Ian Fillmore 4-Year Old Wonder

We recently celebrated Ian Roberts 4th birthday.  We have a tradition that when it is  your bithday, you get to choose a family activity, ie. bowling, swimming, movie, family fun center, etc.  This year, Ian chose to go to the cabin (Zac's Grandma Gerry's cabin in Island Park) to celebrate his birthday and we were fortunate to have a majority of his cousins there with us to celebrate at one time or another. 

 A couple of months ago, our family discovered Netflix.  Having never had cable or satellite, my kids have had their worlds opened to a variety of new and very exciting TV shows.  Ian wonders how he possibly lived life before without Diego.  If I let him, he would watch Diego 24 hours a day.  So for his birthday, we got him an explorer vest and some exploring gear just like Diego.  Now when he watches Diego, he runs to get his vest and his gear.  And he loves to explore outside!

 Ian was pretty stoked to be 4 and finally old enough to play on a Tee Ball team, so in honor of this momentous occasion, he chose a baseball mitt birthday cake.  This is one of the rare cakes that I have made for my boys that doesn't have anything with wheels on it!

 Ian opening a special present from his Daddy.  Zac gave him his very own golf clubs, because they love to golf together in the backyard and Zac even mowed a golf course on the vacant lot next to us equipped with flags, pins, and all.

Tanner and Ashlyn are finally getting old enough to select birthday presents for their brother.  Ashlyn gave him a turtle Pillow Pet and Tanner gave him a race car.  Ian thought everything was great and had a wonderful birthday.

Ten Things You Should Know About Ian:

1.  As I mentioned before, Diego is his favorite show in the world.  When he watches it, he avidly participates with Diego and would love to be an animal rescuer in real life.

2.  He is hilarious.  I can't tell you how many people approach me to tell me the funny things this kid says and does.  One of my favorites from yesterday was when he told Ashlyn that he was old enough to be a dad now.  She got upset and told him we was not either even close to being a dad, to which he replied, "Yes I am, look at all the hair on my legs!"

3.  Ian is very coordinated and good at sports.  It has been amazing watching him play baseball.  He is one of the few on his team that is always crouched and ready to field a ball and can smack that ball off the tee.  He can even hit the balls that I pitch to him.  And now that he is four, he informs me that he can run faster than me, and can jump super high.

4.  He is his dad's buddy!  He meets Zac at the door as soon as Zac gets home from work and can't wait to ask his daddy to throw him on the bed.  He is Zac's shadow on the weekends and tells me often that how he loves his daddy more than me!

5.  His favorite food is hot dogs on a hot dog bun.

6.  This boy is extremely musical.  He constantly has to have music playing in his room and he memorizes songs easily and is often singing to himself.

7.  He can ride his bike without training wheels.

8.  He is very smart.  He knows his letters and numbers to 20, and is constantly sounding out and spelling words.

9.  Ian loves playing with his best buddies, Ashlyn and Tanner, and follows them everywhere.  Even though he is younger and smaller, there is nothing that they can do that he can't and he is so much fun that even when they are playing with their older friends, he has earned their respect and right to play with them.  Everyone likes having Ian around.  During the summer, he sleeps with Ashlyn and Tanner in Ashlyn's bed.  He rarely fights with his brothers and sisters.

10.  He has such a strong little testimony and is often telling Zac and I about his prayers to Jesus.  He is so curious about Jesus, Heavenly Father, Heaven, and resurrection and asks us questions all of the time seeking all of the knowledge that he can gain.  He cracks us up when he talks about his "ghost body" (spirit).  He also really cracked me up when we went to the cemetary around Memorial Day and He saw a hole in the ground that someone had made to work on some sprinkler pipes.  Ian looked at it and said, "Well, it looks like that person came alive again already!"