Christmas leftovers

I realized that there are some things leftover from Christmas that I forgot to post on here. It only took me 5 months to get around to it...

We got Dallin and Connor a rather large present as an early Christmas gift while we were still in Indiana before we left for Christmas in Denver. Most of the money to pay for it was a Christmas present from Mckay's parents, so we made a video for them to document the boys opening it. Grandma and Grandpa got to open and watch the movie on Christmas morning. Here's the video:

The boys love having a bunk bed! Since Connor came straight from sleeping in a crib to sleeping on the top bunk, we had a few nights of adjusting, but they've done very well sleeping on the bunk bed. Sometime it's more of a jungle gym for them with the way they climb the stairs and swing around. We got one with built in stairs instead of just a small ladder because we felt more comfortable with our small children going up and down on the more stable stairs. It's a pretty great bunk bed.

As a Christmas present to my parents, I made a few scrapbooks pages for them to add to the family scrapbook. The first one is a 7 generation family tree, inspired by the one I have hanging in my living room, with acorns added at the bottom to represent all the grandchildren. It was a challenge to fit a normally 14x20 tree template onto a 12x12 srcapbook page, but I fit it all on there and I love how it turned out.

(some names blurred out for privacy)

Mom, I hope you held onto those extra acorns I sent, because you'll need to add 4 more onto the page by the end of the year. We're not the only family adding a new baby this year!

 The other two scrapbook pages are pictures of our family from 2013. Most of the photos have already been posted on the blog, but I think the pages are cute.

Why I haven't blogged

I haven't blogged as much this month as I normally do. The main reason is because I organized a Walk for Williams Syndrome here in Indiana this month and it took A LOT of time and energy to put it all together. I'll post more about it later when I get pictures from the photographer. Words will not do it enough justice. I'll just say it was an awesome day.

The other reason is that I've been growing things:

Baby Easton #3 will be joining our family December 2014!

(We really will also be growing beans and peas, in case anyone really cared...)

We felt like corn seeds were appropriate for the picture above, seeing as this is an Indiana grown baby. Corn is a big deal here. And growing a baby is pretty much like gardening. You have to make sure the baby gets the right amount of sun (none) and nutrients and lots of water. The difference is that harvesting food from a garden (even in the Indiana heat) is much more enjoyable than harvesting a baby.

Dallin and Connor don't really understand that we're having a baby yet. My belly doesn't look very different yet, and I don't know if they can quite wrap their heads around there being a baby inside of me. We'll probably talk more about it with them as we get closer to the ultrasound date at 20 weeks. They both love seeing babies though and they are always looking for babies to hug and kiss and speak in high voices to. They'll be good little helpers.

So, between feeling extra tired, extra naeseous, extra hungry, and planning an event for 100+ people, I've felt pretty exhausted. Now that the walk is over and the first trimester is almost over, I'm getting some energy back. Blogging should return to normal, especially with all the fun summer adventures coming up.

Easton Wedding

Mckay's oldest brother Evan got married a few weeks ago. We got to fly to Denver for the weekend to be there with them. We weren't there for very long, but every second was spent with family and playing with cousins.

 All dressed up and ready for the wedding.

Easton boys in the back, Bryan kids up front.

The wedding was at Coors Field, home of Rockies baseball!

It was really cool being at the stadium when it was completely empty.

 Dallin and Connor enjoyed the view while we waited to be taken down onto the field.

We may have coordinated on the white sweaters...

 While pictures were being taken of the wedding party (including all of the husbands/dads),

...the moms kept all 12 kids corralled and happy.

We brought lots and lots of snacks.

 I made the rounds with goldfish and teddy grahams, while Mckay's aunt Amy from Utah (Dallin and Connor's great aunt) kept them entertained.

Amy brought little battery powered fans for all the kids.

They were a big hit.

 Great-Grandpa Easton from Utah was there too.

Here's a close up of those beautiful baby girls back there. We're finally starting to get girls in the family!

Mckay's brother (left) and brother-in-law (right)

 They finally led us out onto the field where we were seated. The stadium workers only wanted us on the dirt, not on the grass. I guess when you spend ridiculous amounts of money on maintaining beautiful green grass, you're allowed to be picky about who walks on it with high heels. 

Aunt Amy kept Dallin and Porter busy with lots of songs. I think this was "Itsy bity Spider."

I love it so much when these two boys get together.

Then the wedding started and I didn't take any more pictures. The photographer took a bunch, including some shots of our little family, but I'll have to wait to get a copy of those.

After the wedding was a luncheon at Rodizio Brazilian Grill. We ate way more meat than should be consumer in one day. It was great.

We flew home the next day. It was a fast trip but we had a good time.

