Recently...

Like father like son...Caleb wanted to try a fresh jalapeno slice.

Can you spot Caleb?

Our sweet friends Whitney and Derek finally brought their boy, Marcus, home from Ethopia, over FOUR years after beginning the process. 

Ella finally got to meet her Bubba in person!

We LOVE shorts in February!

Another warm, spring-like day in February...we'll take it! 

The birthday boy spent many, many February and early March days at the kitchen table, building Lego set after Lego set.

He also found time to read to his owl family. 

Both Grandmom and Grandpa chaperoned Luke's Derby Dinner Playhouse field trip.

Luke with his buddy Jacob

Luke's class celebrated International Day. They all dressed up like they were from different countries and sampled food from around the globe. (While some of his friends had authentic and very ornate clothing, I spent $3.99 at Party City on a sombrero and called it a day.) 

The highlight, as you could imagine, was the pinata! 

After I got the boys' report cards, I treated them to a trip to Five Below and happy hour at Steak-N-Shake.

Caleb went to the speech meet in Frankfort again this year and did fantastic- probably his best performance thus far. We are SO proud of his hard work and I am constantly in awe of his memorization skills. He is a natural at things like this.

Showing off their medals from the Upward basketball celebration

Celebrating (the second day of) Spring

Chevrolet Elite Leaders Trip

Over Luke's birthday weekend, Creed and I spent a few days in Orlando for a work/rewards trip with Chevrolet. Two hours after my plane landed, and while Creed finished up at a business meeting, I could be found here: 

 Creed and I spent the first afternoon hanging out at the pool. It was paradise! It was one of the nicest hotels that I have ever stayed at, so I might be ruined. ;) Something tells me they won't bring me frozen fruit on skewers and lens wipes to clean my sunglasses at the next hotel pool I visit!

That evening, we had the Chevy awards dinner at The Hard Rock in Universal Studios.

After dinner Jimmie Johnson spoke, which was pretty cool!

And, Creed was recognized for being at one of the top 250 Chevrolet dealerships in the nation.

We knew there would be a special "guest performance," but imagine my excitement to find that it was Luke Bryan!

We scored the best spot, closest to the stage (so close it was hard to get a decent picture!) and just had to get a shot of our hands on his boots. (Caleb hates this picture and thinks it's creepy...Mom, what if he would have looked down! but I love it! ha!)

I even came home with a guitar pick! 

 The next morning (I may have still been smiling over the excitement of the previous night!) we went on an air boat alligator tour. Neither of us had been on an air boat and it was so cool...such a different feeling than a normal boat.

Seeing around 40 alligators close up was pretty cool, too!

After our alligator trip, we decided to spend the afternoon at the pool and even played a few competitive rounds of Bocce ball, which turned out to be super fun! We finished our evening with a low key dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants.

On our last full day, Chevy spoiled us with suites at The Daytona 500! Our tour buses even had a police escort to get us there without any issues. Going to a major Nascar race has ALWAYS been on my bucket list, and this did not disappoint!

Daytona International Speedway

Just inside the Chevrolet gate

Lady Antebellum did the pre-race concert, which was fun to watch. What was even more amazing was seeing them break down that truck and stage, and clear out all of those people into the stands in like 30 minutes, or maybe even less!

The jets and their flyover was simply breathtaking.

"Finally, after the long, cold winter, we're going racing in Daytona."

This long weekend was a once in a lifetime opportunity, as we are so thankful we got to go!  

Luke, at 6 years old

Dear Luke,

It is so hard to imagine you as a six year old boy, yet it's impossible to think of you, sweet boy, and not smile. You have brought so much joy and laughter into our lives. 

At six, you are the life of the party. You make friends everywhere you go and everybody loves you, even if you are really bossy! 

You are doing fantastic at school and try so hard to please your teacher. Math seems to be the subject that comes easiest to you, but you are becoming a better reader each and every day. The fact that you have never not wanted to go to school has been such a blessing! 

These days you play with Legos for hours, but you also like Power Rangers and Star Wars toys. You also love your video games! Recently you have become attached to a Beanie Boo owl ("Owley") and have been able to collect his whole family. You still have Big and Little blankies and sleep with them each night. 

Food is still hard. You don't like meat really or many cooked dishes, but you will always try them. You prefer Subway, yogurt, deli turkey, fruit, and raw veggies. You love breakfast foods- waffles, pancakes, cereal, and bars. I can get you to eat some Asian foods and Mexican foods. Sweets are your weakness- you love treats!

You love Caleb fiercely, but also love to push his buttons. However, now that you are older, he knows how to get under your skin as well. You two either play for hours together or fight within five seconds of being in the same room. I hope you realize one day how much he watches over you and protects you, and I pray he sees your loyalty. 

