Charli!

This darling baby, Charli Kei Warner, has made me a great aunt! (Imagine her name being said with a English accent, that is how Luke says her name, so cute!) She is the daughter of my niece Nancy and her husband Chris. Last week Luke, my sister Karen, and I went down to Alpine to visit this cute baby. Luke absolutely adored her and wanted to hold her and kiss her every five minutes. I could have held her and snuggled her all day, she is just so darn cute! It is so fun to see what terrific parents Nancy and Chris are! Can't wait until our next visit!

Nancy and Luke playing some Uno

My Helper

Luke has become quite the helper in the kitchen. He loves to help me cook dinner, he is fantastic at stirring whatever it may be that we are making. He also loves to do the dishes. I sure love this little guy and love that he wants to be my helper (for now anyway)!

Bowling!

A couple of weeks ago we went bowling with the Gonzalez's. Luke loves bowling! It is so fun to watch him pick up his own ball and send it down the lane. I think one of his favorite parts is that he gets to wear bowling shoes that are just his size!

The two bowlers, check out their shoes! (we seriously need to work on Luke's "cheese" face)

Hobby

Since having Luke I haven't kept up on many of my hobbies, but I have been attempting to start some new ones. One of my favorite hobbies has been trying to learn more about Photoshop and photo editing. I have basically learned everything off of free online tutorials and a couple of books I bought. Anyway, just thought I'd share what I learned from an online tutorial I did today.

Here is the before picture

And the after picture

So if any of you are looking for a new hobby just google "free tutorials" in whatever photo editing program you use.

Ringing in the New Year at Bear Lake

We were able to ring in 2010 at Bear Lake this year and we had a great time! Our friends, the Baker's, invited us along with the Derrick's to stay at their cabin for a couple of days and celebrate the holiday. 6 adults and 7 kids made for lots of fun. There was lots of sledding, eating of snow, eating great food, playing games, decorating sugar cookies, looking for the source of drips in the ceiling, staying up way too late, trips to the treat drawer and plenty of laughs. Luke was in heaven because he always had someone to play with. It took us about two days to recover from all the fun but it was well worth it!

This first picture doesn't really show how steep the sledding hill was, but it was pretty steep. After going down once with Barrett, Luke insisted on going from the top by himself over and over. The first time I watched Barrett let Luke go I freaked out, I couldn't believe he let him go from the top. Barrett's reply was "he said he wanted to." Dads. Luke had a blast and I got over the fact that Barrett would just let our 2 year old go from the top because he wanted to:)!

Love the helmet!

Pure Joy!

New Years Eve game of Mexican Train

Luke and Tommy Baker (as Luke always calls him) had a blast together. I love Luke's red cheeks!

Tommy, Luke and Ella eating snow

Everyone heading to the top

Movie Time!

Luke, Kate, Tommy, Addy and Ella
Decorating sugar cookies

Can't get enough of those sprinkles.

Good times and good memories!

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year. This year was especially fun because Luke was so excited about everything and actually understood what was going on. Our Christmas started off with a party with my siblings on the 23rd. Santa made a special visit to our party and Luke could not wait to sit on his lap again and tell him that he wanted a train. The kids got presents, we had a fun white elephant exchange and Luke was in heaven playing with all his cousins.

Christmas Eve started off exciting because Barrett and we're able to go and get my ultra sound and find out that we are going to be having a baby GIRL in May! We were so excited to hear the news, Luke was disappointed because he wanted a little brother so bad but I think he is coming to terms with the fact that he will be getting a sister and not a brother.

After the ultra sound we headed to my extended families annual Norwegian Christmas party. It was fun seeing my aunts and uncles and cousins that I only see once a year at this party. We did our annual "dancing around the Christmas Tree" and the kids got their brown paper sacks complete with an orange and sugar cube (Norwegian tradition.)

Then we headed to Barrett's mom's house and exchanged gifts with his siblings and Luke got more presents. We had tons of food and had a good time hanging out. By the end of that party Luke was exhausted but we came home and opened our Christmas Eve jammies. This is the first year the we have done jammies but I think it will be a new part of our holiday.

Christmas morning started off with Luke waking up early and coming and snuggling in our bed. Apparently he forgot that it was Christmas because after awhile I told that it was Christmas and that Santa had brought presents. It was like a light went off in his head and couldn't believe he forgot it was Christmas. It took him about two seconds to get out to his presents. We all got great gifts and Luke got the train he had been waiting for. After we opened presents Barrett's dad came up and gave Luke some presents. We had a fantastic holiday and hope all of you did too!

Norwegian Christmas Party, dancing around the tree (which is more like "wahooing" around the tree, thanks to my bro for the pic, I stole it from his blog)

We need to work on Luke's "cheese" face:)

Luke with his new baseball tee from Grandpa

Barrett's grandma made us all aprons complete with our names on them. I just love Luke's little apron. Thanks Grandma Morley!

Christmas fun!

Temple Square Lights
We had a fun weekend full of fun Christmas Activities. We started off with riding the Front Runner downtown to see the lights. We went with several friends of ours and had a great time.
We enjoyed the lights, hot chocolate, Front Runner adventures, and just being with friends!

Luke and Livie getting ready for the train ride

Barrett, Lauren, Lisa and Steph getting ready to face the crowds

Luke, Livie, Paige and Cameron

Barrett and Luke checking out the fountain water

Gingerbread House

Then we made a gingerbread house, which Luke totally got into. At first he was happy to have instruction on how to decorate.

Then he decided to just take over!

Finished product!

Decorating Cookies

On Sunday night Luke's cousin A.C. invited us up so that Luke could decorate cookies with him. A.C. is so cute with Luke and Luke just loves hanging out with him. Thanks Ace!

Zac also got in on the action

After Luke got frosting all over his shirt this was our attempt to find a replacement shirt in a house full of really tall people!

What a fun weekend full of lot's of great Christmas memories!