christmas is coming!

 

Easton's paper chain is getting shorter.

The presents are wrapped.

(Easton really wants everyone to open theirs now. Right now.)

We finally got some good snow.

Santa is making his last minute preparations.

Easton (and I) can hardly wait.

little fella.

We were lucky enough to have the Early Elf visit our house. Sometimes he brings special treats when Easton has been extra good. He brought us the darling Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set. I realized earlier this season that I really needed to start talking more about the birth of Christ and teach E more about the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Well, we were playing with the new nativity set and I was playing a wiseman.

Me: I'll pretend to be this wiseman! 'I want to go see the baby Jesus and give him this gift!'
Easton then grabs the angel.
Easton: Then the girl with the wings flies down to the baby Jesus and says 'Hey little fella!'

Classic.

temple square.

We headed up to temple square with my family for family night. It is always fun and now even more exciting being able to see it through the eyes of Easton who thought it was just the coolest thing ever.

The whole fam minus the Claytons. Aka Cass & Steve.

E with his favorite person.

Randon disobeying my commands to smile normal.

a fun little outing.

 

A couple of weeks ago, E and I headed out with Gma and Brooke. Brooke is Gma's friend who has become one of E's favorite people. When he was younger and quite shy, he would open right up and chat with Brooke. He just loves her, and she is so sweet to him. She is always so thoughtful and brings him fun little surprises. Anyway, we went to the mall to listen to one of FM100's mini concerts. First we stopped by Santa's place. I had asked E if he wanted to sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted and he was all for it. We didn't have to wait in line for very long, and when it was our turn, he was a little shy, but went right up to sit on his lap. E was very clear in that he wanted a train that goes by itself with a remote and a Mickey game. Santa was very cute and talked to him and gave him a candy cane and we were on our way. We were walking over to Gma and Brooke and Easton had the saddest face I had ever seen. I asked him what was wrong and he said "Santa didn't give me a train!" It was the cutest thing...I guess I needed to explain more clearly that Santa brings the toys on Christmas Eve! He thought he was going to ask and get his toys right then! Cute boy. After an explanation, he was okay, and we went to listen to the concert. After that we got to ride the train! What a fun thing! He was so excited! Fun day.

face dancing by easton kenneth.

seasons.

It never fails to amaze me how we can go overnight from this:

  

to this:

{Taken mid-October}

In other news, Christmas is coming. We are very excited. Well. E and I are. I am trying to talk Randon into being excited and to put up the Christmas lights. He just likes to roll his eyes especially every time a family tradition idea is mentioned. Like Thanksgiving breakfast. Genius! That little gem was Juancarlos' idea. Why not make a whole day out of it? I really like holidays. I really like traditions. What's wrong with that?

in the eye of the beholder.

This is an original piece 

of artwork by E. 

We like to call it "Daddy."

I can totally see the resemblance.
****

Today, while coloring on his whiteboard...

Cass: What should we write? Easton is a...

Easton: Genius.

my little man.

I was thinking of how I would post little updates on E's previous birthdays. I guess my boy has grown out the phase of achieving big milestones like smiling and walking and first words. I do though, wish I will be able to remember just how he is at this age. He is just quite delightful. Oh, my boy. Why do I feel myself tearing up?  I just love him so much. Easton is a very tenderhearted, very sweet, smart and funny human. He just seems to be sucking up everything around him and learning new things everyday. I think his trademark right now would be his random, out of nowhere phrases, said with one eye scrunched up, saying things like...

• "don't you think we should ... ? don't you? don't you?"
• "would you like to join me?"
• "damma, would you mind if I borrowed this?"
• "excuse me, sir."
• "so tute and tiny!"
• "this is a greeaaat celebration!"

 These days one of my favorite things in the whole world is when we drive in the car and he asks me to turn up the music. He will listen for a song he knows and try to sing as many of the words as he can. I'll look back, and there he is, very seriously, singing every word. He is getting pretty dang good at songs like  "Turn on the Radio" by Reba, "Stuck Like Glue" by Sugarland,  and "Undo It" by Carrie Underwood. The boy likes his country ladies. It is so funny to me how well he remembers and how many words he knows. It just brings me such joy when we are walking through a store and I'll look down to him singing along to some Taylor Swift song. So funny. So cute.
He also has a great memory. He'll say things like, "Hey, this is that place we came with Cass for dinner!" ...and he is right, and it had been forever ago. "Hey, those tires are like the ones on Grandpa's car!" "Mom, we have to go that way to Grandma's house."
He makes us laugh everyday. I am so happy to spend my days with him. He is such a great little companion. I lub him!

thanksgiving printable.

