Family Visit and Luke's Blessing

A lot of my family came to Provo from California during the first week of August for Luke's blessing on the 8th. All of my immediate family except for Patrick and Ashley made it. I was so happy that most everyone could get away from work for a few days. Although, we really missed Patrick and Ashley, who were detained by work and school. Aunt Debi and Mamal came too, sans husbands. It was so fun to have them all around and introduce them to Luke. He was a pretty popular guy.

My mom and Katrina were the first ones to arrive on Thursday night. My mom came bearing gifts - very exciting gifts. She gave Jeff and I each a very generous stack of cash as a graduation present. Of course, we would promptly spend it on some necessary expenses we would incur in the near future instead of something fun and frivolous, but we are extremely grateful to my mom for her thoughtfulness and generosity. We'll be sure to do or buy something fun and frivolous when we can afford it. The five of us (Mom, Katrina, Jeff, Luke, and I) had a tasty dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, again courtesy of Mom (thank you!).

Luke at California Pizza Kitchen. Side note: That little monster hanging from the carrier handle can be pulled down and then it vibrates as it retracts back up. At this point, Luke is more interested in the bright red ring it is hanging from than the monster itself and Jeff plays with it and enjoys it more than he does.

Jeff, me, and Katrina at California Pizza Kitchen

Mom and Katrina hung out at our place and played with Luke for a while that night after dinner before leaving for Aunt Brenda's house (2 blocks away) for the night.

The next morning, Jeff, being such a good sport, got dressed up, helped me grab a bunch of props, and drove over to Aunt Brenda's for a little family photo shoot. Katrina was the photographer and she did an awesome job. My mom, not known for her photography skills, had the very important task of holding up the black back-drop (one of the window shades from our apartment). I was so grateful to have such willing and talented participants to help us get so many great pictures. They turned out way better than I expected! Luke is 5 1/2 weeks old in these pictures.

Jeff is not a fan of kissing pictures. You can tell he's laughing in this picture, but at least he was willing to sacrifice for his wife.

We've got one long baby!

Aunt Brenda's toy basket was just the right size.

Jackie gave me this huge stuffed dog for my 20th birthday. It made for a great picture. However, right after this was taken, Luke rolled off of the dog onto the floor. He was a little surprised. I made the bad mom move of moving too far away to get out of the picture after positioning him. Oops. Lesson learned.

This is the bear Jeff gave me for Valentine's Day the year we were dating.

My mom is holding Luke up from behind the curtain in all of these pictures with the bear. He kept sliding lower and lower.

Luke's hair is so long in the back compared to everywhere else. I love when it's flippeds out like this.

Luke was a little too wiggly for these pictures. I kind of had to squish him against me long enough for Katrina to snap a picture. When he is held upright like this, he rarely lays his head against your chest or shoulder. He wants to hold his head up himself.

Here I am giving Luke a nice long, curly wig.

Luke and Aunt Katrina, the photographer

Luke and Grandma

After the photo shoot, Mom, Katrina, and I went to the LDS Distribution Center to buy Luke a blessing outfit. There was only one option for boys, but it was very cute so I wasn't disappointed. Then, we went across the street to the Rumbi Island Grill for lunch before Mom had to drive to Salt Lake to pick Dad and Jared up at the airport.

If you recall, Dad drove up with Mom when we thought I was in labor the first time, and had to go home the night before Luke was born. He was so bummed and has been so excited to finally meet his grandson for the first time ever since. Dad took Luke as soon as he walked in the door. It became clear pretty quickly that Luke loves his grandpa. He was just starting to smile for a reason, rather than just randomly and he smiled a whole lot for his grandpa during this visit.

Meeting Grandpa

Dad just can't get enough of Luke. He recently told me that Luke had called him and said he wanted to come for a visit. When I explained that I had been with Luke all day and hadn't seen him pick up the phone, Dad said it was while I was in the shower.

Jared was a little hesitant to hold Luke at first because he was "so small," but he was perfectly comfortable with him in no time.

After a few minutes we all headed over to Aunt Brenda's house where we chatted and Mom made us a yummy taco dinner. Dad, of course, hogged Luke all to himself and since he had just arrived, my mom didn't argue, but as time went on, who got the baby became quite a struggle between the two of them.

