Can You Believe It?

I can't believe Luke is 1 today. Wow! Time goes by so fast. He is such a good boy, and we are so blessed to have him. Here is a look at his 1st year:

August 2008

Such a sweet baby, born on August 19, 2008 at 1:04 PM

September 2008

One Month Old

October 2008

Two Months Old October 12, 2008, Luke was blessed.
Luke's first Halloween was a fun one. We attended our ward Trunk-or-Treat, where we won first place in the Chili Cookoff. Even though I was the one who made it, Nate got all the glory. What? :)

Luke was a hit in his referee costume.
GOAL!

Nate and I decided to join the fun. Nate was a football player, and I was a cheerleader.
We also got to go the the Corn Maze with our good friends Amber and Brady. Luke slept pretty much the entire time.

November 2008

Three Months Old

On November 1, 2008, Luke got a new cousin:

Meet Faith. She belongs to Nate's oldest sister, Jessica.

Luke's first Thanksgiving could have been the most exciting Thanksgiving I've ever had. My little brother, Kade, played in a football tournament in Las Vegas, so my entire family spent Thanksgiving in Vegas/St. George. We stayed our first 2 nights at the Stratosphere Hotel and watched Kade play. His team ended up taking 2nd place in the tournament. It was fun to watch. On Thanksgiving Day, we decided to go to a buffet in Las Vegas. It was really good, but didn't satisfy our craving for Thanksgiving dinner. On Saturday, we all went back to St. George to my sister, Valerie's house, where we had a real Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious.

Playing some slot machines. Don't worry, we didn't play for real. In fact, right after I took this picture a man came up to us and told us we had to leave because babies weren't allowed. :)

Go Kade!

It was a little wet at times, but we stuck it out.

It is always so fun to have my family all together. It's crazy how fast our family is growing.

December 2008
Four Months Old

All I can say about December is weddings, weddings, weddings. I won't post any pictures, but we went to Scott and Julie's wedding on December 13 in the Salt Lake Temple. Then on December 20, we had 2 weddings. Grant married Zaundra, and Jules married Nate. We were very lucky to have both weddings in the Boise Temple. It would have been really hard to choose between those two. All of the weddings were amazing. We feel very blessed to have such great friends, and we're really blessed that they choose great spouses. :)
While we were in Utah at Scott and Julie's wedding, the transmission went out on our Civic. It made life a little crazy, but we ended up buying a new car just in time to travel to Spokane, WA for Christmas.

We had so much fun with Nate's family for Christmas. It is always more fun when there are a lot of kids. Luke wasn't old enough to really care about Christmas, but he had fun getting better acquainted with his cousins.

He also got to be Baby Jesus in the Nativity. Not sure he liked it too well, but he played the part. :)

All the new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!
This year in Spokane, they had record breaking snow. It was so pretty, but made our drive home extremely difficult. We made the drive to Idaho Falls in 10.5 hours. This could normally be done in about 7 hours. Even though I was pretty sure my life was over, Nate was a champ and we made it safely.

January 2009
Five Months Old We spent New Year's with my family in Idaho Falls. We played some WII and just hung out. Too bad Luke couldn't stay awake to welcome in the new year. But he did find his toes.
On January 10, 2009, Luke tried rice cereal and HATED it!

February 2009

Six Months Old
On February 7, 2009 Luke got another new cousin:This is Brock. He is my sister Valerie's son.

Nate's mom and sister came to visit us, and we got to feed the ducks. Ann Morrison Park in Boise is one of our favorite parks. There are always a ton of ducks. It was pretty cold, but Luke loved the ducks!


We also went to our first BSU basketball game. Some man was very nice and gave us his tickets, so we had decent seats that we didn't have to pay for. The game was against Idaho, which is a HUGE rival to BSU. It came down to the buzzer, but Idaho won.

On February 19, 2009, Luke got his first tooth! (the 2nd one came a week later)

He graduated to a crib in February

Yay for his mom and dad!

And he became entertainer of the year. See for yourself...



