Luke turned 10 and it hardly seems possible that this best boy has been with us for an entire decade. Honestly though, it really feels like I have been loving him my whole life. Luke is genuinely the sweetest boy and the easiest kid to parent. He is just so kind, and funny, and smart. He asks a million questions, loves a good dance party, and truly has the most compassionate heart. Luke makes me feel so great as a mother and tells Tim and I every night that we are the best parents ever. This kid is a jow and we absolutely loved celebrating him and his big day!
We started the morning with presents and waffles.
And ended the day at Nickel City partying with his best buddy.
We try to stretch out birthdays as much as possible, so later that weekend, we celebrated his birthday with all of the family. He loved how this BYU cake looked, but it turned out, all he really wanted was my grandma's mazola cake.
Luke has continued to excel at the piano.
Over the past year, Luke really embraced his love of BYU sports. Football is his first love, but he is a super fan of pretty much anything BYU. We had the chance to go all of the home football games, and several other sporting events, and it is so fun to watch how excited he gets to cheer for the Cougars.
Luke has spent the past year rotating from sport to sport. He hasn't found one that he loves enough to play year round, instead, he switches his focus every few months. There was a brief time that he told me he wasn't sure if he would be able to focus on school work because of the time required for sports, but we figured that out pretty quickly and he now understands that being a scholar, actually makes you a better athlete. He is a great teammate and really cheers for the success of everyone around him - including the other team if they are his buddies.
His baseball team, the Giants, won the championship. He told me it was extra exciting because this was the first time he had ever won a championship in any sport.
We won't let him play tackle football yet,
But he discovered how fun(and hard) it can be to play flag football.
He's a great shot, but getting even better at defense.
For his Fourth Grade school year, Luke switched schools from Lakeview to Sunsetview. Both are in Provo, but it took him to an entirely new neighborhood. He was invited to join an accelerated class which was exciting for him, but also pretty intimidating. The first few months were tough - gosh it was hard to watch him struggle. But, he stuck it out, worked hard, and made a lot of great friends. By the end of the year, he told me that he was so happy he had transferred and how excited he is for next year. They did a lot of fun projects, and he was constantly learning so many new things. He really worked hard on his county float and STEM fair project.
He was selected to be the student of the month and
I loved reading what his teacher had to say about him.
As part of his final project for the school year, Luke had to come up with a service project and complete at least 15 hours. He ended up putting together 8 blankets that he donated to refugees. It was a big project, but he said that he just wanted people who had to leave their homes to feel comforted.
Since he was little, Luke has always loved the beach. He loves the water and waves, but especially loves the sand. He spends so much of his time digging and creating, and really seems the most at home with the beach breeze in his hair. Each time we visit the beach he genuinely begs us to move somewhere close to the beach. It is awesome to watch him in his happy place.
