Luke's Birthday Part 2

Forgot to post these pictures of our family festivities. Luke requested his favorite cake. Chocolate with white frosting. No sprinkles, writing, nada! I also didn't have 32 candles, so we did 6 for how many people are in our family. Awww how cute! Can my boys ever make a normal face?

K this is the best part. I told the 3 older kids to make their daddy a card. It's quite funny how different boys and girls are in this category. Nick has never been one to color or draw. It's just not him. Sammy adores it and can do it for hours. Parker, well he is Parker so he loves it for the first 3 min and then he is done. So here is Nick's:

Simple but totally Nick.

Then here is Sammy's:

Can you say adorable? I love her detail. Seriously look at the eyelashes and the arrows telling us to turn the page. And how cute is the inside? Her giving her dad a balloon bouquet.

Now Parker's:

Let me tell you what it is. He told me the blue is water and the brown is poo. That may have been my proudest moment as a mother.

Luke had a great day. One day we will be able to actually celebrate on his birthday, but for now we let the kids have his day and we always celebrate the night before.

Happy Birthday Lover Boy!

Today is Luke Sherrill Lund's birthday. Oh man he is so going to kill me for putting his middle name in there. Hey it's his BIRTH-day so I kind of have to put his full name. Personally I have grown very fond of his middle name and I thank my mother in law Cathy for giving it to him. For giving him a piece of her family to stay.

See I am not into the whole gush about my man on facebook. I find it annoying and even more annoying when I know their husbands don't even have a facebook. Yes, I know I have a problem. Some may think I need to get over it, I won't. But on my blog I can write anything I want because...hello it's my blog. If I annoy you then you just don't check it, right? Okay so back to my man. He is 32 today!!! Many of you already know that Luke is pretty awesome. I am one lucky girl. Really, I am! He puts up with my craziness. Which has been a little out of control lately(thank you IUD). He always puts himself last. He is never buying anything for himself. Which drives me a little crazy, but makes birthday shopping for him so much fun. Funny story about Luke. We went to Old Navy because I had a really awesome coupon. I told him to get himself some new clothes. He really needs them. I was secretly hoping he would get things that were a little more fashionable. He throws some shirts in the cart. I look at them and see that he picked out 6 plain t-shirts in 6 different colors. I gave him a look and he said " they were only $5!'. Oh Lukie boy......... the best part were the colors he picked out. 2 shades of gray,2 shades of blue, black, and white. We just laughed and I still kind of tease him about it. Luke is a great husband and father. I am so grateful for him. We love him!

Colt of the Month

Nicholas was chosen as Colt of the Month for the month of October. There are 2 different awards that they give out each month. Mustang of the Month(which Nick received last year) is an outstanding student from each class. Colt of the Month is a student from each class that improves on a certain subject. Nick's improvement was in Read Comprehension. Nick is awesome. He tries his little heart out. He puts 100% into any class and sport he is in. I love that about him. Going from first to second grade has been a hard adjustment for Nick and for his mom. He has a great teacher who really expects a lot. I knew this when I requested her for Nick. I felt like it was time for him to have a teacher that really made him work hard. Well this teacher has done just that. She pushes him hard, and because of that he has been struggling a little. My kids are smart but I will be the first one to admit they aren't super smart. Things just don't come easy to them. They have to really work hard. Some things come easier to them and some take some more thought and patience. Reading comprehension was hard for Nick. When he brought his first progress report home he had a grade I was not okay with. So I contacted his teacher to ask her what we could do. For the last couple weeks she has been sending home packets for him and I to work on together. He is doing so well and I am so proud of him. He is growing up into an awesome boy. We let him choose which parent he wanted there at the award ceremony. He picked me at first but then asked if he could change it. He was glad Luke could make it.

Mischievous Noah

Noah is............

Hard
Adorable
Active 24/7
Mischievous
A Dare Devil
Spoiled
A Stinker
My Baby

By far Noah is my hardest baby. On the go ALL the time. No one believes me until they see it. This kid hates being confined, which explains why we don't travel much right now. He would play outdoors all day long if I let him. Even though he is a hard one to handle he is still my baby. This baby is growing up so fast right before my eyes. We have a couple days a week of alone time. We spend some of that time shopping, cleaning, and playing. The other day he was being so cute for the camera. He was totally cheesing it up.
 
I then traced his hand and realized that chubby hand isn't going to be chubby for much longer. I have to admit I got a little teary eyed.

See he is growing up and I don't like it!

PINK Half

My sister in law Melodie told me about an amazing half marathon in Park City. I talked some friends into coming with me and doing it. This half marathon is called The Pink Series Half. It's only women and it's for breast cancer. I can't even tell you how awesome it was to run with just women and to see everyone wearing pink for breast cancer. Very empowering!

