Happy Birthday East the Beast!!

Happy Birthday Easton! We can't believe you are 5 years old! And what an amazing 5 year old you are. You are such a great example to your younger brothers and parents. We are so proud and lucky to have you in our family.

Birthday Breakfast:

Your Pirate Birthday Party


Top Ten Things We Love About Easton

1. Your laugh. You love to laugh and when you start laughing hard we can't help but laugh with you, even if we don't know why you're laughing.

2. Your determination. The primary was encouraging everyone to memorize The Articles of Faith. You remembered this and worked so hard at it. Every night before bed, you would remind us that you needed to practice, instead of us having to remind you.

3. Your intelligence. You were the very first one in all of primary to pass off all The Articles of Faith, and you did it when you were only 4 years old. You can still recite back every single one. Amazing.

4. Your love for Cole. Whenever you get invited to a friend's house or party, you include him every single time. When you were playing a game with friends, the lady helping asked Cole if he wanted to be yellow, since that was the last color left. When Cole didn't want yellow, the lady said "Okay, I'll be yellow." (And was going to leave Cole out.) You immediately jumped in and said "Cole can be my green and I will be yellow."

5. Your common sense. One morning you asked mom what day it was. When she told you Thursday, you asked her "What do we do on Thursdays?" When she said nothing, you asked "Well, why do we have Thursdays then?" Good question.

6. How clever you are. One day for dinner you had 2 pieces of avocado on your plate, even though you don't like them, mom makes you try them. You left the table for a minute and mom ate one. When you noticed there was only 1 piece left, you asked "Hey, who ate one?" When mom admitted she did, you asked, "Oh, well do you want one more?"

7. Your protection of Peyton. Wherever we are, whatever we do, you are always concerned for Peyton.

8. Your love of music. You already have primary songs memorized on the piano. Not to mention you can play the drums and guitar on Rock Band.

9. Your sense of humor. You are always making up jokes, some that only make you laugh, but others that make us laugh. One of our favorites:

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Be-deep.

Be-deep who?

Be-deep, be-deep. That's all folks.

10. Your excitement and love for life. You are such a happy boy all the time. You get so excited over the smallest things and you get so excited for your brothers too, and we sure hope that never changes.

Easton's Turn in the Pool

Easton finally was able to have his swimming lessons. He was counting down the days for almost 2 weeks. Every day he had swimming lessons he put his swim suit on in the morning instead of clothes. He did so good! At first he would barely put his face in the water without plugging his nose, but quickly he was staying underwater for a very long time ("like a jillion seconds, huh mom?") without plugging his nose and loved that he could open his eyes underwater.

(about to go underwater)

He thought he was pretty cool when they went to the deep end with life jackets on. He was so excited to tell anyone who would listen "I swam all by myself on my back but with a life jacket on." And even later in the day he told me "Mom, I just can't believe it. I swam all by myself on my back. I just can't believe it!"

Things We Love This Week

Seth: Playing with his band. He got to play with his band at Layton's Relay for Life. He hadn't played in front of people for a long time and loved it. He sounded super awesome too. The boys and I loved being able to watch him and be proud. It was way cute to see the boys get excited when they heard a song they recognized and sing along. I'm still annoyed at myself that I forgot my camera. :(

Dezi: The Olympics! Yea, I've become a little obsessed with them, but I figure it's only once every 4 years (I don't get as excited about winter), so I can afford to become a little lazy for that time. I've even gotten my boys excited about them, every time when they see our flag on the tv they start jumping up and down cheering, yelling "Go USA!" or "Yea! USA got 1st" or when they see other flags they say "Oh no! USA didn't win. Come on." Let me just say, that thanks to our DVR I can watch things late at night (after the boys are in bed) or at 5:30 in the morning when Peyton wakes me up, so I haven't become completely neglectful.

Easton & Cole: Playing outside. As usual, they are always wanting to play outside. They love riding bikes and playing in the water. One time I drew a small hopscotch for them to try out. Now they are always asking me to draw more for them (I usually draw 2, so they can each do it at the same time). This last time I only drew 1 and said they could share. So Cole started to draw one himself and then Easton joined in and helped. They were so cute doing it together. The one Easton is playing on is the one they drew together (although the one I drew doesn't look much better), and I really didn't help with a single part of it. I was pretty impressed.

Peyton: Waffles with syrup. Usually when we have waffles, I'll feed him. This last Sunday I cut it up and put it in front of him. He just kept eating and eating so I kept giving him more. He ate 2 and a half waffles!! Yep, he ate more than both his older brothers. And I did learn one thing, giving Peyton a bath the night before he has waffles is completely pointless.