Happy Birthday Easton!!!

Cute little Easton turned 5 in June! He is growing up too fast. He is still our sweet little boy. He loves Star Wars, Super Mario Bros, doing crafts, playing soccer and baseball, building things with his tools with Dad, doing Legos, playing the Wii and playing with his sisters, Elle and Jayne. He also LOVES exploring outside and catching bugs. We've gone through a lot of plastic cups with air holes for grasshoppers, ants, a dragonfly, a bee, a preying mantis, and even a locust that Don got for him in the desert. He is all boy!

My favorite things about Easton:
-He is really silly. He makes us laugh all the time and loves to tease!
-He is cuddly. He gives the best hugs and still wants us to lay by him before bed at night. Sometimes when I hold his hand, we play this little game where I squeeze his hand 3 times to mean "I Love You" and then he squeezes mine 4 times to say "I Love you more." We get in a contest back and forth to see who loves who more. It is pretty cute!
-He is easy going. Even if he does get upset, he gets over it very quickly.
-He likes to try new things and does his very best.
-He is kind to others.
-He loves his sisters and is so cute with them.

Easton was so excited for his birthday and was counting down the days. So, when he woke up on his birthday and didn't feel well, we felt so bad! I knew he was sick when I offered to make him chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and he said he wasn't hungry. He said his throat and his tummy hurt and he just wanted to lay on the couch. Poor little guy. I told him we were going to have to postpone his birthday party and he was so concerned that if we didn't celebrate that he wouldn't turn 5. I assured him that he would still turn 5. He ended up laying on the couch, watching movies and resting all day. By that evening, he was feeling a little better and so we had him open his presents from our family.


He was so excited about his new remote control truck



Elle couldn't wait for Easton's birthday and had a whole pile of Star Wars gifts she had made for him, including some books she made about Star Wars.


And some paper masks, light sabers and paper figures from Star Wars.



Easton was excited to try out his new car track and loved the Super Mario Bros movie from Jayne too!

The next morning, he was still complaining about his throat so I started to suspect that maybe he had strep throat. I took him in and sure enough it was strep. The good thing is that with a little antibiotics, he would be feeling a lot better and not contagious within 24 hours, so we could still have his birthday party that we rescheduled.

The day of the party came and Easton was doing great! Thank goodness for medicine! We told him that this way his birthday lasted longer. He kept telling Elle that he got to have two birthdays. She didn't know how she felt about that.

Birthday pancakes


STAR WARS PARTY
What kind of party did Easton want? You guessed it. Star Wars! It turned out to be a lot of fun! We played games to test their Jedi skills, did some training with light sabers, and even had a surprise visit from Darth Vader. Easton was so happy to be with all of his friends and had a great time!


Jedi Easton



Playing Vader-Yoda (Red Light, Green Light) to test their listening skills





Pin the ship in the galaxy to see how well they could use the "force" to get their ships on the right spot



All the young Padawans earned their new Jedi Robes and swim noodle Light Sabers and then got trained by Jedi Master Don.



Darth Vader made a surprise visit and got attacked by all the newly trained Jedis. Yep, the Jedis definitely won that battle! Sorry Don... I mean Vader!









Pinata fun



Cake time



Me and my big 5 year old Jedi! I love you Easton!

Little Boy, Big Example

As a parent, it is my job to try and teach my kids the best that I can. The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure I learn more from them than they do from me...

We just got back from a family trip to Hawaii and had a great time. We were there over a Sunday so we planned to go to Sacrament Meeting at a ward there and then go back to the house. Elle kept asking over and over, "We aren't staying for Primary,right?" She was really nervous about being with kids she didn't know. We told her no but that we wanted to make sure we got the Sacrament. While sitting in Sacrament meeting, Easton leaned over and said, "I want to go to Primary and meet new friends." Don and I looked at each other and realized that we were having a "teaching moment" and we were the ones being taught by our sweet 4-year-old boy. That is where we needed to be. Elle still didn't want to stay but thanks to a sweet teacher, she decided to try. We didn't plan on staying for classes, but thanks to the example of a little boy, we stayed. Elle and Easton both did great and thought it was so neat that it was just like Primary in Utah. They were so excited to have made new friends in Hawaii too.

Spring Tee Ball

Easton just finished Spring Tee Ball and did so great! He had a lot of fun playing with his friend, Cooper, and learned a lot too. He loves to hit the ball off the tee and run the bases and did great as a baseman too. He didn't quite get that he doesn't have to stand on the base as a baseman though so it was pretty funny seeing the other team's players try to run the bases and Easton didn't want to let them near it. He is a cute little guy! He is my sweet, sweet little boy!

Getting ready to hit the ball with his coach, Cory, who is Cooper's dad

I love his little face in this picture!

Third Baseman

Throwing it in

Cooper and Easton

Howdy Day

Easton had "Howdy Day" at his preschool last week. They did the cutest things with the kids and even brought real ponies and horses for the kids to take a ride on. Easton was so excited! They asked for a couple of dads to come to help lift the kids on to the horses so Don went and of course, Jayne and I had to come too. I couldn't miss a chance to be with him in his preschool class and see what he does. It was so fun! He is so cute and absolutely loves preschool!

Cowboy Bingo with Fruit loops (I'm suprised the kids played and didn't eat their game pieces)

Roasting marshmallows by the fire (After, they pretended to sleep by the fire. So cute!)

Easton and his yummy marshmallow

Easton loved riding his horse, Cricket

We loved being with Easton at preschool! He is getting too big!

Batman

Cute little Easton loves Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Ironman--pretty much any Superhero. He loves to "fly" around in his cape. The other day Elle was asking why we don't see her cousins Jonathon and Sami that much. I told her that it is because they live far away in Chicago and it is expensive to fly there. Then Easton got really excited and said, "I know Elle. I have two Batman capes and you can use one and we can fly there!" It was so cute! He just adores his sister and thought that they could really fly there together. I was taking his picture a few days later and he started to get frustrated and cry. When I asked him what was wrong, he said he wanted to fly. I told him he was flying and then he pointed up in the sky and said "No, I want to fly up there!" I love my little boy! I don't want him to grow up...