My baby is 7!!!

Oh how fast the time goes!!! We are so thankful to have such an awesome kid in our family and we've loved every minute of the past seven years with him. He is growing up so fast. What an amazing boy! We love you Luke!!!

My 1 year old chub (he actually used to have some meat on his bones).

Luke could not live without this blanket or his thumb for the first 3 years of his life.

From the time he was almost 2 he has loved riding 4-wheelers. He would sit on them until someone would take him for a ride. He would say "WE RIDE".

Even at 2 he loved all things boy

and because he has a sister he even liked some girly things.

Got his first teeth @ 3 months old and lost his first teeth @ age 4

He had surgery to fix a hole in his heart when he was almost 5. He was a total trooper!

He loved preschool

and kindergarten. Notice his huge black eye from a bike accident.

My handsome first grader all grown up!

This was a friend birthday party year (every other year) and Luke really wanted a water party with a water snake theme. So we kind of worked with blue as our color and water and snakes as our theme. Considering the fact that it snowed on Monday we were a little hesitant to do the water party the next day - but it turned out to be beautiful, sunny and warm. Our prayers were answered.

We had a giant water snake that sprayed water out of it.
We played lots of games with water balloons. Of course the boys favorite was getting to throw them at each other.
You have to have cake and ice cream.
Luke's favorite part was opening the presents. He got a lot of great stuff!
A pinata is always a must!
This was Luke's awesome snake cake. Took me hours to make and was gone in about 5 seconds. Oh the things you do for your kids! I'm glad I remembered to take a picture of it this time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!!! We love you so much and are so proud to call you our son!

Highlights!

We've had a busy and fun past couple of months! Here are some of the most notable parts:

-Natalie running the 1/2 marathon at Thanksgiving Point and loving every minute of it. It was so beautiful running through the gardens and tulip festival. It was awesome! 1 hr. 57 min. and 7 sec. Very little soreness the next day.

-Luke and Kaycee enjoying the day of the 1/2 marathon with mom at Thanksgiving Point. If you ran the race then admission was free to everything that day for your immediate family. We totally took advantage of it. Luke has been begging to go to the Dinosaur museum there forever and so he was on cloud 9 when we went. We also went to farm country. Spring is a great time to go because of all the newborn baby animals. The weather was great and we had so much fun! All the things we did for free totally paid for the $45 entry fee for the race. We missed John because he was helping put together a new swing set at his mom's house but we caught up with him and his family later in the day.

FARM COUNTRY-

MUSEUM OF ANCIENT LIFE-

-Our ward split (very common for the are we live in)

-Luke's orthodontist appointment in which they devised a plan to get rid of his cute under bite starting in the next month (I am really going to miss it when it's gone. It's such a part of the awesome kid that he is). I'll let you know how treatment goes.

-Uncle Andrew (John's baby brother) returning from his 2 year mission in England. He is still super skinny, 6'5, and has all of his hair. He looks good! He was dying to have a taste of Mountain Dew as soon as he got off the plane. Still the same guy we know and love.

-Kaycee and her Jr. Elite team winning Junior Intermediate Overall Grand Champion on their jazz routine at their last dance competition (meaning they scored higher than any other Junior Intermediate team).

-Finishing our backyard. We actually have grass now! It looks great! I'll post a picture later after we get the curbing and everything in.

-John working a ton of overtime (more of a low light than a highlight), working on the backyard and a new church calling to be the Young Men's President. We will literally be working side by side (I'm 1st counselor in young Women's) so it will be a lot of fun and for sure crazy and wild at times.

-Natalie winning March Madness at her preschool - thanks to Johnny for telling her not to pick Duke to win the finals - then doing the exact opposite. She got a basketball ring, NBA head and wrist sweatbands, and a blow-up basketball.

Life is pretty good and always full of surprises!