On his Fifth.....

We decorated his bedroom with balloons.

I was going for this look.

Word to the wise if you are going for this look 3 packs of balloons is not enough.

But.....

I did love how it turned out and more importantly so did my Loubird.

He was so precious when he woke up and saw the balloons covering his ceiling the morning of his birthday.

Eric and I spent all night blowing up and tying balloons.

We snuck into his bedroom when he fell asleep and went crazy with the Masking tape.

I was sound asleep when I heard a little whisper at 6:30 am.

"Mommy wake up, there's balloons in Lancey and Lukey's room, lots and lots of balloons."

I smiled, threw back the covers and followed the boys down the hall.

He flipped on the light, covered his cute face in his hands and dissolved into giggles.

Totally made my day.

The birthday boy loves daddies square waffles.

His request was granted.

The great thing about a birthday directly after Christmas?

All the birthday boy wants to do is stay home and play with all of his new toys.

The mobiGo is a favorite of his.

He spent the morning on the couch curled up in his new Mickey Mouse blanket playing his "bideo games".

Mommy was thankful -- she had a disaster called Christmas morning to whip into shape, bathrooms to clean, sloppy jo's for 25 to make and presents to wrap.

Love my Lou.

He was very particular about what he wanted to wear for his birthday party.

His new angry bird shirt of course....it reads I need Anger Management.

Which is funny really, if you know Luke he is one happy kid.

Very rare to see Luke in a bad mood, in his words "I happy mommy, I so happy."

Oh and K just had to share the limelight for a minute she needed a picture as well.

He wanted a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch.

But our fridge is Mother Hubbard at the moment, we need a shopping trip very badly.

There was no cheese for a grilled cheese, but he settled on chicken nuggets.

And he was so "happy about the chicken nuggets mommy, thank you so much".

Daddy took the boys out to ride their new bikes for awhile.

Then he took them bowling so mommy could get the party all set up without muddy feet running in and out of my kitchen.

He played a little Minnie Boutique with his sister.

Eventually Katelynn got kicked out of the activity all together and Lukey has taken over Minnie and her accessories.

He is smitten with her many bows.

That boy he makes me smile over and over again.

Party time!

Months ago I saw this on Pinterest and knew I wanted to make it for Luke's birthday party.

Cucumber Limeade Party Punch.

There were many skeptics of the cucumbers but I am pleased to say I think it won them all over.

It was so refreshing and delicious, it may just be my new favorite party drink.

On the menu sloppy Jo's, green salad, Christmas jello salad, 7 layer dip and of course cake and ice cream.

My pathetic pictures of the night, man it's hard getting pictures when you are the hostess trying to make sure the birthday boy and the guests are all happy and cared for.

I dropped the ball on a birthday cake totally left it until last minute.

But remember his birthday is two days after Christmas I had a lot on my mind!

Thankfully my dear brother in law works at Costco and had the bakery whip this cake up for Luke.

Thanks Spencer, you saved me with his dino cake!

Just a little trivia about our Lukey at age 5!

We love this boy so very much and are so grateful to be celebrating five years of life with this little guy.

His birthday letter and 5 year pictures will be coming soon.

I am a little behind with those as well......imagine that!

Up next Eric turned 32 yesterday.

His birthday celebrations tomorrow!

Christmas 2011

Our Christmas in a nutshell, cause it's my Loubird's birthday today so I have to pop this post out as fast as I can and then go celebrate my new five year old!

Photographer friends please forgive me for the following pictures.

Yes your eyes do not deceive you, I used the flash.

The lighting was just too dark, everything kept blurring and I hate grainy pictures so...I surrendered ......I used the flash and enjoyed a night of not having to adjust settings for every picture.

It gave me lots of freedom.

But I have to admit looking at these pictures is killing me, I went against my every no flash rule.

But they are what they are, memories most importantly.

Christmas Eve we spent the morning making our baked french toast for Christmas morning, lounging in our jammies, watching Christmas movies and then last minute showered and got ready for our Christmas Eve party.

I must say my four favorite people sure did look cute that night.

Party at my Grandma Grover's house with my moms family. Love this picture of my mom and her three girls, we don't get many cute ones of us very often it seems. Someone is always blinking, or not liking their hair, or whatever but I thought this one was pretty cute.

