This little boy had a party last weekend to celebrate turning 4.

And of course his sister was there to help him celebrate.  Party planning is a specialty of hers.  :)

Just a tad excited! (And yes, she picks our her own clothes in case you were wondering.)

See these two can be sweet to one another.  They just love each other too much sometimes.  ;)

But back to the party.  It was out a bounce place and there were lots of kids between the ages of 3 and 6 there.  And one almost one year old.  And adults.  Yes, lot of adults too.  :)

All the kids bounced and slid to their hearts content.

Mix in a little running from one bounce thing to another

and some air hockey and you have a bunch of happy (and sweaty) kids.

They even played a little basketball.

And just to prove it wasn't just the birthday boy having all the fun.

And after all the fun, the kids got to have a snack and cake.

I was so proud of this birthday boy.  He's been so shy over the years, that he has cried when everyone sings Happy Birthday because everyone is looking at him.  And so I figured this year would be bad since in the past it was just immediate family and grandparents and he couldn't take it and this year it was a whole group of friends and parents.  But he did very well!  Of course, to help we had his sister sit by his side (and she was very excited at the honor).

In fact, she took her role very seriousy and made sure he kept his crown on.

Though he really didn't want to and eventually convinced her it wasn't necessary.

She even helped blow out the candles.  :)  Shortly there after (about the time that half the cake had been cut) I realized that I never got a finished picture of the cake.  Oops!!  I was waiting until I got the cars on the cake, but when the time came I completely forgot.  Go figure - I spend all the time making the cake, but can't remember to take a picture of my work.  But you can kind of see it here.  It was a race track with grass around it.  Mater (driving backwards) and McQueen are on the track with Happy Birthday Justice written in red in between them.  And Fillmore, Luigi, Guido, and Sarge in the center as the pit crew.  The cake inside was strawberry per the birthday boy's request.

And they even had McQueen juice boxes.  :)

Happy 4th Birthday little man!

This past week has been all about this little boy.

This little boy is officially 4.  And he got to celebrate early with friends who also have January birthdays.

And then he got to celebrate on his actual birthday.

And then on Saturday he had his party.  His first "big" party.  And now we are done celebrating (though we do still have cake - yum!).  And yes, buddy you are still 4 and will be for a whole year.  :)

Christmas morning was as expected a bunch of fun the kids, though I was surprised they didn't get up extra early.  In fact, we had to wake up little man.  He was ready to go though and see if Santa brought him the "big bad boat" from Cars 2.  (And of course Mr. Bear came too.)

Jordan got to pass out presents and was very excited that she could read the tags this year.

And then of course all of the presents had to be opened.  :)

With some of silly mixed in.

Later there was lego building.

And some more presents to be opened.

A little bit of running..

and a little bit of celebrating.

Yes, we had a very Merry Christmas and hope everyone else did as well!

Here are some highlights from our Christmas Eve.

The kids enjoyed wrestling with their daddy.

Not sure how much fun Shawn had, but the kids loved it. 

The kids got to open one present on Christmas Eve.

Any guesses as to what they were?

New pjs!

And apparently a dose of energy for a little girl!

He was a bit more calm and wanted to read Mater's Christmas to go with his new pjs.

They had lots of yummy punch.  Why, yes it was red - how did you ever guess?  ;)

And there were lots of silly faces!

Santa's reindeer were fed.  Very well fed I might add.

Cookies and milk (chocolate milk this year as that is what Santa asked for in his call this year to Jordan) were left for Santa.

And finally little people were tucked into bed for a good night's sleep.  :)

The kids enjoyed making gingerbread houses this year, especially Jordan.  She would grab a piece of candy, place it on the house, and then lick the icing from her fingers. 

But that isn't a big surprise - she has a big sweet tooth (just like me).

Unfortunately, I never got a photo of the final product.  Oops!  But it was very cool!