Little Lulu, I love You-lu just the same!

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Lucy's first birthday. It is so crazy to me that my baby girl just turned one. I joke that I have really good babies, but when they turn one, that's when they turn on me! Well, Lu has definitely gone from my little cuddle bug to my wiggle worm. She is starting to try to find her independence, but at the same time becoming more demanding of attention. Lu used to be really good about just playing on her own for a little while, but now I think she has realized that being the fourth of four kids, she's going to make some noise to get attention. She loves to play with mommy and daddy and her brothers. And the brothers love to smother her with attention. She's also begun to get into the brother's stuff. She loves to play with their cars and toys. Sometimes she's more inclined to play with cars than her dolls. She will crawl around with cars in each hand, driving them all around.

Lu has started to make attempts at walking. She is the youngest of her siblings to want to come into the walking world. I think she sees her brothers running around and is just itching to run around with them. She's starting to get more balance and can almost stand up by herself. She likes to scoot around holding onto furniture, but if she needs to get somewhere in a hurry, then it's crawling. At first, I wondered if she was ever going to crawl. But then finally she started to do the stink bug crawl with her bum up in the air, and, eventually, just the regular crawl. Now she crawls everywhere and gets into everything. She has found that the stink bug crawl is still good to go back to when she's trying to get around in a dress. She is an adventurer and does whatever she sets her mind to do.


Lucy's name means 'light'. Lucy is definitely a light in our family. She has a beautiful smile that she uses often. She's easy going and so good-natured. She's a sweetheart who loves to be around people and to make others smile. She also has her very own strong personality. She is going to be a leader some day and do great things. She has a little bit of mischievous streak but she's just so darn cute that it's hard to get mad at her.



It's fun to see how everyone interacts with Lucy. Sam is all big brother with her. He is very protective of her and takes good care of her. He's always reminding his brothers that "Lucy is fragile! Be careful with her!" He sits next to her in the van and is often talking and playing with her.
 
 Lucy is Mark's little buddy. He loves to play with her, and she likes to play with him. I think they will grow up to be such good friends. Mark is always encouraging Lucy in whatever she's doing. It's fun to watch him try to coach her with crawling or walking.


 Cole is Lucy's co-conspirator. I have a hunch that those two are going to work together often to get into some big trouble. I can just imagine some day finding a jeep parked in the middle of my garden, and Cole and Lucy with a great story to tell of how it got there!

(I love this picture of Lucy and Cole. Cole was sad about something and crying, and Lucy just reached up and took his hand. It was ADORABLE!)

Lucy is a momma's girl, but she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. It's neat to see how much Nic loves his little girl. He calls her "Skida" because he likes to sing Skidamarink to her. He also calls her "the gamechanger" because it's a whole other enchilada with Lucy than with the boys. Nic jokes that he's the beanie-daddy right now--everyone wants a beanie baby but then don't know what to do with it once they've got it--but I know that Lucy will always have a strong relationship with her dad. I can actually picture her in grease covered overalls putting a Jeep together with her dad. I have a feeling she might be a bit of a tom-boy.

For Lucy's birthday, we had the Lulupalooza Luau. It was a little hectic this year, so I didn't have time to go as crazy as I usually do, but it was still a big affair. We had lots of good food--Aloha burgers and Kalua Pork with yummy tropical salads and fruit. And I had some crafts that people could do--make your own grass skirt and make a tissue paper flower. I also had some luau games, but we never got to the hula dancing and limbo contests. Next time!


Lucy was spoiled rotten. She got some cute clothes, dolls, puppies that talk, and musical toys. Uncle Clay also didn't fail in his tradition. For each of the boys, he got them a BB gun for their first birthday. Well, not to be left out, Lucy got a bright PINK BB gun. I'm sure she will put it to good use!

Lucy's cake was supposed to look like a cute little sun with cupcakes for the rays. Not so much. I will do better next year! Looking back at the pictures, I'm thinking the bright yellow frosting wasn't the best idea. It just looks gross. =) But Lucy really enjoyed her cake. She was dainty with the first couple of bites but then, upon discovering it was sugar goodness, she dug right in. I seriously think she ate three-quarters of the cake! (By the way, Lucy loves food! She is a really good eater and especially loves food of the sweet variety!) The funny thing is, now whenever Lucy hears the birthday song, she automatically expects someone to hand her a cake!

I think she enjoyed her birthday. I know that we've enjoyed having her in our family so far. She is our little sweetheart, and I love her so much!

Happy 4th Birthday, Mark!

Today is Mark's birthday and what a day it has been! Well, what a weekend it has been! For his birthday, Mark decided that he wanted to go camping. So Friday, we loaded up the mini-van and headed to South Willow Canyon for a little camp-out. Papa and Grandma J joined us with their trailer. Daddy had to work, so he came up a little later that evening. Nanny also joined us a little later, and Grandma M came up in the morning to join us for breakfast.

We had so much fun. I had some great helpers to set up the tent. I told them that whatever rocks and pine cones that they didn't move, they would be sleeping on top of later that night, so they did a great job clearing our space. I put together little back-packs with little activities and games for each boy, and they had fun with that. We did 'Build-your-own-trailmix' where the boys filled up baggies with their favorite treats. The sour gummie worms were the favorite. But what the boys really enjoyed was the DIRT! Mark and Cole, especially, played and rolled in the dirt until the only white on them was the white of their eyes. They raced trucks down this hill then slid down the hill on their rumps to retrieve them. There was a small creek near our camp, and they spent hours just throwing rocks into the creek. Sam enjoyed going on hikes and exploring. He especially liked hiking to a couple of places he discovered--Rock Valley and Rocket Valley (his names). This was Lucy's first official camp-out, and she even got in on the action, playing in the dirt and enjoying the fresh air.


 








I made a dutch oven dinner and then we had fire cupcakes and Nanny taught the boys how to make S'mores (the boys keep calling them 'snores'). We hung out around the fire for awhile and then it was time for bed. My little campers were worn out. We snuggled up all together in our tent (all six of us) and after a little bit of giggling and excitement, everyone was out cold. We also had Gus with us, and he kept close to the tent all night and kept us safe. (By the way, Gus was also in hog heaven running around and exploring).



The next morning, we had some dutch oven breakfast, played some more, made some gnome houses, and then cleaned up camp and headed home. It was a bit of a whirlwind camping trip, but we're hoping to be able to go camping more often. We all had so much fun, and it's just so good for the soul to be out in nature for awhile.

 

 Tonight we had everyone over for a birthday dinner. Mark got to choose the menu, so we stuck with our camping theme and had sloppy joes and pigs-in-a-blanket. We had a camping birthday cake that Mark helped choose from Pinterest. There was lots of good food and good times. Of course, Mark was spoiled with presents--lots of trucks, cars, art stuff, rocket launchers, and cap guns--all things that Mark loves. It was great birthday for a great little boy!