By Luke

Just wanted to share a little bit of Luke's art work. He was rather proud in spite of the trouble he was in.

Yes, that's our dining room. He colored in EVERY. SINGLE. SQUARE. (It's also possible that this happened like a month ago and only half of the squares are clean--it takes more elbow grease than I have most days :)

The Wisdom of a Five-Year-Old

I currently have a five-year-old, and he is very, very wise. Much wiser than I was, I’m sure. But his wisdom is not the wisdom to which I am referring.

27 years ago I was five years old. I started kindergarten with my best friend Ashley. I still remember my first day and for many, many years have chuckled at the first conversation Ashley and I had inside those doors.

We sat just inside those doors in the entry way/mud room and proceeded to say things such as, “Can you believe how old we are?!” “I can’t believe we’re in kindergarten.” “We are so old!”

For so many years, I have thought about how silly and funny we were. I have been wrong. Tomorrow my baby is starting kindergarten. All these years, the grown-up me has been wrong. I'm realizing that those five-year-old little girls actually knew a thing or two. They were right. Five is so old and so grown-up. I can’t believe my baby is so grown-up and starting kindergarten. (He has started to tell me, "mom, I don't want you to cry!" Tough cookies, kid. It's happening 'cause that's how I roll.)

Good luck, Mikey! We are so excited for you!

Thoughtless Semi-Nude Teenage Boys

So, Mikey had been begging to go on a hike, and things had been kind of crazy and non-stop lately. Though darkness was going to be an issue if both Mikey and Luke made it all the way to the lake we were shooting for, we decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it. As it turns out, both boys were absolute troopers. Mikey expressed concern about having to come back down all the way we'd come up, because it was probably a good 45 minutes up the mountain, there was really a shocking absence of whining and complaining the whole way both ways (Luke did 90% of the way back down on my shoulders, so I guess I shouldn't have expected too much complaining there).



Well, we made it, and both boys spent every precious moment at the water's edge trying to hit the too-tame ducks that foolishly wandered in our direction. It was a lot of fun, and I'm very proud of my boys (except for the throwing rocks at ducks part, but we'll cover that later).

Getting back to the headline, on the way up the mountain, there was a young man who passed us as he ran up the trail for a tough workout. He was sporting gym shorts and an Ipod, and a shirt was conspicuously absent. This conversation ensued:

Mikey: Dad, that guy didn't have a shirt on.
Me: Yup, he sure didn't.
Mikey: Why didn't he have a shirt on?
Me: I dunno. He was probably hot and it's cooler without a shirt on.
Mikey: It's pretty un-polite when people don't wear shirts, isn't it?
Me: I suppose it is.

Alone time without children...

Mikey just informed us that since he will be starting school and out of the house we will have much more time to discuss all the surprises we have for him.

Center of the World

Our little Joey is the center of the world in our house. The older boys are sad when he's asleep and excited when he wakes up and spend most of their time trying to get him to laugh, which usually really isn't too hard. He does have a pretty awesome laugh.

He is now quite the little walker. He took his first steps way back in the middle of July, but then seemed to decide that crawling was the preferred method of travel. But now all of sudden in the last week or two he has just taken off running. Well, not actually running, but still walking everywhere.

But before he could even walk, he was obsessed with climbing. It's frightening at times. Mikey has a very high bunk bed and Joey climbs right to top if I'm not there to intervene. All my boys climb. They're boys. But none quite like Joey.

One of his secretly cute, but outwardly embarrassing habits is his slapping. Yes, slapping. When holding him, you must be on guard at all times. He is all smiles and laughing and suddenly SLAP! He smiles through the whole thing and if it didn't hurt it would be funny. We stifle laughs to try and teach him, but he still thinks it's all part of a game. It gets embarrassing when the younger neighborhood girls come up to him in church falling all over him. He lures them in with his big cute smile and then WHACK!

The kid is actually a pretty good eater. Clearly he loves spaghetti. But he also loves crayons. I mean, Mikey tried crayons now and then, but Joey seems to REALLY enjoy them. He gets down right upset when you try to take one away from him while he's eating it. I'm always torn with just allowing the Crayola snack as it does seem to just pass on through, if you know what I mean. Or to take it away and deal with the screaming child. Depends on my mood.

Just can't get enough of that kid

Parker = Trouble

I admit it. When my kids are in serious trouble, I use their middle names. Luke, being 3, is perhaps in the most "naughty" stage of all the boys so he hears it a lot more than the others. "Luke PARKER!" is often heard in our house.

Well, Luke definitely knows he's in trouble when hears it, but apparently he doesn't know its origins. The other day as Luke was getting mad at Mikey for something, he suddenly yelled, "Mikey PARKER!" (Of course then a new argument ensued when Mikey started yelling, "No, I'm Michael Brennan! YOU are Luke Parker!") He still doesn't get it. We now also hear, "Joey Parker!" come out of his mouth now and then when he's mad at Joey.

Pioneer Day Parade!

Our Neighborhood does a little parade for Pioneer Day and the kids love it. They decorate their bikes the day before and feel like little stars riding through the neighborhood (well, Joey was pushed, but you get it). Here we are three weeks later and they still won't let me take off the now ripped and torn and falling-off streamers. So here are the pics.

Joey

Luke

Mikey

4th of July

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!