After dinner, Jeff and I left for our very first night out alone since Luke was born! Grandma and Grandpa happily babysat while we enjoyed a fun date at Nickel City. It's crazy that Luke had only been a part of our family for less than six weeks, yet it felt so strange to be out without him. I barely remember what life was like before he was born.

The last time Jeff and I went to an arcade together was when we were dating and it was not a good experience. I was a sore loser. I lost to Jeff at EVERY game and I got a little sick of it. It was pretty embarrassing to have my lack of video game skills on display all night. Jeff has refused to go back with me ever since. But we had coupons to Nickel City and I promised Jeff that I was just so happy to be spending time alone on a date with him that there was no way I would get into a bad mood. I told him he could remind me of my promise if I started to break it and he agreed to go.

Jeff putting a nickel into a shooting game. I lost miserably at these things, even when I practically put my gun against the screen to shoot. It was a combination of Jeff being ridiculously good at them and my being really bad.

The arcade had an air hockey table. I like that game. My grandma had an air hockey table at her old house back when we were kids. Jeff and I played a game and guess what? I won! I was so excited that I actually beat Superman at something. In fact, I kind of kicked his butt. The final score wasn't too embarrassing, but I started out up by 4.

That's right. Jeff-5. Kira-7.

Feeling pretty good about myself after winning.

Unfortunately, I let Jeff convince me to play best 2 out of 3. Note to self: next time, quit while you're ahead. I started the second game strong and thought I had it in the bag until Jeff made a comeback and beat me 6 to 7. We played a few other games before the tie-breaker, which I totally choked on and ended up losing 4-7. Bummer. Oh well. At least I had a few minutes of glory.

Jeff impressed me with his serious football skills (that's a 280 yard pass through the smallest hole).

I won the jackpot of 34 tickets on this game.

Playing this game on a screen is surprisingly harder than playing it on the ones where the plastic alligator heads actually pop up out of holes.

This was the funnest and hardest game! It was a little like guitar hero except you are a DJ. There are four possibilities: left hand over, left hand under, right hand over, right hand under and they can come in any order or combination. Jeff and I played simultaneously. We were pretty terrible at it, but we had so much fun just cracking up the entire time over how impossible it was.

Our spoils. We used most of our tickets on that little tug boat for Luke. We only had enough left to get 2 dum dums, but the nice ticket counter guy just gave us a handful of candy.

We finished off a wonderful night by sharing a delicious yogurt before picking Luke up from my parents, who I think wish we would have stayed out just a little bit longer.

The next morning, Mom and Dad came over early - as soon as I called my dad to let him know that we were awake. We all just hung out for a couple of hours before deciding to go to a near-by park to take family pictures. I bravely decided to try squeezing into my old jeans and they fit! Sure, they were a little snug, but I was able to zip them up and button them and that's what counts right? After tasting the glory of wearing regular pants again, there was no way I was going back to maternity. So even though my jeans and shorts were a bit tight for a while, I was not about to take a step backwards. All of my maternity clothes were immediately packed into a box in the closet, not to be seen again until the next pregnancy.

Grandpa is a funny guy.

Sisters

We put Luke in his size 3 months jeans for the pictures. They were a little big, but look how cute he is!

It was SO windy at the park! Check out those trees in the background.

This building sheltered us from the wind.

Jared had an artistic vision that could only be fulfilled by climbing this thing like a monkey.

Such a rugged mountain man with his scruffy beard and plaid shirt.

Jared's artistic vision realized. It was a little bright to be looking up, as you might be able to tell by the looks on our faces.

More pictures taken by Jared from his lofty perch.

Big kids.

After we left the park, a few of us went to see Inception - good movie! When we got back to our apartment, I had to pump about 12 oz. of milk since I hadn't pumped or fed Luke since that morning (the babysitters had been using the bags in the fridge). Sadly, I was stuck in my bedroom endlessly pumping when a party started in my living room. Mamal and Aunt Debi arrived and met Luke for the first time, all of my family was out there and Doug and Tricia came over. They were all chatting and laughing while I listened from the other room. Finally, I got to join them and it was so fun to have so many people I love all together in the same room.

For dinner, some of us decided to have left-overs at Aunt Brenda's house, while Mamal took everyone else out to a restaurant. While we were over at Aunt Brenda's, Brooke came over and we had a fabulous time visiting with her. She's wonderful.

