Happy 4th Birthday, Avery!!

It really doesn't seem like 4 years has passed since we had our 3rd little baby! I know I always say it, but time really does fly! But, yes, our baby is 4!



I have said that I understand how people always "baby their baby"! I mean, she is 4 now, and I still am guilty of babying her a little. I do treat her differently than I did Easton and Paisley when they were 4. They seemed much older at the time, but I had a younger child at that time, too, which makes a difference. She knows she is our baby and often takes advantage of that! :)



I just want to remember how Avery is right now:

Avery is very much a girly-girl! She loves princesses, dress-up, Barbies, Strawberry Shortcake, make-up, pretty clothes, beautiful hairstyles, tiaras, shoes, and playing house.



Avery LOVES stories. She will sit and be read to for as long as someone will read. She, of course, loves girly books. She can "read" Pinkalicious from memory, and can do most pages almost word for word.



Avery LOVES dolls! There literally isn't a day that goes by that she doesn't play with one of her MANY dolls. She is always wrapping them in blankets, rocking them, asking grandma (me) to babysit, feeding them, cooing to them, telling us to "shhh" when they are napping, and just being the best little mommy that any doll could ever hope for. She also LOVES real babies. They are SO much better than dolls. She is drawn to any baby that she sees. She oohs and aahs over them in books, on TV, and in stores. It is so cute. Her love is a little frustrating when she won't leave someone's real baby alone, but she always does it with a loving heart. She will someday be the best mom.



Avery loves her brother and sister. Nothing makes her happier than when Paisley gets home from school and will play with her. They love to play Polly Pockets together, or watch a girly movie together, or have Paisley read her a story. She loves to rough house with Easton, and he is really sweet to play with her and teach her new things. He often plays "school" with her and teaches her letters, numbers, and coloring. He then will always give me a report card so that I am aware of her progress!



Avery loves going to preschool. Right now she goes two days a week for 2 hours each day. She looks forward to each time she goes! She always is happy when I pick her up and very excited to tell me about what they have learned that day.



Avery loves to sing. Just lately she has really started being able to memorize and sing songs to us. I never get enough of her sweet voice. The other day as we left church I heard her singing "I Love to See the Temple" so sweetly. It made my day.



Avery is my buddy, one of my very best buddies. We have definitely had more alone time than I had with Easton and Paisley. I know that comes with being the baby in the family. But, we truly are friends. I would rather wait for her to get out of preschool to come to the store with me than go while she is at school. I sometimes feel a little lost without her since we are constantly together. She loves to be with me, I know. That makes me feel so good. The other day I left her with Dave for a minute while I ran something to Paisley at the school. When I got back, 5 minutes later, she said, "I missed you, mom!" :) I love my buddy.



I love my blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty. She is so sweet and kind. I love it when she tells me that I am the "best mom ever!" Of course that isn't true, but I am so glad to know that at least for now, she believes that! :) She is such a cuddly little sweetheart. We are so very very blessed to have this little ball of energy in our family. It would be so different without her.

Happy Birthday, baby!

Happy Birthday, Son!

Nine years ago, today (Yes, I said NINE YEARS) my sweet little baby boy entered the world. My life changed forever at that moment. I became a mother. The greatest joy of my life! Easton has been our guinea pig child, as all first children are. I remember being so worried about every little thing he did or didn't do. I have grown with him through the years, for sure.

Easton is me. His personality is so much like mine. (Poor boy.) I get him. For better or worse, I understand him. He doesn't like to be in new situations, like me. He is shy, until comfortable, like me. He has a bit of a temper, possibly like me I don't remember. :) He is soft hearted, like me. It is funny for me to watch him. When I am the most frustrated with him, I think to myself, "oh, poor boy, you are just like me!" :)

I love my son more than I ever thought I could. Easton has the kindest heart and is very sensitive. He loves his sisters IMMENSELY. (He may not always show it, but I know it.) He loves babies, and babies always seem to love Easton. My friend's little boy thinks Easton is just the coolest kid. Easton beams when I tell him that.

I thought that I would use this post to tell a little about what Easton is like right now, at 9 years old.

He LOVES football. He loves to play it and watch it. He has played several seasons of flag football and CAN NOT WAIT for this fall when he will start playing "real" football in pads. He is a good little player, too. He is small, but fast and aggressive. He has been able to throw better than me for years now. :) He also really enjoys basketball and baseball.




