Happy 4th Birthday Easton!

Wow! I can't believe my little boy is now 4! Happy Birthday EE! We love you!

I was going to make Easton a cake with dinosaurs and a volcano for his birthday since we all know he LOVES dinosaurs but then I remembered he got that last year for his cake so I decided instead to ask Easton what he wanted for his birthday cake. He told me he wanted shlocolate (yes he still says that for chocolate and I'm in no hurry to correct him) cupcakes with blue and white frosting. Easy enough but I thought that seemed a little boring. After he told me what he wanted I remembered I saw a cute cookie monster cupcake the other day and figured it would fit into his requests nicely. Plus I've recently been calling him cookie monster because he is just that. He wants to make cookies all the time and if he had it his way he would eat cookies everyday all day long. It was perfect!

Up close look at the cupcakes.

Random but note to self: Next time you pipe a cake don't use store bought frosting. It is too runny and it's really hard to work with. It turned out okay but it definitely would have looked better if it was homemade frosting.

Video of us singing Happy Birthday to Easton:

Blair helping Easton with the candles.

I was running out of frosting to continue piping the stars for the fur so I decided to do the rest of the cookie monsters with coconut.

Easton finally being able to open his presents. Both Grandma and I told him he had to wait until Daddy got home to open presents. Right after Easton said hi to Nathan he went straight to his pile of presents and tried opening one. We decided to do cake and ice cream right then so he could open his presents after.

He got a tag reader pen with a couple of tag books and tag animal cards which he absolutely loves! He hasn't put the pen down yet.

He got a fishing game and money from Gma Whiting.

Video of Easton opening Gma Whiting's present:

Easton also got clothes from Grandma Gretch and a savings bond from Gpa Whiting and Gma Sharon. Thank you for all the presents and phone calls.

Don't forget to check out the other 2 posts I posted earlier today. Grandma Gretch's visit and Easton's preschool graduation.

Grandma Gretch Visits!

Nathan's mom came into town to visit us for the weekend before her week long conference she's attending for work in San Francisco. We picked Gretchen up from the airport Friday afternoon and then look her to Muir Woods to see the Redwoods.

Grandma and Blair. There's Blair's scrunchy nose again.

Blair showing Grandma something while we wait for the boys to come back from the restroom.

We actually waited for a really long time because Easton didn't quite make it before he had an accident and Nathan had to try to wash and dry his clothes. I asked Easton if he needed to go to the restroom before we went hiking but he kept telling me no. I told him to at least try but still he told me no. It wasn't even 5 min later that he told us he needed to go. Nathan ran back with him and got him in front of the urinal but he wasn't fast enough getting his pants off and wet his pants. I guess next time I'll just have to force him to go.

Grandma walking/running with the kids.

Video of Gretchen running with the kids. We all think it is pretty funny the way Blair takes such little quick steps when she runs. Gretchen couldn't help but copy Blair:

Grandma with the kids.

One with everyone

Easton and Blair inside one of the trees.

Nate with the kids.

We also took Gretchen across the Golden Gate Bridge and then we were going to take to her Napa to see wine country but it was getting a little late and we were all getting pretty hungry so we went out to eat instead.

Saturday we went to Fiesta Days downtown Vacaville. They have this every Memorial Day Weekend. For some reason I only got pictures of my family and none with Gretchen in them but I swear we took her with us.

Dad and Blair. This is Blair's new face that started 2 weeks ago. Anytime someone says something to her she will crinkle her nose and make a sniffing sound at you.

Easton wanted to go down the big yellow slide so Nathan took him the first time. We thought both Nathan and Easton needed a ticket to go on the ride so we got two tickets but it turns out that we only needed one so we had an extra ticket.

Video of Easton and Nathan sliding down the slide:

Blair of course wanted to go too so Nathan took her but Easton didn't want to be left out so Grandma went and bought some more tickets.

Video of Easton racing Nathan and Blair down the slide:

Easton went down all by himself.

We took a quick drive to Fairfield to show Gretchen some of the wine country there and then went to the Walmart in Fairfield (it is huge-sad it took me a year to go there) where Easton came away with two DVD's that Grandma bought him. I thought those were his birthday gifts but he got something else for his birthday so I guess they were just spoiling gifts. He definitely loves the movies.

Sunday after I took the kids to sacrament meeting we came home and just relaxed with grandma for the day.

