Family Pictures Luke Style

The week of the 4th of July, my family decided to all meet up in Utah for a mini-reunion.  It was a very exciting time since it's been YEARS since we have ALL been together in the same place. Every time we try to get together for something in the past, there is always SOMEONE missing.

Since this was a special time for our family, we decided to hire a photographer.  My wonderful mother knew it might be a little too much for me to handle at the time so she spared me the stress of doing the pictures for the family and hired Roze Photography instead.

                                                                        

Luke Family

                         

Mom & Dad Luke

                                                                              

Jared & Jenna

Damon & Summer

Matt & Kristy

 Chad & Andrea

Nate & Tiff

My 3 favorite people...

My two favorite girls...

And, my hot guy...

What more could a girl want?

Grandpa & Grandma with all their grand-kids

My Grandpa Luke

He's a stud.

I love this picture..

This is me with my 4 brothers.

Jared, Chad, Matt & Damon

All older than me.

yes, i'm the baby of the family

and yes, I was spoiled.

My sis-in-laws and myself with my mom.

Since the photographer was a friend of mine, I asked her to do me a favor and snap a few shots of my girls after the family shoot was done.

This one is a favorite from a photographers stand point... I love that she told my girls to make a serious face, and they did it... I've trained them well. :-)

I'm so glad we were all together and able to get some fun pictures. 

More 4th of July and reunion pictures to come...

All about Addy

Oh Addy. This little girl at 4 years old is just a ray of sunshine at our house.  She really is such a good girl. All around.  She has her moments, of course, but for the most part, she is just great. She loves her big sister with all her heart.  She feels protected by her. She is passionate about her family. She is passionate about her favorite things.  She has a koala bear that she got from build a bear around Christmas time and it's her little friend. She loves to dress it. She loves to save her money she earns to buy new clothes for her bear.  Addy LOVES clothes.  She loves to play dress up. She loves barbies for that same reason. She loves her daddy and prefers him when she gets hurt.  She is so smart. She is tall. She has beautiful bleach blonde hair.  She has the BEST laugh. It's contagious. She loves to stay close to mom.  She is easily nervous. She is easily worried.  She loves gymnastics and is really getting good at it.  She loves to learn. She loves to hang out with me everywhere I go. Even if we are in the same house.  She loves her grandparents SO much.  She is easily excited about things.  She sleeps well. She goes right to sleep at night, usually wakes up once saying she's scared but goes right back to sleep.  She LOVES to snuggle.  

Most of all... we just love our little Addy. I wish she could stay little forever.

Addy at 4

I can't believe that my baby is 4. Definitely not a baby anymore.  This year was very entertaining in getting ready for her birthday. Every time we asked her what she wanted for her birthday, her answer was: clothes.  Not your normal 4 year old answer, but there it is.  I also asked her what kind of birthday she wanted and her answer was, "I don't want a party."  Upon asking why, her reply was "cuz then lots of people come".   She doesn't do well in crowds.

So, we kept things very simple.

Addy's big request for her birthday besides clothes was that she wanted to get her nails done. Yes, she is ALL GIRL.  So, I took the girls for their first excursion to get their nails done. They were absolutely thrilled about the idea.

Then, we had a little 'friends' party for her with a few of her best little buddies.  She doesn't play much with these girls because she is just very nervous to be away from me and doesn't really handle social situations very well. BUT, these little girls she see's as her best little friends. (Autumn, Hailey, Sophie & Maya)

Last, was a party at Chuck E. Cheeses with only those she is most comfortable with, and we kept it small for her sake.  But, first, this is how I found her before her last little hoorah!

Poor girl was exhausted. I had to wake her up to get her ready for her family party at Chuck E Cheeses.

This little Koala Bear has slept with Addy every night since her birthday. It was a great day with great people and Addy could not have felt more love on her birthday. She was surrounded by her biggest fans and I am just grateful for such great family. 

Hailey's Desk

There's a little dresser in the girls room that Hailey has adopted as her 'Desk'.  Of course Addy wanted one too, so hers is their other dresser. Hailey, however has taken great pride in how her desk looks and organizes it every day.  She came to me the other day and asked me to take a picture of her desk so she can always remember how 'good and organized' it looked.

Well, instead of taking the picture for her (the girls know VERY well that they do not touch my camera) I let her take it herself.  She was quite excited and quite proud.  I love to see the things that my little ones learn to do or get excited about. Just the fact that she took the time to organize and arrange things to her liking is just so great.  Hailey has always been one for cleanliness.. she does like things clean. Being born into two VERY clean oriented parents, i'm afraid she's doomed. Hopefully she just doesn't get OCD about it.  Time will tell.

I do love watching them grow and watching them learn new things every day.  As you can see, there is a  picture of my mom, myself and the girls and it has now been replaced with a framed picture of the temple that she got from grandma.  I was actually a little sad at first because she LOVED that picture of us at the Paris in Las Vegas, but in reality, i'm also very glad that she was happy enough to have her very own framed temple picture that she would want to put it on her 'desk' with all her other important things.

Summer Time Fun

This summer has been awesome. We've had lots of play time with cousins and friends. Once a week, my friend Becca comes over with her little boy who is one of Hailey and Addy's favorite people.  A few times a week we meet up with my sister in law Summer for some hang out time.  There's always some good times to be had around here.

