My oldest turns 14 and my youngest turns 5!

My 2 December Birthday kids, my bookends, were both due in January.
They both did the unexpected and came more than 3 weeks early, by natural labor.
When I was due with Brandon in January, I never even considered that he would come in December, let alone, on Christmas Eve.
What, Lindy, my oldest did, by coming 3 weeks early, by natural labor,
I thought, was a once in a lifetime experience. WRONG!
What I keep learning over and over is that life is UNEXPECTED.

Brandon's 5th Birthday on Dec. 24th:

He wanted a superman birthday cake. He designed it with me.
Telling me he wanted buildings on this cake.
He wanted to take some friends and family to our local open gym to play.
Luckily, his neighbor friends, cousins, and the gym were available on Christmas Eve.

He got some metal cars larger than hot wheels size, some miniature trains,
and a teepee.

 Money and Clothes from the Grandparents!

Lindy's 14th Birthday on Dec. 28th:

This year Lindy requested a 7-up bundt cake. Which is delightful.

(Leave a comment if you want the recipe, which you do, it is sooo good.)

She got some running clothes and foam roller to roll her sore muscles when

she will run track this spring. She got a blanket,

and a ceramic white elephant for her room decor.

And the books from The Giver's series by Lois Lowry.

Brandon My Buddy

My youngest, Brandon started preschool this school year.

On his 1st day (pictured below) he told me,

"Mom, I think I'm a little taller today."

I think you're right, Brandon.

You are a little TALLER.

Happy 4th B-day Brandon

This year Brandon wanted a real b-day.
A party with friends.

Since he was born on Christmas Eve,
we're still working out the best way to
do his b-day, in the midst of Christmas Festivities.

When he was 1, we just kind of skipped over it.
When he was 2 we celebrated quickly at lunch on Christmas Eve.
When he was 3, we quickly celebrated before we packed for our
Christmas vacation last year.

He was old enough this year, that he had been looking forward
to his b-day for a long time, and wanted to celebrate it for real,
without it being an quick after thought.

So, I cheated a little and we did his b-day on Dec. 23rd this year.
All the cousins his age were in town for Christmas,
and we invited a couple neighbor kids over.

Brandon requested a Disney Cars themed party.

First, as the kids arrived we colored a picture of Brandon.
This was a fun, easy idea.
Google how to turn a photo into a coloring picture for instructions.

Then we ate Brandon's favorite food.

Chicken Nuggets and French Fries.

Favorite Cousins all about the same age:

Hunter, Claire, and Nathan!

Next the kids split into 2 groups.

One for pinning Lightning Mcqueen onto a race track,

and another group for some hot wheels races.

 

It wasn't too cold,

so we sent the kids outside for some red light/green light up down our driveway.

The kids used paper plates for steering wheels.

We came back in for birthday cake and present opening.

We did a race track cake with 2 rectangle cakes.

It was a fun b-day.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Aunts, Grandpa, older siblings, etc.

I asked Brandon how he enjoyed his birthday after it was over.

"It was the best birthday ever!" he said with a huge smile on his face.

SUCCESS!

An Easy Christmas Kid Craft, Christmas music, and a Christmas Video

Brandon is working on this craft today.

Inspiration found here.

My favorite Christmas music this season is this album:

I like song #'s: 1,3,4,7,11 and 12.

We watched and talked about this video:

for our Family Home Evening,

and our trying to do a little something

each day to share the gift.

Just small acts of service:

 a smile, a compliment, a thank you, etc.

With raising a family,

I can feel inadequate at times.

Not doing enough here or there.

I just do the best I can,

even in small ways.

A video, some music, a craft.

Look who's 3

Brandon!

(Still practicing using 3 fingers instead of 2.)

He was SUPER excited for his birthday this year.

The cake, the presents, the singing of the song, the candles. Every part!

It was a spider man themed party, can you tell?

(His b-day is on Christmas Eve. We were in Hawaii this year on his b-day.

Instead, we celebrated his b-day the night before we left, a couple days before his b-day.)

We love Brandon very much!

He is so important to our Family.

Gonk!

Gonk, is what Brandon calls milk.

Whenever he wants a drink of milk, he says, "gonk, please."

Sometimes he'll even say, gonkshake.

He really does say please too.

He's our most polite child we've ever had.

Then the polite child started to use his gonk as hair product.

Or should I say Milk Mousse.

I created this post as a memory for our family with Brandon and his Gonk!

He created his hair-do all on his own,

not having any idea of my blog intentions.

Now we have 2 memories.

Gonk and Milk Mousse.

Recent Photos of Brandon

 Making milk bubbles with a straw and loving it!

 Workin' hard with his new Snow Shovel

Bringing in the New Year with Sparkling Juice.

He couldn't get enough of the Bubbly. We put him to bed on time for New Years,

but he couldn't get to sleep knowing we were all up.

He was in full swing at midnight bringing in the New Year.

Being a helper, putting the silverware in the drawer.

He loves helping us put away the clean dishes from the dishwasher.