drew a picture for Max and taped it up in his room above his changing table. He ADORES it. Every time he gets changed he smiles and coos at that picture. Ben took some photos of him doing it last night. So sweet.


The kids love Max so much. They especially love it now that he can interact with them. Max loves to play peek-a-boo with Emma, be read to by Rachel, and snuggle with Luke. And Emma's pretty good at feeding Max a bottle too. It's awesome! I love my fantastic four.



Happy three months Max!

Oh happy day!

We love this kid! Doesn't he have the sweetest smile?
Did I mention Luke's two nicknames for Max? "Big guy" and "milk man." Hilarious!

School!

Emma's first day of 2nd grade two weeks ago.

Rachel started her last year of pre-school today. Woo hoo!

All Max

This post is all about Max. He'll be two months old on Saturday and I can't believe it! Well....I can and I can't. It does seem like awhile ago that I was hugely pregnant and sleeping all the way through the night (except for potty breaks!!). But I really can't believe that a full two months have passed since our little Maxi (yes, I know--it's a terrible nickname; hopefully it won't evolve into maxi-pad or something!!!) arrived. I love the stage he is in. He is becoming much more content and alert and is smiling and interacting more. He just started cooing and it melts my heart to have "conversations" with him. He's sleeping pretty good at night too, going down about 9:00ish and not waking up until around 5:00 a.m.; then he goes back to sleep until about 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. I can handle that. He's such a sweet baby and we all just love to be around him. Here are some pictures of him over the past several weeks.

My boys!

This is from the Fourth of July (don't you love the hand lopped over the side??). Max just slept in his bouncy seat the whole evening. It amazes me how babies can sleep through such noise and chaos!

2 weeks old

My four babies!

Look at that sweet profile.

Each of the kids with their new brother. So cute!



His "adopted" Aunt Sarah. :)

Grandpa time.

Chubby cheeks!

I love my boy so much!


7 weeks old

Smiling at Emma--she was over the moon!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to capture a good photo of him smiling yet. Hopefully soon. His face just lights up!
Love you, Maximus!