Forks 4th of July and Tracy's Bridal Shower

Bella and Edward in Bella's truck

This post is super late but I still wanted to get the pictures up. It was a very busy weekend with Luke's party on Friday, the 4th of July on Saturday and Tracy's bridal shower on Sunday. Early Saturday morning we loaded into Alan's car with Lucy(our dog) and Shirley (Al's mom), the car was packed. When we got to Forks, we had to drop off Luke with my mom because he was going to be in the parade! He rode in Dave's (my moms boyfriend) logging truck. The parade was VERY Forks... those who have been there know what I'm talking about. There were many "Twilight" references throughout the town.

Man on a uni-cycle

One of the demolition derby cars on top of a logging truck.

Indian children dancing in pilgrim clothes (huh?), and yes, many of them are barefoot.

Dave's truck. He won first prize because he had the biggest load
(I wish I were kidding).

Luke peeking out of the truck. He did great until he spotted me in the stands, then he wanted out.

Waiting for the fireworks to start.

Pretty

I had originally made a slide show with all of the pictures but it was too big to post on here. Oh well. Also, you are here by fore-warned that the bridal shower's "theme" was a little silly and not PG. We played a game of Pin the "tail" on the "donkey" (without tails or a donkey). Enjoy!

Tracy

Alan putting together Vin Dieseal for "pin the tail on the donkey". Tracy has a thing for him ;)

Tracy with the blind fold on

It was a co-ed shower and surprisingly the guiys were VERY competitive in all the games. Here is Richard (Craig's brother), pinning Vin.

Penis Pinata

Craig killed it!

Presents

The Happy Couple <3>

Luke's First Hair Cut

This post is a little old (almost two months), oh well. I didn't want to get Luke's haircut until after he turned one. His little curls were so adorable. (*sigh*) But Alan insisted we get it cut since people were now starting to refer to him as a little girl! We went to this cute little place that only does kids haircuts. I know they only took an inch of hair off, but he looks so much older to me.

Sitting in his cool police car.

He did really well. No fussing. Probably because he had fallen asleep on the car ride over to the place and was a little groggy.

Getting his hair styled

All done!
(He didn't want to pose for the camera)

Cute things Luke is doing..

A few of Lukes new tricks:

-Gives kisses! Probably the most adorable thing ever! He presses his lips together and makes a "mmmmmm" sound as he plants a big one on ya. Sometimes he's little too enthusiastic about it and practically face-slams you.

-New words include: flower (more like fla-la, but close enough), baby (which he says every time he sees a small baby, this is also what he calls himself when he sees pictures of himself), nummy-nummy (food), everyone else is called mommy, daddy, or doggie, teeth, cheese, stinky (must of picked up that one when we were changing diapers), eye (as he pokes your eye out), and book.

-He figured out that he can pick blackberries in our backyard, however now he has fallen into the bush getting scratched by thorns a couple of times.

-He can now climb onto the couch! AHH! Now I have to find a new place for the remote controls. He can also slide off the bed safely.

-His separation anxiety has decreased significantly, he no longer screams when I leave him, most times.

-Loves to use the fork and spoon. He doesn't quite have it down. When he ca't get something on his fork he'll pick it up and put it on his fork before putting in his mouth.

-When he's really into eating he makes "Uummmm!" sounds with each bite.

-When I don't give him a fork he'll use his finger as a utensil and stab items of food with his finger tip.

-Is obsessed with books. Loves to read (or I should say, be read to) the same book over, and over, and over. I read somewhere that babies do that because they like being able to predict what is going to happen. I would agree, he gets a big smile on his face when he recognizes something. His favorite books are : Fruit, Choo-Choo, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and my least favorite Teletubbies (it's like crack for kids).

-When no one will read to him, he sits down and opens up the book and pretends to read by blurting out various sounds that mimic words.

-Is afraid of his "tickle me Elmo" doll.

-When he comes across a mirror or his own reflection in glass, he gives kisses to the baby looking back at him.

Sooo tired....

Have you ever been this tired?

The wedding went great and I have literally 800 pictures to share but I'll get to that later. For now, I need to vent about how tiring these past two weeks has been. I wouldn't consider myself a pessimist but here's the list of irritating events/phenomenons that have taken place recently:

