Keaton's 2!

Keaton celebrated his 2nd birthday last week on August 24th! I can't believe my baby boy is 2! Time sure flies no matter how hard I try to stop it- or even just slow it down. :)

We started the day off by Keaton helping me to make his birthday cupcakes.

Then Keaton relaxed while coloring and watching Special Agent Oso, his new favorite show.

Grandma, Grandpa, and Miryka called and sang him "Happy Birthday!"

We did Face Time with my family so Keaton could open his presents from them while they watched and told him Happy Birthday!

One of his very favorite presents was this singing Mickey Mouse birthday card!!!

And, then that night we had a little birthday party for him (Ben and Kari Spicer joined us!) where we had pizza for dinner, opened more presents, sang "Happy Birthday" and Keaton blew out his 2 candles on his cupcake!

Happy Birthday to Keaton!

Mesmerized by the smoke after blowing out his candles. :)

Excited about his Tigger and new Winnie the Pooh movie.

Then, on Sunday night we did Face Time with Justin's family and Keaton opened his presents from them. Here he is sitting on top of the big boxes that got delivered on his birthday just for him!

Keaton was very spoiled for his birthday and got lots of new fun toys. This farm from Justin's family is just one of the many new toys he got and loves!

2plus2equals4

Yesterday Justin and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. And I was thinking how our first 2 years of marriage (2 days after our anniversary) brought us our sweet baby Keaton into our lives at 2 lbs 10 oz.! And, these last 2 years (once again, 2 days after our anniversary) are about to bring us a crazy 2 year old toddler! With many, many, many wonderful memories in between. :)

We didn't do anything too crazy for our anniversary, but we did go out to dinner at Applebees (pretty much the only restaurant of its kind around here...).

And Justin brought me home these beautiful flowers and a card. Both of which I love!

And, after dinner our BFF's here- Ben and Kari Spicer- came over to our house to babysit Keaton while Justin and I went to see the Dark Knight Rises!

:) Pretending we are scared for the movie.

And, just enjoying our time together- just the two of us.

We had a great anniversary. Thanks again Ben and Kari for babysitting! Keaton loves you so, so much and I just know he had a great time. I knew it even more so when I opened up the door to his room this morning and he simply asked, "Kari?" "Ben?" :)

Out and about with my best buddy.

Yesterday was an absolutely fabulous day. Why? Because Keaton and I spent most of the day in Norfolk, Nebraska birthday shopping! (I cannot even believe my baby boy will be 2 years old in just one more week!) There is really no where to shop in Columbus, Nebraska (only Walmart, Dollar Tree and a few other stores that wouldn't really be too helpful in finding stuff for Keaton) so, yesterday morning after breakfast Keaton and I headed out to Norfolk (which is about 45 minutes from our house) to go shopping at Shopko and Target (I love Target and miss so much not having one close by!). We also made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby and Hastings. :) Keaton and I had so much fun together and Keaton was such a good boy the entire time we were shopping. :)

After shopping at Target I decided we would check out the little "mall" that is connected to Target and was quite impressed and excited! Inside this teeny tiny mall there is a Rue 21, a Buckle, Famous Footwear, Maurices, JcPenney, a store called Herbergers (which is kinda like Macy's?) AND, a Bath and Body Works! I was so happy in that moment to realize that although it wasn't much it was something and decided that Keaton and I might be making some trips to Norfolk a little bit more frequently in the future even if its just to window shop. :) (There are sooo many things I miss about being in Orem and Utah in general and one of those things is having more places to go shopping!)

After sitting in the cart for a couple of hours I decided to give Keaton a break and let him walk around the mall. (He loves to walk and absolutely loved the freedom.) And, I was super impressed with how well he did! He was such a good little boy and held my hand and listened to me the whole time we were walking around and looking in the different stores.

And, oh my! I about died when I saw all the super cute Halloween stuff they had at Bath and Body Works! I am so excited for Fall and with it Halloween!

And, just when I thought my day couldn't get any better Keaton and I found a Pretzelmaker in the mall's food court! YUM! I love Pretzelmaker!

My little shopping buddy and I had such a great day together! We looked at toys and clothes and books and movies, we walked around the mall, got lunch together, and just had a super fun time just being together. I cherish days like yesterday. (Even if it might seem a bit silly?) I felt so happy and content with my wonderful little boy just spending the day out and about. :)

And, on our way home Keaton took a little snooze while I talked to my mom and sister over the phone and listened to the new EFY 2012 cd and quietly sang along.

(The cute fall clothes I found for Keaton at Target.)

Once home, I was wishing I could live the day all over again. The only thing that could have made the day better was having Justin with us. :) (Although I guess that could be debatable- Justin isn't the greatest when it comes to shopping, so I would have loved to have him there if he could have just enjoyed walking around the mall, but most likely he wouldn't have been lovin' it too much... ha ha.)

Blood.

Justin donated blood at the blood drive this past Saturday, August 11th, one of the kids in our branch, named Zach Hyde, organized for his Eagle Scout project. And since Justin's calling is in the young men's now he really wanted to support Zach with his project. So Justin decided to overcome a fear of his and donate blood! Justin was very nervous that he would get sick and not be able to handle it. But, he actually did pretty great! (He did get a bit sick once it was all over, but I have decided we should focus on the positive. :) Ha, ha.)

Happy Hump Day!

On Friday, July 27th we celebrated Elder Curtis Norman serving for a year on his mission in South Carolina!

We are so proud of Curtis and so happy that he is out there enjoying teaching the gospel to the people of South Carolina! 1 year down, 1 year to go! We love and miss you Elder Norman!