Birthday Craziness

It has been almost a month, and we've have two birthdays around here in that time so I'm way behind as usual.  This post will be super long and boring to most people!  Seth and Luke have birthdays two weeks apart, so it's always a little crazy.  I really need to do a post about each of them because they have both been growing and changing like crazy, but I'll just start with the birthday festivities.  I told the boys that they can have a party with friends every other year if they want, and we will go somewhere or do something with family the other year.  This year they both wanted parties with friends, but we also wanted to celebrate with family so with birthdays on Fridays they both had nonstop birthday weekends.  It was lots of fun.

Seth had a spiderman party on the day before his birthday.  We invited his preschool class plus a few neighbors and friends from the ward so there were ten 3 and 4-year-olds at our house!  Of course it poured that day, so we ended up having it downstairs in the unfinished basement.  Seth was so shy at first and didn't want to participate but then he warmed up and had a lot of fun.  The kids colored treat boxes, did a spider web walk, and played pin the spider on the web.  The biggest hit was when I gave them each a can of silly string and let them have at it on the patio.  They loved it!  Seth shot the whole can out in about 1 minute.  Some of the other kids were so little they needed help pushing the trigger!  We ate spiderman cupcakes and had presents, and it worked out great.  My mom came and helped, and I immediately put Luke to work when he got home from school...so we survived!  Thanks mom.

 That red frosting was quite messy.  Ian enjoyed both of his brother's birthdays thoroughly!

 This was the whole little gang plus Luke.  The little boy in front with glasses is our next door neighbor Jeff...he and Seth have become best buddies since they moved in last summer.  They were all so cute and sweet!

Saturday May 21st was Seth's actual birthday.  I can't believe he's four!  Luke had a soccer game that morning, so we went to that and out to lunch with Grandpa Boyd and Grandma Cid.  Later in the afternoon my parents and TJ and Amy joined us for some mini golfing at Renegade Sports.  I went there because I thought for sure Seth would want to do the go karts.  He chose mini golf instead but then wanted to ride the karts as they were closing.  We had a fun time though so that will have to be another outing.  We headed back to the house later so cookout and celebrate some more.  The Picketts joined us which was fun...my kids think their kids are amazing (and they are great)!  I appreciate them being like some extra aunts and uncles to my kiddos (and of course Blake and Julie).  It's great to join our small families together for special occasions.  Thanks!

 Seth is not a fan of cake or ice cream, so we had strawberry shortcake instead.  He loved it and piled the whip cream high.  We also had some of Seth's favorites:  hot dogs, fruit, and Cheetos on the menu.

 The weather was beautiful, and the kids had a blast playing outside.  Seth loved all of his presents.  My mom made him a quilt...I need to put a picture on...he chose Nascar fabric.  Yep.  It's very cute though.

He also loved this totally sweet Transformers outfit he got.

The kids also had a little impromptu dance party.  Ian especially was rocking it and making everyone laugh.  He is a ham!  Troy even got to listen to his favorite Justin Bieber for a minute.

Two weeks later it was time to party all over again.  Luke wanted a sports birthday, and it actually turned out quite easy.  Luke was a fan of the sports cupcakes.  His party was the day after school got out, and he bugged me relentlessly until it was time for it to start at 4:00.  Blake let us use his school's gym, and it was perfect.  I told Luke to keep it small so he invited 5 kids, and it was just right.  My mom was once again my helper!

We played some organized games, but the kids spent a lot of time just running around playing basketball, soccer, and crashing a huge beach ball into everything.  Luke seems to have some karate kids moves going on in this one.

Little Ceasar's is right across the street, so they ate pizza and drank sports punch.  Jer came along just in time to play with the kids and help with the pinata bashing.

We took some music down with us, and Seth was the DJ throughout.  He was doing the sprinkler and had his own party going on!  I have heard that "Dynamite" song enough to last me a lifetime.

Luke got fun presents and had a blast with his friends.  They were great kids!

Saturday was Luke's actual birthday.  We used vouchers we got through the soccer league to go to a Real Salt Lake game.  I've never been to one before, and it was really fun.  We left Ian home on this one.  Luke was into the game and Seth was into the cotton candy and kettle corn, so we were all happy.  

By Sunday we were about worn out, but we wrapped up the birthday festivities with cake and ice cream and presents with family.  Luke loves his cousins, and they always have fun together.

It's great to have Michon and Collin in our ward now.  If Ian can escape us in Sacrament he likes to hang with them.

