Pictures are here!!

We FINALLY had some pictures taken of the kids! Preston has NEVER had professional pictures in his life.....so at a year old, it had to be done! We decided to go ahead and have all of the kids photographed, instead of paying for the dorky pictures that they take at the school every year. We always pay way too much for one pose that we usually don't like! Anyway, I think they all turned out wonderful! I can't wait to hang these in my home!!

Barf Vader

Only a big nerd would buy this shirt for his son...but I have to admit, it's kinda cute!

Preston is one!

It's so incredible how fast a year can go by. Even with the cranky days, not much sleep, milk allergies, and multiple ear infections, it all went too fast! From his tiny 6 lbs 9 oz to a whopping 21 lbs. Through all the stages of rolling over, crawling, walking, running, spinning in circles and dancing. Screaming and crying every time we put him in his car seat to sometimes enjoying the ride....and bopping his head up in down to the music in the car. In just one measly year, my little Preston went from an infant who needed even the most basic of things done for him, to a child who likes his independence, gets into everything, throws huge temper tantrums, and gives hugs and kisses.

Some of his other recent qualities/accomplishments:

He's a biter...but we are working on that!

He's not talking alot, but he babbles like crazy and tries to mimic what we say, even if it means nothing to him.

So far he's doing well with the words "Dada" (of course), "Mama" (only on rare occasions, when he's screaming and mad), "Bye Bye" (which sounds more like "Die Die" and he waves when he says it!), "Yay", and "Uh oh".

Jared got his daddy's boy. Preston lights up every time Jared walks into the room, and cries every time he walks out.

He likes to put everything in his mouth.......still.

He's learning to climb......recently he climbed onto a bench seat and got himself a drink of some body's water from on top of the counter. (talk about scaring me to death!) Just want to send a big sarcastic "thank you" to the darn "walking early gene".

Recently found his belly button....and now points to it when we ask, "where's your button?"

He gets into his swing and on his little four wheeler all by

himself.

He's cutting 4 new teeth right now.....the 2 teeth next to his front to teeth, and two molars in the back on top. Poor baby!

He's such a good eater! Will try anything...but prefers to eat from other peoples plate instead of his own.

Loves his all of his siblings and wants them to hold him all of the time. He likes to sit on their laps if they are sitting on the floor.

He is fascinated by his big brother Peyton.....those two play together surprisingly well....considering there is a 5 1/2 year gap between them. Preston lights up when he sees Peyton and runs to give him hugs....it's super adorable! It's like he just knows its his big bro.

Mommy, Peyton and Preston 8/17/10. Preston's actual birthday, but he was sick :(

Preston just got over a horrible sickness called herpangina....basically like hand, foot and mouth disease. Poor little babe! We don't know where he caught it, but was running a fever for a few days. I thought he had another ear infection, but when we took him to the doctor, we found out that he had really bad ulcers in his mouth! No wonder he wouldn't eat! For the next few days, Preston ran a super high fever. I couldn't get him below 100 degrees even with medicine for a couple days....and his fevers would run as high as 103. The hard part was, there was nothing else I could do for him, we just had to wait it out. Finally after about 10 days, it went away. We put off getting his year old pictures because of it (pictures to come). We put his birthday party off because of another darn ear infection.

We had a great Birthday party a week after his birthday, with just our little family and a couple neighbors we invited over....last minute. We invited family but knew they wouldn't make it because of distance. It was fun anyway....Preston loved digging into the cake! He opened all of his cute gifts! Thanks to Grandma Egbert for sending the cute outfits and books for Preston....he loves those books!! We got him a cool little four wheeler....that he LOVES! He got a couple other small toys like a telephone, a dancing cow, some stacking rings, etc. All of those things that seem really boring to us, but babies seem to love! Oh, he also got a leap frog dog that talks to him and sings, it's pretty darn cute!

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Bedroom Talk

This conversation happened in bed last night

Me: (to Jared) "I'm really glad you are home tonight, so I don't freak myself out. If a boogie man comes to get me, you'll just beat him up!"

Jared: "Yep....unless the boogie man has a gun."

Haha! My hero!

Caile is 12!

This year was Caile's "family birthday". We only do a big party every other year for each child. It's a lot of work, and a lot of money to throw a party! We could spend that money on better gifts, or just save money for a change! Anyway, it was Caile's family party. It was small and fun! Just us, visiting, enjoying cake, eating our favorite dinner, and playing on the slip and slide. We were able to take some of that money we would have spent on a party and do some cool things for Caile this year! We gave her a surprise new bedroom! This was only possible because we decided to give her Josh's old bedroom. Josh had to suffer with "girly" decor for a couple weeks or so. It was so hard to get everything put together without Caile knowing! We managed it though. We didn't spend a ton of money either! It did cost us, but we were pretty thrifty. Caile's bed, desk, and chair were ksl.com finds....so we got some awesome deals! Everything else was either things we already had, walmart finds or cheap internet finds. It took a lot of work for me....I had to do a lot of painting myself, but it did save us some money. The end result was amazing though....and Caile more than loved her room! She was so funny to watch. She kept saying, "I love my room! I just can't get over it!" It was a great to see her so happy! I would go through all that work again, just to see that look on her face!

Caile getting ready to blow out the candles.  I thought we had candles at home so I didn't buy any.  When I could not find our candles, we had to improvise....with candles from the house.  Caile thought it was "cool

Caile's new bedroom.  She got a new bed, bedding, desk, desk chair, new paint and wall hangings!  She was super excited!

Enjoying the warm day on the slip and slide!

Preston's first experience with sliding!  Dad gave him a good push and he loved it!

Just had to share Preston's first time running through the sprinklers!  He's such a little ham!