Regression

It's official.  Easton has regressed.  I knew that it might be happening, but have hoped that it wasn't really.  Today, with three days in a row of pooping on the floor, I am thinking it's official.

WWWHWHWHWHWHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????????????????????

Seriously dude.  It's been 7 months. 

So here's the thing.  I have actually been a mom lately.  Shocking, I know, but I have.  He has had more attention the last 2 weeks than he has in a long time.  Before, I sadly will admit that I didn't always give E the most attention.  It has been a crazy 8 months, but it's over and I feel normal.  I play with him, we go to the museum, to Papa's place, and read.  So, is it the Lord's way of blessing me by having him hold off this specialness until I was sane enough to handle it.....or is Easton acting out for getting too much attention?  I've heard kids regress when changes happen such as a new kid, moving, etc.  Could the change be that I am around?  So weird.  Whatever, I guess I'll never know.  Now, I just need to come up with a solution.

He has been doing it for about 6 weeks, about once a week.  This week though, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  I know it purposeful too because he is peeing on the floor as well.  PLUS, when is pooping on the floor ever NOT purposeful?  I mean, unless it's nasty number 3, it doesn't just slide on out.  It definitely takes thought and determination for a little kid.  Thought and determination to DRIVE HIS MOM CRAZY.  Today was the nastiest.  He stepped and slid around in it with his shoes on.  I don't know why, but human poop on a shoe is way worse than dog poop on a shoe.  Why is that?  And of course his shoe has a billion little lines and grooves on the soles.  Lame.  I had to take an old toothbrush and scrub it out.  Speaking of that....I probably ought to get that toothbrush out of the garbage and throw it away outside.  Knowing my kids, I could see them pull it out and stick it in their mouth.  Oh gross. 

Ok, that's been taken care of.  Moving on. 

So, we have tried 3 different reactions/punishments to this specialness.  Here's to hoping tonight's worked.  Crossing my fingers.  I'll keep you posted.

Easton

I am not quite sure where to start with this blog post.  Right now, the Emonster is going through a trying and terrible time of life, called the 3s.  I tell everyone, I hate the 3s.  It's a hair pulling, "are you kidding me" time of life.  But, he can be so stinking cute and sweet that I can't help but love the kid to death.  Here's a few things he's been up to:

Easton is the newest sunbeam!!  I still can't believe he is in Sunbeams.  He is the youngest sunbeam in the class, but he has done amazing.  He goes in and just sits on his little chair with his baby scriptures.  He looks so little but so mature at the same time.  Tear to my eye.  I can't believe he is that old. 

Easton has found his new favorite food.....mushrooms.  He loves them.  Loves them raw. Loves them cooked.  We went to the store and talked me into getting them and proceeded to chew through the plastic when I wasn't looking and started eating them.  Weird. 

Easton with his afternoon snack of mushrooms

 As I mentioned in Jackson's post, we had a little issue with the gel.  I get this awesome gel that is really thick and you only need to use a tiny bit in the boys hair.  It's kind of expensive but it lasts a long time.....unless Easton gets a hold of it.  The other day, he did. 

 Can you see all the HUGE green clumps? 

 He was not a happy camper while I tried to get the gel out.  It was so thick that it was as if he put a glue stick in his hair.  There was no chance of even trying to comb it out.  I eventually just stuck his head under the faucet for his 2nd bath in 10 minutes and got it out. 

 Thankfully, he hasn't done this again.  Yet.

Easton loves his baby Graham.  He always tells me how cute he is and loves to give him kisses. 

And he loves to play with his best buddy Beck.

I love this kid.

Creighton

My sister recently made a comment, "Creighton gives me hope that one day Beck will turn out good."  True, true.  When Creighton was three I was pulling my hair out and had story about story about my Crazy Creigh.  Now, he is my charismatic Creigh. He is such a good kid and he makes me smile. 

I recently got his report card.  He was perfect in everything.  Yeah Creigh Jay!



Straight G's for GREAT!



 He is such a happy kid and finds joy in small things.  On Saturday we went to the bookstore and let the boys each pick out a book.  Creighton picked out, "The Strange Case of Origami Yoda."  He carries that book everywhere.  He loves to show the doodle in the book of a boy and girl "smooching" and the doodle of a pair of pants with a wet spot.  He laughs and laughs and laughs.  So funny.  He can't read, but he begs everyone to read it to him. 

We went to the Children's Museum yesterday and he put on his construction hat and vest and got to work building....the entire time while singing.  He did this for about 30 minutes.  He never stopped singing and he never stopped smiling.

I love this kid.

Jackson

I've decided that since I have been such a slacker at posting, I would do a post about each of the kiddos and share a few stories that I meant to write down.

Jackson is doing awesome in 1st grade.  He even received the "Bear of the Week" award a few weeks ago from the Principal. 

He is one of the kindest kids.  It is something that makes my heart swell.  Here are a few examples:

-We were reading a book the other day and it said that the squirrel stole a nut.  He looked at me and said, "Mom, why would that squirrel steal.  Doesn't he know it's against the commandments?"

-Easton used about 1/2 a tub of gel (this will be documented in Easton's post) and I was quite upset.  I let him know that he wasted so much money.  Jackson ran out of the bathroom and came back a minute later with a couple crumpled dollar bills he had pulled out of his piggy bank.  "Here mom, use this.  I'm so sorry he did that."  

Jack is reading up a storm.  In fact, he is reading now and has been the whole hour.  He recently has moved up quite a few levels and now that he can read fluently on his own, he loves it.  I love listening to him read.  Especially when he reads a funny book.  Those books take him twice as long because he can't stop laughing to start reading. 