My decor was looking a little sparse after Halloween was put away. I am definitely lacking in Thanksgiving decor. Luckily I found this cute free printable on the blog called Craftily Ever After via One Pretty Thing. It is modeled after the popular "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster. She also has cute ones that say "Keep Calm and Gobble On" and "Keep Calm and Cranberry On". Pop it in a frame and voila! ...free Thanksgiving loveliness. Get yours here.

spooky.

We had a great Halloween. On Friday night we headed to Grandma's house to have a little pumpkin carving party. We started things off by making owl cupcakes. E loved it.

 We had mummy dogs ...

 ...and carved pumpkins! Easton was all over the job of scooping out the seeds. Every. last. one.

 Our completed jack o lantern!

So excited for the official lighting on the porch!

 

 

 

 

 

 On Saturday, Grandma's house was Halloween central! It was so fun to have a party with everybody there! We had yummy chili a la Kylee and Grandpa even made root beer...E loved the root beer and the "smoke". (Why is his tongue blue?)

 Easton wanted to be a dog for Halloween. A brown dog. We got to Grandma's and he found a pirate hat and really wanted to be a pirate for awhile. Luckily I talked him into wearing his planned costume for trick or treating. Pirate for a while...dog for a while... life is great.

 

The trick or treating trio!

 

Abbey and I got so cold, but E wasn't ready to quit. I tapped out and E went with Dad.

The rest of the night was spent decorating cookies, watching scary movies and even having a donut on the string... eating..contest. It was so fun! We love Halloween!

   

i ♥ halloween.

birthday boy.

Little E has had another birthday. They just keep coming. He keeps growing and getting bigger. And smarter. And while it breaks my heart a little to see the baby disappearing, I love to watch him learn and get glimpses here and there of the person he is going to be. So. E has been excited for his birthday all year. Every time someone else would have a birthday, we would again remind him his birthday was to come. He could readily tell you his birthday was in "OctoVer". Well Octover got here and we still had a couple of weeks to go. This was quite confusing for the little man as all along I had said it would be his birthday in Octover. We decided to make a count down chain for the days left till his birthday.

Turns out...he really just likes ripping paper. I don't think it really served its intended purpose. But he patiently waited through several days of non-birthday October. The night before his birthday rolled around and once again, I was so excited. I hope that feeling never goes away...I just can't wait to see his excitement for things.

He was a lucky little guy. His dad even made him a bookshelf to hang in his room. Of course...I was focused on the videography of the opening of presents so I don't have any pictures. His birthday was on a Saturday so after waking up and going present crazy, we hung out and played with new toys waiting till the evening when the family was coming over for a little party. Well, more like Randon and E played. I worked on this:

E had seen a Mickey cake and was quite set on one. I was happy with how it turned out. I used this fondant tutorial. It turned out much easier to work with than recipes I've used in the past. (The blog is called Make It & Love It...and she has some fab ideas! I love her website. Another good one to have on your blogroll.) The family came over for pizza and cake and it was so great to have everyone! I should have gotten more pictures with the guests but...didn't. Those in attendance were Grandma and Grandpa Great (my grandparents), Grandpa Russell, Grandma and Grandpa Rass, Uncle Gary, Kylee and Juancarlos and Maddy and Abbey. So fun!

He got some great gifts. The men sure loved the gift Uncle Gary brought.

Nice. Where's E? Haha.

It was really the hit of the evening.

I think the little man had fun.

(The one picture of him with his cake, after it had been torn into. Yeah. I'm on top of things...)

The next week, we had some friends over for a little party. It turned out to be so fun! We are so glad everyone came! We decorated party hats, made fruit loop necklaces, ate cupcakes and played! He even got presents, such a lucky boy! Thank you, friends!

I love this boy. Happy Birthday!

i'm back!

 Oh my goodness. It has been awhile. We have had a bit going on around here. We relocated! We are quite happy and are finally feeling settled. I'm hoping to get back into the groove of documenting some happenings. I thought I would start where I left off. The wedding! It all seemed so fast. It was busy and crazy and then it was here and it was beautiful and lovely and then it was over. And then the next week we moved. Anyway. It turned out to be so great. They were married on a Friday and had the dinner the next evening. Besides a crazy wind storm while we were trying to set everything up, things went smoothly and it was so fun. Kylee was just gorgeous and it was so fun to watch the happy couple. I'll just let the pics speak for themselves.

{Shana, my sister in law, was the photographer and captured my little E truly smiling! LOVE it!}

Cass and Station. Or Steve. Or Steeve.

{Watching the wedding video under the pergola while the nieces and husband struck a pose}