-First, while Alan was driving to pick up relatives from the airport, the car overheated, standing him in Seattle.
-Then I had to get a rental car big enough to fit him, Luke, and everyone from the airport.
-While waiting for me Alan gets some sushi which he gets food poisoning from.
-With our guests in tow, we went to get the car fixed (luckily Justin is a mechanic) and aren't able to get home until 10pm putting us way behind schedule (still had to pack and clean the house).
-Since Alan had food poisoning I had to tackle all of the wedding errands and Luke by myself the next day (luckily my dad came with my to costco for the big beer run)
-At the rehearsal dinner I realize that I forgot to include the wedding party in my head count for dinner (imagine what was suppose to be 30 people become 50 people without any extra room!). I know it seems obvious that I should have counted them. I guess I was just focused on how many out-of-towners would be there.
-The wedding morning was a flurry of stressful events. The caterer was suppose to be there at 11am for set-up but is instead there at 2pm. This is bad for many reasons but the biggest is because the lady that owns the venue won't allow us to open the bar until the food is there! Awww! Hot hot sun, no food, and no beer!
-Later during clean-up I'm running around paying all of our vendors and as soon as I paid the hired wedding help they disappear without helping to clean-up! (Imagine me, 10 reluctant wedding guests and 30 big tables to break-down and put away. Did I mention that it was about 85 degrees that day?)
-After all the wedding hoopla was done Seattle has a record-breaking heat wave... triple digits is way too hot for me! Plus, our very old house has lots of big beautiful windows that don't open... it felt like a sauna.
-Then Alan gets some sort of virus, which sucks, but even worse, I am not a good wife when Alan is sick. I just have a hard time being compassionate when he's not feeling well (mostly because he's a big baby and needs to suck it up! ;).
-Then Luke gets sick... nothing is worse than a sick baby.
-For the past few days Luke has woken up at 12am with a super high fever (104!) and screams for several hours until wearing himself out or the fever starts to come down.

Needless to say, I haven't had much sleep the past few days. Alan is doing better and back at work. Luke should be feeling better soon too if it's anything like what Al had. Sorry about all the complaining, I had to get it out of my system. I think I going to go nap with Luke.

The newest member to our family

I've been wanting to write a blog about this for a while but it keeps getting put off, oh well. Meet Everett, our bear. He was a gift to Alan this past Christmas from my mom. For those who aren't familiar with Washington cliches, wood carving is BIG up here. Normally someone cuts down a big tree in there yard and instead of grinding out the stump they have a logger come over with a chainsaw and pressto: Art! My favorites are always the overly patriotic American Bald Eagles (extra points for a tear running down it's proud face). My mom is a big gift giver at Christmas and always has a hard time with Alan, so I suggested a wood carving but, not just any wood carving: a happy bear with a beer in his hand! Now that's art ;)

We've named him Everett after the town we live in. The town is pretty blue-collared and is sometimes the butt of Washington ghetto jokes (much like Oxnard in CA). But, we like it here. There was much discussion as to were to place Everett. I wanted to put him in the backyard. Alan wanted him out front. Alan won. So now Everett greets us everyday as we come home with a nice cold beer.

Luke's 1st Birthday Party

Sooo, my baby is now one! We had a big party at a local park with family and his baby friends. It was a beautiful sunny day. The only thing I didn't plan for were the tons of mosquitos in the picnic area! I got 18 bites! Luckily Luke didn't get any. Oh well... I'll know better for next year.

Grandma Shirley and Luke
(She came all the way from the Fresno area for the party!)

Aunt Tracy and cousin Aliya on the slide

Luke on the merry-go-round

Luke's friend Ruby

Luke's furry older sister Lucy, going down the slide

Luke talking to Ava

On the merry-go-round

At the top of the slide

Swings are fun!

Ruby climbing on Lucy

Luke and Mommy

The cupcake tower of doom!

Opening presents... Luke made out like a bandit! Tons of clothes, books, puzzles, and toys.

"Weeee!"

Luke and Nana

Jackson rocking the party hat

I had so many cake pictures I tried out this collage program. He loved the chocolate frosting. After playing with it with his fingers for a while he put the whole cupcake in his mouth for a bite but, got frosting in his nose! I'm going to try and get a little creative with side shows and more collage on this thing... more to come.

Thank you to all of my friends and family that came out that day (on a holiday weekend no less!). I know I keep saying it but this year has just flown by, and we couldn't have done it without all of your love and support. And as this blog is also a tribute to Luke, we have a birthday message for him: "Happy Birthday son, We wish you health and happiness. Thank you for giving us a wonderful joy-filled year. We love you!"

Dollar Store Pool

This is how much inflatable pool you get for a dollar. Luke doesn't really need anything to swim in, he just like to splash and something to climb in and out, in and out, in and out of. He loves exploring in the backyard. He was a little unsure of the grass at first (weird texture) and wouldn't walk on it. This worked out in my favor as it keep him confined to the patio area but now he has gotten over the grass-thing and is all over the place. I have to keep an especially close eye on Luke when he finds a bug. He has already tasted a snail and several rolly-pollies. Yuck!

Climbing in

Lounging

Splashing

Putting water in the watering can

All done

Luke's birthday invitation (made by Alan)

Those of you that I talk to a regular basis know that I'm really sad and also excited for Luke's first birthday. It's hard to explain. I can only assume most parents go through this. As he gets older, he needs me less and less and is so much more independent. So for now, I'm focusing on his party: a BBQ at a local park with all of his baby friends and family. It's crazy how fast a simple party can rack up in cost! I'm making some of the decorations to help out. I'm probably going a little overboard (does a one-year-old need centerpieces?).

Birthday Hat