I love this kid.

A WICKED WEEKEND

I just got back from an awesome girls weekend.  Courtney, Kristi, Tawni, and I have been friends for about 17 years now.  We used to go on our girls trips yearly but it's been 4 years since we have been able to get together.  I have been dying to go see Wicked and when I saw Southwest have their big sale, I called up the girls and we booked flights and play tickets in LA (where Courtney lives). 

It was so fun.  The timing wasn't great since I had just gotten back from a trip, but it was about a 36 hour trip and it was really good to get together with these girls....not to mention that the show was AMAZING. 

The trip started out with Courtney and I doing a run around her neigborhood.  Followed by a yummy breakfast at Panera.

Not quite sure what face Kristi is making. Special.

Us holding the camera and taking a picture.  Not bad for the 5th try.

We then headed out to the 3rd Street Promenade to do some shopping.  Since some of us weren't shopping, we made it fun by picking out an outfit for someone else to wear.  It would have been even better if they would have let us put on the accessories we picked out too, but they had some lame rule against it. 

Courtney picked for Tawni:

Kristi picked for me:

I picked for Courtney:

And Kristi wouldn't let us take a picture.  It was good though. 

We tried on sexy hats at Aldo.

After shopping we went out to dinner at The Farm House.  It was so good.  I had their turkey lasagna and I'm still thinking about it.

Since we were on Rodeo Drive getting cupcakes at Crumbs, we tried to get a picture that shows both signs.  Wasn't super successful, but there you go. 

The cupcakes were delicious.

This is us bending down by Billy Joel's star (Billy Joel reminds Courtney of me for a crazy reason)

Then we were off to the show.  Only Kristi had seen it so we were so excited!!

With time to kill we took ugly pictures of us mimicking statues.  We are so cool. 

and laughing

Us just about ready to go in.   Ahhh!

The show was so great!  I already am looking to see it again.  Loved it! 

The next morning Courtney made us these amazing blueberry pancakes and we headed off for pedicures.  While sitting there Kristi sent us a picture.  It said,

manicure

(noun)

paying $30 to get made

fun of in another language

Still fun though!

And that was it.  We headed home, packed and headed out to the airport.  It was a blast and I am looking forward to doing it again.  Hopefully we won't wait so long again.

Missing the boys in Maui

I have told Mitch since we were married 10 years ago that he was taking me to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary.  Our 2 day honeymoon in Vegas was great, but Hawaii was my dream vacation.  I didn't think it was going to happen, but it did and it was amazing!! 

We went with Josie & Micah (celebrating her 30th birthday), Lindsey & Matt (their "honeymoon"), and my parents (just because). 

Basically we did nothing almost the whole trip.  Just ran, ate, sunbathed, ate, played games and slept.  It was wonderful.  Here are some pictures to document our fun.

Where the sunbathing occurred

boys playing bball.  can you guess which one is my dad?

Our view from breakfast each morning

Our running path.
LOVED IT

Um yeah.

The 8 of us

Me and my cute sisters

Dinner at Longboards

dad aka pro swimmer

 The boys did a friendly competition called "The Trifecta."  Before we left there was a bball game with my dad and Mitch against Micah and Matt.  Proud to say that my Mitchell and my dad came out victorious.  The 2nd part of the trifecta was the golf they played in Hawaii.  My dad was victorious.  And the last and final part was "The Body Off."  This involved my dad finding a woman at the pool to judge and then they stand their and get judged.  The winnner....what do you think?

Again, MY DAD was victorious. 

After a round of golf.

Dinner at Leilani's.
BEST TACOS EVER!!!  Still thinking about them and already have tried to imitate them.

Dinner at Kimo's.
Thanks Matt!

Playing Just Dance

At breakfast

 I have always wanted to do the bike ride down the volcano.  It was blasted early (we had to leave at 2:15) and it was beyond cold, but it was super adventurous and I loved it.  I couldn't believe how fast we were cruising down the mountain.  My hands were dying from gripping the break so hard.  So fun though. 

On top of the Haleakala Crater.  Yes, my eyes are closed.
It was SO stinking cold!!! The wind chill had to of brought it below zero.
Next time I will skip the sunrise and go up later for the bike ride. 

The sunrise.

About to head down the mountain.

 And back home.....were the boys.

Uncle Matt (referred to himself as Uncle Buck) watched the boys for us and was AMAZING!!!  I can't tell you how many people have come up to me to tell me how impressed they were with him.  They said he was one of the first people at church and sat with the 3 boys like a pro (not surprised since he does have 3 boys of his own).  They had so much fun and rarely even wanted to talk to us.  Creighton was the best.  I would ask him one question and he would interrupt and say, "Mom, Easton wants to talk to you."  I told him, "OK, but let me talk to you first."  2 seconds later, "Mom, Easton really wants to talk to you."  About 5 more times of that happening, I say, "OK, let me talk to him."  I then hear him yelling down the stairs, "EASTON, Mom wants to talk to you.  WE HAVE TO."  Awesome.  Yes, that happened two other times too.  I felt very cool.

Seeing them again after a week felt so good though.  I missed them so much.  I think it was a good trip for Mitch and I to rejuvenate, but it was hard being away from them.  Definitely appreciate them just that much more.  They're the best!

So, 10 years was awesome.  Hoping for another awesome trip in another 10.  I'll start crossing my fingers now. 

Cute boys

Loving their new suspenders.