Six

(Luke on his 6th birthday, January 12th)

At SIX he loves:

• mac n cheese
• playing with friends
• wrestling
• riding his bike
• sledding
• cookies and cream ice cream

What we love about him:

• smart
• funny
• good helper
• kind
• adventurous
• affectionate

Salt Lake Slam

Luke wrestled in a "National" wrestling tournament yesterday. It was serious stuff. He pinned 2 of the 3 he wrestled. He took 2nd place in his weight division.

(This is his "tough" face)

It might have gone to his head...

Luke - punches Mike in the butt after church

Mike: Luke, you don't want to mess with me.

Luke: No, YOU don't want to mess with a 2nd place wrestler!

Pinned!

We have a new wrestler in the family!

This is Luke pinning his first guy in his first match EVER!

We were so proud of him...the next couple didn't go quite as well but he had fun despite being pinned himself a couple times.

No matter the outcome he still had a smile on his face!

The day of a brave little boy

MONDAY

6:00am - Wake up, get dressed, jump in the car {no food, no drink}

6:45am - Arrive at PCMC, check in, play with toys, read books

7:30am - change into hospital jammies, blow bubbles, take big breaths for the nurse

8:00am - head to waiting room, wait, color, play 20 ?'s, play Spiderman on the Xbox

9:00am - surgery bumped due to an emergency, play Mater Xbox game, play cars

9:45am - bumped again, bored, watch cartoons

10:00am - mom and dad talk with Dr. Downey, still watching cartoons

10:15am - anesthesiologists comes, choose bubble gum flavored gas, walk to the operating room doors, hug mom and dad, head to surgery, tell the doctor all about the snake I found

11:30am - wake up from surgery, mom comes to visit, get a root beer slushy, sleepy 11:45am - dad comes, watch more cartoons, still sleepy

12:00pm - get dressed, ride in a wheelchair to the car

12:15pm - nap in the car

1:30pm - home again, blanket, toys, new slushy, watching cartoons, can I have a friend over?

4:00pm - jumping off couches and stairs, trying to carry Paislee, have a snack or two, running around, begging for pizza

Luke's hernia surgery didn't hold him back one bit!

It was actually quite the task to try and get him to take it easy for a few days!

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails...

Hanging out with dad on the weekend brings all sorts of adventures!

Luke loved playing with this snake and didn't even get scared after it bit him, aaah.

Yep, it bit him! So, if its true how they say Spiderman came to be we just might be changing Luke's name to "Snakeman" soon!

Just like dad...

Ain't he cute?

{in a somewhat Harry Potter-ish way?}

Wii partied like crazy!

What better way to turn 4 than with 8 of your bestest friends!

Showing off their medals for 2.7 seconds - then off for cake!

We had champion bowlers, boxers
{miraculously my tv is still in one piece!},
burpers and cell phone talkers...

Birthday Boy

(at one point during the day he said, completely to himself,

"this is awesome! I could do this EVERY day!)

Luke is super sweet, handsome,

and kind with a little crazy on the side.

"Wii" couldn't ask for a better boy!

Not sure...

...if my conversation with Luke in the car yesterday should be taken as further proof of his love/admiration of working with his dad or if he was trying to tell me he's not ready for winter, but either way, it was funny!

Luke: Mom! Look! There is snow on the mountains.

Mom: Yep!

Luke: We better go up there...

Mom: You want to go in the mountains? Why?

Luke: Yeah, so Dad can bring his blower and blow all the snow off.

1:26pm, Friday

Luke is insistent that he is not tired and doesn't need a nap. He is supposed to be cleaning his room. Instead, he is asking if I can clean his hands off - on the way to investigate I found this mess:
This was not what was on his hands. Make-up (that I threw away this morning) is all over his hands. Not so bad except this followed a toilet full of pink toothpaste! Oh, and did I mention he was at school until NOON!
3 year old anyone?

preschool today, preschool today, jiggity jig

Apparently, Paislee thought that since she got a new backpack for her birthday she was in on the school stuff!

After Luke hung up his backpack I walked him down the hall to his class. He had been telling me all weekend that I had to go to preschool with him always (had me quite worried) but he did great - just needed a quick hug and I could go!

♥I turned to leave only to find Paislee had hung up her backpack too and was ready to go play, oops! I am sure all the errands we ran {with just one kid, hooray!} was much more fun.

Big boy

Figured I should give a little praise to this little man who is officially potty trained{for a few weeks now}! We were a little nervous because he had NO interest at all in doing this but once we started it was easy as pie! Luke is awesome and can't get enough of the freedom to play with his friends now!

Ain't he handsome too!

just like dad

All lathered up!

"I look like a nerd!" is what he told me.

" Oops, gotta check the mirror!"
"Pais, you wanna try it?"
Cheese!

Paislee was so funny - she knows just what to do when I got the camera out and kept trying to get Luke to say cheese too while I was trying to take her piture. It sure is evident that these kiddos are watching our every move - nerd comment and all!

Luke's party

I was just thinking how awesome it is that I can take 150 pictures of Luke's birthday and not have any worries! Hip, hip hooray for digital cameras!

{and classes to learn how to use them}

And now, for the promised update on Luke's party!

We went to Jump On It - tons of tramps all lined up and a few slides/bounce houses! Great for kids of all ages and even better for moms not wanting to entertain 3-3 year olds, 3-2 year olds, a 4 year old, 5 year old and 1 year old. Also, great for the moms that don't need another reason to clean the house!

We all played for an hourish, got hot, sweaty and tired, and finished the party off with cake, ice cream and PRESENTS!

I think Luke's cousins blew out his candles for him, but don't worry - (aunt)Amie made it up to him by feeding him his cake and ice cream!

I guess Luke said "I need some help here!" and so she helped.

Don't worry, they aren't pampered like this at home!

And my favorite picture of all 150...

... isn't Jeremy's hair cool!

online shopping...

...is grandma stippy's new fav past-time.

Between christmas and luke's b-day she has probably sent the UPS man to our home 20+ times during the past month.

{no complaints here, we LOVE it!}

Pretty sure that today's package will be the last of 'em for awhile so we enjoyed every bit of it!

Oh, and here is the actual gift.

{almost forgotten when the 6 sheets of bubble wrap provided us with a good 10 minutes of entertainment}

Thanks grandma!

Mama's Boy

I would have never thought that a boy

{remember, I have 4 little brothers}

could be such a blessing...

But this little guy has been a complete mama's boy from the beginning

{maybe it was our constant companionship for his first 4.5 days in the hospital, seriously, he rarely left my arms/bed and never my room}

and I have loved every second of it!

All THREE years! And he is still as sweet as ever!
Happy Birthday Luke!

*more to come on the "way awesome" birthday party soon!

OOPS!

So, I just went to download all of my pictures from Thanksgiving and turns out Chad left his camera and took mine! (they are the same kind) Bummer! So I will have to wait to update you on our celebrations but in the mean time found these on Chaddy's camera and thought I would share a little story with you...

This is Luke. Luke wasn't feeling so hot on Thanksgiving. He slept through the 1st dinner on mom's lap, then slept some more (on dad's lap) while at the movies with his cousins and the rest o' the Bartholomew clan. Luke then came home for the 2nd dinner and found comfort in his good friend, Angie's lap. Luke really likes Ang...so much that he puked on our one and only non-family guest, right before dinner!

Poor guy, poor Ang!

This is him with his "puke bowl" he didn't use it, just the once on Ang was enough. But his sister was extra sweet and caring for him all night long. Loved watching her mother him, made me extra thankful for my kids!
Once again, SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOO sorry Angie!