After a while, Jeff had had more than his fill of socializing with my family. He loves them, but spending too much time visiting with anyone wears him out. I was in the guest room feeding Luke when he came in and collapsed on the bed in exhaustion. I told him he could go home and he happily did just that. I stayed a little longer so that our family friends, the Sparks, whom my dad had invited over, could meet Luke. They are an awesome family and we had a great time visiting with Larry, Stefanie, and Sydnee before I walked home with Luke to find Jeff asleep on the couch watching the Bugs Bunny Movie.

Sunday was Luke's blessing day, the reason everyone had come. We discussed a few things we thought would be important to include in the blessing, dressed Luke in his cute blessing attire and walked the 30 yards to our church building. It was Jeff's and my last time teaching our Sunday school class so I made chocolate chip cookies and we taught the class outside in the grass. We've had a great time teaching for the past several months and have had some great kids in our class. We'll miss them. I'm so grateful that we were given such an awesome calling. I wonder what our callings will be in our new Flagstaff ward.


We had an awesome crowd of friends and family show up to listen to the blessing in sacrament meeting. It was so fun to see everyone and have so many great men stand in the circle with Jeff. We only wish Jeff's family could have been there.

Of course, Grandpa took Luke the second we all sat down, but I made him give him back before it was time for Jeff to take him up for the blessing. My mom took great notes on what Jeff said. This is almost word for word:

"Luke, we bless you with a strong and healthy body. We bless you that you will be strong in the gospel and that you will always find time to study and that you will develop a love for and read the scriptures. We bless you that you will be a leader and an example to your future siblings ans that you will show love for them through simple acts of service. We bless you that you will see the Lord's hand in your life, that you will remember and record these events and they will be a help to you during the hard times. We bless you that you will serve an honorable, full-time mission and that when you return home, you will find a wife who will love and support you, that you will both be strong in the gospel, and that you will marry her in the temple. We bless you to surround yourself with people who have high moral standards, both members and non-members alike. And that you will use your talents to serve in the Church and that you will heed the promptings of the Holy Ghost throughout your life."

It was an incredible feeling to listen to my husband, a worthy priesthood-holder, give such a beautiful blessing to our son. I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life and that our son will grow up with it in his.

After church, we all went over to Aunt Brenda's house for a little get-together with everyone that came. (Thank you so much for hosting this entire weekend Aunt Brenda!) We spent all day visiting with wonderful friends and family and eating delicious food (far too much in my case). It was a great day.

Jeff's old roommates, Jeff Oswell and Matt Johnston. Jeff was talking to my dad about the Lakers (he's the one we gave the onesie to).

Grandma Summers (and Grandpa Summers in the background), Nikki, Grandma Fisher, Brian and his girlfriend, Nicole.

Grandma Summers is talking to Jeff's Aunt Ila and cousin Kinzie.

Aunt Debi reading a book to Austin and Shawn. Austin and Shawn loved Luke and he loved them. He laughed and smiled when they got down on the floor to talk to him.

Brenda Oswell and Vanessa Johnston with the Johnston's little boy Thomas.

Thomas is the biggest, chubbiest baby. So cute!

Katrina and Tricia

Jared was out in the backyard on the phone with his girlfriend, Kelsey. He looked so GQ. I had to paparazzi him a couple of times.

The great-grandparents: Grandma Fisher, Mamal, Grandma and Grandpa Summers

Kinzie, Ila, Grandma and Grandpa Summers

Four generations

Luke got hungry

I asked if anyone in this big group wanted to feed Luke...

I got several offers, but Aunt Debi spoke first.

The paparazzi strikes again.

The food set-up was gorgeous (Thanks Mom and Dad!), but I failed to get a picture of it before everyone dug in. Here is my favorite part though. It's a little picked over, but still so pretty and delicious.

The next morning, Mom and Katrina came by for one last visit before they drove back to California (Dad and Jared flew back the night before because they had to work). Luke was in a very smiley mood as I had just been singing him the Winnie the Pooh theme song, which he loves (now he loves Puff the Magic Dragon even more). It was sad to see them go, but I knew with a lure as cute as Luke, they would be back soon. And I must admit, after having all of the visitors holding my baby almost every minute they were here, I was glad to have him all to myself for a while. I missed my little guy.

Right after Mom and Katrina left, I decided to try putting Luke in his umbrella stroller. He's still a little small for it, but he looked pretty cute.

Later that day, I couldn't resist snapping a couple of pictures of Luke's adorable little face looking over Daddy's shoulder. This kid holds his head up like a champ!