AMAZING!!!!

This is my new favorite series!!! I just finished this book within 24 hours of getting it from the library. It is the second in the series and I am SOOOOO sad to have to wait a year for the next one. I was gasping in surprise and shock all night through the twists and turns in this book. I highly recommend it.

For Grandma

Dear Grandma,

This is what you are missing. Please come and visit or send for me. I miss you.

Love,
Easton

Ballard Locks II

Last Monday we went down to the Ballard Locks to see if we could see the Salmon coming in. I was hoping for hundreds of fish just jumping up and down the ladders, but we only saw a few. Still they were pretty cool to see jump out of the water. It was too hard to get any pictures of the fish, but we got a few of us. This really marks a year for us being in Seattle because we were down at the Locks last year, only it was just the two of us. Being there was really weird because it honestly felt like we had just been there. There's no way a year could have gone by.

Way To Go Soren!

Two weekends ago (I'm a little behind) Soren competed in his first triathalon! He and two other members of the Stake Young Men's Presidency competed in the Lake Stevens Triathalon as a relay team. Scott Watkin's swam, Travis Tanner biked and Soren ran. They did the Olympic sized race so Soren ran a 10k or about 6 miles. And he did awesome. We have been so busy this summer that his training has been very sporadic, but he pulled it all out for the race. He finished in 45 minutes which came out as a 7:30 min mile. The team finished 1st of the relay teams and 14th overall (compared to all the people who didn't relay). They did great! Next year they want to each do their own, but this was a fun way to work into it for Soren. Way to go!

Soren, Travis and Scott pre-race.

Soren running by me on his way out of the transition station. I was almost too slow for a picture.

The Finish Line!

Victory! Post-race pose.

Easton and I had a pretty good morning watching all of the events. He even took a little nap and obviously woke up in a pretty good mood.

Easton 4.0

Yesterday our little guy turned 4 months. I can't believe how fast the summer has flown by. It still seems like it should be spring to me, but being busy with a baby sure makes the time pass quickly. He had his 4 month check up today and we got some new stats....

Height: 25.39 inches

Weight: 15 lb 6 oz

Head Circumference: 43.4 cm

He is at about the 75th percentile for everything. Dr. Luba gave him an A+ on his visit. He is the picture of good health. Luckily Dr. Luba also gave me some great articles about "Trained Night Feeders". Easton hasn't been sleeping throught the night in the least which has been so much fun for mommy. We'll be crying it out quite a bit in the next few weeks I think.

Easton got his first shots today too. I was a bit leary of giving him all of his shots right away, but after some deep research we decided to start today. I found some really good articles that taught me a few things I didn't know. These are 2 articles I really liked.

http://www.chop.edu/vaccine/images/vec_tomany.pdf
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4038.pdf

Camping Anniversary

The weekend of the 22nd was Soren and my 3rd anniversary. We celebrated by going on the stake campout with all our friends from church. This is exactly how Soren would choose to celebrate anything and it turns out I enjoyed it too. We'll go for romance next year.

We camped at Cascade Park which is about 45 minutes north of us and owned by the church. It was a great campsite with bathrooms and a river. We took our canoe which we acquired from a ward member with us and Soren took it out on the river. Its really so fun to have one.

That day, Friday, our video camera came in the mail so we were able to take our first home videos at the campout. Here Soren is reading the manual. I am sooooo glad we decided to invest in one now. I think when I'm 50 and all my babies are gone, all I will do is watch these movies.

Easton did so well at the campout. He didn't sleep much (=me not sleeping at all), but he loved being outside and having so much to look at and see.

This is Melanie with not her kid; its Becky's little guy Jack. Her son Ronan was awesome enough to sleep all the whole evening and night. Bo and Melanie went up early and were awesome to save us a great campsite and share their food. We had a lot of fun with them and all the other ward families that shared our fire.

Soren and Easton's trick. Everyone we show gets so nervous to see it, but they are perfectly safe. Easton is so strong and balanced.

I have been trying to teach Easton to kiss, but he doesn't understand the idea of a closed mouth. Instead he tries to suck on my face. Its pretty slobbery, but who doesn't love baby slobber?