Spring Break

Dallin's spring break was at the end of March. It doesn't change our schedule much since he only has preschool for 3 hours on 4 days of the week, but it's a good time to schedule some of his doctor appointments in Indianapolis. This way, we don't have to go drive down super early in the morning to make it back in time for afternoon preschool.

We grabbed a wagon (provided for use by the Children's Hospital) and went back and forth to three different appointments in 3 hours. Its funny that this picture shows Connor sitting in the wagon, because he spent 90% of the time pulling the wagon by himself, insistent on no help from me. Good thing they schedule lots of buffer time in between appointments so we had time for Connor to slowly pull Dallin around. 

Dallin was a trooper through his two ultrasounds and blood draw. He got to choose a coloring book (seen in the wagon above) as a prize for getting his blood drawn. That poor kid has been through so much and so many blood draws (at least 30 in his 5 short years). He cries at the sight of the chair. The Children's hospital has a pretty great phlebotomist though and we lucky to get her this time. It only took 30 seconds!

After all the doctor stuff, we ate our sack lunch in the cafeteria.

With it being spring break, I wanted to do something fun with the kids. So we stayed in Indianapolis for a bit instead of driving straight home. We went to the Children's Museum. It's been a few years since we've been there and Connor was only a baby then, so there was a lot for them to see.

They liked digging for dinosaur bones.

Connor popped his head up to tell me, "I'm digging dinosaurs!"

We got to play with some clay and make shapes. Dallin asked for a snowman so I sculpted the pieces and he put them together.

Then Dallin made his own person. He made this completely by himself with no help or prompting of any kind from me.

I was amazed because he's never made anything like this before. I've read studies about how children with Williams syndrome have difficulty with visuospatial construction. For example, a child with WS can draw a bicycle with all the correct parts present (seat, wheels, handles), but not in the correct locations.

That's why I love this person he sculpted, complete with arms, legs, torso, head and a very large nose. (In his defense, we had just made a snowman so I think he was trying to make a carrot nose for his guy too.) Maybe it has something to do with constructing a 3D model vs. drawing on flat paper. His drawings of people are scribbles. It's also possible that Dallin doesn't struggle as much with the visuospatial problems that many others with WS have. I've heard how difficult it is for even adults with WS to complete a simple 6 piece puzzle, yet Dallin is amazing with puzzles and can handle 30 pieces on his own.

Enough bragging about Dallin...

 Dallin asked me to make Darth Vader for him too.

I made the head and body, and while I worked out making the cape, Dallin reached over and stuck arms and a lightsaber on Darth Vader. I love this kid.

We played in the little kid area for a bit.

Dallin and Connor both loved climbing up and down these leaves.

 I thought they'd be nervous to climb so high, but they both climbed all the way up to the boat on top of the structure.

We all had a really great time. I'm glad we managed to have some fun during the cold, rainy spring break.

General Conference

We watched general conference on TV this past weekend. Dallin and Connor are still pretty young, but getting old enough to understand some things and they're picking up on gospel principles. So we came up with some activities they could do to keep themselves semi-engaged during the 8 total hours.

As each speaker came up, we had the boys find the matching picture for that person on the general authority page (found in every conference issue of the Ensign magazine).

Then they got to put a sticker on the person's face. They needed a little help sometimes with matching the faces (gray hair and glasses aren't much of a clue among this group of speakers), but they did surprisingly well at identifying each speaker. Found on a different page in the Ensign are the women and other presidency members who are potential speakers. We stickered them too.

 Then we told the boys to listen for specific words that we would hear in the talks. We chose our words based on what our boys have been learning about and what we had a picture for.

Our words to listen for were prayer, Joseph Smith, Jesus, baptism/baptized, sacrament, temple, and scriptures (or related words like Bible, Book of Mormon). When they heard one of our words from a speaker, they got to put a sticker on the corresponding picture.

I was amazed at how well Dallin and Connor listened for the words. They certainly did their fair share of coloring and playing with playdoh and toys during the two days of conference, but they really listened and were so excited every time they heard one of the words. At one point, Dallin heard the words and exclaimed, "Brass plates! He said brass plates", and then he went to put a sticker on the "scriptures" picture. He's learning a lot.

Not surprisingly, "Jesus Christ" was the picture with the most stickers. Every talk had his name at least once at the end.

On Sunday morning, I decided to switch things up and make waffles instead of  my weekly pancakes. Dallin seemed a little disappointed when I told the boys of the breakfast plan early that morning, but Connor lifted his sleepy head and with a huge smile, said, "I LIKE waffles!"

The waffles won Dallin over. He ate a good amount. But the best part was the next morning, when I went to get Dallin's usual frozen pancake out to cook, and he asked for a waffle instead.  ....GASP... He proceeded to eat one and a half plate-size waffles! I don't think he plans to stop eating pancakes, but it's nice to have an alternative breakfast food that he'll eat.

