Seth's Birthday

The birthday celebrations began the night before by building a blanket fort -- or a "house" as Seth called it.

So fun for our little birthday boy!

He could hardly wait for Daddy to get home to open gifts -- I probably shouldn't have had them sitting out teasing him all day...

He thought the cooking set Grandma and Grandpa got him was pretty awesome. Luke and I got to sample his culinary creations -- mostly "cookies" and "eggs".

The headliner this year was a basketball hoop. Not a bad shot for a rookie...

His "construction cake". I'll tell you what -- easiest. cake. ever. Just make a mess with frosting and Oreo crumbs and stick some trucks on it. ;)

The candles were already blown out before the cake got to the table. I was trying to shield it so I could set it down before he blew, but he was ready to go as soon as they were lit. Although, it is a good sign he doesn't take after his mother -- I never could get those darn candles blown out.

Audrey had a pretty good time at the party too:

Can't believe he's three!

* He LOVES IS OBSESSED with cars and trucks. This boy is ecstatic about anything with wheels and he has an amazing knack for recognizing cars. He pretty much knows what everyone drives and all down the road I hear, "Amy's car." "Grandpa's truck." "Daddy's car." etc. The color doesn't matter much to him, but he's always correct on the make and model. It's amazing.
I also get car commentary as we walk through parking lots. Yesterday he said, "Fast car!" I looked and three rows over there was a fancy-pants red Corvette parked. Yep, fast car. ;)
Also, dirty cars are not allowed. After a storm, a lot of cars were pretty muddy and as he walked past them he would point to them and say, "Dirty car! Wash car!" Yikes, I'd better get mine to the carwash soon...

* He loves his baby sister. He is still trying to figure out exactly what she does -- which to him is pretty much nothing -- but he has figured out recently that he can make her laugh and he's pretty excited to be the entertainer. She watches him very closely -- mostly amused, but somewhat terrified.

* He has the best laugh ever. He's got one of those laughs that you cannot help but chuckle every time you hear it.

* He's a quick little guy. Anytime he plays chase with other kids, I always get comments on how fast he is. Which is good, because I'm afraid he's going to be vertically challenged for most of his life. Poor guy.

* He's a great helper. He loves to clean up messes, help me cook, help with laundry and his favorite chore is to pick weeds and throw them in the garbage.

We love our Seth!!!

Cutie Pie

3 1/2 months:

Sweet Sound

We got our first giggles yesterday! This is one of my very favorite milestones. And yes, I will do pretty much whatever it takes -- making a complete fool of myself -- to hear those cute laughs...

All Smiles

Audrey is pretty smiley lately -- it is so cute! I absolutely love babies' gummy smiles and hers is especially heart-warming especially her open-mouth-wrinkle-nose smile.



Hanging out with Daddy:



Silly Seth:



For Father's Day I finally made Chocolate Molten Cakes. They were delicious and way easier than I thought -- but very rich, just a warning. You can find the recipe here.

Seth was definitely a fan:

Audrey

A whole month has flown by already and our little Audrey* is doing great. Seth is really sweet with her and always has to know where "baby" is if I don't have her in my arms.

We were planning to wait until May or June to bless her, but my parents came to visit at the very end of April and we decided to do it while we had their company.

With the exception of a photo shoot before Church, Audrey pretty much slept through the whole thing. She was given some very special blessings from her Heavenly Father and we can't wait to watch her grow up and develop her sweet personality.

So far she's been a pretty good sleeper, although with a newborn that means 5 hours at a time is a triumph. ;)

*As far as her name is concerned, yes we named her Olivia originally. After about a week and a half, I was starting to feel like maybe it didn't fit her. I brought it up to Luke and after a couple weeks of agonizing, we decided that changing it to Audrey was the right thing to do.

Overheard

Today I was sweeping in the garage and Seth was helping by holding the dust pan. When I got a pretty full load into it, I picked it up to throw it in the garbage and Seth leaned down and said to the remaining dust and debris, "Be right back!"

A few days ago, Seth was riding his bike in the drive-way and it started to rain. He looked around and saw all the raindrops and said, "A mess. A MESS. A MESS! A BIG MESS!" I guess he was pretty concerned that the rain was getting everywhere.

Seth was watching Curious George on the Wii and he was pressing buttons on the controller and it made the show stop, so he started pressing buttons as fast as he could trying to get it to come back on. Luke tried to get him to give him the controller so he could help, but Seth wouldn't relinquish the controller. All of the sudden "George" started playing again and I hear Luke say, "You've got to be kidding me!" Then Seth said, "Nope!"

