Preschool

Preston started preschool this last week. Mommy was pretty nervous and had to panic and cry for a minute when she drove away. On the way home he couldn't stop talking about all the things they did. After a while he told me "Mommy, I like it preschool, I like it." So, I guess it is a hit. I showed him how the clock hand moves and will tell me when it is time to go. Every ten minutes he grabs me from whatever he is doing and makes me see that the clock is "moving" and it is almost time to go to school.

Chloe is no longer stationary. She is becoming quite the army crawler. I give her another week and I fear that she will be officially crawling. Great.........I guess we better put up the child locks finally.

Preston's birthday week

Preston has had a busy birthday week. We started it out with a trip to the canyons with a dump truck birthday cake. We also just got a new playhouse that he calls the "farm". He and Weston can play out there for hours. For his birthday all Preston wanted to do was ride a train. Good thing Trax is close (it will even be closer next week when the station next to our house opens.) We were lucky enough to have Kirsten, Tim, Abraham, and Anya in town for Preston's brithday night. Preston wanted another birthday cake - who wouldn't. Mom got lazy so Dad went and let Preston buy one at the grocery store. All in all it was a pretty great week.

Nauvoo 2011

My family (Cass') made a trek to Nauvoo this summer. It was quite an undertaking with 4 babies less than 1 and 21 people in total. We stayed at my aunt's house just outside of Kansas City and hit all the church sites there. We then headed to Illinois. It was pretty hectic but there were a few high points: going to the Nauvoo temple (it was quiet with no kids inside), the Nauvoo pagent, the fair prior to the pagent- Preston LOVED it, unregulated fireworks, and the tractor parade in Mound City, MO whats more to like? Travel to and fro was not bad, we had a surprise bag that kept Preston happy, and Chloe got watered down juice. All in all it was a pretty good trip.

Family Pictures

We got family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. Chloe is a baby model. She smiled the entire time. Preston knew exactly what we were up to and would not smile on principle. He was pretty funny. We went to an old train yard which means he wanted to play with the trains and dirt rather than smile for pictures.

Pedicure anyone???

Today was one of those moments when you don't know if you should put your child in "time out" for the rest of his life or laugh. Preston painted his own toes while Cass was doing the dishes.......at least he screwed the bottle shut when he was done....

Easter 2011

Another Easter is over...This year, like last year was a little insane. We only dragged Preston and Chloe to 6 Easter egg hunts this year. We ended up with probably 20 lbs of candy (most of which Jacob took to school). Preston had a GREAT time. He started begging two weeks before Easter to find eggs. We joked that we showed him the videos from last year as training videos so he would be prepared for this year. Unfortunately for him his parents just enjoy Easter too much.

The Easter Bunny had a hole in his pocket. Preston wouldn't go down the hall until we "cleaned-up" every piece. I've decided I am going to glue candy to each of his toys to see if he will clean them up too.

We dyed Easter eggs in preparation. Preston loved it. He had dye from his fingers to his elbows the rest of the day. Chloe liked watching.

Chloe's Blessing

We blessed our little Chloe today. What a way to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday! We had things figured out this time. We dressed her in a different dress until "game time." Thank goodness considering she had a blow out to her arm pits in Relief Society (we have sacrament meeting last). Cass had to take her home and clean her up while Jacob stepped in to teach her Sunday school class. Luckily she is a sleeper so we were able to get her asleep before the blessing so there was no screaming like when her big brother was blessed. The blessing was beautiful even though aparently she wasn't supposed to be blessed with wealth so that she could take care of her parents in their old age. (I was sure that that part was left out by accident).

Preston in true fashion was ridiculous during sacrament meeting. He spent most of the meeting in the nursery room with grandpa and Weston. Unfortunately even that lead to screaming when there was only one train in the room and two little boys who wanted to play with it. With that boy I wonder sometimes why be bother to go to church. Last week he got away and ran through the chapel during a talk. Cass didn't catch him until he made one round and luckily turned into the lobby. That kid is a handful!!

Overall the day was fantastic. We are blessed to be surrounded by great friends and family who support us. Oh, yeah..... and Jacob won the family Superbowl score grid. He is $50 richer!!!!

Baby Chloe

It's fitting that our last post was announcing our pregnancy and this one is announcing the birth of our daughter. If only time moved so quickly between posts...

Chloe Elise Ballentine was born on December 18th. She weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 19 inches long. She is a mellow baby compared to her big brother. At this point in Preston's short life I think I had tried to send him back multiple times. He was a screamer. Chloe is a sleeper- THANK GOODNESS!! Preston loves her like crazy. Every time that she whimpers he rushes to her side, holds her hand, rubs her head, and asks if she is "okay". It is pretty cute. He loves to hold her and to play with her hands and feet. He isn't too jealous yet, granted, he has had both Mommy and Daddy home with him for the last couple of weeks. We will see how things change next week when Daddy goes back to work and Preston realizes he can't have all of Mommy's time.