Monday we celebrated Easton's birthday. We had cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents. Then we went to the outlets where Easton and Blair both got their birthday presents from Grandma Gretch. Afterwards Grandma took us all to McDonalds for Easton's birthday lunch. Then we took Gretchen to San Francisco where we had to say goodbye. Blair was already asleep by then but Easton was pretty sad that Grandma Gretch had to leave so soon. The kids definitely loved having their grandma around. Thanks Gretchen for visiting us!

Easton's Preschool Picnic and Graduation

End of the year preschool picnic:

It was raining on and off during the picnic so the turn out wasn't all that good. We still had fun even though we were freezing cold by the time we finally left.

Easton with some of his preschool friends.

Video:

Blair loved the swing of course.

Preschool Graduation:

Video of Easton's class marching in for graduation:

(I would skip at least the first 50-55 secs because they are just singing outside. Easton's the very last kid).

Easton

Video of them counting:

(The music wasn't working very well so most of it is them singing without the music. If you don't want to watch the whole thing I would skip the first min. It's kind of cute the last 10 sec).

Video of the class singing the months of the year:

(If you don't want to watch the whole thing I would skip the first 25 sec and just watch Easton dance/"rock it out" until about 1 min 10 sec).

Video of Easton reading:

P-A-M Pam

H-A-T Hat

B-A-G Bag

S-A-M Sam

(Unfortunately its pretty hard to hear him but he did a great job!)

Blair was pretty good during the ceremony but after about an hour of sitting in her stroller she got really bored so we went outside for her to run around for a while.

Easton getting his diploma from Ms. Valerie.

Class picture

Videos

I posted back in January (I think) Easton singing the first article of faith. Well, he's been learning a new one each month but I kept forgetting to record him. I finally remembered today but Easton wasn't cooperating as well as I was hoping. Here's the best that I could get today. He does know the first five really well. I hope these video's play because for some reason they look really weird right now. Someone let me know if you can't view them.

Second Article of Faith (learned this one back in February):

Third Article of Faith (learned in March):

Fourth Article of Faith (learned in April):

Fifth Article of Faith (learning this month-May):

I also hope these are in the right order because I can't view them to be sure.

I had to get a video of Blair singing too! She normally sings this song better (she always forgets the "like a diamond in the sky") but while I was recording her she was a little distracted by Easton. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Yes, Blair is on the potty. She loves to sing and sings most of the day but for some reason she's been singing this song non stop when she's on the toilet so I thought it would be easy to get her singing it. I've decided to start potty training her (not because I want to-believe me I think its a stupid idea with a baby coming in less than a month) but because her new thing is to take her clothes off (diaper included) and pee on my carpet. We have been at it for 2 1/2 days now with no success. Valerie told me to just bring her over for a week and she'll have her potty trained. I'm seriously considering this especially if we're still not successful by the end of this week.

Baby Shower

My friend Valerie (aka Easton's preschool teacher) threw me a baby shower last Saturday. It was absolutely amazing. She definitely went all out. I was really nervous about having another baby shower because let's be honest I definitely didn't need one especially since I already had two before (one boy one girl). Isn't that already more than enough? I was really worried what others would think of me and I actually told Valerie that I didn't want one for that very reason. She basically told me that every baby needs to be celebrated and that she was going to throw me one anyways! I wasn't going to argue with her but I was still not sure about the whole thing.

Every time I saw Valerie (which was often since she's my neighbor, Easton's preschool teacher, and I work in Young Women's with her) she would ask me if I had registered yet and where. Finally I broke down and registered a few things that I needed at Target (online) but Valerie apparently wasn't satisfied. She had me go to Target with her (my two kids and two kids from preschool in tow) to target to register for more things. She specifically asked for two guns so that she could make sure there was enough on the list for people to choose from. She said to me that I didn't need to just register for things that I needed but also for things that I wanted and then she began scanning basically everything boy related. Again this made me really nervous what others would think of me so when I got home I actually went through and deleted some of the stuff I definitely didn't need. I couldn't get rid of a lot of things though because I was worried Valerie would notice I deleted stuff.

Anyways, the big day came and to my surprise a lot of people showed up and even a couple of people that couldn't make it actually sent gifts. I was definitely spoiled! Valerie did a great job hosting (lots of good food and lots of fun games). Quite a few people even commented that this was the best or one of the best baby showers they have ever been too. I would have to agree. It was amazing! I actually forgot my camera but I know Valerie and Laurie (Easton's other preschool teacher) was taking pictures so hopefully they won't mind sharing them with me. I did however take some pictures of the gifts I got once I got home.