Watch out! Fireworks!!!!

Okay, Luke actually wasn't all that afraid of the fireworks, but he did turn and run to me a time or two. He was actually always laughing, but I managed to capture this shot above...it's my favorite 4th of July shot. :)

So excited for festivities to begin!

Perhaps even more excited!

The wind made it a little difficult to light 'em up, but the boys got it done.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Summer Time

We're half way through the summer and having lots of summertime fun.

This was a little pool that Luke got for his birthday. It looked all sparkly and clean like this for about 10 minutes...then we turned our backs and Luke started throwing all the rocks and dirt he could get a hold of down in the water. Well, whatever makes him happy--it's his pool ;)

Mikey had a relatively good soccer season this Spring (that's relative to last Fall...the Fall was sad. Very sad.) He scored his fair share of goals and actually followed the ball around the field and even dribbling it now and then. :)

There is nothing the boys love more than camping. Luckily there is a spot in our yard that is still waiting for the finishing touches (i.e. mulch and swing set) so right now we have a great camping site, fire pit included. We couldn't even count the number of times Mikey said, "this is the best night of my life!!"

This is what summer is doing to Luke. At least a few times per week, Luke falls asleep in a random location that is not his bed, at a random time that is not night.

Mikey's first Graduation

This was a few months ago, but better late than never....

My handsome boy all grown up and graduating from preschool.

Seems like only yesterday....

His first day of preschool. He's so little and cute!

And now he's so big. After seeing Lance with his graduation garb for Law School, he was very excited to get to wear "the hat."

The kids put on a little show with some very fun songs before "the ceremony."

Joe wasn't quite as entertained...more like really tired.

But we sure loved it as Mikey is never one to shy away from hamming it up.

He did not disappoint.

Congratulations, Mikey!

Stuffing the Cake

I said I'd try again later with this video...so here it is. It was seriously so funny. He's like a missionary trying to hide the food he doesn't want to eat at some crazy lady's house (not that I ever did that or anything....) Funny kid. ;)

Happy Birthday, Baby Joey!!

My baby is 1!!! I can't say it enough, and I know every mom in the world says it, but man, does time fly. Joey is our happy, happy little baby--though actually not that little. At his one-year-old check up he was over 25lbs. None of the boys have caught Mikey, who weighed in at a whopping 28 lbs at one year, but he did beat Luke by just a little as Luke was just a little over 24 lbs. Joey is a champ at going up stairs and will stand for a few moments in the middle of the room, but no walking yet. He waves a little and sure yells, "mama" like a pro. He absolutely loves his brothers. Well, he might enjoy Mikey a little more than Luke at this point, simply because Luke hasn't quite mastered the art of "being soft" and gets a little rough with him. He can't get enough of mom or dad being down on the floor and playing with him. He loves climbing up on top of us and attempts to eat our faces, scratch and occasionally slap. He sure thinks it's all funny. It's sometimes a little painful, but he's so cute it makes it all worth it. We love our little man!!

We've called Joey our little monkey, so monkey cake it was! Heather actually had a form pan that I borrowed which made it turn out all that much cuter. :) I know, he didn't really appreciate it, but the rest of the little kids did and it sure makes for cute pictures.

One day-of-vacation's work. So worth it for my babies :)

My babies

Opening presents. Or I should say, watching his cousins open his presents. (Luckily he didn't seem to mind.)

And the best part of a one-year-old's birthday party.... As you can see, we gave Joey just the monkey head. He was the fastest of all my boys to just dive in. We didn't have to push his hands in at all! (We did with both the others).

But eating was not what he had in mind. After a little squishing, he started grabbing handfuls and just STUFFING them UNDER the tray! He just stuffed and stuffed and stuffed! I have an awesome video. It wasn't loading right, but I'll try to post it again later.

We did have to help him get a bite to his mouth. He tasted it a little, but was more entertained by his first choice. See that mostly empty tray...?

There it is! (Yes, I know what it looks like...but I assure you it is just cake :)

Then came the worst part of a one-year-old's birthday party...the clean up.

Happy Birthday, Joey!!! We love you!!!!

Happy 3 years, Luke!!!

I can't believe my baby Luke is three! Seems like only yesterday....

Days old

One year

Between one and two...

Two years

Between two and three...

I love this kid so much it hurts! He is the happiest little kid around and such a little mama's boy... and I love it! If I didn't have a business and house to run, I'd do nothing, but play with him all day long because he is so happy when I do. Love him.

We were in St. George for a little family reunion for Luke's birthday, and Joey's birthday is a few days after Luke's so we did a little joint party. But this post is about Luke so I'll get to Joey's later.

The cake. Luke LOVED it. He is still talking about his "black cake" and how his birthday is coming up again. (I probably could have just plopped a Batman figurine in the middle of square, black frosted cake, and he'd have been just as happy... but let's pretend that's not true) This was my third superhero cake (but second Batman) and I've resigned myself to the fact that there will be many more. I was originally planning something way more complicated, but seeing as I had two cakes to do while on vacation, I decided simplicity was the way to go. And actually, it probably looks better being simple than if I did something complicated.

Presents...

And back to the cake.

Forever my little sweetheart

(No seriously, when I ask him who my sweetheart is he says, "Lukey!") Happy Birthday, Luke!!! Love you more than ever!!