Big Brother

The time has come to give Preston a permanent friend to play with. Cass is alive and well, but not enjoying the constant hunger, fatigue, and overall parisite-ness of the little one.
As you can see Preston is still as cute as ever, he really is such a fun kid. He is talking and playing just like a big boy. He is a big fan of mac and cheese, root beer, and mama. (actually mama is both mom and dad, he is having some minor gender recognition issues that we are working out.)
We are doing well in Utah. It is getting hot, they tell me it is a dry heat which supposedly makes it better?? Not only that, I have a lawn, which means I have to mow it every week. Yep owning a home is awesome. Life is good here in Utah, we have made the adjustment and are starting to fit in. It is nice to be around Cass's family, they are very supportive and fun.

Easter Weekend

We've trained Preston all weekend to be ready for Easter Morning. We took him to several (4) community Easter Egg Hunts. We couldn't help it....they were so much fun - for him or us I'm not really sure. The only real problem was getting past the fire truck horn that started each race. Preston still doesn't love loud noises. At one point he basically ended up in a vegetative state in a sea of dum dums. He did win the grand prize at one hunt. I guess it helps when Daddy runs and puts you down right in front of the gold egg...

Apparently the Easter Bunny had a hole in his pocket last night. He left a trail of jelly beans that lead to the back yard where he hid Preston's Easter eggs. After eating a few of the jelly beans, Preston ran and followed the trail to the back door where we found SNOW. Luckily, Jacob had gone out and uncovered a few of the eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden the night before. Preston has identified them all as balls. Which, let's face it, really is more exciting than gross boiled eggs.

The rest of the morning has been filled with Preston opening each plastic egg and spilling the contents on the floor. He seems so surprised each time candy falls out. He can't stop saying "Whoa!"

The Easter Bunny brought him a Play maze. At first he was too interested in candy to play but we got smart and put the candy inside. He LOVES it. Grandpa and Grandma Ballentine also got him a sand and water table with boats and trucks. It is going to be fun but messy.

Oh the weather outside is frightful

Well the inevitable happened, yes it snowed. Living in Utah is was bound to happen. Preston was not so sure to start off with, but in the end he took to the snow and made his Alaskan dad proud. He spent quite a bit of time just tootling around outside (props to Cass for taking him out!). He had a fabulous time wandering around making tracks in the virgin snow. He would reach down touch it, fall in it, and eat it. So all in all he had a pretty well rounded experience when it comes to snow.

Can never have too many leafs

The colors are gone from the leafs and they are falling from the trees. That means giant leaf piles. This is a first for Preston and he loved it. His favorite thing to do is run in the leafs and scatter them to the wind. He had so much fun with it we had to take a lot of pictures, but we refrained from posting them all. We had a warm fall and it was really fun to be outside and play. He is such an outdoor kid. He loves to be in the backyard and play, he just wanders around. When he gets bored in the back he heads to the front and plays in the next door neighbor's rock driveway. He loves it.

Halloween - Let the good times roll

Well, the wonderful season of death and dead people has come and gone. The season when we dress up as crazy people or items, for laughs and candy. Jacob was the ever simple and clever skinny pumpkin, Cass was a gorgeous Waldo, and in honor of Uncle Tory, Preston went as Superman. Grandma Wright gave out regular sized candy bars so Preston trick-or-treated her numberous times for Dad. Preston also went out and got quite a bit of loot which he is still working through. He also spent quite a lot of time with Weston one of his cousins (not to be confused with Easton another cousin) who dressed as a Fuzzy Monkey.

Preston's first camping trip

We spent Labor Day weekend up Big Cottonwood Canyon camping with my family. I was a little nervous as I wasn't so sure that Preston would like sleeping in a tent. I REALLY like to get my sleep. Luckily, Preston slept great - I can't say as much for my other nephews. I really wish tents had better sound barriers...

Preston and I went to Swiss Days in Midway on Friday morning with my sisters and parents. We have gone for years but I haven't been since my move back East. It was really fun.

When we got to the camp site Friday afternoon it was time for Preston to run around the campsite a bit. He walks really well but is still trying to figure out hills and bumps. My brother and I sat by the fire pit talking and watching Preston and Weston. Preston was just walking around playing. While we were sitting there he made a slow lean and ended up in the fire pit. Thankfully there was no fire going. Needless to say he was covered in ash. He wasn't too happy when I hosed him down afterwards. In retrospect it was funny, but, I didn't really enjoy it much at the time.

Later that day Preston was walking around and tripped. He ended up scratching and bruising his cheek. I think that they are going to try and get us for abuse before too long.

We did a lot of hiking including up the Donut Falls trail and up to Twin Lakes. We sure are glad we bought our Kelty. It got a lot of use this weekend. It was a lot of fun to hang out with family.