Luke got these totally sweet clothes and sweatbands for his birthday, and it has been hard to get him out of them since.  He thinks they are so cool!

Spring Soccer

Luke played spring soccer again this year. He loves soccer and is quite good sometimes, but he really needs to attack more. He doesn't have that aggressive thing down yet. He had a couple good friends on his team, and they had a fun season. Despite that fact that they had quite a few decent players they really struggled. I don't think anyone scored a goal until almost halfway through the season! It was crazy. I don't think anyone scored more than two goals the whole season so as you can imagine they lost all but one game! It was a bit rough, but they had good attitudes and had fun out there. Luke did score a goal finally and with the way the season went that was a big accomplishment. I was a terrible picture taker but here are a few...

Luke's brothers were at every game.  They were usually playing on the playground but every once in a while Ian would come over and scream "go Yuke" from the sidelines!

 Luke's coach was an interesting guy.  He had a really cute awards ceremony for them after the last game.  They each got a medal and a personalized certificate.  Luke got the "fancy feet" award.  He does have pretty good footwork.  This is Luke and his friend Stone.

Panda Fun Run

Our family participated in Luke's elementary fun run again this year.  This year Seth wanted to run too.  It's a mile and we didn't do any practice, but I knew we could just walk as much as we needed to.  Ian was just a spectator this year.  Luke and Jer ran together and Seth and I were a team.  Luke did great and took third place in his age division.  He was so excited to get a ribbon.  Seth and I finished in just over 14 minutes.  He started off at a run (a fast one), but we mixed in lots of walking.  Whenever he started running again it was at full speed until he was tired again.  He wasn't really into pacing himself.  When we turned the corner and he saw the finish line he turned on the gas and ran across with a huge smile on his face.  Seth took fourth in the four and under category.  I know some of the kids ahead of him rode in strollers, but he didn't care.  I'm lucky to have such great boys.

My parents were there to watch and take pictures.  We headed over right after to Luke's soccer game.  Jer's parents came to that too and then we all met up with TJ and Amy's family for a little Mother's Day brunch.  TJ and Amy's kids came over to play that afternoon, and it was a great Saturday.  I am so grateful my kids have such awesome, supportive grandparents.

 Aren't we photogenic.  Ian covers his eyes or just runs away almost every time I get the camera out.

 Not sure what my face is all about.  Doesn't it look like I'm running fast?

Luke and Jer crossing the finish.

 Seth's big finish.

Go Luke!

Just Cute

This kid keeps us on our toes.  He is fascinated with the road and runs out there or rides his big wheel out there constantly.  Naughty.  He can Fred Flintstone that big wheel faster than any kid I've seen.  He also rode his little Strider bike we got him for his birthday around our entire cul-de-sac on Saturday.  I was encouraging him a lot, so he started saying "I doing so good."  He was!  Last night Seth was in the tub, and I went to the kitchen for a minute (he's almost four don't turn me in).  When I got back Ian was naked in the tub with him, and he said "I swimming."  No kidding...now that one needs a lot of tub supervision.  He speaks well enough now to totally rat out his brothers.  He said, "Seth helped me get in the tubby."  Seth just grinned from ear to ear and then they proceeded to slosh water all over the bathroom.

Easter

We had an awesome Easter weekend.  The kids went to a movie and hung out with my parents Friday night while Jer and I had date night.  They saw Rio and loved it...even Ian.  On Saturday we went to our neighbor's huge Easter egg hunt.  This could put any city egg hunt to shame.  She goes all out with cotton candy, tons of food, egg dyeing, cookie frosting, and of course thousands of eggs to hunt for with mega prizes.  The kids had a blast and each came home with a bucket full of candy!

We attempted to take a picture of the kids in their new ties on Easter Sunday.  You can see how that went.  Between my camera being out of focus and no one looking they didn't turn out so hot, but they did look very cute--I mean handsome.

We headed up to Preston on Sunday afternoon and had a great time.  The kids had a blast finding hard boiled eggs and then rolling them down the hill.  What a fun weekend!

Seth's Skills

I have a million things I want to post about, so I'm going to try to catch up before I just give up and throw in the towel.  We got a new computer which is awesome, but I got way behind on downloading pics.  I just thought I'd post a few of Seth's big accomplishments the last few months.  I'm pretty sure about five (maybe) people read my blog at this point, but I have been really faithful about making it into a book the last three years, and I do want to keep recording these memories.  So here goes...