We went to our friend's, Brooke and Holly, and they have a dog, Toby. This was not the first time that Luke had seen Toby, but for some reason he loved Toby this time. He just started laughing out of the blue. I was so grateful I had my camera! The next few time that he saw Toby, he cried. Why was this time so funny? Maybe he was tired? Weird.

March 2009
Seven Months Old

On March 2, 2009, Luke started on veggies. He liked carrots a lot better than the rice cereal.
During Nate's spring break, we made a trip to California to visit Nate's family. Matt and Janelle came from San Antonio so Luke was able to meet his cousins Caroline and Talmage.

While we were in California Luke got his first cold. It was a horrible time to get sick, but we stll did some fun things...

like taking a ride in Grandma Genie's GoKart.

And seeing the ocean!
We came home through St. George so we could be at Brock's baby blessing.
I wonder what they are talking about?

And Luke won another entertainment award. He loves his bouncy chair!

This was the end result. Too funny! :)

April 2009

Eight Months Old
The weather was so nice in Boise that we spent a lot of time at the park. And we decided that it was time for a haircut! On April 13, 2009, our friend Holly gave Luke his first haircut.
Before

This is how much hair we cut off,

And this is the end result!
So Cute!

May 2009

Nine Months Old
Luke really likes to be thrown around by Nate, even though it scares me!

He also got haircut #2, that was very well needed. I can't believe how fast his hair grows.

At the end of May, we went to Idaho Falls to see my sisiter, Cortney, graduate from high school.

While we were in Idaho Falls, Luke developed a new love for 4 wheelers, and we got our family pictures taken.

And the biggest accomplishment of the month...

On May 25, 2009, Luke finally crawled forward! YAY!

June 2009
Ten Months Old

My brother, Mike, and his family came to Boise to visit us in June. We had so much fun!

Luke is lucky to have cousins close to his age. Hudson thought it was so cool that they both had monkey pajamas.
Luke got to go swimming for the first time. He loved it!

Makenna did Nate's hair; hence the little horns coming out of his head. :)

Luke developed some pretty weird sleeping habits. He moves around so much in his sleep. It's crazy!
And he went from crawling, to climbing on EVERYTHING! We had to baby-proof our house pretty quickly.
Big Boy!

July 2009
Eleven Months Old
We spent the 4th of July in Idaho Falls. I love the 4th in Idaho Falls! We went to the parade, then to Mike and Kendra's for a BBQ. Luke really liked the slip-n-slide.

That night we went to the fireworks. In previous years we have sat at the river all day and saved incredible seats. This year, no one wanted to sit there all day so we watched them from Freeman Park. I am happy to report that the fireworks were still amazing from there. :)It's always fun to spend time with family.

The month of July was a big month for Luke.He got a new booster seat.
And he graduated to a big boy stroller and a big boy carseat.
On July 11, 2009, we said goodbye to Boise and hello to San Antonio, Texas. Nate had a break in school so we decided to come sell pest control again. This is the 5th summer for Nate so he is a pro. So far, it has been really good. I stay home with Luke so we play while Nate works. Sad! :(

I think we have finally adjusted to the heat, but it's helpful to have an occasional rain storm. They have been few and far between this summer though.
Luke got soaked just going to our car. It was a crazy rain storm.

August 2009

One Year Old

We have really enjoyed our time in Texas. Despite the crazy pest control hours Nate has to work, we try to do some fun things.
We went to Dallas for a weekend to spend time with some of Nate's buddies. His friend Tom had a baby, so we got to go for the blessing.

We've been to the Hard Rock Cafe on the Riverwalk with our friends, Scott and Julie.

Luke and I spend a lot of time at the pool with Paige and Pheonix. In case you couldn't tell by the look on his face, Luke always enjoys himself at the pool.

I love watching Luke grow, and seeing more of his personality. He loves to be involved in whatever is going on. If I leave him for one second...

I find him under the sink in the bathroom...

Or climbing into the dishwasher.

One of my favorite things that Luke does happens when he gets really tired. He will rub my arm, or anyone's arm that he can touch, until he falls asleep. I think it is so sweet.

Here he is rubbing Scott's arm AND Julie's arm. :)

All in all, we try to work hard, play hard, and then we sleep.

:)

Happy Birthday Luke! Here's to many, many more!