Scotty's celebrations

The birthday celebrations are over! It seems like he had a week long birthday party! Urban was in town and he got to do lots of fun things with him. Aunt Mel, Uncle Nate, Urban and Mekhi took Scotty bowling on his birthday. Then they did a fun scavenger hunt for him to find his present- a Star Wars Storm Trooper costume that he loves and has worn almost everyday since then! We went to McDonald's for dinner on his big day and then came home and had ice cream sandwiches (his choice- he loves them!) and sang to him. Then on Saturday we had his big party at Chuck E Cheese's. His grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins came and everyone had a good time. (Both of his brothers were sick, so they and Daddy had to miss the party- bummer.) Thanks for hosting the party Grandma Kath and Grandpa Scott! We have had a lot of fun with him and he loves being 5 years old. He didn't like getting his shots at his doctor check up, but he has been telling everyone that he got his "first kindergarten shots" so I guess he's proud. We were surprised that he had some trouble with the vision screening. We had no idea that he might have trouble with his eyesight. The doc said it wasn't bad enough to need correction, but to be watching for any struggling. After his doctor appt we went to lunch at The Spaghetti Factory and got to sit on the trolley and then to Toy's R Us to use his gift card he got in the mail. He chose a monster truck and was very happy!

He is a great kid and is really living up to his big boy status!

Grant and Collin gave him a new wheelbarrow and a watering can that he has wanted for a long time.

We gave him this really cool pirate ship. We love to hear him saying things in pirate talk!

Singing time! Grant really wanted a candle too- I guess it will be a regular thing for everyone to have a candle!

Here's Urban the Transformer and Scotty the Storm Trooper. Scotty: "I like to call my costume Star Wars, but you can call it whatever you want."

Logan and Brock

Brady

Miles (our neighbor and friend) and Ethan are watching the flames. Miles made him a monster truck cake this year. It was going to be a fire truck cake until Scotty changed his mind 2 days before and really, really wanted a monster truck cake!

Grandpa Scott partying it up!

Scotty was a little scared to go up to Chuck E, but he eventually worked up the courage.

When he opened this from Grandma Geri he said "This is what I've been dreaming about!"

We were excited that Vivi and Reed were in town and were able to come. I didn't get a good picture of them though, dang it!

It was a really fun party. I love this boy so, so much!!

Happy Birthday Scotty!

Scotty is 5 today!! We've been parents for 5 years- it's crazy. We are privileged to be Scotty's parents. He has taught us a lot and is the guinea pig for our parenting. Luckily for us, he is a very forgiving and understanding little boy! (Oops- I mean big boy! He won't let me call him a little boy anymore.) It has been fun seeing Scotty's imagination and creativity grow this year. He never was into creative stuff until this past year and now he loves to create art pieces and especially loves making inventions. He has come up with some pretty impressive stuff using cardboard boxes, paper, tape (oh my- lots of tape!) and lots of other random stuff from around the house. If he wants a certain toy and we tell him to put it on his birthday list, he says "That's ok, I'll just make one from cardboard." Scotty has also blossomed as a big brother. He loves to play with Grant and teach him things and he is very proud of his baby brother Collin. He is still a little shy and has had some ups and downs with being shy at preschool, but he loves to learn and is doing great. He is super excited to start Kindergarten in the fall and we've had to remind him many times that he isn't going to start Kindergarten the day he turns 5! He has started telling us that we're the best Mom and Dad in the whole world and he wants to keep us forever! We love him so much and think he is the best 5 year old kid in the world! Happy Birthday Scotty!

Some pictures from the past year:

His birthday present last year. He loves to scooter!

Super Scotty

He was very excited to plant a garden. Eating what came out of the garden wasn't so exciting, but doing the work was!

His very fun hat that he invented.

He made himself a computer and loved to send emails on it.

He wanted a guitar so he and I made one and he started a band called Scotty's Band and gave us lots of great performances.

Climbing on the rocks in St George. He loves to hike and climb.

This is what he will wake up to in the morning. I read this idea on a website and thought it would be so fun. I thought that 25 balloons would be a lot, but it wasn't quite enough. Next time we'll do more, but since this is the first time we've done this he'll be very excited.

