Happy 4th Birthday Colton

My little bear is 4 today! I love this little guy so much! I have really enjoyed having him around with me. I'm going to miss him when he starts preschool next year. I'm not sure what I'll do with out him. He's such a big motivator to get things clean. Audrey likes to sing "The wheels on the bus," so after we've sang the usual lyrics we add our own. We have something for each of our family that we say. Colton's goes like this: Colton on the bus says we need clean this up, we need clean this up, we need clean this up. He has a really awesome cleaning gene in him (at least for now). He is always helping me clean up and make dinner. In fact one afternoon I had just laid Audrey down to nap and came out and asked him what he wanted to do with mommy. His reply: "Let's clean up." No joke. I asked about playing play dough, puzzles, going outside and he wanted nothing of that but to clean. So, we preceded to clean up the family room. Colton is a huge tease. He loves to play tricks on all of us.And most of the time he cracks himself up so that makes us laugh. And speaking of laugh he has the loudest laugh of our family. He is so dramatic in his laugh. He loves to hang out with his brothers. He can wrestle them down to the ground. He loves his sister but most of the day he is busy tormenting her. I call them frenemies because they love to bug each other ALL DAY LONG. Colton is also very good at sports. Somehow he has a natural ability to throw a ball really good and far. He was playing soccer with his brothers and was dribbling the ball and keeping it away from Nate. He can throw a football through holes in a tarp and make like most of them. Colton is such a silly little boy. We love having him in our family!

Here are some random pictures of Colton over the years but I thought they tended to showcase his personality.

Our family right after Colton joined the world. We were so thrilled to welcome him to our family. We also loved having the bragging rights to having the biggest baby of our families thus far! 9lb 10oz

He is the baby brother but look at those cheeks. I think he only was 2 months old in this shot. He started big and kept getting bigger.

Look at these thighs! I loved this chunky little man! And also being the 3rd child, he had to learn to sleep anywhere and still can. He loves to sleep downstairs by himself. I don't know why he even has a bed upstairs because the kids sleeps on the couch at least 5 nights a week.

Although the kid has cleaning tendencies that I occasionally worry about. He does know how to get dirty. He's caked in wet sand! We had a big rain storm and the boys had a blast playing in the dirt.

I came across this photo and thought how ironic that around 1 he is out helping me wash the car. He truly is a great cleaner. If I actually want the table cleaned and washed all off I ask him. He sprays it down with simple green first then washes it with a wash cloth. And every inch of that table is clean. I had one of his brother's do it and let's just say that it was not all clean.

I liked this shot of him because I usually get some kind of funky smiley face from him when I ask him to smile.

If I do make some cookies, that kid will help. But he will constantly be sneaking bites of cookie dough in his mouth. He thought he was being sneaky and getting a bite without being caught. And he really is very quiet about it all. He'll take a bite, chew it and casually come back to the family room saying something like, "I not eating anything."

Now this is a face I get rather frequently. Seriously, I see this all the time from him. It's part of his leave me alone, don't talk to me faces.

Again, him and his brother out in the sandbox getting dirty. Again, showing he can get dirty. They are both shirtless, in fact these 2 would actually run around in underwear all day, everyday if they could.

Proof again, that he likes to clean. He washed the screen door. Just the other day, I was doing laundry and he came and asked if he could clean the boys' bathroom. So, I got him the Clorox wipes and let him clean the sink. He spent a good 30 minutes just wiping that sink down from top to bottom. Then he help me clean their toilet. We had started with a mostly full container of wipes but he went through all of them. Like I said, he's very detailed and meticulous.

Colton and his cousin Sofie. He loves to play with his cousins. He likes to play with friends. He loves having people come to our house. Everyday I hear, "is someone coming over here today or are we going somewhere today?"

Here he is mowing the lawn with his dad. He was out there following him all night long. I called him in for dinner and he wouldn't come because they weren't done mowing. I think he truly thought he was mowing the grass. And he never did come in until Danny was done.

I figure a true clean freak would not be able to hold a caterpillar and enjoy them self. Colton is the first boy to actually pick one up and not freak out. Because of him doing it, his brothers finally held a caterpillar for the first time. He also was the first one to pick up the little minnows when we go fishing. He started trying to grab one in the bucket so then all the boys followed his example.

This is my newest tradition for birthdays. I put crepe paper up and they have to burst through their door on their birthday morning.

And this is what I had watching me while I did the taping. He was so obviously tired. But he insisted on being up and watching me do it to his door. And then to top it off, the next morning he crawled under the paper and wouldn't run through it. He just wanted to pull it down. The little stinker wouldn't do it, he just pulled it down.

Anyways, that my Colton boy! We love him. He brings such a fun spirit to our home. He is a big time momma's boy! Happy Birthday my big blue eyed baby boy! We love you!