We went up on Friday and checked into the hotel. It was FREEZING! Like rain and snow freezing. It freaked us out just a little knowing that we had to run in that weather.


The next morning we woke up bright and early and waited in the snow to catch a shuttle to the start line. We waited and waited.


We had the cutest matching outfits picked out and we thought that maybe we wouldn't be able to run in them because of the weather. Just in case we took some pictures the night before.

 
 
Things got a little out of control.......

 

I'm telling you I think our drinks were spiked. Since the weather wasn't cooperating with us I had to start running in this totally awesome pink MC Hammer sweatpants. Luckily the weather got better and we got to show off our cute outfits.

This next picture we stole from the photography website so it's not the greatest quality. We were all supposed to hold hands and hold them up high. Cindy decided to strike a pose. Silly girl!

This course was amazing. The weather started to warm up around mile 4 or so. It couldn't have been better. The scenery was amazing!. We ran through fields, by old barns. Way better than our runs here in Vegas. I finished with a time of 2:25. Not very happy about it but considering the weather I think it's fine. Most people do better with each race. Ha Ha! Not me! I keep getting worse. First half was 2:22, 2nd one was 2:24, and then 2:25 with this one. Good thing I am not a crazy psycho runner who has to beat my PR everytime. I honestly love doing it for the experience and a chance to be with my girls. The grab bag was the best grab bag I have ever  received. We got pink Skull Candy ear phones, a bunch of  yummy energy foods, and the race shirt was so nice. You know how you always get shirts you can wear running. Well this shirt was donated by Downeast and it is something I would normally wear. Score! Here is a picture of my wearing it. Looooove it!

 Also instead of medals The PINK series gives out charms. Well my wonderful sister in law(who i never got a picture with) bought me this necklace with a couple charms. Thanks Mel! She also got me a birthstone bead to go on it but it fell off right before this picture and I had to take the kids to school, so I was in a hurry.

We got this amazing room at the hotel where our finish line was. We had our own private hot tub on our balcony. So we soaked our hard working muscles in it. Oh HEAVEN!


Once we were rested we got ready and treated ourselves to pedicures, shopping, and eating. It was so much fun. Holly came to keep us company. We were so glad she was there. Even if she does think we are a little loco now.

It was such a great time and I am still thinking about a week later. I love Park City. I hope one day we have enough money and we can buy a summer house there, and you are all invited!:)

Holy Drama!

Girls=Drama. Plain and simple. I am so glad I have a girl but when it comes to Sammy getting hurt the world ends. No really. I swear our neighbors can hear her crying and screaming whenever she gets hurt. Sometimes it's actually quite comical. Last night was a different story. Luke pulled Sammy's first tooth last night. It's been loose for a while and after she brushed her teeth last night it was hanging by a thread. Like I said before in Nick's post about him loosing his first tooth. I don't pull teeth. I can't and I won't. Luke can't wait to do it. He can't just leave it alone. He would rather pin our kids to the ground and pry their mouth open. It was sad when he was doing this to Sammy. I didn't feel that way about Nick's. Maybe it's because Sammy is a girl. I'm not sure. But she was crying my name and telling Luke she didn't like him. I know it all sounds mean but when Luke wants to do it, there is no stopping him. So finally he got it and I let Sammy stay up later than the other kids so she could draw the Tooth Fairy a picture. I love Sammy's pictures. She is so creative and is actually quite a good artist. She could draw for hours. Here is the picture

Let me explain this picture. The Tooth Fairy is the little thing to the left. The thing that looks like a house is a carriage and that's a horse pulling it. Sammy is in the front to the left. I seriously love her drawings.

 Sammy hard at work.

And here is my little girl who is not so little anymore. Such a sad face. That night I was for sure the favorite parent. Which rarely happens.

My Childhood

There are certain things I remember from my childhood homes. When my parents were moving they had piles of things they were getting rid of. There were a few things that I just couldn't let them toss. To others(Ahem Luke) they may seem weird, but to me they mean something. I love being able to bring little things into my home that remind me of my childhood.


This first item is a keyring. We had it in both the homes I grew up in. This is the item that some(Ahem Luke) find weird. It's not really my style but it means something to me. I love it.

This last one is my favorite. My mom used these bunk beds when she was younger. I believe her grandfather built them for her. So my mother played with them, my sisters and I played with them, and now Sammy gets to play with them. They were wood but the wood was all scratched up, so Sammy and I painted them white. We had so much fun doing this. I loved seeing the excitement on her face when we took them into her room.