Our sweet little "Luke boy" (as Meredith and I call him) turned one today. Wow, has this year flown! Probably because I was busy with two kids, but his first year seemed to go by even faster than Meredith's first year. Though those first few months were extremely challenging with a newborn and toddler, it has been an amazing adventure I wouldn't trade for anything! Luke is such a great blessing God has given to our family - the perfect addition! We can't imagine life without him, with all his silliness and cuddles.
Here is a pictorial view of how he has grown over the past 12 months:
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| Month 1 |
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| Month 2 |
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| Month 3 |
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| Month 4 |
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| Month 5 |
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| Month 6 (this is my personal favorite - such a cutie pie!) |
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| Month 7 |
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| Month 8 |
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| Month 9 |
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| Month 10 |
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| Month 11 |
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| Month 12 |
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| To put things into perspective, this is what most of the pictures looked like for his 12 month shot. He doesn't like to sit still!! |
We celebrated his birthday yesterday with a party at Culver's restaurant, with family and friends. We were afraid we may have to cancel his party because of the nasty winter weather we got on Friday night, but the roads seemed to be clear by Saturday morning. It was difficult to think of a good venue to have his party, since it was a winter and definitely needed to be indoors and he was still too young for bowling, etc. We couldn't have asked for a better venue than Culvers. Their exotic fish tank was a huge hit with the kids (we knew it would be, since Meredith and Luke love to go there to watch the fish). Plus, they did the clean-up!! :)
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| Pre-party. We had a sports theme for his party, so this "Daddy's Rookie" outfit worked perect. |
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| Love their fish tank! |
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| He loved watching the balloons attached to his high chair. |
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| He's indifferent to getting a picture with Mommy :) |
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| The kids loved watching the fish! |
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| Such a poser! |
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| Luke being the center-of-attention with both sets of grandparents. |
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| Awww...my baby is all grown up! :( |
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| Getting started on the baseball smash cake... |
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| I like his icing mustache in this picture. |
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| He got the hang of it! |
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| Once I took the smash cake away, he just chilled with blue icing on his face and his classic move - sucking his left ring finger....ha! |
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| He had lots of helpers to open gifts. |
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| Later at home, we tried on his customized shirt from Grandma Prentice - "This Little Monkey is 1 - Luke". |
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| The Prentice clan |
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| Enjoying the scooter from Grandpa and Grandma Prentice that Uncle Derek assembled for him. |
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| It's Uncle Derek and Grandma Perry! |
For Luke's actual birthday today, we started off the day at church with Grandpa and Grandma Perry. We then went to Sam's Club and had pizza and did a bit of shopping. Then, later in the afternoon after naptime, we went to the Normal Public Library. This is one of Luke's favorite spots. It has tons of toys and books, which he absolutely loves!
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| Seeing his gift from Daddy and Mommy for the first time. He still has bed-head :) |
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| Having fun with Sissy. Looks like Christmas morning, PJs and all! |
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| It's not even been 24 hours since he has had this car and he has us wrapped around his finger. He loves to be pushed in it and when it stops, he rocks back and forth wanting us to push him. Looks like I will be getting some exercise! |
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| Grandpa Perry pushing him. What a little ham! |
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| On the elevator at the library, heading up to the children's area. |
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| It was a good time to go - hardly anyone else there and tons of "new" toys all to ourselves! |
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| Pretending to walk with Daddy and Meredith. |
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| Playing dress up. Interesting....a dentist with a fireman's hat. |
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| He loves books, just like his sister! Don't mind Chad's foot in this picture :) |
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| He enjoyed grabbing different books. |
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| What a big boy! |
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| We ended the day with a homemade spaghetti dinner. His first time actually having spaghetti noodles (he has had several other types of pasta). Needless to say, he loved it, even with meat sauce! |
Happy birthday, Baby Luke! Ooops....I guess I can't say "baby" anymore :(
