Easton Turns 7

Well, my first baby turned 7 years old on April 15th! I really can't believe it; time really does fly by. I will never forget being pregnant with Easton because I was an entire week overdue. On the 7th day past my due date, I woke up in the middle of the night with contractions. They wasn't very regular so I went on in to work. Had contractions all day every 10 minutes but not bad enough that I couldn't work. Finished my shift, came home, got a shower and headed back up to the hospital. A few hours later, out came Easton Blake at 7 lbs and 8 oz. I will never forget the first time I held him. It was actually hard for me to believe he was mine, if that makes sense. He was just so beautiful and precious. Timmy and I were two very proud parents. Easton made my mom and dad grandparents, my mammaw and pappaw great-grandparents and all my aunts and uncles great- aunt and uncles. Wow, Easton could really make some people feel old! But time has flew by creating tons and tons of memories along the way. Now, Easton has grown up to be 50 inches tall and 60 lbs. He has such an imagination now, always pretending things and making up games. One of his favorite games is to make treasure hunts. He cuts tiny pieces of paper up and writes clues on them. He has Timmy and I look for the treasure. He usually puts a piece of candy at the end. Easton loves playing sports too. His favorite is whatever the season is at the time, whether it be basketball or baseball. And is even begging to play football this year. Oh no, there goes even more of my time!!! But Easton likes to get off track sometimes too, mostly at school. He seems to be a good student, but just has some ants in his pants at times. If he could ever learn to sit still, things could be much easier for him. "Just VERY active", as Mrs. Brown is always telling me. Just today, I open up his backpack and there is over 10 paper airplanes. Seriously? Why so many? But that's Easton, always into something. A few months ago, he got caught at school with two pockets full of chicken bones. Yes, he had all his friends at lunchtime give them their chicken bones so he could make his own bone collection. Gross!!! If you asked Easton right now if he was a momma's boy or his daddy's boy, he would probably say both. He loves doing things with his daddy, like playing sports, wrestling or watching movies, but he also loves to cuddle with his mommy. Of course, mommy is always doing the "cool" things with him too, so he loves spending time with me too. Easton is extremely competitive with Allie. To get Easton to do something, all we have to do is make it a game against Allie. They do play together most of the time, but usually it's some kind of race or competition. We're always laughing at them. Easton is at such a fun age right now. I know I've said this at every age, but truly I think it just keeps getting better. He has really grown up to me in the past couple of months. It's so hard for me to believe he is going to be a second grader soon. But I look so forward to this next year with lots      and lots of more good times and memories. Happy Birthday and I love you, Easton!!!

For Easton's birthday this year, he had a few friends stay the night before his party. They had a bonfire and then slept in the camper. Thank goodness, Timmy got to sleep with them out there. They were a little too rowdy for me! The last trip I made out there, they were eating oatmeal pies and watching a movie with a little wrestling in between. Here's a picture out by the fire. If you notice really close, Chaz is standing behind them. He wanted in the picture so bad, but they wouldn't let him in.

Then his party the next day.........

Oakley stayed with us for awhile after everybody left. Him and Chaz had a good ol' time. They played and talked and played and talked. It was so cute. I don't think I had ever seen them two play together so well like they did that day. Couldn't get Oakley to smile for this picture but still love his facial expression.

After his party, Easton sat here for over an hour putting together his new Lego set. He needed help then, so Timmy started helping him. They both were really into it.

Mommy and Daddy got Easton a bean bag for his room. He was hoping for an X-Box to come with it, but it didn't. He's counting on Santa Clause for that. But he loves his beanbag and uses it every night watching TV. And yes, it even has his name on it!

Things to do........

You never know what the kids are going to be doing. For the most part, all three play "pretty" well together. Timmy and I are always laughing because they are constantly coming up with ideas and imaginative things to do. I've taken a few pictures of some of their ideas. Some of them was taken with my mom's point and shoot camera at her house. You never know what your going to come into a room and see around my house! Here's few things we have done at the Link house lately.

Glow in the dark paint! Wow, Crayola has really improved their products since I was a kid. And this is some pretty cool paint. I had a hard time getting a picture in the complete dark but you can kind of tell what it looks like. The only problem is that after 5 minutes of painting pictures, the kids decided to paint themselves. Little messy, but washed right off. I have to say, I was a little bit of a kid with this paint too!

My mom promised the kids she would watch a movie with them downstairs the other day. After a while, I slipped down there to get a picture and this is how I found them. Mom said she had never been so "wallered" to death.

I looked out my front window the other day and saw this. I'm still not real sure the reasoning behind this. They had came from mom's house. And if you look real closely, you can see Chaz riding along. You never know what your going to see at my house, that's for sure.

This was Easton's idea. Not sure what his thinking is here, but I do remember his imagination going crazy with this. Below is what he had taped to it. This sat in our living room for a week.

This is what happens when you leave Chaz and Allie together too long in a room by themselves. Allie did not see anything wrong with writing Chaz's name on his own forehead.

Allie is always working puzzles. And she's getting really good at them. She has way more patience than I do.

My dad gave each of the kids 25 dollar bills. He had them in a pile and told Allie to divide them up. So she laid them on the floor and couted very carefully and put the money in 3 separate piles. She was going to make sure that Easton or Chaz did not get one extra dollar than her.

Chaz and Allie goofing off at mammaw's house.

The kids love getting a bath at mammaw and pappwa's, where there is a huge bathtub. So here's a picture after the bath, pappaw holding them.

Looking out the back door. If you lood carefully, you can actually see slobber on the glass. Yeah.....slobber!

I go out to the garage one day and find a "drink" stand. The kids were selling different kinds of drinks. Easton had made signs for each kind and all 3 were trying to drum up business by anyone who walked by. The bad thing was that they were actually wanting "real" money. So of course, they made some money.

Ok, so this picture looks really bad. But had to post it because it is so typical at my house. Allie is CONSTANTLY dressing up Chaz. And he's young enough, that he still don't care that she dresses him like a girl. Easton is always yelling at him to get the girl clothes off but Chaz thinks it's so funny. But, since Allie is his idol, Chaz continues to do what she says. On this day, they were having a dress-up party and once again, Allie dresses Chaz.

A movie night with friends!

Allie came out looking like this at one point.

Mom and Dad bought a new couch and it came in a huge box. Timmy took it to our burn pile out back behind the house. The kids were playing outside one day and we just happened to notice Easton and Allie pushing this box up the hill to get it close to the house. They finally got it on the back porch where they have played for hours in it. Needless to say, that's been over 2 weeks ago, and it's still on our back porch. Who would have thought this box would have been the best entertainment!

The New Calf

My dad has another calf that he's now bottle feeding. Of course, Allie is all about helping too. She loves feeding it and right behind her is Chaz. They both love helping, however, the bottle is a little too heavy for Chaz to hold when it's full.

This is a typical picture of Chaz. The calf is in dad's garage where there is also chocolate milk boxes kept in the fridge. It doesnt' take him long before he's hitting the fridge. He loves his chocolate milk.

Out back behind mom and dad's house getting dark.

Allie's Black Eye

A few weeks ago, Allie got hit by a softball bat at practice. It instantly became a black eye. It actually healed pretty quickly but definetly looked bad for about a week. She was constantly asked about it, so I guess you could say it was a good conversation starter.