The Difference a Year Makes

The first day of school...

The last day of school!

The Birthday Boy

Wow, I can't believe my baby boy is already a year old! It literally seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital wondering what in the world we were going to do with a little boy. What an amazing year it has been getting to know our little "buddy" and seeing his big personality emerge. He is constantly making us laugh and can easily light up a room with huge smile!

Things we love about YOU, Easton Boy:

-your passion for food and the way you eat with gusto! :) (usually double fisted)

-the way you grunt between each bite of food

-your precious laugh and the way to you LOVE to be tickled

-the way you adore your big sister (most of the time)

-your attachment to your little giraffe lovey and the way you will search and search til you find the tag to rub between your fingers

-that you absolutely insist on going barefoot...doesn't matter what kind of shoes or socks we put on you, they're off in a matter of seconds!

-your toothless grin! we thought surely by your first birthday you would have some teeth, but I think I'm going to miss your little toothless grin once you actually do get some teeth!

We love you so much Easton and are so grateful that the Lord chose to bless our family with you!!

For Easton's first birthday party we decided to go with a Farm theme. My SUPER talented friend, Jordan, did the invitations and they turned out just perfect!

The kids road on the tractor, played in the "duck pond" and jumped in the bouncer. And other than Brice getting a little wild in the bouncer, falling into the fence and getting a huge chunk of wood stuck in his finger (which later required surgery to remove) I'd say the party was a hit! :)

The yummy cake from KP Creations!

Emma Kate decided she didn't feel like standing by us for the picture.... :)

With LaLa, Pop and Mamie

Boppy and Chebe

Such a BIG boy!

Colin was confused...our tractor doesn't go nearly as fast as his does!

The sweet Booth family

Sweet Cambrie...who's mommy REALLY needs to get a blog or a facebook or something! :)

Molly sporting her adorable headband!

Lauren and Emily (I think Autumn was off riding the 4-wheeler!)

"Mom, can't you just let me jump?"

He knows he's about to eat since he's in his chair! :)

I think he liked it!!

The boy LOVES balls!!

And finally, my favorite picture of the day! To say that Colin and Easton had fun in the "duck pond" would be an understatement! Colin definitely came out of his shell in the water and Easton was eating it up!!

Abilene

**Disclaimer - if we're facebook friends you've probably already seen most of these updates and pictures! :)

Brice had to do some work in Abilene last week, so the kids and I decided to tag along and make a mini vacation out of it. We headed down Wednesday afternoon and didn't come home until Sunday morning! I was a little apprehensive about staying in a hotel with a 2 1/2 year old and an almost 1 year old (which, btw how is that even possible!?), but really it turned out great and we had such a fun time!!

We did lots of swimming, shopping, sightseeing and making creative use of all of our time! Unfortunately our trip ended with our first visit to the ER. Unlike most people who like to sleep in at hotels, our little buddy, Easton thought the early morning was the best time to party. Haha, so Brice, being the nice husband that he is, offered to take Easton out of the hotel room so that Emma Kate and I could sleep in. They went down to the lobby to get some coffee and in the process of putting the sleeve on a cup of coffee it accidentally got knocked over and spilled all over Easton's foot causing a 2nd degree burn! It was so incredibly sad to see him in such pain, but they fixed him up with a shot of demerol and a nice bandage and we were on our way out of town. :)

So although our trip didn't end all that well, overall it was such a fun visit and I definitely think we'll be tagging along again next time!

Ready for the first (of many!) swim of the season

Look how big he is!

This picture cracks me up! She is always trying to carry him around...even though he's almost as big as she is!

Sliding at the mall

Craft night in the hotel bathroom...haha, our kids go to be really early so I decided to get crafty and work on some projects while they were snoozing!

Feeding the giraffes

Macy and sweet Bliss met us at the zoo...they didn't know what to think of eachother at first, but eventually they decided they liked eachother! (and we just might have done some bribing to get this picture) :)

Showing off for the Thunderbirds at the Air Force Base

Getting ready to go see some airplanes at the air show! She loved looking at the planes, but did NOT like it when they were actually flying, it was really loud and just about scared her to death. I wish I had a picture of her with the little earplugs in!

Picnic in the hotel room...we did this quite often. They loved it and it was easy clean up!!

Kisses for brother while having a snow cone!

Pretty sure he loved it!

Poor buddy's foot after the trip to the ER.

Finally sleeping soundly in his bed at home!

February in Pictures

Look at that face! Easton seemed to really turn the corner in February. He started sitting up really well, learned to crawl and even started pulling up on things this month. With all these developments came lots of smiles, giggles and for the most part a much happier baby! He even started sleeping better too. We were so grateful for these changes!

Our little Valentine! The month of February brought about some changes for Miss Emma Kate too...we said GOODBYE to diapers and HELLO to big girl panties! She still wears pullups at night, but panties all day. We are still having a few issues with accidents at random times throughout the day but it's usually just when she's busy playing or when she waits until it's too late. We were so proud of our big girl!

She LOVES her brother!

And he's constantly trying to get away from her! Bless his heart, he will have some major paying back to do when he gets a little bigger!

A butterfly and a frog :)

The weather this winter didn't allow for much playtime outside so the first somewhat pretty day we had we headed to the park (along with just about everyone else in town it seemed like!) for a picnic and some sunshine.

Emma Kate and her sweet friends Colin and Katie Lynn! I taught Kindergarten with C and KL's moms at Cooper North. First came KL, two weeks later C, and then two weeks after that came EK! It was so much fun seeing how much they've changed since the last time we all go together.

AND they've all added a sibling since! It was a little late for Colin's sis Cambrie so she didn't make the picture...maybe next time. Isn't hilarious that not ONE of them are looking at the camera. I snapped a ton of pictures and this was the best one I got!

Such good little mommies. :)

Sharing a hotdog with her good friend Keadryn! These two are quite the pair...they have pretty similar personalities so there's never a dull moment when they're together. Keadryn and her sis Selah come up in conversation just about everyday!