oh yeah... I should do this.

Well I have obviously put this on the back burner.  I can't catch up but here are a few fun shots from at least that last couple of weeks or so. 

We went to a spot right out of Luke's dreams.  The UP house!

It was so fun!  He had the most amazing reaction, he just stopped and starred it was amazing for him to see something out of his imagination/not reality actually meet his expectations.  Of course we had to prep him before hand that Mr. Fredrickson's house would not be floating.  They had done such an amazing job though, every detail was spot on! 

Okay so I didn't get as much is an I hoped, but its a start ...but after Christmas I'll sneak some more in

It's a Girl...and...A Boy!

I had my anatomy scan and the results are in.  One of each.  We are pretty excited.  Luke is thrilled that he is going to have 2 babies, and has sworn not to poke them in the eye.  During the ultrasound we saw the girl first, she was down near the cervix hiding to avoid the kicks of baby b, who we later found out is a boy.   It seems pretty fitting, and probably a window into the rest of their lives :)

Always aware of the animals

While saying our family prayer last night Luke was glossing over the beginning like always.  He goes right into the thank you for Dora and Diego and please bless Buzz (you know the important stuff)  But we have been trying to get him to start out right so Bryan promted him... "Say Dear Heavenly Father..."  So Luke goes on to say "Heavenly Father of the deers"  I didn't hear anything after that cause I was irreverently laughing.  That was too cute for me, too late at night.

Mountains and Bays

The past couple of weeks have been busy and fun, fun, fun (why has Luke stopped saying that, it was one of his best quotes,  now he says:  "Is this fun?"  we can be cleaning or swimming "Is this fun?")

We did our annual sibling camping trip .  We have a special spot we go to every year that you have to ford a river with all your gear to get to.  The family just keeps growing this year we had four tents!

Bryan & Luke after climbing to the top of the mountain

Bryan shooing the cows out of our campsite.  Luke thought this was the coolest thing.

I guess I didn't really get any good group shots.  But here are a couple of nephews and one of my brothers Owen. 

Last week we head to San Francisco to visit my Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt.  We had a great time.  We drove with my parents and managed to make the 12 hour drive with 4 adults and a child in one car. 

Luke having fun out to eat, confiscating everyone's straws for his own drink

Bry and I slipped into the city for a day trip, here we are at Fisherman's Warf

We went to Muir Woods Redwood forest.  Yes I am in a parka while everyone else is wearing shorts and light jackets.

As goes the nap...so goes the computer time

Well Luke has decided that he has way to much going on in his life to nap.  Therefore my computer time has greatly diminished.  So I just can't seem to find the time to sneak away and update the blog.  I know I will regret it when I can't remember anything that happened this whole year so I will try to give a bit of an update.

We've just living up summer.
We went to Bryan's annual work party at Lagoon and Luke loved it this year.  He even went on his first roller coaster.  He is quite the adventurer, he just kept saying he wanted to do it again and again.

Bryan and Luke in the front seat

By the end of the day we were exhausted!

We also had our family reunion that we look forward to every year.  It was great!

Having fun with cousins

Anticipating the pinata

And swimming...so much fun!

If you believe in magic

All my videos got erased of my camera...arg.. so this is the only pic I have of Luke in his party room.  Sad.

Luke's Birthday was so fun.  This is such a fun time.  He doesn't seem to care about stuff (I may eat my words when we have our family party) we can just enjoy the celebration.  I love it!  So the night before his birthday Bryan and I decorated his room, strung steamers from his fan, his door everywhere and then put balloons all over his floor.  As we started blowing up a crazy number of balloons I was a bit concerned that he would think they were day old balloons and it would all be for naught (cause he is used to being handed helium balloons at every store we go in, and is always so sad the next morning when they are deflated)

Anyway we were pretty excited the next morning...Bryan was all dressed for work and then waiting at Lukes door for him to wake up.  Luke wakes up and notices a couple of balloons and first thing he says is..."this balloon doesn't float"  But then he sees all of the streamer and tons of balloons and really got into his party room.  In fact we didn't end up taking the whole thing down until a week later he loved it so much.  Every visitor we had he'd say, "Come to my party room"

Then I went all out and made pancakes.  :)  Okay I did put sprinkles and it wowed  him and made him feel special...check.  Bryan decided to take the day off for a real birthday celebration.  We went to the zoo, ate more fries and ice cream than we should and all in all it was magical...Disney's got nothing on a three year olds birthday.