This winter Seth learned to ski "all by himself" as he's proud to tell you.  He had a breakthrough when he went up night skiing with Jer--just the two of them.  Jer has some really cute pics of that night on his phone which I may or may not ever get on here!  It was a blizzard but once Seth figured out how to do his snow plow he didn't stop skiing all night.  He even had a crash up with a big snowboarder that didn't faze him.  He's still slow, but he's got the snow plow going on and he loves it.

Luke and Seth our last ski day way back in March.

Ian was along for this ride, so I wasn't skiing.

As soon as we had a few nice days here and there in April we got Seth out on his bike.  He picked up the riding without training wheels quickly, and we even upsized him to Luke's bike.  Luke got a new bike simply because he's the oldest...lucky!  Seth likes riding the bigger bike.  He still needs help to get going sometimes on this one, but by the end of the summer he will be a pro.  It's fun to watch your kids learn something new!

Happy Birthday Ian!

It's hard for me to believe but Ian celebrated his 2nd birthday last week.  Before I get to the pics of his party I wanted to write about him a little.  I haven't done the best job of documenting his life, but there is a lot to say.  This kid is personality plus, and he makes everyone smile.  He has certainly added a lot of extra fun and excitement to our family!  So here's some stuff Ian is up to as he turns two....
Dressing up in strange garbs.  He is always trying people's shoes on.  He also likes to wear jackets and hats or just streak around in the buff.  And yes we do feed him, and I will be applying sunscreen by the gallon.

He is mischievous.  He loves to get into things as much as the next kid.  The other day when he was being mysteriously quiet he had climbed up and got Vaseline and applied it very liberally.

This picture has terrible lighting and flash, but it demonstrates his awesome fashion sense.

And no he is not a biker baby on drugs.

Ian does talk a lot.  He communicates to us in full sentences these days and can be quite funny.  He loves to touch your eyebrows and call them "fuzzies."  He is extremely friendly.  He approaches people everywhere and wants to climb up in their lap, play with their toys, share their snacks, or just hang out.  He shouts "hi" followed by the person's name if he knows it whenever he sees someone.  He loves to play with cars that "go fast" and "shoot basketball."  He loves "Yuke" and "Seff" and can't get enough of hanging out with them.  They are sometimes so rough, but if he ever thinks he hurt them he is quick to give a kiss and say sorry.  He hates Sacrament meeting (like starts crying and squirming when we walk in the chapel) but loves nursery and runs in without looking back.  He can jump well with two feet off the ground and goes down any slide he can find.  He loves to play outside but is a total turkey about staying out of the road.  He loves to have his "shoes on."  He has a recent hate for the shower and screams bloody murder.  He loves to "find a bug" and hates/is terrified of the car wash.  He has the blondest hair and most beautiful blue eyes you will ever see.  He loves to "exacise" and can do really funny versions of squats, situps, a yoga pose, and burpees.  The burpee thing is hilarious.  It is an exercise where you drop down to a pushup then jump up straight to your feet and clap your hands.  He learned them by observation and drops and does them in parking lots, on our camping trip, in the shower, you name it.  Ian likes to go "nigh nigh" with a soft blankie and his Jazz dog.  I could go on and on about this happy, amazing kid.  He lights up our life for sure, and I can't believe he's two. 

We had a fun Cars themed family party.  He's not really into the Cars characters, but he loves race cars.  He was so excited and cute at his party without really understanding that all of the fuss was about him.

Since we already have every other boy thing on earth we got Ian this balance bike.  It has no pedals.  It is supposed to be an easy way to learn to ride a bike without ever using training wheels.  We'll see! 

Seth was his biggest helper while opening presents. 

He got this "big truck" from my parents and loves it. 

His brothers and cousins had to help him out when it was time to blow out candles.  I made this cake for Luke when he turned three, and I think I somehow made it look even worse this time around!  It tasted good though.  Seth was my assistant all day long...he loves helping in the kitchen. 

Ian didn't care much about the cake, but he can slam the ice cream.

Since Ian was born on my dad's 65th birthday I have to get a shot of the birthday boys together.



And just for the sake of mom nostalgia I found a few baby pics to post.  He has sure come a long way since this first glimpse in the hospital.  He had us wrapped around his little fingers then and still does.  We sure love this kid and even though I should I probably won't stop calling him my "baby" anytime soon!