Soren was able to borrow a tent from his work to bring along. He is in love with it. Its a tent that Eddie Bauer is testing to sell. This one was tested at base camp on Everest so as you can imagine its really tough, which means Soren HAS to have one. :) Luckily we can rent them from his work.

So all in all it was a great campout. We overdosed on s'mores, talked and laughed around the fire until all hours of the morning, got no sleep and swam/canoed in the river. We had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

The Big 2-3

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year and yesterday's may have been the best one yet......my birthday. I had a fabulous day thanks to my amazing husband and all of my dear friends. Thank you all SOOOOOOO much.

The morning started off with a gourmet breakfast from my Martha Stewart Magazine. (A lot of my birthday actually came from there which is major bonus points!) He made me this...

It was delicious and my new favorite way to eat eggs and toast. He also made pancakes with fruit and whipped cream and a fruity oatmeal that we had on our honeymoon in Cancun. Needless to say it was enough food for lunch too!

I opened my present which was an amazing gold braided belt I have been wanting to go with my gold ballet flats. It is beautiful. I sent him off to work and started my morning.

I took Easton to a friend's while I went to work out. That was really nice and Easton slept the whole time. Yay! When we got home my visiting teacher was on my doorstep with the roses you see below and a card. It was so sweet of her.

While we were gone Soren had e-mailed me and asked how my day was going and what my plans were. Then he tipped me off that the "mailman" had delivered something early that morning. We went to the mailbox and Soren hads left an envelope in there with a new light-up quacking duck key chain taped to it. (It replaces the light-up oinking pig i used to have.) Inside the envelope was tanning passes for 4 months(!!!) and a sweet note asking me to either lunch or dinner with him later that day. It was so thoughtful on many levels including the fact that he knows how much I love the mail and love to get things in the mail (a day does not go by without me checking the mail) and that tanning will help lift my mood through the long winter months of darkness. I'm very excited to still feel the warmth of light, even if its artificial and baking me.

So I called him and picked dinner due to the fact that I had a cake to make, a shower to take and a house to clean. He let me pick the place and made reservations. I spent the day cleaning, playing with Easton, and baking a German chocolate cake. Meanwhile my other visiting teacher came over with chocolates and I got several wonderful phone calls from friends and family.

Soren got home early at like 5:45 and rushed me out the door to dinner. When we got to the restaurant there was a wait so we were able to walk around the mall to kill time. We got seated at 7:00 and Bo and Melanie Scoffield met us there. We ate at Claim Jumper which is kinda like a steakhouse/classic-comfort food place. Dinner was really fun. We then went back to our house to have cake and ice cream and put the kids to bed. As I am standing unlocking the door I hear a rustle inside the house like there is a fan on and I'm like what is that? Plus the dead bolt was locked and it never is..... I walk in the house and everyone yells "SURPRISE!!" There are like 25 people in my house, streamers everywhere and I about fall over. I was so, so, so literally surprice. I couldn't believe that I had no idea that I had a surprise party coming my way. It was awesome!

Here is my and my cake. I made everyone wait while I grabbed the camera from the diaper bag and had someone take this picture. :)
Sarah with me. She made the beautiful Martha Stewart cupcakes you will see below.
Family Birthday photo.
Melanie, Soren's co-conspirator. She did all the planning, decorations, and lying to me. :) Thanks Melanie, you really know how to keep a secret.Bo, Melanie's husband.
Soren with Quinn McNames who is also pictured below. So handsome.
Aubrey and Stella McNames. Their parents came too, but the kids were just cuter. :)

Soren and Melanie had conspired and invited all our friends over, decorated the house while we were at the mall and at dinner, and made like 3 other kinds of cake including cupcakes from my Martha Stewart catalog. :)

It was beautiful. Apparently Soren almost blew the surprise a few times at dinner, but I didn't even notice. It was a success. Everyone ate their fill of cake and chatted away. I opened presents from my parents and got a new scripture journal, a brownie-serving spatula and money to go towards a plane ticket home in a few months. Then Soren surprised me again by pulling out another present. It was new perfume and it smells heavenly. Delicious Fresh Blossom by DKNY.

And I couldn't finish this post without some pictures of my kid. Here he is in his new shirt on my birthday.

Thanks soooo much Soren for an amazing day. I love you!