Zion

We had a wonderful weekend in Zion National Park.  This time we camped out in the park.  As luck would have it the weather didn't look great, like the whole way down it either snowed or rained on us.  So we took detour after detour, a little mexican restaurant here, Kolob Canyon there.  Eventually we arrived and the clouds parted just as we pulled up to our camp. 

Bryan on our detour to Kolob Canyon

Playing monsters in the tent was one of Luke's favorite parts of the trip.  He also LOVED having his own head lamp. 

 I think we could have just stayed at the visitors center and let Luke climb on these rocks all day.   He loved them.

Another highlight was the bus (because we bribed rewarded him with a sour patch kid at each stop, doesn't take much) 

Ta-Da

Here we are at the top of another big rock...do you see a theme.  We had made it which was quite an accomplishment.  Luke loves to either stop and laser all the passerby's (He is Buzz Lightyear) or ask their name and introduce himself (always by his full name)...so it takes a while :)  At the top of the lower emerald pools it was basically a huge mud puddle, Luke couldn't have been more thrilled.   

And of course playing by the fire with a fake mustache...I don't know...random...I just had it in my purse.

Here we are at the Temple of Sinewava.  Luke is throwing leaves and in approximately 1 minute we will be surrounded by squirrels who have no fear of humans.  As we sat down to our little picnic they tried to get in our packs, got on their back feet and begged for food, it was creepy ( and have you heard the noise they make?)...I am adding it to my irrational fears list right next to cows.

Spring Game

Well this picture is kind of old now...but I (Luke) broke my camera and we are still shopping for a new one.  I felt like it was crazy that it was snowing back in early April...little did I know what this spring had in store for us.

This was kind of our test run to see if Luke was ready for live football games next year.  Survey says...no.   Not quite.  We'll try again for sure.


Luke is officially a hilarious, brilliant, stinker.  We, being the incredibly strict parents that we are have told Luke that he is not allowed to hit, or kick or punch (boys...arg)  Anyway, he started to realize that hitting is off limits, but he still really wants to do it.  So he started munching and thwumping.   Basically softer softer versions of the offending behavior that he has given a different name...that's okay right... you just said I couldn't hit....this is only thwumping.  Where does he come up with this.  :)

Just some pics

Favorites

Someone once asked me what Luke's favorite type of toy was.  Like is he a ball boy, or does he like trucks, maybe trains.  I didn't really know how to answer at the time because he hasn't really shown a love for any one of those toy genres.  Now I know the answer...vacuum tubes.  To be honest I am not sure if all vacuum tubes hold a special place in his heart, but this one sure does.  It is his cane.  He takes it everywhere.  As you can see it was too precious to let go of even while he fell asleep.

Several times throughout the day he'll say..."where's may cane...I just had it here"



Some of his other favorite phrases are that crack me up
"I certainly do"
using the word lovely
 "I'm listening to my body"
"Which one like you the best"

March Madness

So one of my favorite parts of my job was the bracket challenge during march madness.  Kind of a sad thought...there where other parts I liked too...I just remember that being an especially fun time of year.
I missed it the first year I was home with Luke.  So the next year we started our own at home and now we have a little family tradition of doing a family bracket challenge.   I totally recommend it.  We each have our own strategies for picking teams.