He loves to play video games. He loves to play fishing and hunting games on the Wii. He likes racing games. He loves to play his grandma's Wii Fit.



Easton's favorite foods: spaghetti, chicken nuggets, cream puffs, pizza, salad from a salad bar (he loves adding all the toppings), ice cream....and well, the list could go on. Easton is a really good eater.

Easton loves to be with friends. He loves to be the class clown. (That gets him into trouble sometimes, though!)




Easton isn't a big fan of school. He does love the social aspect of it, no surprise. He has a good teacher, Mrs. Boren. She is good and patient with him.

Easton loves to play with his cousins. He is lucky to have many boy cousins his age and they have so much fun together.

Easton loves fishing and just knows that he will love to hunt someday! :)






The funny thing is that Dave and I do not fish or hunt. He has learned this love from my brothers and dad. They have been nice enough to take him with them sometimes. This has been such a highlight for him in his life.

He loves to ride his bike. He is also very interested in driving anything that has a motor.

Easton really enjoys writing. Today for his birthday we got him a PS2 (ours finally broke after 9 1/2 years and we have so many games that we replaced it for him). We also got him a DSi game. But, his FAVORITE gift by far was the journal we bought him. He was so excited about it! He immediately started his first entry before he went to school. I took some donuts over to his class for his b-day. His class was at music when I got there, but I talked to his teacher. I guess he had insisted on the fact that they have show and tell, (which they NEVER have) and she finally relented and let him show the class his journal. She then had to end up taking it away from him because he wouldn't quit writing in it to do his work. :) I promised her that I would not let him bring his journal to school again! :) But, I am so surprised that he loves that so much. I am glad he enjoys writing.

He also loves to draw, and is getting pretty good at it. When he is in the right mood, he will sit and draw for hours. We have several "How to Draw" books and he loves looking in them and learning how to draw new things.

Easton has brought so much joy into our lives! It is all going by much too fast. I hope the next 9 years go much slower!

I love you, Easty! I hope your birthday is fantastic!

Christmas

Christmas Eve we told the kids that they couldn't get up until their alarm clocks said 7:30. If they did, then we wouldn't open presents until 8:30. (I know, we are SUPER mean!) But, it worked and we didn't hear any stirring until 7:30.

Santa had left each child 2 presents.



We should have opened the gifts from us first, because once they saw their Santa gifts, there wasn't much interest in anything else for a while. But, that was alright, we had nothing but time.

Avery got a Leapster.




Easton and Paisley got DSI XLs. Easton and Paisley have wanted DSIs since before last Christmas. All their cousins have them and they just think they are the greatest thing!






You can see how excited they were. That was awesome!

So, eventually we got around to opening the presents from Dave and I. Most of the morning was spent with their new video games. Everyone got in on the fun.




My dad and mom were there that morning. We keep saying that we need to buy grandpa a DSI with Mario Kart. He really likes it. :)




Dave had such a tiring morning that he just couldn't help but nap as Avery played her Leapster. Weird. He never naps. HA!



Paisley got some fake nails that she LOVED!



And, she managed to pull herself away from her DSI to do some art with the supplies she got for Christmas.



That afternoon we went to my uncle Chad's for lunch. It is always fun to spend time with my extended family! Later on we moved the party to our house where we had a gift exchange with my siblings.

We played games, talked, ate, and just enjoyed good company all day. It was a perfect Christmas!

Christmas Eve

It has been a month since Christmas, and I still haven't blogged about it, yet. Sad. I used to be so good about updating. So, here we go, finally...Christmas Eve.

We always spend Christmas Eve with Dave's family. I love it. They have developed some fun traditions and it is always a great time.

We started off with a super yummy prime rib dinner. They had enough prime rib to feed an army and so we were all sufficiently STUFFED afterward! It was great!

After dinner we had my 16-year old niece, Marissa, read the Christmas story from the Bible. As she read, all the grand kids took part in reenacting the story. Easton was one of the three wisemen, Paisley was Mary, and Avery was one of the angels.




It was really fun to watch all the kids. Paisley and Joseph (her cousin, Max) knelt next to their baby. (And made fun of the doll's crazy eye that won't close), :)



The angels came in to visit Joseph and Mary.



And the wisemen followed.



It was great.

