Easton's Preschool Graduation

Video of Easton's class entering:

Video of Easton singing and dancing to the ants go marching:

Easton sitting and waiting for his turn.

Video of Easton reciting his part:

 

It's hard to hear on the video but he did a great job in person.  I might be biased but I thought he did the best out of everyone in his class.  He knew his part, did it without help, and said it loud enough for everyone to hear.  He said, "E is for exercise to keep our bodies strong."

Each kid had their own letter and part to go with their letter.  They spelled out Kindergarten.

Easton getting his diploma from Ms. Valerie.

Easton's graduating class.

Video of the kids exiting:

 

 Easton with his graduation gift from his family.

Easton with Ms. Valerie

Easton with Ms. Laurie

Easton had two great years in preschool.  He's definitely going to miss preschool but I know he is more than ready for kindergarten.  We are so proud of you, Easton!  Thank you Ms. Valerie and Ms. Laurie for two wonderful years!  We look forward to three more (two with Blair and one with Dyer-wow that's going to be weird when Dyer's old enough for preschool...)!

Happy 5th Birthday Easton!

Easton started out his birthday at the park with his preschool class.  Then I took him and Dyer (who was sleeping) to Chuck E. Cheese since he got 20 free tokens for his birthday.  Blair went out shopping with Valerie for her birthday gift so that is why she wasn't with us.  

I love his game face here!

I've never seen this ride before...

I kept forgetting to take pictures while at Chuck E Cheese so these were about the only ones I got.

Once Nathan got home from work we ate pizza (Easton's dinner request-he also wanted cinnamon toast crunch but that didn't happen) then cupcakes and ice cream, and then we opened gifts.  Valerie, Roger, and Will came over to help us celebrate!  Overall I think Easton had a wonderful birthday!

Video of us singing Happy Birthday to Easton:

My happy 5 year old!

So excited for his nerf gun!  He actually saw it before I had a chance to wrap it so I told him I was probably going to take it back to the store.  He was heartbroken when I told him that so you can imagine how excited he was when he opened it and saw it!

Mouse trap from Grandma Gma

Easton got spoiled from Valerie and her family.  Easton got two imaginext toys, an art kit, and a huge dinosaur coloring book.

Easton also got some nice cards and money from his grandparents and Auntie.  And he also got lots of phone calls from family.

Thank you to everyone for making Easton's day so special!  

Video of Blair getting Mr. Roger:

Video of Easton and Blair getting Daddy:

Easton,

    I love you so much!  I am so lucky to be your mommy and I'm grateful everyday that I have been able to watch you grow from a tiny little baby into the little boy you are today.  You are such a smart little guy  and it amazes me how talented you are at learning.  I can't believe that you just graduated from preschool and now you will be a big kindergartner in a couple months!  It's crazy how fast you've grown up.  Watching Dyer at this age reminds me a lot of when you were his age.  Maybe it's because he's a boy and he is wearing a lot of your clothes but it sure brings back a lot of wonderful memories.  

    You are such a great big brother and I love how caring and thoughtful you are towards your sister and brother.  I love how you and Blair play (for the most part) together and that you are best buds.  I love when you get Dyer to laugh.  I love whenever you get something you are always sharing with your siblings or at least making sure they get something too so that they aren't left out.  One example of this was on your birthday at Chuck E Cheese.  You got a prize with the tickets you won and you had enough tickets left to get one more thing.  You easily could have gotten something else for yourself but instead you wanted to get something for Blair.  She would have never known since she wasn't there with us but that isn't who you are.  You're always looking out for you siblings.  When we got into the car you felt horrible that you weren't able to get something for Dyer.  How sweet is that?

    I still love your hugs and I think you have the best hugs ever!  I love how you always want me to read stories to you at night and for me to cuddle with you.  I love it when you say, "I love you all the way to the moon in outer space!"  I also love it when you say, "I know that you will always love me even when I do something wrong" because it is so true!  I am so glad that you know and understand that.  

    Easton, thank you for being who you are and for blessing my life for the last 5 years!  I am so blessed to have you as my son!  I love you all the way to the moon in outer space and back!  

                             Love you,

                              Mommy

End of the year picnic

Easton's preschool class had their end of the year picnic on Easton's birthday.  I think Easton thought it was one big birthday party for him.   They played at the park, had lots of food, and they even sang happy birthday to him.  He got a little present from his class too!

Dyer enjoyed all the treats Ms. Valerie gave him to eat.

Easton playing on the playground.

Blair hanging out with a bunch of kids she doesn't even know.  Another group of kids were at the park as well.

Video of Dyer:

All the girls love Dyer and a couple of them kept taking turns pushing Dyer around in his little car.  Dyer was in heaven with all the attention and food he got!

Dyer at 11 months!

Okay technically he is 11 1/2 months now but whose counting?  This month Dyer has found his voice!  If he is upset or not getting his way he will let you know by screaming.  Luckily he doesn't do it very often but it is loud and it generally startles me.

He says mama, dada, hi, and I swear he said Dexter a couple weeks ago.  It was weird but even Valerie was there to witness it.  One of his babysitters (Katelyn) told me he said her name too!  I guess he is all about saying more difficult things first?  

