Meet Luke

Luke is 3.

He likes to play cars and trains.

It's a sure bet, that if he's awake his mouth is moving!

He loves making up words.

He loves to call everyone he meets "Chicken Boy" then laughs hysterically.

To date, he has never refused a popsicle.

His favorite people in the world are mom & dad.

He is cautious and sensitive.

I love this kid!

These are his 3 year photos that I took. I feel like I've learned a lot lately about how to photograph my own kids, but I know I still have a lot a lot of room for improvement. I've been trying to embrace my surroundings, and all these photos were taken within walking distance of our house. I have way too many favorite, and these only represent 1/2 of them! This kid is so much fun for me to photograph. I've been taking pictures of him since the day he was born, and I don't think he has ever given me the same facial expression twice in three years! He just looks like such a different kid from picture to picture, but they are all faces I know and recognize. As always, feel free to critique! Isn't this kid just adorable?!!

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In these next two he really reminds me of my brother Jeffrey.

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I have no idea where this facial expression came from! I laughed out loud when I saw it upload on my computer!

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Ha Ha! Okay, this one is just for fun!

Boys

These are my friend Britni's oldest two kids that I did a quick photo session for. These boys were so fun and I just loved their freckled faces! Seeing these two together gave me a little glimpse into possibly my future with my little boys.

I tried some funky processing on this last image. The first one is how it would usually look, and the second one is my funky edit. I kind of like it. What do you think?

Then & Now ... and some chicken

Then
(Me, Anne, and Savannah)

Now

Savannah and I were BFs in high school and roommates in college. Back then our priorities were boys, having fun, and school. Now we each have 2 kids and live across the country from each other! When she came up to visit her parents, nothing could keep me from coming up to see her. While it is definitely harder trying to carry on a conversation when there are 4 kids running/crawling around and calling us mom, we had a great time just hanging out again! We probably have a lot in common now than we did in high school. This is kind of crazy, but I am 1 month older than Savannah, Luke is 1 month older than her oldest, and Grady is 1 month older than her baby! I actually think our baby's look quite a bit alike too.

Savannah's little girl Rhylan. This picture just puts a smile on my face!

Our little boys, and no we did not coordinate their outfits beforehand!

Sav and I. We were going for cheesy on this first one, and I think we totally nailed it!

In other news, I canned chicken for the first time this week with my friend Amy! I know, a lot of you are most likely quite shocked that I had never done it before, but I am pretty proud of myself. Just call me Betty, Betty Crocker that is! :) Thanks Amy!

Motherhood

My mom & me on my blessing day

My grandmother always hated Mother's Day. She hated going to church and hearing all the talks about how perfect and wonderful other mothers were. Mother's Day made her feel inadequate. But there are no perfect mothers out there. Every mother is different and every child is different. All have faults. Sometimes we as mothers can be too hard on ourselves. We carry around too much "mother's guilt". There is always something we could have done better. All we can ever do is try our best, and know that we will make mistakes. I just want all you mothers out there to know that I think that you are great mothers and great examples to me. So, for one day, please forgive yourselves for not scrubbing the toilet or for loosing your patience with your child, and just enjoy the day. I know you all deserve it!

I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to my mom. She sacrificed so much for me, and still does so much for me. She's smart. She never told me what to do, because she knew that would never work. She taught me everything by example. She taught me how to eat healthy, the importance of prayer and scripture study, and not to judge others all through her example. Through her subtle ways, she also instilled a great deal of confidence in all her children. Did you know that I could have been a doctor, or a lawyer, or even President of the United States? My mom did. She has always believed in me and supported me. Even now, as I am a mother myself, my mother is always tells me that I am doing a wonderful job at being a wife and mother. She tells me that I am doing a much better job than she ever did, but I know that isn't true. That's just the "mother's guilt" talking. I just hope that one day I'll be half as good of a mother as she has always been. Of course my mom wasn't perfect, but she was the perfect mother for me. I love you mom!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Happy Birthday Luke!