• Bryan: (he may not have disclosed his entire strategy to me, this is a competition after all) but as far as I know he uses the betting lines as the basis and feels it out from there.
• Emily: I write the ranking (like top 25) next to each team and then try to get just enough upsets.
• Luke:  Luke has the absolute best system.  We just read him the teams and he picks the name of the team he thinks sounds interesting or has a connection to.  For example this year Georgia (where he was born made it to the final four... now unfortunately for him they lost in the first round)  He also picked BYU ( a team we watch a lot ) and Duke (Luker Duke is a nickname he is often called)  to go far.  I think it is so fun to see who he picks, this year he would also say... "I don't care.

I think I cut off the part that says this, but this is Luke's Bracket

Road Trip...brought to you by the Library

Luke in a mini cave in Jenny's Canyon

Our picnic spot on an overlook.  You can't tell but we are right on the edge...Luke really wanted to be exploring and snacking, not picture taking. :)

They petrified dunes.  One of our favorites.  The sandstone was so grippy that we could just walk right up and down the little mountain dunes.  Luke was apprehensive at first, and then he went all out.  Trying to follow scouts up peaks.

So its February...Okay its March, but it feels like February.  Its keeps snowing and melting and it feels like winter will never end.  For our family this means....road trip.  This particular road trip was in large part brought to us by our local public library.  You probably knew that libraries have a whole load of DVD's to entertain your kids in the back seat during a long drive.  We picked out among others, Triego (Go Diego Go)  Luke's new favorite, the whole time we were hiking he would say I'm Triego, lets save animals.  So we found lots of lizards in trouble and even a squirrel or two.   I knew about the DVDs and that was awesome cause it was shows that were new to him (not that he cares) but I didn't have to hear the same thing over and over. 
But the cool thing I discovered is that the library rents out State Park passes just like they do books.  So we headed down to Snow Canyon, and had so much fun hiking to hidden ponds, petrified dunes, normal sand dunes to just sit and dig on, run up and down.   Luke is a little climber.  We all had so much fun and got some much needed vitamin C.

Havin a Snow Day

We had a fun morning playing in the snow in our yard.  I didn't get a picture of it, but Luke's favorite thing to do with the sled is just pull it around behind himself :)

We also built the world's smallest snowman.  Decked him out in a hat, scarf, baby carrot nose, and raisin did the trick for everything else. 

How do you sleep like this?

I went in to check on Luke during his nap and this is how I found him...sleeping soundly under his current favorite book :)

When he isn't sleeping tented under a book he loves the play I spy.  However, he is convinced that the game is, "I spy with my spiky eye"  So that's how we play it in our house.

How to find books to read.

I love reading.  I used to not want to list it as one of my hobbies, cause I thought it was lame, but ya know what it is, so deal with it.  I love the journey to another place, I love learning about other times, people, I have always loved reading.  Nerd alert ... in junior high I won medals for reading... I don't remember being crazy nerdy, but a reading award does seem like cold hard proof.

Anyway, I have always been really random in picking books I read.  Often I go to my Mom and she'll hand me stack (always great).  Other times I pick one off of the libraries shelf that they are advertising for the month (never gotten a horrible one, but never found a gem either).  I will get a random recommendation and then put it on my list at the library to request when I am ready (but then I can never remember who told me about it, or what it is about by the time I am ready to read it).  Classic book club, I really like this 'cause I get a good selection from people who like a variety of subjects, but I am looking for more.

Solution!   Perhaps this is not news to anyone, but I am thrilled about it Goodreads.  But not just Goodreads, I knew about that already, but I didn't find it super helpful, because unless I knew for sure that I had similar tastes or I could remember that a bunch of other people liked the book I never took the recommendations to heart.   Until I discovered a section called "Popular Books Among My Friends"  

Sorry I made great efforts to do a little picture from the website... but to no avail... I have no techy skills.

If you want to find it just go under the friends tab, and then the popular books tab.

I am excited to read some of the books I've found on this list.


