Happy Birthday Coley Pokey!

I really can't believe you are already 3 years old! And what an amazing 3 year old you are! We are absolutely the luckiest family in the world to have you part of it.

Birthday Breakfast:

Opening a present (with the help of Easton, who very kindly offered to help so you won't get tired):

Getting ready to blow out candles:


Making a mess (one of your favorite things to do):

Top Ten Things We Love About Cole (in no particular order)

1. Your desire to be good. You even remind us to say the prayer for cupcakes.

2. Your sense of humor. Not a day goes by that you don't crack us up, when you asked dad something and he said "what?" you asked him "What are your ears made of? Cotton Candy?"

3. How smart you are. Not only can you already spell your own name but Easton's too.

4. How caring and kind you are. When dad asked you to be quiet so he could scare Easton, you said "No, don't do that, it might make him sad."

5. How protective you are of Peyton. You are always watching out for him and if he gets close to the top of the stairs you stop him, even if that means sitting on him.

6. Your memory. Not only do you have 5 Articles of Faith memorized already, but you can still recite any of them back to us.

7. You already love the church. After mom said a prayer for dinner you politely reminded her she forgot to bless President Monson.

8. Your willingness to say sorry. When Easton accused you of making a mess, you said "Yea. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Easton. What did I do?"

9. Your desire to help. When Easton had to pick up a big mess that he made, you asked mom if you could help him and when she told you yes, you ran over to Easton and said "Yea Easton! We get to work together!"

10. Your politeness. You say 'thank you' for everything without any reminder, and when someone doesn't say 'you're welcome' back to you, you will keep repeating 'thank you' until they do.

Things We Love This Week

Seth: Playing the guitar. It had been a while since he got any of his guitars out but got together with a friend and played last week. He came back way excited to write and learn more songs.

Dezi: Saving money while shopping! :) Last week I had two exciting shopping trips. I went to Albertsons loaded up with my coupons. I spent $44 and saved $228! I know I'm a huge nerd but that made me so excited. I also was able to get National Treasure 2 absolutely free at Circuit City. Woo hoo! :)

Easton: Laughing. Lately he has been asking me all the time, "Mom, please tell me something funny." or "Mom, make me laugh so hard, okay?" The other day I had the bath water running so I told him not to flush the toilet because that makes the bath water scalding hot. I said "If you flush the toilet then I'm going to tickle you," and he excitedly said, "Ooo, then I would love that so much."

Cole: Trying roller skating. We went to a fun center and Seth went straight to the roller skating counter. I was like "What in the world are you doing?" He got roller skates for the boys and said they were going to try. Easton almost fell over the minute he stood up so he didn't enjoy it too much. But Cole was ready to go skate all by himself the minute Seth strapped the skates on. Seth of course had to help him, but he seemed to really love it.

Peyton: Chocolate chip cookies. I gave him his very first chocolate chip cookie yesterday. Of course, he loved it. I was very surprised, his mess wasn't as big as I expected it to be. As soon as he finished he let me know that he was ready for another one. :)

Starting out:

After:

Hallelujah!!

I am very happy to announce that Cole is no longer wearing diapers!! I kept waiting for him to decide he was ready. But after 3 straight nights of waking up with a completely dry diaper I decided his body was telling him it was time, even if he didn't think so. So on the 4th morning I quickly put him on the toilet as soon as he woke up, even though he resisted and kept denying that he had to go. But suddenly he started going and he looked at me with such shock and disbelief. It was so cute. He said, "I'm doing it, mom! I'm doing it!" That was Saturday and he's been in underwear since. (Well, pull-ups a few times, because I didn't want to risk an accident at church and other places.) We're still working on it, but for the most part he has been awesome. I'm so proud of him.

These are the boys 'jumping for joy' :) Really I just couldn't bring myself to put another picture of Cole on the toilet for all to see.

Stop growing up so fast!!!

I probably tell Peyton this at least once a day. Yesterday, in addition to being a great Mother's Day (Thanks babe!) Peyton was 10 months old! Yes, he is now less than 2 months away from turning 1 year old!! I can't even believe it. Time is just flying way to fast, he is almost to the age where he is considered a toddler! How I wish I could freeze time or at least pause it for a while.

One day Easton was eating some pizza and I was giving Peyton some peaches (not baby food, he's refused any baby food for about a month). I had to run downstairs just to grab a water bottle out of the fridge and I even checked to make sure the pizza wasn't next to Peyton. I was gone maybe 10 seconds, if that, and this is what I found. I should have taken the pizza away immediately but I just couldn't resist taking a picture. Stop growing up so fast Peyton! You should be loving baby food, not big people food!

The boys were finishing up their lunch one afternoon. Peyton had finished earlier than them and wanted to get out of his high chair so I let him crawl around while I picked up a little and waited for the boys to finish eating. I left the kitchen just for a second and this is what I came back to! He saw the boys' cups on the table and took Easton's away from him! Please stop Peyton! You're supposed to be my baby.

Things We Love This Week

I just wanted to share something we each are loving this week. (I'm stealing this idea from a friend's blog. Thanks Kimberly.)

Seth Finally being able to golf. He has been working so hard, with so many things, Walgreens, his recycling business, Young Mens business (he's the YM President) and now yard work, plus all the things I'm always bugging him about, he definitely needed it.

Dezi All 3 of my boys laughing and playing together. Easton and Cole are the best at making Peyton laugh, pretty much they just have to talk to him and he starts cracking up. And I love when they can all play together, even if just for a minute. But starting about the second minute I hear "Peyton no! Stop Peyton! You can't have that!" Poor Peyton, always getting bossed around. :)

Easton His new baseball hat. (He has plenty of other hats, but this one is, according to him "a real baseball hat, for the Nets" (New York Mets). He is starting an instructional t-ball league this Saturday but got to go get his hat a week ago and pretty much lives in it. He even wants to sleep with it!

Cole Games! Holy cow this boy could play games from the minute he wakes up til bed time. Here's a list of games he's already played this week (all of them multiple times) and it's only Wednesday morning.
-Guess Who?
-Bug Match Up
-Shrek Memory
-Tumble
-Sorry
-Jungle Hunt
-Clue
-Who Lives Here?
-Go Fish
-Jumping Frogs

Peyton Bath time. As soon as he hears the water running in the bath he crawls as fast as he can to the tub. He starts playing with the water (if he can reach it) or just doing his little dance while standing by the tub. And if the water happened to be running for a shower, he still comes and watches the water fall while getting pretty wet.

On a side note, something Peyton and I are not loving this week, 4, yes 4!! teeth coming in at once!! 3 are already poking through on the top and the 4th has just about broken through too. Ugghh. We'll be loving it when they are finally in!!