Star Wars Birthday

Dallin loves Star Wars. He wears his Darth Vader shirt all the time and is always asking to watch the movies ("A New Hope" and "Return of the Jedi" are his favorites). So I was not surprised when I started planning for Dallin's fifth birthday and he asked for a Darth Vader cake. I went beyond the cake and planned a whole Star Wars themed birthday party for him.

The invitation:

I love how this turned out. Dallin recognizes that this is a Star Wars font. He doesn't know letters of the Alphabet yet, but he knows a Star Wars font when he sees one...

The inspiration for the invitation and a lot of the other party ideas came from Homemade by Jill and the Star Wars party she threw for her 5 year old boy. Something about Star Wars must really resonate with the 4-5 year old crowd.

I made a few simple decorations to go with the theme.

Tie fighter balloons hung over the piano.

And to keep with my tradition from years past of making themed bunting, here is my Star Wars bunting.

It's made from felt. Dallin can keep it as decoration in his room now that the party is over.

It was a little time consuming to make, but the skill level is easy and felt is cheap, so this banner is a definite win.

One day while working on this project, Dallin helped me put some of the storm trooper heads together by putting the black felt pieces in the correct place. Can you tell which one Dallin did?

Stormtroopers really weren't meant to smile.

I dressed up for the party.

I was "Mom Solo." And Connor was "Con Solo."

We were hoping that with it being spring now, it would be warm enough to have some party festivities outside. On the morning of the party, we woke up to snow on the ground. So it was an all indoor party! We had a backup plan in mind so everything worked out great.

Guests arrived, hung up their cloaks and were given a foam lightsaber. I "trained" them in the rules of lightsaber use (no hits to the face!) and then we practiced by popping bubbles with the lightsabers.

Then I read a quick book that introduced everyone to the Star Wars world and characters. Most of Dallin's friends are younger than him and weren't familiar with it yet. I told them about Darth Vader and the death star, and then Mckay came out of hiding wearing a Darth Vader mask and carrying a death star pinata. Only a few children cried at the sight of the mask...

Making the death star was a joint effort. I did the paper mache work. Mckay painted and decorated.

Everyone got a turn to hit the death star.

The kids were young enough that I didn't think they needed a blindfold to challenge them. Also, I wanted Mckay to have both of his legs intact still by the end of the party.

Dallin wanted to wear the Darth Vader mask while he hit.

The pinata withstood several hits from everyone, so Mckay finished it off so the kids could get the candy/goodies inside.

The death star was destroyed and the jedis saved the day! (Mckay's outfit is Luke Skywalker. He's the only one who can really destroy the death star.)

To reward the jedis, we ate lunch. Our menu was based on Dallin's favorite foods, with some Star Wars twists.

The Leia buns were pizza sandwich roll ups filled with pepperoni, olives and mozzarella. Dallin inhales these.

Obi Wan Kabobies were mini corn dogs. And don't forget the Bobba fruit.

Even Darth Vader eats his veggies.

To drink, we had Jabba juice and Watto. (Funny, right?)

The kids chowed down and put olives on their fingers.

I found these cups on super cheap clearance at Target, so everyone got to take home a party souvenir. 

Dallin got some awesome gifts.

Our friends made him a crocheted R2-D2 doll. This picture is blurry but I love the look on his face.

Here's better detail on R2.

I love it!

 The kids took turns being Darth Vader.

Then it was time for cake.

 This was another joint effort. I baked the cake, Mckay decorated it.

I really couldn't have done this party (or any of my parties) without Mckay. He is so helpful and will do what ever I need him to do. And when I started to freak out over little things that didn't go right, he would remind me that everything was still great, and all the kids would have fun no matter what. And all Dallin asked for was the cake anyway, so everything else was a bonus.

Here's a look at what I got/made for Dallin's presents.

My annual homemade gift was some pajama pants and t-shirts that I painted using freezer paper and fabric paint. Also, thank you Old Navy clearance for the lunch box. That will come in handy for Kindergarten this fall.

Since his love for Legos is still strong, I made him some Lego t-shirts too.

I got the idea from here.

I love how they turned out. Mckay does not love that there is still some paint stuck on the Legos I used for stamping.

The party was a big success. Everyone had a great time. Dallin loved everything about it. Both boys really got into their roles and had blaster/saber battles all day.

On Dallin's actual birthday, he took some Star Wars cupcakes to preschool to celebrate with his class.

I loves these cupcake liners and toppers from Williams-Sonoma. Thanks for sending them, Mom!

I still can't believe that Dallin is five and that he's old enough to know about Star Wars. He is growing up into such an amazing little boy.

Happy 5th Birthday, Dallin! We'd fight an entire army of stormtroopers for you!