Braces, Birthday and Baptism

 Luke turned 8!  What a week it was for him.  He got braces on the 4th, birthday on the 5th and baptized on the 9th.  He was excited about the braces and was eager to show and tell, but it became a little stressful when four of the eight fell off.  Now he has an expander on and almost died choking at the neighbors eating some pancakes.  We turn the key every morning and he only asked for pain medicine the first day.  I didn't even think about braces being stressful but now that he is used to them I am not too worried.  Kids are so resilient, a little pain one minute off running playing the next.  His birthday was pretty low key.  He requested to go to Chili's and then we had some family friends over for Marie Calendar pie, daddy's choice, but Luke of course so easy going didn't say a thing.  He also went to Boomers with his friend Trey and Cohen the next week.  For his baptism he asked his Uncle Justin to confirm him and Will baptized him.  I was kind of confused when Will told me Luke asked Justin to confirm him.  But Will said he let Luke choose. (Sometimes I forget to let my children plan and make small choices, but they love stuff like that)  It was a special confirmation and baptism and I felt the spirit very strongly amidst the multitude of people and small children.  It was a sweet experience for me to have Luke choose to be baptized and understand the covenant he was making. I know he has a desire to be righteous and that is comforting to me.

Luke is a good kid.  He is easy going, kind, forgiving, friendly, responsible, it seems I could go on and on!  I admire how quick he can forgive his siblings and how hard he tries to make them happy.  He is on the ball with his chores and obeys most my snappy demands.  He is doing well in school and enjoying reading.  I think he got through most of the Book of Mormon this past year.  Its almost hard for me to believe because it seems a difficult book to read for a kid his age.  Just when you think he's not paying attention to family scripture reading he rattles off answers to Will's questions faster than I can.  He got 3 A+ on his last report card.  He blows me away in sports.  He is playing basketball right now and is becoming more coordinated.  He fakes people out, drives hard to the basket, steals for a break away and makes smart passes.  I thoroughly enjoy watching him play.  This mom leaned over to me and said "he's almost too good to be true."  Not that I have anything to do with him being good at basketball but it felt really good.  Luke might have my sensitive gene.  The first Sunday Max was in the hospital a lot of people were asking me about him so of course I balled for 3 hours.  Church was over and I was still crying as I responded to one last person and I saw him hide into the hallway.  As we walked out to the car I noticed he had tears in his eyes, I asked him why he was crying and he said it was because I was.  I love my Luke.