Dyer is taking his precious time in the walking department.  I guess he takes after his sister in that department.  He is pretty particular about how he does it too.  Easton was all about cruising around using the furniture.  Dyer really hasn't done that.  He likes to push things around to get from point a to point b.  His favorite is shopping carts at the store.  If he isn't pushing something then he has to crawl.  I guess it is faster?  I remember Easton used to love holding onto our hands and having us walk him all around.  Dyer's not really a fan but just the last couple weeks he will do it every once in a while.  Most of the time he will just go limp and sit down.  He can stand for quite a while but once he realizes what he is doing he will sit down.  Also he has even got himself into a standing position a few times by himself without any help from an object or a person but again once he realizes what the is doing he will sit back down.

Dyer has mastered going down the stairs so we finally took both gates down.  I forgot how nice it is not to have those things on the stairs and easier (especially bringing laundry baskets up and down those stairs).

Dyer loves to drink out of a cup but it has to have a straw!  He has no clue how to use a sippy cup.  In fact he gets so frustrated with those things that he gives up and throws them on the floor.

Dyer loves anything water.  He loves bath time, taking showers, swimming in the pool, puddles, Dexter's water, etc.  And temperature doesn't seem to faze him either.  As long as there is water he is a pretty happy kid.

Dyer is still a great eater.  It makes me happy that at least one of my kids will gladly eat just about anything I put in front of them.  I will definitely enjoy it while I can because we all know eventually he will have opinions like his siblings. 

Dyer's a good sleeper too I just wish that he would learn to sleep in a little later.  He's generally in bed around 7 and then wakes up about 6:30.  Today was a treat though.  For whatever reason he slept in an extra hour.  It was amazing!

Dyer just hit the stage where he is starting to transition from two naps to one nap.  Those one nap days can be a little rough sometimes.

One of Dyer's newest/cutest things he just started doing is he will crawl up to someone or something, lay his head down on them/it and then roll over on his back with a huge grin on his face.  He thinks it is so funny!  I just encourage him because I love hearing him laugh!

I'm impressed with how well Dyer did with this photo shoot because he was really tired and went down for his nap right after this.  

Hiking

We decided to go on a day hike to check out some blackberry bushes and see if they might be something we would come back to later and pick berries from.  The hike wasn't exactly what we had in mind.  Once we saw the blackberry bushes we should have turned back but instead we decided to keep on going.  Eventually the trail wasn't much of a trail with all the over growth and poor Easton was basically swimming through all the grass and weeds.  He was a trooper though.

It was pretty though.

Easton, Dad and Blair

Dyer and Me.

I thought Dyer would fall asleep so I wore him in front instead of on my back.  I forgot a pacifier so he definitely didn't take a nap and was cranky most of the time.

Part of the trail was in a cow pasture.  I was a little nervous that the cows were going to charge at us at any second, especially a cow who we are pretty sure was giving birth.

Blair swim lessons!

Blair did a great job in swim lessons!  She loved it and was excited to go everyday.  Believe it or not Blair was the best behaved kid in her class.  I'm still in awe over this.  She was basically a perfect little angel and I loved watching that side of her.  If only she was like that all the time : )

Day 1:

Swimming with the kick board:

Practicing ice cream scoops:

Swimming using arms and legs:

Day 2:

Dyer and Valerie

Practicing kicking:

Swimming with kick board:

Blair on the kick board.

Being a star fish

All the kids in Blair's swim class.

Day 8 (last day):

Dyer before swim lessons

Star fish:

Blair waiting her turn.

Swimming

Video of Blair swimming:

Blair passed!!!  Now she gets to move on and Easton and her get to be in the same class.  Easton can't wait for swim lessons.  I think it was hard on him to have to watch Blair swim and he couldn't.  Luckily they have a little playground that he could play on so he wasn't so bored.  One of my favorite things Easton says these days is, "I'm so boring!" in his whining voice.  What he really means is that he's bored!  Haha!

I forgot my camera for Easton's last day of soccer and I'm really sad that I did because he improved quite a bit.  He was making goal after goal when they were scrimmaging and he did an amazing job for his first time at goal keeper.  He was definitely a natural!  He knew exactly what to do!

Just a couple pictures of Dyer and a video:

 This kept Dyer entertained for a long time...

Grab the glasses...

Try and put them on...

Okay I'll just eat them instead...

Repeat!

Video of Dyer walking with help:

Dyer's finally letting us walk him around.  Before he would just go limp and then crawl away.

Nathan's a pilot!

I know I already put this on here that Nathan passed his test and that he is a pilot but I said that I would put pictures up when he got his wings pinned.  Well, we went as a family to the airport (45 min away) to his monthly safety meeting to see Nathan get his wings pinned and they didn't do it!  It was a little annoying since we all went and the kids (mainly Blair) weren't the quietest people in the room.  They must have forgot but you would think with three noisy kids in the room that there must be a reason why they are there.  Oh well!  I'm just glad the meeting was relatively short because I'm not sure how much longer Blair would have lasted.  I did get one picture of Nathan outside the airport building so just imagine he's got his wings pinned to him.

Nathan did get his pilot's license in the mail about a week after this so he is official now!