Birthday Boys

We have a lot going on this summer, and it's about to get really crazy (in a good way) the next few weeks, so I wanted to take just a minute and write about each of the older boys since they recently had birthdays.  This picture is of Seth with Ms. Jenny on the last day of preschool.  He absolutely loved her and had such a good experience.  She was so great, he learned a lot, and he loved going every single time.  It was awesome.  It is great when he is pointing out letters and saying their sounds on cereal boxes and anywhere else he sees them.  He also learned lots of fun little songs like the other day I heard him singing to Luke, "What's gonna work, teamwork."  Go Ms. Jenny.

Here are a few things about Seth at age 4:

• He is a big, handsome guy.  He has a cute smile and sparkly eyes that can light up a room.  He is one of the biggest just-turned-four-year-olds out there!  I don't know his stats this year, but he's a big, tough looking kid.
• Seth is sweet.  He gives great bear hugs and tells us often he "lubs" us.  He still has quite a bit of trouble with certain sounds and "v" is one of them, but I think it's so cute how he says it.  
• He is determined and tough.  He has been getting a little crazy on his bike lately and had some hard crashes.  One in particular I thought for sure would be a broken arm or something...but no he's fine and after a few tears back on the bike.
• The exception to the above mentioned toughness is if Luke is involved.  He has been in a stage lately where if Luke even looks at him wrong he is immediately bawling with mouth open and tons of drool!  He reminds me of a St. Bernard when he does it.  We keep telling him to just punch Luke back when he bugs him (I know great parenting advice...but it seems needed), but he doesn't seem to know his own strength.
• With that said, Seth loves his brothers.  He and Luke can get into it, but they can also play happily for hours on end.  Seth thinks his big brother is the coolest thing ever.  Someone asked me the other day if Seth follows Luke around everywhere he goes, and he pretty much does.  He loves playing with him.  They have had lots of fun together already this summer.  Seth is also cute with Ian.  He can get frustrated with his terrible two brother, but they play pretty well together too, and he has his own little follower in Ian.
• Seth loves chocolate milk, fruit snacks, GUM, fruit of any kind, nuts, salmon (yes he could be a little bear), salad, and any candy or soda (not great, but he still has perfect teeth).  He's not that crazy about ice cream or pizza.
• Seth loves playing outside, riding his bike, reading books, watching movies (I definitely have to monitor his scree time), jumping on the tramp, helping dad or in the garden, and riding on the motorcycle or four wheeler.  I can't think of too many things he doesn't like doing.
• Seth loves to call names.  This is not always good.  If he gets mad, he will call you a name...and stick out his lower teeth.  Luke calls this "gritting his teeth."  It's Seth's classic pout face.
• Seth loves potty talk and potty noises.  He can burp or fart like a grown man.  He seems to have an overabundance of gas of all kinds.  He totally wowed some men on lunch break at Sam's Club a while ago with the belch he let out.  I tried to scold but ended up laughing...it was just so impressive.  He could spend half the day saying "excuse me" and of course this provides endless entertainment for his brothers.
• Seth is tech savvy.  He can intuitively figure out just about anything that involves technology.
• If there is a button Seth will push it.  Recently in one day he clogged the toilet with toilet paper, locked me out of the house, and made a huge mess of one of Jer's tool boxes.  He doesn't do it maliciously either.  He is just curious and thinks he can fix or solve any problem by himself.  He does not ask for help.  If it gets quiet...beware...he is taking something apart.  He even helped Ian take off all his clothes and get in the tub with him the other night.  Luckily I found this one quickly.  They were both in there on their bellies happy as clams and Ian said "Seth helped me get in the tubby.  I swimming."  Yikes!

Seth definitely keeps life interesting.  We could not ask for a brighter, happier, funnier kid.  He is awesome.  I truly can't believe he's four and can hardly remember life before Seth.  We love you Seth!

Now on to Luke...

This is Luke in his sweet hat after celebrating his unbirthday at school.  I can't believe he's done with first grade!  That makes me want to shed a tear.  Luke is an amazing kid that constantly challenges me.  Sometimes he is truly too smart and thoughtful for his own good (and mine)...there is absolutely no putting one over on this kid.  