Lots of diapers, wipes, clothes, blankets, burp cloths, pacifiers, bibs, towel, toys, boppy raiser, diaper genie, etc.

Isn't this the cutest diaper cake ever? I had to get a picture of all the sides so my mom could see everything.

Diapers, wipes, receiving blankets, blanket, towels, wash cloths, bibs, book, toys (rattles, finger puppets, stuffed animal), outfit, socks, hat, and pjs. I'm probably forgetting something.

35 Weeks

I can't believe that I'm already at 35 weeks! I feel like this pregnancy is going by really fast. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. Today at the grocery store I had (no joke) five people say, "You're going to have your hands full really soon!" And Easton and Blair were actually behaving themselves today. Imagine what they would have said if they weren't behaving. Comments like that make me really nervous and question myself if I'm actually ready.

Yesterday I got to have another ultrasound done. I guess the family practice residents needed some practice with ultrasounds so they asked if I would come in and help out. Baby boy is still a boy and was not shy about showing everyone either. I was hoping for some good pictures since I really didn't get very good ones at the 20 week ultrasound but no such luck. They only gave me one and it is really blurry. Apparently its a picture of him sucking his thumb. I can see the fingers but I can't tell whats going on with the rest of the picture. We might have a thumb sucker because we caught him twice with his thumb in his mouth. He's very active (which I think was a little frustrating to some of the residents). He kicked the probe twice. He definitely doesn't like things poking him or invading his space. He often kicks Blair when I'm holding her. They estimated that he was 5 lbs 6 oz. His head is down which is good but I'm measuring 5 days behind. I guess this isn't or shouldn't be a surprise since I was late with both Easton and Blair.

I had a doctor's appointment today and he measured me to be almost 34 weeks along (that would make me about 10 days behind). When my doctor first walked in he mentioned that I wasn't as big as he was expecting (he hasn't seen me for 8 weeks -my last Dr. appointment was with someone else). I was kind of glad when he said that at first because half way through my pregnancy he seemed worried with the amount of weight I was gaining. But after I found out that I was measuring that far behind, now I'm a little worried. Nathan told me when measuring the uterus it can be off by about 2 weeks and that he's not concerned. That makes me feel a little better but I'm still a little nervous.

Here's a picture of me and the kids. While I was taking pictures of myself they decided they wanted in on the action too.

Random: Recently I've had quite a few people ask me if Easton and Blair are twins or a year apart. I'm trying to figure out if Easton looks small for his age and/or if Blair looks big for her age. They are probably pretty close in their weight though since Blair never stops eating.

You know you're getting old when...

you go to the grocery store to buy beer and you don't get carded! Yes that is right I bought beer, but it's not what you think... We are working on planting a garden and I told Nathan that we needed to get some slug/snail bait to put around our garden. He told me he was planning on using beer for that. I was a little confused since I had never heard of that before but figured why not try it. We were out buying some stuff for our garden and decided to stop by the grocery store to buy some beer. Nathan forgot his wallet at home and since we didn't want to drag the kids into the store for such a quick trip, that left me to go in and buy some beer. Can we say awkward? Not only was it weird because I'm LDS and obviously don't drink beer (I admit I was feeling a little guilty about it and kept looking around the store hoping I wouldn't see anyone I knew) but it was definitely weird since I look like I'm about ready to pop! It took me forever to find the beer because well I've never bought beer before and had no clue where it was. I finally found it but then I wasn't sure which beer to get. If someone saw me they probably would have thought I was trying to talk myself out of buying beer since I'm pregnant. Finally I decide on one and bring it to the check out line. The person checking me out of course asked me if the beer was for me. I explained to him what I was using it for and he said that was a good thing because if it was for me he probably wouldn't have sold it to me. The person behind me chimes in and says, "of course its not for her, it's for the baby!" That did get a nice little chuckle out of me but I quickly paid for my purchase, grabbed the bag and headed for the car. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get carded though because most people think that I'm younger than I am.

In fact on Sunday someone told me that someone else in my ward actually thought that I was a pregnant teenager. Yes, I work with the young women in my ward so I'm around them a lot but seriously!?! I'm glad that we got that one sorted out but if one person thought this it makes me wonder if anyone else in my ward thinks the same thing. And I wonder what they think when they see two other kids in tow? Haha! I'm a little curious how old they think I am and how old that would have made me when I had Easton.