Valentine's Day

Growing up, my mom on Valentine's morning a lot of times would leave a balloon by our bed with a treat for when we woke up. I thought that my kids were old enough to appreciate that surprise, so the night before after they had all fallen asleep we left a balloon with a treat at the end of it on their dresser. A couple hours after we fell asleep Clayton came running in our room really shaken up. Normally I send them back to their room, but I was too tired and he seemed really scared so I just let him sleep in our room. The next morning I asked him what freaked him out so much. He said that their was this big round thing floating around his room and it kept bobbing up and down. I just busted up laughing. I took him to his room and showed him that his monster was his valentine treat from mom and dad. He thought it was pretty funny after the fact. Later that day we made heart shaped pizzas and some really yummy heart shaped cookies.

Easton's 1st Birthday

Easton turned 1 January 24. He wasn't feeling so good, but I still tried to force him to have a fun time at his birthday party and get a few pictures of him on his birthday. His favorite movie is the Baby Shakespeare movie, so I made his cake the logo from the movie. This is how mean I was. He hates shoes and he got a pair for his birthday. I still put them on him just to get a picture of how much he hated them. The pictures of him actually eating the cake were taken 2 weeks later when he was feeling better. (He ended up having a double ear infection. I wanted the traditional 1st birthday pictures of the baby digging into the cake so I froze a chunk of the cake and saved it for later. I did feel a little guilty making him do all that stuff when I found out his ears were infected.) When he finally ate the cake, he loved it. He was funny at first. He didn't want any of the frosting touching his hands, so he would bend over and eat it with his mouth. He gave up on that idea and figured out that the hands were the easier way to go.

Likes at age 1:
Baby Shakespeare
baths
playing outside
cars, balls, baseball
his wagon
garbage cans
toilets and toilet plungers
his brother and sisters (most of the time-they tend to be too rough so he runs from them)
food (pretzels and chocolate animal crackers are his most favorite, but not really picky)
fleece blankets (the other day we found him carrying around 4)
mom/dad

Dislikes at age 1:
getting out of the bath
coming inside
really cold food (he is starting to like yogurt finally, but still doesn't like ice-cream.)
dogs (he's getting better about not freaking out when they look at him from across the street)
automatic car washes

At his one year check-up he weighed 26 lbs. He was big when he was born (8 lb. -10 oz.) and he hasn't stopped growing. It really is cute to watch him run with his short little legs and big belly. And yes, he is now running. He started walking at 9 1/2 months and learned to run away from his siblings REALLY fast. Now he is almost to fast for mom to catch up with.

We love you Easton. Happy Birthday!!! (Even though it was 6 weeks ago)

Clayton's 1st suit

One of our friends handed down this suit from her son (love hand me downs). He was so excited that he could wear one like his dad. He looked like such a stud.

Super Bowl Sunday

The morning of the Super Bowl we woke up to rain. It wasn't a little rain. It was down-pouring. We got out of chuch at is was still raining. It continued raining all day. It finally came time for the Super Bowl. We had made a bunch of snacks for the game and the kids were really excited. The game was fun to watch (more for the commercials), but by the 4th quarter things were getting a little intense. Our rain had also turned into snow. The kids kept looking out the window and wanting to run outside and play in it. With about 4 minutes to go in the game our tv started getting a little fuzzy. It was turning out to be a great game. The Giants were ahead of the undefeated Patriots by less than a touchdown. The Giants then scored and they were ahead. With 2 minutes left to go in the game our tv goes out. We couldn't believe it. I tried to find it on the radio. Jay was calling his dad to get a play by play. The Giants ended up scoring another touchdown at the last minute to take the lead and win the game. One of the best games ever and we missed the best part. The highlights were not the same. Come to find out all we had to do was wipe the snow off our satellite dish to get the picture back. That would have been good to know a little sooner. And seriously, out of all the days in the year and how little rain/snow we get a year, the weather picks Super Bowl Sunday to be bad. Go figure!!

Easton's Bath

A couple of weeks ago I heard Clayton laughing and splashing and yelling at me to come quick. I assumed it was him wanting to show me another "trick" in the bathtub, so I took my time getting in there. Imagine my surprise when I found Easton in tub with all of his clothes on and drenched from head to toe. Apparantly he was done waiting for me to give him his bath. He climbed in all by himself (with no help from Clayton-1st question I asked). He was pretty proud of himself and he didn't care that all of his clothes were on. What can I say? The kid loves his bath. The only thing he hates.....getting out.

Baby got Back!!!

The Candy Bar That Could Have Fed 5,000

I know it's a shocker, but I am posting for the 2nd time in 1 week. Last month our friends invited us and 3 other families over to share this huge candy bar. I think she said it was about 9 lbs. I can't quite remember how much it weighed, but it was heavy. They cut everyone a huge chunk and only about half of it got eaten. It was so thick that the kids couldn't even fit into their mouths (that's a pretty tough thing with as big as their mouths are). Most of the kids just sat and gnawed at it until it was gone. Our friends sent each of the kids home with another chunk in a bag. Our kids must have sweet talked their way into more because when we got home we ended up with 8 bags. It took us 2 weeks to go through it. Thanks Brian and Liz for sharing with us. We had a lot of fun.

Christmas Morning

I love Christmas morning. I love the anticipation on the kids faces and watching them come running in to see what Santa has brought and the excitement as they see their new toys. They loved opening all their presents. Brooklyn got an I-dog and mp3 player. She had been talking about it for months. That is all she wanted. Clayton never told us what he wanted and whenever we asked he said he didn't know. He did love his remote control FJ Cruiser he got and his BYU jersey from Maren and John was his favorite. BrynLee had always asked for a Hannah Montana guitar. A couple of days before Christmas she told my mom she wanted the Hannah Montana Wig. Go figure she would change her mind right before. We kept telling her that she couldn't change her mind because Santa already had all the presents. She didn't seem disappointed with the guitar. I guess as long as it says Hannah Montana on it she would have been happy. Easton got a wagon, and loved it. It has been my saving grace. He will sit and play it for hours. I can clean my whole house with him playing in it as long as we are in the same room.

Santa Party

To end our fun family weekend of partying, we went to Grandma Neeley's annual Santa party. The last time we were able to come Clayton was 5 months old. 2 more kids later we figured it was time for the kids to experience a Santa party. After lots of food, games, and singing, the most real Santa I have ever seen comes busting through the door (literally). Easton was sitting somewhat close to the door and he freaked out a little bit. All the kids got a chance to sit on Santa's lap and tell them what they wanted. Santa was smart and gave Easton his candy cane first so he didn't cry at all. What a fun way to end the weekend.

Family Christmas Pictures

Our family pictures at Christmas. We had to do them with the hotel Christmas tree because I refused to do them in front of ours.

Brooklyn

Clayton

Easton

BrynLee