So here's Luke at age 7:

• Luke loves sports.  About halfway through the year he got so into sports he would no longer wear any clothing that didn't have some sort of sports picture or "swoosh" on it.  I don't know if he will grow up to be an athlete, but he loves sports and is a very active kid.  He likes running, catching, throwing just about anything.  He didn't want to play baseball this year because that has been the one sport that never interested him, but now he thinks he likes it and wants to be on a team next year.  We'll see.
• Luke is active.  He ran laps around our neighborhood the other night non stop until he had gone about two miles.  He told me he might want to do a race or something.  He is up at the crack of dawn and goes continuously until I force him to bed.  He has even been telling me that his brothers "watch too much TV."  They don't but compared to him (who watches virtually none) I guess it seems a lot.  We didn't have TV for over two months recently and none of our kids even knew the difference.
• Luke loves to learn.  He had such an amazing year.  His test scores were off the chart, and he reads so well.  Reading and spelling seem to come naturally.  He brings home his spelling list and can spell every word without even practicing.  He did great in every subject all year.  More importantly than that though he did so well in citizenship, and his teacher loved him.  I am so proud of him.  He is also a reverence rock star in Primary.  He pretty much saves his naughtiness for home!
• Luke realizes when he makes a mistake.  We have had a few situations here and there this year with neighbors, etc. (normal kid stuff) where Luke hasn't made perfect choices.  What gives me such hope though is that he realizes when he's done wrong and seems to really try to do better.  He is truly remorseful after he's done something mean.  Since he's reaching the age of accountability soon I'm really hoping that continues.
• Luke is loving.  He gives lots of love to all of us.  Sometimes with Seth it's make up love after he's been a turkey, but he loves his family and is grateful for us.  He writes nice notes and cards for us and still gives lots of hugs.
• He is hilarious.  He can pull some crazy faces and has sweet dance moves.  He has clever comebacks and is quite witty for a kid his age.  
• Luke usually has quite an appetite.  He loves pizza, Mexican food, chips, ice cream, bagels, candy, cookies, you name it.  He tends to veer away from most vegetables and anything that looks out of the ordinary.  He is not adventurous with food!  
• Luke loves to play outside, swim, do just about any sport, hike and explore, run, read...He is a cautious kid though.  I often have to be a meanie and encourage/push him to do things I know he can do and will like if he just tries.  He's not one to just try anything.
• Luke is a handsome guy too.  He has always gotten comments his entire life about how cute he is.  I think it is partly the glasses.  I think now he's this old it embarrasses him a little.  He is also small for his age.  He's one of the youngest in his grade and definitely one of the smallest.  He has noticed that this year and seems a little bugged.  He told me all of his friends are taller than him.  He made me laugh when he told me he was sure that he was taller than Leslie.  (She's this cute, little girl in his class that's the tiniest thing I've ever seen.)  At least he's got one up on Leslie!  (We've already tried to prep him for the fact that Seth may outgrow him soon.)  In the middle of the year Luke really liked this little girl Caitlin in his class.  She seemed to like him a lot too.  His teacher told me at winter conferences that he had all these girls who wanted to sit by him whenever they went to the rug.  
• Luke does not typically go with the flow.  He seems to have inherited some of Jer's "OCD" traits and can get quite uptight.  I often remind him to "chill out" unfortunately I'm a person that needs that reminder as well.  I must say he is getting much better in this respect as he gets older though.
• Luke really wants to lose a tooth!  He has none that are even loose and at his last dentist appointment he said don't get your hopes up.  He may be the only 2nd grader with all baby teeth!

I could go on and on (like I haven't already) about how cute and fun these boys are.  I try not to make my blog a big brag fest, but I do want them to look back and read this and know how awesome they are.  I want them to know we love them and are so proud of them.  Even though they make me want to pull my hair out on a daily basis (momentarily) with their wrestling and yelling, I wouldn't trade these boys for the world.  Just last night I drove through McDonald's to get a drink on the way home.  The boys had their windows down and yelled at each stage of the drive thru that they wanted, "sloppy joes please."  It lasted until we were almost home, and I finally reached my breaking point.  My life would be boring without them though...I love being a mom to a bunch of crazy, smelly, loud boys.  I'm pretty lucky.