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!

July Celebrations

A normal 4th of July! Lots of fun, lots of fireworks, lots of watermelon and BBQ! What else could you ask for?

Family Updates

So, I've been preoccupied with being a Mom to a new little one. Sometimes I forget to mention all the great things that have been happening otherwise. We've been extremely busy, as usual. I'm a bit upset right now because our video camera is missing. I believe it must have been in the diaper bag that was lost during Pony Express Days. Jared took it to the parade, and it hasn't been seen since! Luckily most of my videos were already downloaded on my computer. I'm still missing some from Peyton's kindergarten program and Caile's choir concert. There were a few cute pictures I took of Peyton with his kindergarten teacher and some of his friends from school. All gone. I guess I can pray that it turns up, but I won't count on it.

Jared has been amazing as usual! He's continuing to work 2 jobs, is coaching Caile's soccer team, and is assisting with the scouts when he can. He's also playing on a soccer team himself. He likes to tell me that he's not the "oldest" person on the team...."there is one guy older". It's been a lot of fun for him. A bunch of out of shape guys running around the field...haha...it's good for them! It doesn't leave much time for anything else! Sometimes he has so much on his plate that it's hard to get everything done....but he always has the best intentions.

Josh has struggled a little this year. Problems with his ADHD has made things difficult. We started him on some new medication and he's in counseling again. I think it's helping some. He can be such a good kid, he just has a lot of struggles that most of us have difficulty understanding. He's wonderful with his baby brother. Always willing to help if we need him to. He gained some privileges back after being in trouble most of the school year. So, he's been excited to spend time with friends this summer. He's been even more excited to have his Xbox back! He's going to scout camp next week, and can't wait to go. School was a bit of trouble this year, but he managed to get his grades up before the end of the year. He also did really well in band! He started with the flute, the changed to the clarinet the following semester. He does great! Very musically inclined. He's looking forward to football tryouts. Football has been a good outlet for him, so hopefully he'll be on a good team this year! Josh is a wonderful artist and loves to draw. I'm really amazed at his talents!

Caile has had a great year. She's been on a competitive soccer team all year! They play indoors during the winter months and have just recently started playing outside again. She absolutely loves it! She's a defender, and is really good at it. Jared coaches the defense on the team, so we know her coach is good :) ! Her team had a really good season and made it to the playoffs. She's a very well rounded child, or at least tries to be. She has been in choir all year, loves to sing. She's also in a theater day camp all week this week. Her best friend's parents are running the camp, so we had an in! Caile is also a wonderful artist. She loves to draw and write stories. She did well in school, with a little help from a math tutor :). She's growing up too fast....and is becoming a beautiful young woman!

Peyton Peyton Peyton. He's had some ups and downs this year. We all know that he's an adorable beautiful boy. He's so loving and compassionate. He can be a little overly sensitive and emotional....which has it's good a bad sides to it! He's not the kind of kid to sit still for too long....which becomes a problem in the classroom. His teacher was so wonderful and worked so well with him though. He had a great Kindergarten year...after a rocky start. He's learning how to be a big brother, which he's done really well with! He loves his baby brother and tries to be involved with everything that is going on with him. Sometimes he tries to help too much! I think it's also been a bit of a struggle for him. He's not the baby anymore, and that's a hard thing to give up. He still fights for attention. I try to show him I love him just as much as I did before. He's just a Mama's boy and is learning to deal.

Preston is more of a Daddy's boy. He just lights up when Daddy comes in the room! I love how animated this little boy is. He just has this amazing awareness in his eyes all the time. I can tell he's going to be extremely bright, and a handful! He already throws temper tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. There's no tricking him either. Way too intelligent for the redirecting trick. He cries so hard sometimes that he doesn't take a breath, and starts turning blue. Then he does his big gasp for air and is fine. It's usually over something silly like taking a Lego away from him that he was trying to eat, or closing a door to a room that I don't want him to go into. Oh, the thing that makes him the most angry is blocking the stairs off so he can't climb them. This can't be a learned behavior at 9 months old.....it's definitely personality! It's gonna be fun to figure out this one :). He can be a very happy baby though. He laughs a lot, smiles a lot. He likes to dance and is walking! He just recently started walking a ton! All the way across the room. He will even hold things in his hands and walk at the same time. So cute! I've even seen him turn in a circle and go the opposite way! He also just barely started standing up in the middle of the floor instead of crawling somewhere to pull himself up. I knew it wouldn't take him long to get the hang of it. Smart boy. He's sleeping a little better. Only waking up twice a night usually. It's much much better! I can't believe how blond his hair has turned, and his little eyes are still blue as ever! He still just has his 4 little teeth but is starting to cut some more further in the back. He's been such a wonderful new part to our family.

I'm doing about the same. It's been a bit rough working every weekend, but a necessary thing. I'm looking forward to having some weekends off in the near future...so maybe I can spend some time with my whole family. I don't think I've had more than 4 hours of sleep in a row in the last year or so. I think I'm still adjusting to living so far from my family. It's really good in some ways, but it would be nice to hang out with my sister now and then. Or have my Mom near by to help out with the kids once in a while. I have made some great friends out here, and have some good neighbors....with the exception of a few HORRIBLE ones. I'm enjoying my life and know that the best is yet to come. I'm trying to enjoy the journey!

Some new videos of my baby walking and dancing...I'm such a proud Mama!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tw6Ln1AH4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aprmDSrFTr8

Cute....had to blog it :)

While tucking Peyton in bed tonight he said, "I'm as tight as a bug in a buckle!" I said, "Yes, your are as snug as a bug in a rug!" He's so funny. He got a little closer the second time he said it :).