fall soccer

Sam and Luke both played soccer this fall.  Sam's team went undefeated ... Ben claims it was because of excellent coaching.  He was the coach.  :)
 

Luke's team had a great season, too.  Won a few, lost a few, but had fun playing since lots of his friends were on the team.

nine

Happy Birthday to my sweet Luke.  Nine years old today.

first day of school

Summer seemed to fly by this year, and none of us were ready for school to start. We still had a long list of things we wanted to do before the days of alarm clocks and homework came around.  Ready or not, here's what the first day of school looked like around here ... 
Emery - 9th grade:

Sam - 6th grade, and Luke - 3rd grade:

glow draw

When Ben suggested we get an ipad a few months ago, I thought that was a ridiculous idea.  I saw no need for an ipad.  Well, turns out I was wrong.  (Did I just say that?)  It's true, I love the ipad.  Luke does, too.  Here are a few of his glow draw creations:

the never-ending baseball season (plus a little lacrosse)

Now that summer is well under-way, our "spring sports" have finally ended.  We spent most of our spring and early summer evenings watching the boys play various sports. 

Emery and Luke played baseball.

Emery was on the Angels:

Luke was on the White Sox:

and Sam decided to give lacrosse a try this spring:

 

But things didn't end there ... after Sam's lacrosse season and Luke's regular baseball season ended, somehow they both ended up on their cousin Jake's baseball team for the tournament.  Go Mets!:

 (Luke rubbing his rear end after getting hit by a

pitch in his first ever kid-pitch game)

(Luke, Jake and Sam)

And when all of that ended, Luke played on an all-star team.

Good thing we love watching these boys play sports!

good night, sock monkey

Sleeping with a sock monkey is so much better than sleeping alone ...



the boomerang

Dictionary’s definition of a boomerang: “a flat curved piece of wood used as a weapon by Australian Aboriginals that is designed to return to the person who throws it”

Let's analyze this for just a moment …

Point no. 1:  First, I fully support the description that a boomerang is, in fact, a weapon.  Not necessarily a toy, as my unsuspecting trio of boys once assumed.

Point no. 2:  I disagree with the definition where it states that it is designed to return to the person who throws it.  Because while this may be true for the Australian Aboriginals, it fails to mention that the boomerang may, in fact, follow an unpredictable and perilous flight pattern if thrown by a novice-boomerang-throwing-13-year-old boy.

With all this being said, Emery made a sweet boomerang in woodshop.

The boys had a fabulous time flinging it high and far.  Ten minutes later, the reality of points no. 1 and no. 2 became quite evident.

Needless to say, Luke was the unfortunate victim of the boomerang-ing band of brothers.  A trip to InstaCare and seven stitches later, he was all sewn up.

At least Luke will have an interesting story behind this scar.

Luke's baptism

This cute boy was baptized last Saturday.

 It was a special day and we're so proud of him!   

 

And the whole family came over afterwards for a yummy lunch.

 
 
 

That night, we continued our "baptism tradition" of going to dinner at The Lion House, just like we did when Emery was baptized, and just like we did when Sam was baptized.  Luke got new scriptures after dinner and started reading them that night.  What a good boy.

Congratulations, Luke!

Luke is 8!

Luke turned 8 last Friday.  Now, birthdays are a big deal in general, but turning 8 is a really big deal, because that means Luke will get baptized in a couple of weeks! We're so excited! 

Plus, this was an unforgettable birthday since we were out of town with some of our friends, so we had quite a celebration!  Complete with party hats and doughnuts on the beach.

 

(Yep ... Emery is wearing a sweet party hat while wakeboarding!)

I adore Luke.  And here are, yes, eight reasons why ...

1)  Not only is he my youngest, so he will forever hold the all-important title of "my baby," but he is seriously one of the sweetest boys on the planet.

2)  He has the cutest two front teeth I've ever seen.

3)  He's a total peacemaker.
4)  He's not a picky eater and will try just about anything.  In fact, he actually likes most of the things I make (just not chicken enchiladas)!
5)  He has THE BEST handwriting.  I love to see how perfectly he writes his letters.  Seriously, check this out ...

6)  He's usually a great helper and he'll sometimes ask me if he can do a little work to earn some extra money.

7)  Not only is Luke an awesome student, but he goes the extra mile by drawing pictures on and decorating his spelling tests ...

How cute is that?!
8)  Luke is such a happy kid and so much fun to be around!

Happy Birthday, Luke!  I love you tons and I'm so lucky to be your Mom!!