After the nativity story, we all sat around to hear Dave's Uncle Dennis recite the Night Before Christmas.




After the story it was FINALLY time for presents! We draw names for all the grandkids for a gift exchange. They were spoiled!





All the girls got super cute skirts and sweaters. Avery and Paisley just had to put them on.



Dave and I always get the kids new pajamas for Christmas Eve.




Dave's brother and his wife gave their Uncle Dennis and dad footed pajamas. There is just something not all that pleasant about seeing a grown man in feet pajamas! :) We all got a good laugh, though!



Then it was time to head home and put the kids to bed so that Santa could come. They were pretty worn out after all the fun. They did leave cookies and a note for Santa.



And, even though the picture is blurry, you can see that Santa did come!

Pinewood Derby

For the past week and a half, Dave and Easton have been busily working on their new project, their new pinewood derby car! (I need not remind you that they won 2nd place last year, so Dave said there was no where to go but up!) :)

They searched the internet for ideas, cut it out, sanded and sanded (that was Easton's job), put several coats of paint, added decals for BYU (thanks soooo much, Hailey!), and then added a top coat. (Which, by the way, bubbled the paint for some reason and ruined the smooth surface. But, no worry, it still turned out nice.)

Here is the finished product:



They were really excited for the big race last night. I could tell Dave wasn't as confident about this year's creation as last year. Since Easton took 2nd on his first year, I think he really didn't want Easton to expect that again. So, he kept telling him that even if we don't win, he did such a good job and that's all that matters. And, talked about etiquette for both winning and losing. And, don't get mad if you you lose...etc.




But, he had a great night. It was a double elimination tournament. There were 15 cars. He won his first heat, lost his second (to his life long friend, Rece) and then won his third. So, at this point it was down to the final five. He won his next heat which took him into the final 3. He won the next one to guarantee him at least 2nd place. But, he then had to race Rece, who had already beat him and had not lost yet, for 1st place. And, it was close, but not fast enough. So, he took 2nd place! He was super happy with that. He said that he was glad for Rece and that it was okay to lose to his good friend. :)



We had a fun night. I loved seeing the smile on his face when he would win. Dave and I kept telling him that we were so proud of the way he won and lost. He had very good sportsmanship. Proud mom moment, for sure!

A Non-Believer

I am a little sad today. My son is officially a Santa non-believer. Yup. He will be 9 in a couple weeks, so it is to be expected, I guess. I know he has been thinking about it for quite a while now. He has asked me about it a few times, but always right in front of the girls and so I would lie and keep defending Santa. He would ask, "Is there really magic?" And, I would say, "No, magic is just a trick. There isn't really magic." (I know, mean mom. I just hate lying.) So, he would say, "Then how do the reindeer fly and how does Santa get everywhere in one night if there is no magic?"

He caught me. He is a smart little boy.

This year for Christmas Santa brought Easton and Paisley DSi XLs. So, last night when I was tucking him into bed the conversation went like this...

Easton: "How much did you have to pay for our DSi XLs?"

Me: (Pause) "I didn't pay for them."

Easton: "Yes you did."

Me: "No, Santa gave them to you."

Easton: "You are Santa."

I sat down on his bed and wondered if I could bring myself to tell him the truth. I had thought about it quite a bit lately, if he asked me when he wasn't with the girls if I would answer him truthfully. I had thought about the many years of him being a firm believer. I thought of all the gifts Santa had brought him that he loved. I thought about the cute cute notes he would leave for Santa on Christmas Eve, full of questions for Santa to answer. I just didn't want to tell him the truth.

But, I did last night. I just told him that he was right, dad and I are Santa. I wasn't sure how he would react. But, his face lit up and he smiled so big. He said, "I didn't think you would really tell me. Not until I was like 20." :)

The light went on in his head when I admitted it to him. He then was asking me all kinds of questions about how it worked, logistically. Like, who answered the Santa letters, who ate the cookies, how did we leave the crumbs behind on the plate, did we buy him the ride-on tractor that Santa left a couple years ago. We talked for a long time. He had lots of questions.

I did make him promise not to tell any other kids or his little sisters. I tried to make him understand how important that was and how cool it is to share a secret with dad and I.

A little chapter is closed on his childhood. I wasn't ready for it. I can't believe he is getting older so fast. Everyone said that happens, but I didn't believe that 9 years could fly so fast.

I believe now.