Christmas miracle!

It's a Christmas miracle! They decided to sleep out in the fort they made next to the Christmas tree, and actually fell asleep! Dog and all :). They had such a fun time building this fort today and played in it for hours. I love that they love having sleepovers together on the weekends. Love these sweet kids. 

World Prematurity Day

Yesterday was World Prematurity Day, which holds a special place in our family's heart. I always had interest in prematurely born babies being a premie myself, but having our own sweet babies being born early and going through everything we did with Asher, it now has a whole new meaning to us. Here are our premies (born at 35 weeks) then and now at 11 months old! In a nutshell, they stayed inside mommy much longer than expected after going into preterm labor at 27 weeks and being put on bedrest. Once they were born Avery was the littler one and healthy while Asher was very sick and had a month long stay in the NICU plus an additional month being on oxygen and monitored at home. But today they are both healthy, happy and thriving! We are so grateful for the miracle of modern medicine, prayer and these sweet blessings in our lives! ❤️

Interview with Great Grandpa Bagshaw

For school Luke was given an assignment to interview a grandparent or great grandparent to learn more about what life was like when they were young. Luke decided to interview his oldest living relative - Great Grandpa Bagshaw. On Sunday we went to visit them and Luke did a great job of reading and asking Grandpa Bob all the questions. We video recorded the interview and we all had fun listening to Grandpa Bob's answers. Here is how his assignment ended up 

Cute notes with Luke

The other night Luke and I were having fun writing notes back and forth to each other on the glass door of the shower as he was showering. Then we contined our notes on a peice of paper after he got out. I thought what he wrote here was really cute. 

Froggy

Luke had his class stuffed animal, Froggy, for the past week and a half. He had to take it back today and was pretty sad about it, but he had lots of fun with Froggy while he was with us! He had to write a little paper about what he did with Froggy to read to his class and include pictures. Here it is. 

Walk to school day

Primary program

Last Sunday was our Primary Program. Our kids did so good in their parts and their singing! I loved watching them up there on the stand. 

Luke knew every song and stood very seriously watching the singing leader. I think there was one time he looked at me between songs and cracked a smile, but then was right back to seriously focusing on his leaders. He is such a cute, good boy and takes these things very seriously. When it came to his part he got up there and spoke strong and clear and did a great job. I was so proud of him! His line was the very last in the entire program. When he told me he would be last after the practice I told him he would be he grand finale :). When he was given his part assignment the slip of paper said "I will prepare for Jesus to come by______" and he got to fill in the blank. He decides to finish it with "by following the Holy Ghost." I thought that was such a great thing and very mature of him, especially since he will be getting baptized soon! What a good boy. 

They both did a great job and we loved watching them! 

Leaders of the week!

Luke and Halle both got "highlighted" with the leader of the week award in their classes on Friday and got to pick a highlighter from the principal's office. They were both so proud, and surprised they got it in the same week! So proud of my good kids! 

I tried to get a picture of Luke by himself too, but he wouldn't cooperate or hold still for it! It was like pulling teeth just to get him to do the photo of them together, little stinker, haha. 

Leaders of the week

Luke and Halle both got "highlighted" with the leader of the week award in their classes today and got to pick a highlighter from the principal's office. They were both so proud, and surprised they got it in the same week! 

Super kid Luke

I sure love this big boy of mine and don't know what I'd do without him. He makes me laugh everyday and is such a good kid. 

Over the weekend we made Luke's super kid poster along with 10 clues about him for his teacher to tell his class. I love these kinds of things and love how his personality comes out in his poster and clues! 

Then, today Luke got to wear his pajamas to school because he earned 20 super student tickets in his Chinese class! He has been talking about this for weeks and chose wearing pajamas to school over a bunch of other reward options. Cute (and silly) boy!!

First day of 2nd Grade

Today was Luke's first day of 2nd grade! Where in the world has the time gone? He is growing up way too fast! 

Summer went by in a flash and I'm sure going to miss having him home with me all day. He is such a good boy and we think he's so great and just love having him in our family. As sad as it is seeing him grow so fast it's also so great and fun to see him learning and growing and turning into such a good "big kid." 

He wrote his sign! 

He's also turning into quite the goofball. He had to strike all these silly poses before we could get the one above, haha.  

There were a bunch of different superhero and boy backpacks to chose from at the store, but when he saw this BYU one be had to have it. He loves BYU like daddy. I told him he could pick out a pencil box or bag to keep his new pencils and erasers in, and when he saw this one he HAD to have it. Luke LOVES anything with combinations. He thought this was super cool. 

