William 3 Yrs.

William and Ryan had their THIRD birthday at the end of August, and honestly I can't believe how big they are getting!

Breakfast donuts!

Their birthday started with donuts and presents!

We went to a new park and let the boys play, always a favorite for these cuties!

We bought a trampoline and we just so happened to pick it up on their birthday which was a fun activity.  Afterwards we ate and did some shopping at Sams Club.  William and Ryan stopped at the flowers and insisted they were for me.  My parents had given them money for their birthday, so they spent a portion of it on me.  It made my heart melt.  They really are sweet boys.

We then headed over to Walmart to pick out a present with their birthday money and only came away with these huge balls, which are a blast on the new trampoline!  Jacob put the tramp up and we spent the rest of the day playing on it.

Since they still are not great at talking, I figured the best birthday cake for them would be a chocolate candy cake.  They of course loved it, what's not to like!?

William LOVED getting sung to for his birthday and often pointed to the happy birthday banner and say, "Happy Bir...ne!"  much after his birthday past.  In fact, I had bought two cake mixes for their birthday but only used one, so anytime he saw the cake mix in the pantry we had to sing to him again.

His talking is improving quite a bit lately.  Though we did have them tested for their speech with the Alpine School District since they are now 3, and they were approved for services.  We just started a program called Talking Time, which has a small preschool feel to it.  There are 6 kids and their parents, they sing songs, read books, work on specific letters that everyone is struggling with, then while everyone is working on a craft they pull back the kids for one on one attention.  It's great, William loves going and especially loves having a homework folder and homework to do like his big brothers.

William is starting to have a love to getting himself dressed in anything with pockets.  We look through his shirts for those with pockets, but when we can't find any we settle for just pants with pockets.  He loves to find things and put them into his pockets.

Trekkie.  He actually was like this for a good 15 minutes, and yes he's playing his game not sleeping.

His personality is such that if he wants something, he'll find a way to get or do it, even when it comes to going to the bathroom!  He can come upstairs 4 times to go the bathroom in a 30 minute period when he should be in bed and go a little every time.  If he wants to stay awake, he'll find a way to do it!

I went out into the living room in the morning and found this cute munchkin!

William loves to play with his brothers, it doesn't really matter which one.  He seems to have a great relationship with all of them, although he could be found fighting with any of them at any given time as well.  But such is the life of brothers.

Reading with Steven

Thanks to a new school schedule, he doesn't take naps every day which really helps with bedtime! And when he does take a nap, he has to be up by 2 to pick up the older two from school so he's usually pretty tired at the end of the day.

jumping with Spencer

This kid is the best to volunteer others.  "Who wants to help me clean this up?" "Ryan" "Who wants this pillow thrown at him?" "Didder" (Christopher).  But of course if it's like who wants candy or ice cream, he has no problem volunteering himself!

He and Ryan have started to say their names well and call each other by their names. I've been worried about that for a while, whether they knew their own identity or not.  We love to hear him say, "WillUm!"

Oh boy do we love this kid and his crazy antics!  He is smart, silly, funny, full energy, and can be super sweet when he wants to.

Christopher 4 1/2 yrs.

Oh Christopher.  He has started Preschool, and loves it.  Although sometimes he tries to play cool around his brothers and say he doesn't want to go, trying to be like Steven.  But he always asks when he can go and is willing to give me details about what he did there, or anyone else in class.  

We were worried about his voice volume while at preschool, but his teacher has reassured me that he is normal, kids will always try to talk over each other, but he's just like everyone else.  Miss Heather said he is so smart and great at school, but needed to work on holding his pencil correctly, which he has been doing such a great job on!

He's really into making friends.  Like if he plays along someone for a minute or two they are his friend.  My favorite is when he said a little girl in our ward was now his friend.  "I bumped her backpack, she turned around and we both smiled."  Oh my.

Christopher is the champion of all bragging.  If you give him a candy and say, "don't tell anyone!"  He will wait a minute then go to each of his brothers and say, "Hey look at this!  You don't have one, but I do!"  Today he found a quarter and told William if he followed Christopher around he would buy him something from the store. 

I had to really have a good talk with him after Steven started school, because he was talking up what we did while he was at school and really making Steven feel bad.

Christopher LOVES to play with William and Ryan, which is fun to watch.  Except that he will often turn them against each other.  I will find him whispering to Ryan: "hit William with your blanket."  Or visa versa, I have to remind him if his brother gets in trouble for something he told him to do, he's going to get in trouble as well.  It seems to be working...sort of.  One day they will be taller than him and everything will change.

Playing on the walking sidewalks while picking up Aunt Melanie at the airport

He is usually the most considerate at the dinner table.  "Mom, thank you for making this yummy dinner.  I appreciate it."  Then he refuses to eat it 10 minutes later because it's too gross.

Christopher is really a big sweet heart and will often share way more with his brothers than they would share with him, when he's in the right mood of course.  He gives great big bear hugs, loves to play with his brothers (and anyone else for the matter), is smart, funny, and has such a contagious laugh.  We love you to pieces Christopher!