Sunny St George

We were able to go to St George for the weekend. It was the annual Utah Press Association Convention and my Dad invited us to go- thanks Dad! Everyone was excited to make the long drive in the new van. Yes, that's right- I'm now a mini-van driving Mom! We got a new (new to us, that is) Honda Odyssey and it is so nice to have extra room. The kids totally love it and it was great to be able to fit all the people plus all the STUFF that we have to take on vacation. And there is no hefting or contorting to get kids buckled into car seats! But, back to St George- it was a really fun weekend. We spent a few hours on Saturday at the sand dunes digging and crawling in the sand. Scotty let my Dad bury him a few times and that was funny. Collin loved crawling around and we had to watch him to make sure he didn't go tumbling down the hill! Grant wasn't quite sure about the sand at first, so he spent a lot of time sitting on Miles' lap knocking down sand castles. After the dunes we went swimming. Scotty learned to swim underwater and was so proud of himself. Grant had a blast squirting my Dad with his squirt toys. Collin loved splashing and riding in his little floater thing. I had to take Scotty to the bathroom and when I came back Collin was leaning forward with his head resting on the front of the little boat thing and he was almost asleep! Pretty cute. (My Dad was with him- I didn't leave him floating around the pool all alone!!) We couldn't find our camera on Saturday so we didn't get any pictures at the sand dunes or of swimming. I was so disappointed. Luckily we found it underneath the hotel bed before we left. On our way out of town we stopped at Dixie rock and did a little climbing and the kids loved that. Scotty and Grant LOVED playing with the cool telephones in the hotel room. And they did some obligatory jumping on the beds. As we were packing up to leave Scotty said that he wishes we could stay for 5 more days- don't we all feel that way at the end of vacation??

If only they knew how excited we were to get phones without cords!

Here we are getting ready for the long drive home. It actually went pretty well. Collin had a couple of long crying spells, but he was the only one that wasn't really grumpy when we got home!

Collin's birthday party

Collin's birthday party was a lot of fun. We had grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins come over to celebrate with us. The cousins had fun playing and the adults had fun visiting. Miles made him a "wonky" cake and it was cute. He had his own little cake and he devoured it! We could not believe how much he ate. It was so much fun to watch him. He had a great time and was hyper afterwards! He's a cutie and liked the attention he got while plowing through his cake. It's hard to believe that he is 1 already. It was a great day.

The wonky cake.

Adorable!!

His hat had a hard time staying on, but he loved wearing it. When we would put it on him he would get a huge smile.

Want some?

The after shot. Can you believe he ate all that??

Present time!

He loved the clothes.

Happy birthday Collin!

Happy Birthday Collin!

Collin is 1 today!! It has been quite a year- starting with his birth coming 6 weeks early, a 2 and a half week stay in the hospital, major reflux/spitting up issues- and the fun stuff too: snuggly newborn stage, cute first smiles, watching him roll all over (which neither of his brothers did so it was exciting!), his very unique grunty laugh, army style crawling, lots of kisses and snuggles. Collin is a very fun baby. He loves to be with us wherever we are in the house and if we sit on the floor he immediately crawls over to crawl on us or pull up on us. He loves his big brothers and always smiles at them. He's a bit shy with strangers and will bury his head on my shoulder after giving them a shy smile. His smile and face lights up the room and makes us so happy. He's very persistent- he'll keep trying and trying to get something or go somewhere that he wants. We are so happy that after his rocky start he is healthy and hitting all his developmental milestones on time. He is a joy and a great addition to our family. We love you Collin!

Here are a few pictures from his first year:

Transformations

From baby:

To little boy:

Isn't it amazing how a haircut can make babies look so much older?? Collin was perfect at his haircut today. He didn't cry, fuss or even wiggle too much. He just sat there staring at himself in the mirror. Who can blame him- I love to stare at that adorable face too!

From fun loving boys:

To scary batman and spider face boys:

We went to kids eat free night at Denny's and they had a face painter. They were so excited and Grant even held very still for her. Childhood is so much fun!

Cousins

My sister and I are the oldest grandkids on both sides of our family, so we didn't have cousins our age. We were great babysitters for all our younger cousins, but we didn't have any our own age to play with. I'm so glad that my kids have cousins their age to play with. We were excited when we heard that Urban was coming to visit for the weekend and made plans to have him come stay with us on Friday. He and Scotty get along so well and had a blast playing all day. He was also able to sleep over and that was really fun too. We went to the park and met up with some more cousins- Brock, Brady and Logan and everyone had a great time.

They are digging for buried treasure in our neighbor's yard and claim they found some!

Here's Brock trying very hard to get his message out!

Urban, Brady and Scotty rolling down the hill. I remember doing that- do you?

This particular park is near Urban's old house so we call it "Urban's park" and Scotty will also add "The one with the steering wheels."

Getting ready to settle down and watch a movie. They rearranged most of the big items in the playroom to make a racetrack and to have stations where they would get their power. I love their imaginations! We were very surprised that Urban went to sleep around 9pm and slept all night until 7am (he's normally a night owl) and Scotty was still up at 9:30pm saying he couldn't sleep and then he came up at midnight and got into his own bed (he normally sleeps from 7pm-7am). They spent the next day playing at Grandma Geri's and helping to work on the kitchen remodel. It was so fun to have Urban back and Scotty and I can't wait for our visit to Colorado in April.