Lined up for school this morning. What a big guy! 

He came home after school with not much to say about school, so I had to pry it out of him! (And threaten he'd loose balls out of his reward ball jar of he didn't tell me some details about school, haha). But then he told me some things and it sounds like his teachers will be great and it will be a good year. He is doing the Chinese immersion program still, which he really likes. We felt like he learned so much Chinese already last year. It will be fun to watch him as he learns more this year. 

We sure love this boy. He is kind, smart, and good. What more could a parent ask for. What a great child to be the oldest in our family for our younger ones to look up to. We love our Lukey guy! 

Not so little!

Look who mowed the back lawn all by himself a couple nights ago! I think that's pretty impressive for a seven year old! I was surprised (and a little unsure) when Cory told me he taught Luke how to mow the lawn the other day. But he was right, Luke does great with it and loves the responsibility. I say this all the time, but this little boy is growing up too quick! I love this kid. Not so little now, but still my little boy. ❤️ 

Big boy mowing the lawn

I was so surprised the other night when I came outside after putting the babies t bed - Luke was mowing the lawn! He is such a big boy! He has been talking about helping Cory mow the lawn for awhile and now it's happening! Awesome! Way to go Lukey. 

He loves his little sister

Flashrider 360

This red bike took over our day, but we have a happy boy here. Our house is a disaster due to me spending every spare second I had this afternoon assembling Luke's new toy, but it's done! Luke's a saver and finally found something he wanted to spend his $$ on. It called the flashrider 360. It spins out and the breaks spark..pretty cool. It was $83 with tax so a big purchase for Luke, but he's having tons of fun with it and I think he'll have a great time with it this summer. 

He has been doing extra jobs for a week or so to earn some money to add to what he already had so he could get it. Thanks to our bank no longer having change counting machines, he paid for it with $10 worth of quarters, $3 worth of dimes and nickels, and lots of bills. The cashier at target was so cute about it. 

He is so proud! He keeps saying how weird it feels to have almost all his money gone. And he's hanging on tight to that receipt.."if anything goes wrong I have 90 days to return it, mom." Good job Lukey! What a big, responsible boy!

Last week of 1st grade!

We had fun visiting Luke at his school field day on Tuesday. His school has been doing fun activities all week. I'm pretty sure he just stared 1st grade..can it really be ending already?!

At field day. They had a carnival with big bounce houses, relay races, snow cones, body art, and lots of fun things! We had a lot of fun visiting him there. Also, Luke was one of the fastest boys in his class so he got to compete in the Ninja Warrior race against the fastest 1st grade boys!

The twins even came to see Luke at his school. 

We're going to miss his awesome teachers Mrs. Chapman (English teacher) and Miss McGarry (Chinese teacher). He has loved both of them so much and has learned so much this year! 

Luke won 2nd place in the whole 1st grade in the Ninja Warrior race! Way to go Luke!

Yesterday was Luke's last day of school. I compared his first and last days of school. Look how much he has grown up! It makes me sad to see, but he is growing into such a good, smart and grea boy. 

He brought home lots of assignement. I thought this one was cute. He loves his teacher. He said this was about Mrs. C. 

This says "Christmas party". 

To celebrate the last day we went to the "famous snow cone place" as the kids call it. 

And then Luke and Halle had a sleepover and watched a movie. We are excited for summer! 

Where is Luke?

After school I was putting the babies down for a nap. When I came out I couldn't find Luke anywhere. I called all around the house for him but got no answer. I texted all of his friend's moms and no one knew where he was. I was starting to get worried and was about to go walk around the neighborhood looking for him. I walked back to his room to check one more time and looked down and see this message on his whiteboard right outside of his room. I hadn't noticed it before. 

"I am taking a nap. Do not disterv" (disturb). 

So then I opened his door up and looked at his bed closer and sure enough, there he was laying under his covers. The last place I would have thought to look! Luke always comes home from school with boundless energy, never would I have thought he'd go lay in his bed! 

Poor guy, when he woke up he wasn't feeling good. No wonder he was so tired. 

Before bedtime I read to Luke and Halle and last week we finished the book The Boxcar Children, which they both loved. Tonight we watched the movie together which was a lot of fun. 

I love my kids so much and their sweet, fun, individual personalities. I still have to take a step back every now and then and say to myself, wow, I'm a mom of four beautiful kids, and that's pretty awesome! There's nothing more important to me, and nothing I'd rather be doing! 

Easter weekend

Easter weekend in St George was a lot of fun! It was the first time we have gone on a trip with the twins and it went good! 

On our way there 

Swimming 

Easter morning