"unwrapping" of the Christmas present (yeah, we only got him one. oh, and it was even free. but we DO love our son... promise.)
ta-da!! Luke's Christmas present! - that incidentally he's sort of afraid of. and yet he'll ride a motorcycle?? hmmm. But in his defense, this big truck is kinda jerky.
speaking of jerky... Joey is enjoying the Hale traditional and delectable breakfast of gas station sticky buns, beef jerky and Tang on Christmas morning.
digging for goodies. Luke really discovered he likes candy this Christmas.
Two years ago we became parents when we welcomed tiny baby Luke into the world. He's now 30 pounds (75%) and 36.5 inches tall (95%) and knows more than his mom about trains, trucks and tractors. Luke is full of energy, curiosity and independence and loves to keep us humble regarding our parenting skills. He loves toys. I mean, most kids do but he really LOVES toys. When we leave a house of friends or family and tell him to say "bye-bye" he always says "bye-bye train!" or whichever toy he liked the best at their house. It's not really about the people yet. People are really just obstacles to toys. He likes us ok, but if it is a choice between us and toys - he picks toys every time. He's been REALLY into Thomas the Train. I think he could say Thomas since he was about 15 months old. We don't know how he got into it since we didn't have anything Thomas except one book. We finally bought him a few Thomas movies (which I think are SO boring) and he just loves them. When he started pretending all his other toys were Thomas the Train, trying to link cars together and making choo choo noises - we decided it was time to buy him an actual train set for his birthday. Now, his life revolves around Thomas and Victor. The day after his birthday, he didn't take a nap and hardly ate. He just played with the trains ALL day. I realized I had to tell him that Thomas and Victor were hungry for applesauce or yogurt and only then would he come to the table and eat - of course, only after they have both had a few bites. And before naps he has to make sure they are both tucked in and sleeping and give them kisses and then he can sleep.
For his birthday he got a train cake and all the kids got train whistles (which I realized actually are a kind of annoying party favor ... for adults anyway - whoopsie.) In attendance we had the Cresaps, the Terrys, the Bates and Josh and Sophie Beers.
Luke's train cake that he LOVED. It made it so worth it for me when he spent 1/2 hour standing on a chair looking at the cake, pointing excitedly and making train noises.
joey & evan trying out the flowrider at the odgensalomon center. weaver joined them later. it looked pretty brutal when they crashed. i thought this was pretty good for joey's second try.
I'm guessing but I think that November 28th, 2009 might just beLuke's best day of his life (all 23 months of it). We were in Utah and woke up one Saturday morning and the day just got better and better. Here it is in picture and video. Happy best day ever Luke!
Woke up, went on an early morning walk with mom & dad to explore beautiful Huntsville
Threw rocks and more rocks into Pineview for some big splashes
Later Grandpa Songer took him outside for some serious swing time. We looked out the window FORTY FIVE minutes later and he was still getting pushed on the swing. Now that is some stamina Grandpa. He then played outside with Grandpa for a few more HOURS. He was in heaven!
Fun day so far right? Well, next we drove to Smithfield to my brother Jake's house. Does everyone remember my cool brother Jake? If not, click here or here, or here. So, true to Jake's nature - he had many adventures (some, of course, with his signature dash of danger) awaiting Luke when we got there.
FIRST - He started out with a scooter ride and hot chocolate. I don't think I've ever seen Luke this thrilled about ANYTHING. He kept saying "motorcycle! motorcycle! Go FAAST!" and got really mad when he had to let other people have turns.
riding with daddy
and with mommy
Here are the boys (Luke & Truman) riding with Jake on the bike. Sounds like they like it...
where have I heard those happy sounds before? oh yeah....
Next, it was back to Jake & Rebekah's for FIVE things any almost 2 year old would love:
1.TRAINS (Thomas the Train no less) 2. a TRAMPOLINE 3. a WAGON RIDE 4. a HAMMOCK swing and 5. a full blown CAMPFIRE!!!
(Dinner was Rebekah's amazing SUSHI and TEMPURA!! But I think Joey and I were more excited about that than Luke. )
AND THEN... right before bed we all got to experience the new hot tub. Oh man, it was a FREEZING cold Northern Utah night - so this felt so good. Luke jumped right in and had an absolute blast splashing around with his cousins. (and almost drowning a few times. Gracie named herself the official "baby-saver" -it's always good to have one of those around)
The night was topped off by being put to bed by a special guest instead of same ole mom & dad.
WHAT A DAY! Isn't it the best when you put your child to bed and know they lived that day to the very maximum enjoyment possible? Thanks all you dudes who let my kid live it up for the day.
Luke hasn't seen much of these two awesome people but we got a special treat to have them all to ourselves for a few days during their visit to Memphis. Joey's parents have been on three missions - to Africa, Tarawa and Mexico - since we got married. Which means they've been gone about 4 1/2 years out of the 5 1/2 that we've been married. So, it's a rare occasion to get to see them (dern do-gooders). AND when we do see them Luke has to share them with 42 other kids so this was special, very special indeed. A few nights Luke even cried for "Grandpa" when he went to sleep at night. He was immediately attached to these fine folk. I don't blame him... at all. We loved every minute of their visit. Mom even took a soak in our tub (her favorite pastime) and read her book (her other favorite) and she even accompanied me to water aerobics at the gym. Dad researched random things on the internet (like father like son... no wonder they are so smart) and ate my food with gumption. Good guests to have. Come back anytime.
My mom had a great idea to have us all make short homemade videos documenting some sort of Songer family history and then have a showing of all of them right after Thanksgiving dinner. We made this commercial. I think my parents video was probably the best one though. But they kinda cheated by using emotional music and nostalgic photos of us growing up. No fairzeez.
Joey and Katie first met in Mr. Hawkes 3rd grade class at Valley Elementary. They became good friends in Jr. High and best friends in High School. Katie wrote to Joey on his mission in Tiajuana and Joey wrote to Katie later on her mission in Tokyo. Years later at the ripe old age of 25, these best friends finally fell in love... or maybe just realized they were already in love. They got married on January 22, 2004.