These pictures are from when my sister in law Jessie was in town for the weekend.  I wasn't around much due to being laid up, but she snapped some fun pictures of the girls.

My friend Becca has the sweetest little boy Bryant who is one of Hailey and Addy's best little buddies. They always get excited to see him.

One day while walking around Zurchers, Addy went missing. I panicked a little. I called out her name and when I turned the corner, I found this...

There was a weekend where my mom came to visit. I have some really good friends who are musicians.  They put on a benefit concert to help their brother who has a heart condition.  It was a really fun weekend. The concert was AWESOME and there was also an auction. Of course it was right up Nate's alley and we ended up winning a football signed by the entire Miami Dolphin team as well as a CD by Sheila E.  Then, as we were driving home from the event, my father in law handed me a late birthday present which was a whale bone carving that I had been drooling over.  Aside from this event, there was lots of cousin time, including some serious trampoline pop-ups provided by Nate and Damon.

I'm glad for many reasons that this picture is blurry and dark. :-) But I was excited to wear this dress to the benefit.  This is the same dress that I wore after my wedding reception and it still fit! YAY!  Well, besides the lovely baby bump from being pregnant, but you can't really hide that no matter what dress, right?  Addy insisted that I wear it that night because it was 'sparkly'. 

Hailey and Addy hanging out on their bed before grandma left to head home to Vegas.

This was a great weekend and one I won't forget.

I'm grateful to have such great friends who would share a great charity event with us and who always makes us feel like family. Thanks Mo and Jr!

Mothers and Fathers and Tee Ball OH MY!

Has it really been so long since I last blogged? Yes, it has. I've been a little introverted lately. I haven't really been in the mood to blog, but I realize that I need to get in the mood, because there is a lot that I need to record.

First off, Mother's Day.  Mother's Day this year was one of the best. I woke up that morning to Hailey being so sweet and excited that it was in fact Mother's Day. I got lots of hugs, snuggles and kisses.  She and Daddy got up to make me breakfast when Addy came running in after waking up to say "Happy Mother's Day Mommy!".  Instead of staying in bed, I decided to get up and help with breakfast. I'm not one to easily go back to sleep in the mornings. Once i'm awake, i'm up!  

So, off to the kitchen I went while Nate and the girls lingered upstairs.  As I entered the kitchen, I saw a brand new laptop sitting on the counter with a note that said "Happy Mother's Day". I was absolutely ecstatic. If you know Nate, you know that he rarely keeps ANYTHING that's new. He sells new things. He doesn't keep them.  But, for me, he did.  I LOAD my computers with pictures, editing programs and digital scrapbooking and it's great to have a computer guy for a husband who knows what it would take for me to have a great laptop. He's the best.

(Hailey was very specific on how we were to pose for this picture- oldest to youngest)

Soon after I saw my surprise, Hailey and Addy came running in the kitchen with cute little cards they had made. We had a yummy breakfast complete with bacon, eggs and toast. Yummm...  It was a great mother's day. We ended the day with having a steak dinner at my inlaws and just great company. Aside from all the great treats that I had this day, I was just mostly grateful for the opportunity I have had to be a mother to two of the most beautiful girls. They are my life, aside from my amazing husband and I love them so much it hurts.

Second. Father's Day.  I was really excited about Father's Day this year. We started the day off with waffles and ice cream. Nate was showered with gifts from the girls and I.  This year we got him new softball stuff, a subscription to ESPN magazine, and a couples massage.  He was totally spoiled and completely worth it.  He's the best dad. He's the best husband.  I've said it before but every day he surprises me with how amazing he is. I know he's quiet around most people, but really, once you know him, you would know that he is the best human I know. I'm so blessed to be a part of his life. 

After church and after a complete emotional breakdown I had, (poor guy has to deal with me) we took the girls and a cooler packed with sandwiches and capri suns up the canyon to our first stop which was Squaw Peak.  The girls ABSOLUTELY loved being so high. They have always called it Pride Rock in looking at it from a distance.  After coming down off that scary road, we headed up to Vivian Park to spend some time and have a picnic.  Hailey managed to use her expertise bug catching skills to catch 3 butterflies that day at the park, all in full flight.  After our picnic, and spending some good quality time with Daddy on Father's Day, we headed home where we made some BBQ Ribs and mashed potatoes. Mmmm....

Nate is the best dad. One of the things I absolutely love about him is that he listens. That is something that guys generally have a hard time doing and he does it well. The best part about this quality is that he listens to the girls. Any time they have something to say, he's there to listen with his whole heart. We love our Nater.

Third. Tee Ball.  Hailey wanted to try Tee Ball and as you can imagine, Nate was pretty excited about it. Turns out, she's a pretty good little hitter. She's a much better hitter when someone throws the ball to her than her trying to hit it off a T.  She's a cute little player and enjoys it. She has this hot pink bat that she always takes to practice and to the games and the funny thing is, it's the favorite bat of all the players. :-) Even the boys on her team pick the pink bat. It's cute.  I love watching her in the outfield with her mitt that looks giant on her tiny hand. Softball is such a part of our lives and she's happy that we get to go to HER games as well as Daddy's games.  Most of the time, when she's not playing or waiting her turn to bat, she's digging in the dirt and not paying attention at all. I felt much better about that when Nate's mom informed me that Hailey reminds her so much of Nate because he always did the very same things.