Each day you wake up between 6:30am and 7am and usually are in bed between 7pm and 8pm, especially on a school night. Each morning you dress yourself and usually play in your room or the playroom until I call you down for breakfast. You are also great about being on time...it's usually you and me sitting in the car waiting on Daddy or Caleb!

At 6, I am so thankful that you are still our cuddly boy. You give the best hugs and sweet kisses often, and I sure hope you keep that up!

Love you to Pluto and back.
Love you more than all the sand on the beach.
Love you more than all the stars in the sky.
And, my favorite, love you to infinity. And back.

Remember...no matter how big you get, you'll always be my baby!
~Mom

*****

What is your favorite... 

color- orange and green

food- Subway

drink- Poweraide

dessert- that's hard...um...ice cream sundae

restaurant- Sake Blue

TV show- Tom & Jerry

movie- Sponge Bob

song- Drink in my Hand (Eric Church)

game- Minecraft

thing to play with at home- Playing with Legos

thing to do with Caleb- XBox

thing to do with Daddy- Get donuts on some mornings

thing to do with Mommy- Buy Lego sets

place to go- Bricks & MiniFigs

store- Wal-Mart

What are you the most excited about now that you are six? All the new Lego sets I get!

What are you looking forward to the most this year? Going into 1st grade.

Celebrating Luke

On February 25th, our sweet Lukey Baby turned SIX years old! 

Because Creed and I were out of town, he spent the day with PeePaw and Grandma Beth. (He also got to celebrate his birthday for like two weeks straight!) On his special day, he had his basketball game first thing that morning, went to Cracker Barrel for brunch, and then his favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. 

Funny thing...while we were away, I got a text with this picture and the message...

Ran into neighbors. He went over to their table and told them it was his birthday and asked for money. Got 36 dollars. 

Yep. He sure did that. Apparently he also hit up the owner of the restaurant and scored $10 as well. He is a funny, funny kid. And so incredibly lovable!

*****

The following weekend, we celebrated Luke with a party at Bricks & MiniFigs. 

Backstory: About 6 weeks ago we were discussing his party and he couldn't decide between Bricks & MiniFigs and House of Boom. A few days after, his teacher came up to me and said that morning he asked for everyone's attention and had all of his classmates vote on where he should have his party. It was a narrow margin of victory, but Bricks & MiniFigs won out. :)

The party host directed a few building games and challenges that the kids all loved and really got excited about.

For dinner we had pizza and Subway (because Luke LOVES Subway) and cupcakes. 

I've never seen a kid so happy while hearing Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday dear Luke...

Sweet friends

While it was a class party, Luke had to have Colin there as well. :)

That night, before I had even finished putting things away, Luke has almost completed a set! He is Lego crazy these days!

***

Since we may have had a little guilt over missing his actual birthday (Caleb actually said we should be ashamed of ourselves!), we celebrated Luke a little extra this year. :) The day after his party, we loaded up and headed to his favorite place...

Great Wolf Lodge!

While it was really, really crowded for a Sunday and Monday, we still made the best of it and did as much as we could. 

The swimming and slides wore them out, but their "bummed" smiles say it all...they were not ready to leave!

Snowy Weekend

We spent the first weekend of February with Creed's family in Canaan Valley, West Virginia, and took the boys skiing. While Caleb has been once a year since he was three, this was the first time that we were able to talk Luke into going. 

We left Friday afternoon after I got off work and the boys kept busy with Wii Mario Kart

and games on the Kindle.

Around 9pm I turned around and saw that Luke had put himself to sleep by covering his whole body with a blanket. The funny this is...he did this when he was a baby too! It's the only way he has ever slept in the car.

Saturday was a beautiful day and we lucked out with the best skiing conditions at Timberline that they have had this season. Caleb made a few runs with us while Luke did an hour private lesson. We figured it would take an instructor to get him out there and not let him quit. ;)

After we got Luke he was ready to hit the bunny slope with us, and thankfully, he had a good experience with his instructor, so he was happy. We lost his goggles during the ski rental process so sunglasses had to do. (His goggles turned up at the lost and found around lunchtime, which was great!)

Cousin Ava did an all day lesson, but we ran into her a few times. She had a blast and LOVED skiing, saying it was the best day ever.  She is also already planning another trip next winter.

Caleb & Ava

Caleb loves lunch in the lodge. :)

Caleb used poles for the first time this year and did great. Creed kept the reins on Luke and skied behind him, which gave Caleb and I time to really ski together. We worked on his turns and he improved more this year than ever. By the end of the day, I didn't have to stay right behind him but could give him space and just let him ski. It was awesome to watch his progression. 

With a 6+ hour drive home Sunday, we decided not to ski a second day but spend a few hours at a snow tubing park. It was SO SO much fun. We all had so much fun and laughed so hard. It was way more fun that any of us imagined.

Ava, Luke, & Caleb

I Got the Hook Ups

We will be so sad when he learns that they are really hiccups. :)