Luke's 12 Month Update

What a crazy wonderful year!  Our Lucas Eli has brought us so much happiness.  It amazes me every day how much he has changed over the year.  Luke had his one year well child check-up on the 7th, he weighs 19 pounds 15 ounces and is 29 inches long, he has gained 13 pounds 10 ounces and grown 9.5 inches since he was born! He has 6 teeth and freaking runs everywhere.

Luke still isn't saying much, he's still sticking with mama and dada along with pretty much constant babbling.  Over the past month Luke has started dancing to music, all by himself, super cute!  He also randomly started hugging me and it is the best, he says "awe" and wraps his little arms around my neck.  So far I am the only one he will hug consistently but everyone is working on him.

One thing that I haven't really mentioned for a while is Luke's torticollis.  We honestly have not done much for it, a while back we quit trying to do the stretches because they completely stressed Luke out, he did not tolerate them well at all and I was just too worried about hurting him because he tensed up so much.  Instead of the stretches we take him to the chiropractor and the rolfer periodically and he does really well with both.  We also have my sister Haley, who is a massage therapist, do little mini massages on his neck every once in a while.  At his one year appointment our Dr. said his neck is looking pretty good and will continue to improve especially since he is such an active little boy.

Some of Luke's favorite things:
Going for tractor rides with his Papa
Story time at the library
Rowdy
Being outside
His little ride-on motorcycle
Bananas

Luke's Birthday

Oh my goodness, my baby boy is ONE!! This has been the fastest, most wonderful year of my life!

Luke turned one on December 30th.  I was planning on having a real party for him, but since we had just gotten home from Hawaii and then Christmas, I just ran out of time to plan it.  So we just had a small party for him with just family and a couple friends.  Big party or not, I knew I wanted a smash cake for Luke.  I was so excited, Luke is such a tornado that I was sure he was going to absolutely destroy this cake, but it turns out he is more of a cautious cake eater, one fingerfull of frosting at a time.  I finally took one of his hands and slapped it on the top of the cake because he was just being far too clean for my taste.  He loved the cake (obviously...) and cried when I finally took it away.

Happy First Birthday to our sweet little boy.  Words can't describe how much we love you Lucas Eli, you are the best thing that has ever happened to us.

Hawaiian Vacation

Oh Hawaii... How I miss you.

To say we had a wonderful vacation would be a huge understatement.  So much happened and we had such an amazing time.  

The day we left, December 12th, was my sister Charley's birthday so of course we made her wear a crown and sash to party on the plane, the rest of us had fun little party hats.  We ended up having the BEST flight attendants ever!  They brought our crew free drinks and food and gave Charley a free plane tablet for the flight and sang happy birthday over the intercom, so we definitely got a good start to the vacation.  Traveling with 8 people is a total circus, especially our family, but it is always the best time!  Luke did absolutely fantastic on the plane, I totally had myself prepared for the worst, but he was a total champ.  I didn't take any toys for him, just tons of food, which is his favorite thing, so he was perfectly happy.

We have all been to Maui a bunch of times so we all have our favorite places to eat and things to do.  We spent a lot of time on the beach and at the pool at our condo.  Luke loved the beach, and being out in the water.  I can't even imagine how much sand he must have eaten.  It seems like every time we went to the beach he would play for a little bit in the sand, then I would take him out in the water and he would fall asleep while we stood in the waves.  Luke was a trooper, he played so hard every day and got really good at walking while we were there, probably from walking in the sand.

Other than spending time at the beach, we ate a ton of yummy food, rode mopeds, made a day trip to Lahina to go shopping at an outlet mall, and made a couple trips out to the beach where Zack and I got married.  I was really hoping to get some nice pictures there, but when we got dressed up and went, there were two weddings going on, so we went down the street to another beach and got a few pictures there.

On one of the last days we were in Hawaii, my sister Haley and her boyfriend Josiah got engaged!  It is so exciting, they have been together for close to 6 years.  He picked the prefect time and place to propose, on a beautiful beach at sunset.  

It is always so sad when vacation ends, it goes by so quickly but we had the best time.  I love that Maui was Luke's first vacation, it is my favorite place in the world, if I could convince Zack to move there I would be on the next flight out.

This is the beach Zack and I got married on, we just randomly stopped there one day and took a few pictures but planned on going back when we were dressed up.