P.S. if we aren't friends on goodreads let's be.  I'd love to get a more diverse list. :)

Balloon Show

Luke is the "Balloon Show"  For those of you who may not speak Luke...that means "UP"  He will not pick a character to be, he has decided that he has the imagination required to produce the whole show.  These are are pictures of his room after a nap....as you can tell this is his most creative time.  I walked in and the room looked spootless...I thought it was pretty cool that he was cleaning.  Then he showed me his rendition of the Balloon show house.  He had packed everything in the corner and wanted me to get in so that we could take off.  Then when we realize we are to heavy we throw every one of his possessions out one by one. 

I wish you could see how deep this pile actually is.

This is only one of the ways we play balloon show.  Bry and I and even Murphy get to play our own parts.  Luke will divy them out based on how he is feeling, but generally he is Carl, we have deduced this because he carries a cane, throws balls and bosses  us around, (but don't call him Carl he is the Balloon Show)  I am most often Russell, Bry is the Snipe (kevin)  Murphy is the dog Doug (but not always).  So  we walk all around the house I  give fake chocolate to Bry and whatever other schemes Luke cooks up.   He loves it.  He is hilarious. 

New Hair Product

Luke and I have this little agreement.  After we read books if he still isn't ready to nap he can have quiet time...sounds innocent enough right.  He has a a truck we keep in his room, usually he will play with that for 15 minutes and then zonk out.  I feel like a tricky mom cause I trick him into napping, he feels tricky cause he gets away with playing instead of napping, he forgets that he is going to fall asleep, everyone is happy.   This has been working wonderfully for months.

Well now it has started taking him a bit longer to fall asleep.  And apparently the truck isn't keeping his interest.  Earlier this week apparently quiet time turned into fun time and Luke turned into this.

Desitin- gives great hold and body

Does not come out !

I scrubbed his head (and carpet, clothes, and furniture) for days.  A magic combination of Dawn-the blue kind, peanut butter-I think just to be gross, and the real kicker a HAIRCUT did the trick.   His poor eyes were bloodshot for days. 

Christmas with a 2 Year-Old

The terrible two's are talked about a lot,  oft times with good reason I must admit.  But a two year old at Christmas is a dream.  This Christmas was sooo perfect.  All leading up to Christmas we were able to do so many fun holiday things and Luke just got the wonder of the thing we were doing.  He loved seeing Santa, but didn't wonder why he wasn't bringing him presents.   He loved driving through the lights, he loved cutting the countdown Christmas chain, making pretzels for the neighbors.   He loved taking the neighbors the little pretzel bags, he would say Merry Christmas, then turn to me and say I'm Santa, I have big hands.  Made Wassail.  We made a manger for baby Jesus and filled it with straw when we did nice things.  Read Christmas books everyday, became Frosty, reindeer, santa.  Sang Christmas songs...mostly just Rudolf.  Just such simple simple things and it was enough.  I loved it! 

He came down Crismas morning and just stopped and said....Santa came.  We had a kitchen there for him unwrapped.  He just played and played with that.  I had all the little accessories individually wrapped up inside it.  But he didn't care to unwrap any presents he just wanted to play with what he had it was so fun.  Of course it didn't last forever,  he did get the idea after going to house after house he started to ask for presents.  But Christmas morning at our own house was so sweet.  This was the first time we have done it on our own.  The timing was perfect, it was so sweet to be together just our family.   And then go spen time with our extended families was perfect.

Digging for Treasure

Everything is so fun when you are two.  Luke so looks forward to the snow...which I get.  I love snuggling up with a good cup of cocoa.  Okay I even love making a snowman, and a snow angel.   Sledding is super fun when I am all bundled.  Bud this is not what Luke loves about the snow he wants to go shovel.   When ever he sees it snowing he says ooo....lets go dig.  You see the first snow of the year I took his shovel out of the sandbox and told he could shovel like me.  He was thrilled and all of the sudden he was digging for buried treasure...ah to be two.

Really getting into making a snow angel...he also makes them happily indoors.