Videos as promised...

Notes: I don't know where Luke learned his special birthday song but he sings it all the time.

My house is always that messy by the end of the day. Sometimes worse :)

Luke got a few more presents that are not on the video.

I don't know if you can understand everything that Luke is saying. At one point he says, "What?!" That's weird". He's been calling things "weird" a lot lately. Probably gets it from me.

Luke is 4!

Luke is 4 years old today. I can hardly believe it. But actually the realization I had today was not disbelief at how old he is, but disbelief at how I have thought of him as a 4 year old for a while now. I guess I realized that because he is my oldest I might be a little too hard on him sometimes. He is only 4 years old! Lately I feel like I've been expecting quite a lot out of my little guy but maybe I should ease up and just let him be 4. But this topic is a post for another day.... on to the birthday festivities...

Remember this post about the tradition I wanted to start on birthdays? Well I was late last time but this time I was on my game and had the poster ready to go on his actual birthday. I am currently glowing with pride in case you're wondering. Are you ready for the many faces of Luke Stacey?

He is showing me how old he is in case you were wondering what the weird hand signal is all about.

I am crazy about this kid. He makes me so happy and sometimes drives me crazy, but mostly makes me SO SO HAPPY. I don't have time to write out a true dedication to this marvelous boy but the older he gets the more excited I am to see who he is becoming.

I think this year was my favorite birthday celebration for him yet. We've tried a party in our home with our friends, we've tried a party at the park with his friends, we've even tried going on vacation and leaving him behind with his grandpa on his birthday (still feel a little guilty about that one :) oops!). But this year we just had a simple little celebration with only our little family. We didn't invite anyone over even though it was SO tempting because there are so many cool people that we would love to share this day with. There were no themes or major party decorations and the birthday cake was just brownies with oreos baked into them (because all he really wanted was a chocolate brownie for his birthday). I did take him and his cousin to a indoor playhouse that he loves and that was pretty much it. Simple. Stress-free. Happy Mom. Happy Kid.

(I don't usually let him sit on the table like this...in case you think we're hooligans around here. But yes, it is quite common for him to not be wearing a shirt at some point during the day :)).

Happy Birthday Luke! I am going to try and load a video which will probably only be interesting for family who have to miss way too many of these birthdays :( . Hopefully it will be up by tomorrow.

Got It!

I often have a problem capturing the true essence of Cam on film (or rather, on digital image, but film sounds better). When I look over my pictures I rarely feel like the camera saw what I saw with my own two eyes. Most of the time I think, 'this just doesn't look like him'. Does that sound crazy?

But this picture is spot on. It is just how I remember him that afternoon. I know he is barely in the shot and if I remember correctly he was walking toward me, ready to swipe my camera at any moment. But after about 20 shots I finally got it! This is Cam. In all his drooly, blue-eyed, messy, smiling glory. He is an absolute joy to be around. If I could freeze time with Cam at any age, this would definitely be it. All those sleepless nights- and there were many- were totally worth it.


p.s. I was just thinking tonight about a couple things I need to write somewhere so I don't forget:

-Cam is SO verbal and loves repeating everything we say. You'll never meet a kid who talks with more vigor. He says every word like it is the most exciting thing in the world. Wonder who he gets that from.

-I was explaining to Luke the other night about how he used to be in my tummy but now he isn't and he never will be again. He responded, "Why did you eat me?". He keeps bringing it up so I think I must have really confused him, although he has a good sense of humor about it and thinks it's funny when we pretend to eat each other.

-Luke, for some unknown reason, has decided to combine our names together ("Mommy" and "Daddy"). He very often will refer to us (together or alone) as "MomDee" or "Dammy". The latter of which always catches me a little off guard and I have to remind Luke that he shouldn't use that word. :)

Free Card Printables

My very talented sister-in-law, Jessica, posted some free card printables on her website: affordableutahweddings.com. They are SO cool and stylish. You should go there are print some out for yourself!

http://affordableutahweddings.com/updated-thank-you-card-printables/

Update

We went to a Detroit Tigers game a few weeks ago as part of a "work outing". It was fun even though baseball games get a little boring for me after a while. 

Great view.

I forgot to take a picture with Andrew (the kids stayed at home). I say I forgot, but subconsciously I really didn't want to take a picture because my hair had been massacred the day before and was jet black. I wasn't too thrilled about it but admittedly it is my mistake. I must say the wrong thing when I tell the stylist I want to get back to my natural color. I always walk out with the same shade of black. 

Luke always wants a band aid for an ouch. This was after he fell and bit his lip (look closely and notice the fat lip). Even though I couldn't actually get the band aid on the wound, he still claimed it felt better. Magic!

We hung out with some new friends at the river last week. This little girl wasn't afraid to get dirty which is right up Luke's alley. Oddly enough, I found out that this little girl is my brother-in-law's second cousin. I had no idea! It's kind of amazing that we even figured it out to be honest. Small world.

Luke and his faces. He loves to make silly faces and then he begs me to let him see the pictures on the camera. This must be his evil look:

Sometimes my boys are lazy park-goers. I went with some friends last week and found the boys like this:

Maybe I wore them out finally?

Note: gorgeous blue eyes below. They really stand out when he is mad :)

I'm glad that most of the time Luke and Cam really like each other. Honestly being the mother of these two can be a challenge sometimes. But the sweetest reward for it all is watching them become best friends. It must make God so happy when we love each other.

I felt like I cheated a little and I drove down to C-bus for a couple days. I filled my canteen with long, deep, and not-so-deep conversations with a few of my closest friends. I wish I could have stayed longer and seen more people that I love but was only able to stay about 24 hours. I have loved Ann Arbor but going back made me remember all the things I love about Ohio and how lucky I am to have such great friends. Each is so different and brings out a different side of me. Each one has their own unique way of influencing me for good and making me want to be better. I felt so happy as I drove back home. Like a new woman. 

I only snapped this one pic unfortunately (with Amy and Rachel...I'm the one with the black hair)

diy advice please

I just picked up this beaut for FREE off the side of the road. It took a solid 45 minutes for me to convince Andrew that it is a diamond in the rough. It wasn't until I agreed to move the silverware to a different drawer in the kitchen that he finally consented (we compromise about the strangest things). I am in need of a sewing table and this has great potential I think. Especially love the cute legs and the little pull out side tables on either side.

This should be a pretty easy refinishing project since it is metal and just needs some spray painting and fresh contact paper on top (you can see where I've already pulled off some contact paper...it is all sticky underneath so I'm going to stick with the contact paper route). Now I need some ideas. I'm leaning towards spray painting the base a pewter-ish color and putting some coordinating contact paper on top. Nothing too crazy...would blend in well wherever I put it. Kind of like this:

btw the one above costs $1500!!

But there is a part of me thinks it would be so fun to paint the base a bright color like red or blue. It would definitely become a focal point wherever I put it and I hate to commit to a color like that. But it could be a fun risk.

Anyone want to weigh in?

Good Pain

On Tuesday nights, people gather at the church for some pretty competitive volleyball. I had heard a lot about it and even though everyone told me it would be real volleyball I guess I didn't take them seriously enough to unpack my knee pads.

Regret.

Of course I didn't have to dive as much as I did and I probably could have played a little smarter, but it was so much fun I couldn't help myself. Needless to say I could hardly move last week (I was sore ALL OVER)!

My knee pads are ready to go for tomorrow.