Luke and I were getting ready for Church and we hear Seth going around the house calling, "Charky! Chaaaaarkyyy!" (Charky is a mischievous dog on Curious George that is always running away and causing trouble). I guess he figured he'd better help find that dumb dog.
Although I said to Luke, "Our kid doesn't have an imaginary friend, he has an imaginary dog." And Luke said, "An imaginary dog he can't find! But I won't be concerned until he finds him."

Introducing...

Our sweet AUDREY GRACE

She was born April 8 at 6:46 pm, weighing in at 6 lbs. 13 oz.

She is a fantastic baby and we are all smitten! More to come...

New project

Luke and I have been working on a pretty major project for quite a while now. We thought we could show you our mini-project that we've been working on to be prepared for our big project:

Stay tuned to see pics of our big project...hopefully very, very soon!!!

Seth's New Room

Seth hit a new milestone this month: His crib days are history! Luke and I have been working on his room for about a month now and we finally got it done last weekend. The room already had some built-in shelves, but whoever built them was decidedly NOT a carpenter. It was a pretty shoddy job. So, a lot of our job consisted of reworking the shelves and re-trimming out the whole thing.

Progress:

Luke was a very good sport to put up with all my ideas (as usual) and help me execute them. Including an accent wall that turned out to be a lot more work that anticipated. (Word to the wise: don't try to do any elaborate accent stripes or walls on a highly textured surface. No matter how well you seal the tape lines, your paint WILL seep. We spent two full nights with tiny little brushes touching up all the paint that bled under the tape.)

Seth's new room:

 Seth has transitioned really well. The first night he woke up at 4:30 am and came in our room, but after a quick diaper change he went back to sleep until 7:30. Since then, he's slept every night until about 7 am, which is an hour later than his usual wake-up time in his crib.

Seth's reaction to his room:

I'd say, overall: favorable.

Catching Up

I used to be so good at updating this blog, but lately it has fallen through the cracks a little. I realized I hadn't posted since Halloween! -- How sad is that....

We had a busy end of the year doing quite a bit of traveling. In November, Seth and I flew home to help celebrate my Mom's Birthday and my parents' 40th Wedding Anniversary. My siblings and I decided to throw them a surprise party, which turned out great, despite a few panicked phone calls along the way. Who knew it would be so hard to pull off a surprise party! We even had to ask the Temple President to tell a few white lies for us so they could switch up their temple schedule and be able to attend the party! Whew. But, we had such a great time together and were able to share a lot of laughs and memories.

Cutting the cake:

Luke joined us for Thanksgiving, driving all the through the night the day before Thanksgiving, and Seth was a VERY happy camper to see his daddy after missing him for two weeks.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures -- (this year my resolution is to always have my camera with me, and take more pictures!). Amy's family and Neal were able to come and we had a really good time.

CHRISTMAS

Luke has a pretty good chunk of time off during the end of December, so we were able to fly to Portland and be with his whole family for a little over two weeks. We flew in on the 19th -- a super late flight that with several delays didn't get us to the Werretts' house until well after 2 am! All his siblings arrived within a few days of that and we had the whole crew together for the first time in quite a while. It was chaos, but the kind of chaos that is wonderful. We did all the usual traditions leading up to Christmas day: gingerbread houses, chimes, decorating cookies and even added a new one -- a talent show on Christmas Eve.

Decorating gingerbread houses:

Taking a walk and throwing things off the bridge (one of Seth's favorite things!):

Visiting the Zoo to see the lights and ride the train (or the "toot-toot" as Seth calls it.)

All the grandkids modeling their brand new PJs Christmas Eve:

After New Years, Luke and I were able to sneak off for 5 days to Bend, OR for a little getaway, while Grandma Brenda watched Seth. This was the first time we had left him for more than one night, so we were curious to see how he would do, but he did awesome. Grandma Brenda kept him busy and he had a blast.  (Thanks again to Luke's parents for letting us do that!)

MY BIRTHDAY

At the end of January, I celebrated my 28th birthday. Luke made a really nice dinner and also my requested "Lemon Cream Cake" (a copycat Olive Garden dessert) and it was SO good. Seth was more than happy to help me blow out my candles to ensure that I get my wish this year. ;)