I love this picture with the tear rolling down his cheek! Luke turned 3 this week. I seriously can't believe he is three. He has grown up so much lately. He had a great fun day filled with lots of new toys, family, and sweets. When asked how old he is he'll hold up three fingers and say "10 months". Ty asked him how this next year is going to be. Luke replied, "I think it's going to be a quiet year." One can only hope!

I Give Up ...

... on every trying to get anything done while this kid is awake! At least that's how I feel most days. He's 10 months old now and has mastered both crawling and climbing.  At the park he's not content any more to just sit there and eat sand. He thinks he's a big kid too and wants to climb all over the playground equiptment. I can't take my eyes off of him for a second!

This is what he did last Sunday while I was getting ready for church. He climbed onto that little rocking chair, and then from there he somehow got onto our cube side table. Good thing Ty was home and watching him!

We got this cool kid SUV thing for free at a garage sale. It doesn't work and probably never will, but the kids love it. Grady loves climbing it!

Just for fun, here's a couple of his far from perfect 10 month pictures. I love this kid! I call the last one "A Portrait of Teething"! :) He's almost got tooth number 7 all the way through now!

A very busy, but very awesome day

Pat's Run

Our day started at 3:30 am when we woke up to drive down to the valley to do Pat's Run. Pat's Run is a 4.2 mile race in Tempe that ends in Sun Devil Stadium. It honors Pat Tillman and raises money for the Pat Tillman foundation. I hadn't ran in a race since running the mile on the junior high track team, so I was pretty nervous/excited. Over 28,000 people participated in the run/walk. I had wanted to do this run for a couple of years, but was either too pregnant or it just wasn't feasible. I accomplished my goal and ran the whole race! Necia came and ran it with me, and we were, step for step, together the whole time. It made it a lot more fun doing it with her. Ty ran the race in an amazing 32:54! I ran it in 44:57. Hopefully next year I can do it even faster! Necia's phone has taken all our pictures hostage from the day, so I took a picture of my shirt as evidence that I actually did it! (Just be glad you can't smell the shirt from your computer!)

Temple Open House Preview

We were really lucky to be able to attend a special open house for the Gila Valley Temple on Saturday just for the contractors and their families. Allen Pump Co. provided lighting for the late night construction of the temple when the temple was nothing more than a slab of concrete and a few beams. Ty actually got to be on the temple site a few nights during construction.
We really had to hurry back from the valley and get ready fast. (I was so impressed with our family. We went from sweaty and smelly, to all four of us in our Sunday best, smelling good, and out to the car in 40 minutes flat!)
The temple is awesome! It is so beautiful! Earlier in the week I went to a ward Relief Society meeting. The speaker was a woman from our ward, who with her husband, did all the detail painting on the mouldings and ceilings and all the gold leaf for the temple. She really drove home the point that this temple is not just another small temple. It is a house of God, and no expenses were spared and no details over looked during it's construction and decorating. It was prophesied that this temple would be "one of the most beautiful temples", and it really is. This woman and her husband put in over 600 hours working on the moulding for the Celestial Room ceiling alone. It has been over 50 years since a new temple has been dedicated that has the intricate ceiling moulding on it.
Luke absolutely loved going to the temple. He even loved the video they showed before you go in. He kept on say "another beautiful temple" over and over again while we watched the video. He loved wearing those little white booties over his shoes. He was very intrigued by the baptismal font on the oxen. We were told not to talk when we were in the Celestial Room, but right when we entered Luke blurts out "Wow! That is a really big light!". I think I'll remember that everytime I go into that Celestial Room. He has not let his little pamphlets about temples that we got at the open house out of his sight since he got them. He calls them his "credit cards". He loves to look at the pictures and talk about the things he saw at the temple with his dad. Before we even got to our car to go home, Luke was already begging to go back to the temple. I really hope he never forgets this experience!
Here's a few pictures from our experience. My camera would not focus properly for me, I was so frustrated. I know I'll always still love these pictures though, because this was the first time our boys got to go to the Gila Valley Temple! The temple open house offically begins April 23 and goes til the dedication on May 15. If you want to come to the open house please feel free to stop by and say hi!

