Easton’s 3rd Birthday

This sweet little baby boy and most beautiful chunky one year old and toddler is now three!

  

I miss this face so much even though he has grown even cuter and more amazing.  It’s almost hard to remember the phases too.  I have to think really hard to go back to this place in time.  It seems like a lifetime ago that I had a baby and three children four or younger.  Maybe that time looked a little like this……

And now it looks a lot more like this…..

Everyone is just bigger and crazier! Arghhh, the pirates life we lead.  We hold treasure far better than gold when we hold these boys.

This was Easton’s birthday.  Mimi and Dunka came to visit before our trip to Maryland and Daddy drove home from a work trip just in time. 

Easton went with me to the store and chose this pirate theme for his family party. 

In the morning he woke up to decorations from Andrew Doodle who caught wind of his pirate theme day. 

For me?

 

Hooray!

   

His third Birthday smelt so good he just had to lick it to see! Silly boy was over my pictures just as soon as I started.

During the day we celebrated with chic-fil-a and just hung out with Mimi and Dunka once Bradley and Gavin were back from school. 

 

His birthday bomb cup for the day.

Once Daddy was home we had pizza, presents and cupcakes.

 

His joy and thankfulness amazes me. 

I love how he doesn’t pass up a card!

Helping Daddy and Dunka put together his new tricycle.

LOOK AT THAT FACE!!! He must share my love for birthdays!

May all your little wishes come true!

 

Lastly, Gavin threw sparkly confetti up for him and then tried to make a confetti angel in it.  It was a little bit of a fail and just made a mess to vacuum up.  I was trying to get them running through it while it was in the air. 

We love you Easty Bubbas! Happy 3rd Birthday to the boy who will always be our most awesome Christmas gift!

A bit of Christmas Cheer

Well, nothing says Christmas cheer like wrestling in front of the tree and mommy tensing up every time you got to close in fear the tree was about to fall over.  This was caught on a night Bradley had no clean pajamas and put on whatever he found.  Look at my big rednecks muscles!

Easton’s birthday is coming up soon so he started to get cards and money in the mail.  So exciting!

 

Bradley got busy writing letters to Santa from him and a letter for Gavin and Easton together.  So nice of him to write their letters.

Then Easton and I mailed them one day while they were both at school. Hulk Smash looks a little happy here to be mailing letters to the North Pole.

 

Another cheerful Christmas activity we did was Breakfast with Santa at Bradley’s school.  It was on a Saturday morning and Brad was out of town.  It was also a rainy day with nothing else to do but I remember dreading it and how with all their energy it could have been a recipe for craziness with just mommy. It ended up being one of our highlights.  Since, we had missed Santa the end of November and on the train my pictures didn’t turn out (also that day Santa was looking a little funny ;)), so this day Santa and the boys were excellent. 

 

Easton loves pancakes so he was in heaven with whipped cream and chocolate chips.  Oh my! That nose and smile just get me every time.  Chipped little tooth and all.

It is so adorable seeing their eyes literally light up.  They are shy but also in so intrigued by this jolly white bearded fat guy.

After that some cheer came in a box from Grandpop and Grandma Kris.  They sent them early so the boys could have them for December road trips they knew we had planned. 

 

Gavin’s face is priceless! They were surprised with two car DVD players and a new movie each!

If you examine this picture it is hilarious how Easton is so serious “reading” while his older brothers are causing such a ruckus. 

We enjoyed the tree lit up and looking at all our ornaments.  We broke about three glass ones this year from them clicking together or against the wall.  Bradley also picked out our tree from Lowes hardware store.  It was the last size left even on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  It was small to me at first but it ended up being the perfect tree for us that was lean so when the boys ran past it it wasn’t being hit.

 

Oh, and remember those letters Easton mailed off.  Santa wrote back! How nice of the post office to make sure his letter got to us.  The boys loved their two different letters. It even promised to get them exactly what they asked for.  huh?!

Practicing cookies for Santa.

    

A little small town Southern Pines Christmas Parade.  Complete with candy canes being thrown at you and seeing our friends Laura and Derek with Lincoln as Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus on a float.

Lastly, this definitely cheered Mommy & Daddy’s hearts to see this jewel Bradley brought home from school.  In listing all the things that are celebrated in December, he wrote Jesus' birthday at school and he later told me they did not talk about that.  You can tell which ones the school taught him about otherwise he wouldn’t of known about those.  Los Posadas and Kwanzaa probably wouldn’t have come up in conversation with season.  He also remembered his baby brothers birthday.  It was so thoughtful to me. 

So much cheer over here!

Riding the Santa Train

To kick off the Christmas and December fun we took the boys on a real steam engine train ride.  The railway is just 30 minutes from us but I just found out about this event here.  This ride was an hour round trip and included a personal visit from Santa!

 

 

We got there early to board so we had time to check out the train museums the had.  We saw inside a cargo train, a post office train and all sorts of old stuff as the boys would think.  We also had time for a few pictures that they could not have been less interested in. Of course!

 

We ended up having more time than we planned for.  The train was delayed coming back from the previous ride so we got our spot first in line and just sat.  The boys ate, acted crazy and had an attitude a time or two.  All standard operations. 

Choo – CHOOO!!!

 

Wait, I think I hear something??

 

The train is here!!

We boarded our open cart and were glad we dressed warm.  We were even prepared with a thermos of hot chocolate and a blanket.

It was a good thing because it was chilly that December Saturday. 

 

The boys got to look out and find Christmas decorations they had in the woods.  The conductor would tell them what to find next.

It was really neat to feel and see the steam blowing into the cart as the train chugged along. The kids loved the open seats with no belts too.

 

Then Santa came, HO- HO- HO!

Brad must have been trying to get them to pose while Easton admired Santa’s beard instead.  These are blurry as I realized after my setting was still on manual and Brad doesn’t know how to do all that.

Again, the point in trying to get a picture is??? Blurry and they do whatever.

Peace was found on the train that cold December day! haha!

and JOY.  It really was a great family day and experience for all of us.