It just about kills me in that picture of Lance the focus is on his car and not on his cute face. Oh well his Ferrari sure looks nice huh! Lance is a Ferrari man, he likes to tell his Grandpa Smith "Grandpa I like your BMW but I really like Ferrari's.

The standard Christmas jammies in front of the tree before heading up to bed picture.

You just have to have it.....it's tradition. Eric's family tradition growing up was they got to pick one present from under the tree to open on Christmas Eve, so we have carried that on. Those kids are pretty darn smart they knew to bypass right by the presents from mom and dad which were very obviously in clothes boxes. Instead they picked to open their gifts from each other. Lance got a Special Agent Oso, Luke got an Optimus Prime and little K got a telephone.

I love this scene it's so mesmerizing......takes me a while to make my way up to bed, even if it is midnight. Christmas Eve is when I feel the magic the most, the calm before the chaos.

Naturally we had to leave some milk and cookies for the big guy. The boys were especially excited because this year we left him CHOCOLATE milk, not just regular. They were convinced it would bring them a few last minutes checks on the nice list this year. You know get on his good side a little.....

Bernard hitched a ride with Santa on Christmas Eve but the boys loved his surprise he left for them Christmas morning. Lance even wrote Bernard a goodbye note on Christmas Eve. It went something like this 'Bernard, I love you, you are my favorite elf. I hope you have fun on Christmas day. I will miss you, see you next year, Lance."

Christmas morning or should I say early early Christmas morning sure was fun. The boys were both so keyed up they stayed awake until about 11 or so. Then Katelynn woke up around 1:30, went right back to sleep but her cries from her room woke Lance up. He stayed awake from about 1:30 - 3:30. And sometime in the night we acquired a Loubird in our bed with us. Do you think they were a little excited? And do you think Eric and I were a little tired?

Surprisingly enough they let us sleep until 7 am. Well not quite true I was up at 6 showering but they did not wake up until 7 to go downstairs and open gifts. Their late night must have worn them out just a bit! I was grateful Katelynn got a good nights sleep thanks to them sleeping later than usual. In years past we have always gone down at 6 thanks to Lance who rises with the rooster.

Not many pictures were taken, we had to rush things just a bit if we wanted to make it down to Layton to go to church with Eric's parents on time. I will have to do a post later on favorite Christmas gifts of 2011. We got some fun stuff.

After a fast breakfast of baked eggnog french toast we hurried on out the door.

And made it just in time for sacrament meeting.

Next up onto Eric's parents house where more gifts were exchanged.

Eric hated Katelynn's outfit, he said the legwarmers were unnecessary, the hair bow was way too big and he could not make out where her hair ended and bow began. Boys.... I thought she looked downright adorable. You can get away with big bows on Christmas I say! Maybe next year I will give it a try!

I couldn't wait to give Eric's parents their gift. Every year all the brothers try and go in a gift for their mom and dad. Last year we had all the grand kids picture taken and framed for them. This year I saw an idea on an Etsy shop that I knew they would just love. I mentioned it to Eric and showed him the picture. A print of a family tree going six generations back. I thought maybe he could do the researching get all of the names and dates and then get it sent onto the place to get our print.

It looked gorgeous when it came back especially after we took it to my favorite framing shop and had it done up all nice. I should have gotten a better picture but it really was gorgeous.

Next up my mom's house.

Christmas dinner and more presents.

I gave my mom an ornament from Lisa Leonard's etsy shop.

I had my kids name engraved on it with the date, I also really loved how it turned out.

She gave the kids her traditional Hallmark ornament and a monkey sock hat.

The only person willing to pose for me with their hat was Carsy bug and he was sick.

But my children don't think you got out of that I have a monkey sock hat photo shoot coming your way my little loves.

I had to document this rare occasion it's not every day Elle Bell and Lincoln Stinkin have smiles on their faces. These two are famous for the fights they get into.

Last stop of the day was my dads.

No pictures except one.

Lance kept a silent vigil next to his best sick little buddy all day long.

He was devastated Carsy boy was under the weather and not in playing form.

But he was determined to muddle it out with his best friend and kept him company on the couch all day long.......so sweet.

So that's it, a beautiful Christmas for our family, until next year!

Now I have a birthday party to get ready for!