Dad and his boys wandering around the grounds.

A family picture. No fun using the self timer, but it was worth it.

A back view of the temple.

More temple pics to come. I promise. I just need to figure out what's wrong with my camera lens. :(

Amazingly, our day wasn't finished after the open house. Ty had church meetings for a couple of hours in the afternoon, and I played my violin for the adult session of stake conference that evening. Needless to say, we were all very tired when the day was over!

Easter and Some Randomness

Siblings

When I saw this first picture it instantly reminded me of this picture from Christmas.

Grady trying to take Luke's candy. Again. Poor Luke, I can sympathize with you. I am an oldest child too, so I know what it feels like to have younger siblings always messing with your stuff. Then you get mad at them because they are doing something wrong, but you are the one that gets in trouble. Mom says that " you should know better, because you're older!" Whatever! "I was just protecting my stuff! It was the little one who broke the rules!" you say, but still you get in trouble. I planned that when I was the mom I would do a better job of standing up for my oldest child, but I still find myself saying "He's just a baby, he doesn't know any better. You're the big boy. You need to be nice to him." Luke, I'm sorry that Grady is always messing up your stuff, and trying to take your candy.

Easter Egg Decorating

I think his facial expressions say it all!

We had a really nice Easter. On Saturday Luke and I colored eggs together. He loved it. Sunday morning we had a little Easter egg hunt in our backyard. Luke refused to put any of the real eggs that we colored into his basket, even when I asked him just to try and help me pick them up so I could put them back in the fridge. This kid just loves candy too much!

In between conference sessions we went to my in-laws for and Easter egg hunt, dinner, and a birthday celebration. I had a ton of fun hiding the eggs for the older kids. I can't wait till I can hide the eggs really well from Luke, and watch him try and find them.

Comparing loot with one of his favorite cousins, Ridge.

Taking a moment to enjoy his spoils in peace in Nana and Papa's backyard.

Easter also happened to be my niece Morgan's birthday too this year. Luke eating the B-day cake and wearing Nana's dress-up necklaces. I love this picture!

Nothing special, but possibly my new favorite picture of Grady-messy face and all. Also, I think his hair really is lightening up isn't it?

I've been working on my boys scrapbooks lately, and I just ran across this picture of Luke that I took over a month ago. I never paid it much attention then, but now I really love it. I love how his cheeks are all pink from just waking up from his nap. More than one really nice old lady(you know the type) has told me that his eyes just have a special twinkle to them, and I think you can really see that in this picture.

I Want One!

-A baby girl that is! Not anytime soon, seeing as I still have a baby, but I definitely want one someday. I am completely out numbered in this house full of boys! If it is your opinion that girls are so much harder to raise than boys and that I shouldn't want a girl, please save your breath! People telling that to me is my biggest pet peve! If you still feel the need to tell me that I don't want a girl, get ready to hear a long lecture that I have slowly been piecing together over the last 3 years!

It was actually Ty's idea that I do this photo shoot for a coworker of his, and I'm really glad I did it. It was fun getting to use all the fluffy and frilly little girl things, and the baby girl was such a dream baby! I learned a lot from this shoot, and know that I still long way to go before I get my photography to the level I want it to be at.

Honestly, as much as I love the fluff and frills, I think it's the simplicity of this last one that makes it my favorite.

Aeris Dental and Due West

We had the awesome opportunity to do something cool for once! Ty's brother, Lan, opened a new dental office in Tucson and had a big party with great food and an awesome band to celebrate. If you love country music, or even just like country a little bit, I'm sure you'd love Due West. The one on the left grew up with Lan and owed him a favor.
If you ever need dental work and live anywhere even remotely close to Tucson, head over to Aeris Dental. The new building is amazing! The dentist is amazing! They even have TVs in the exam rooms!

Luke couldn't help dancing!

Ty and Grady listening to the band.

My signed copy of their CD that isn't released to the public until the end of April! Ty was joking with them about wanting them to make the dedication on the CD to him, so they made it out to me. Cool! Get this CD! The songs are awesome!