Brandon at 4 years old

Brandon has been doing some really funny, silly, annoying, weird, crazy things lately. So I decided it was time to write it all down.

Recently he made a mean face and mean noise at Jake and I said "Hey that is not a nice thing to do to someone" to which Brandon said "Jesus made my whole body and I can do whatever I want with it." Nice one.

He has also been requesting lately that his dad not go to work anymore. He misses his daddy while he is gone. Maybe it has something to do with his dad leaving for work and not coming home for 3 days. :(

He likes to call his dad his "buddy" and call me his "pal". He has also starting calling me "pretty" instead of "mom". I hear him in the house looking for me and yelling "pretty!!, pretty!!". I have to say I do enjoy it!!

Brandon likes to give me big hugs and kisses. Recently he has been giving big kisses. What I mean by that is he kisses me on the lips for a loooong time. I had to tell him that he can give a big long kiss on the cheek but not on my lips. So he said "Then when I marry you I will give you a big long kiss!" Matt said "But mom is already married to me." Brandon said "You can get a new wife when you marry Emma." Wow. I don't know where he gets all this crazy thinking but it's funny to listen to.

He loves the movie "Sharkboy and Lavagirl". He keeps singing the song that Sharkboy sings that goes like this "Close your eyes, shut your mouth, dream a dream, get us out." The song is rather annoying but it is cute to hear him sing it in his little 4 year voice.

Brandon likes to read books and can often be found with a book in his lap "reading". Trying to read to him takes forever because he likes to comment about every page and ask questions. Usually it is the same questions over and over again. I do love storytime with him though so I don't really care. He also likes to read me Dr. Seuss's "Footbook". He is pretty good at remembering all the words.

We have been doing a lot of swimming this summer thanks to some great friends we have. Brandon has finally gotten brave and is now swimming with just floaties on all by himself. He loves to swim now. YEAH!!!

Emma and Jake have been taking piano lessons, so of course they have to practice the piano. Brandon also thinks he needs to practice. He will sit down at the piano and start hitting the keys and sing either "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or "Popcorn Popping". If you do not clap when he is done he will start over, and over and over. Hopefully one day he will really be able to play those songs.

I swear that there is some switch on my kids that at the age of 4 they are finally enjoyable to be around again. Brandon is so funny and cute and hilarious to have a conversation with. I am so blessed to have this sweet boy in my life.

Jake's Pine Wood Derby 2010

Now that Jake is in Cubscouts he was able to participate in the Pine Wood Derby. His kit came with a block of wood, 4 tires and 2 axels. Jake designed his car and traced it on the wood. The only thing Matt did was cut the wood out and supervise with the rest. Here is Jake sanding his car to perfection. Later he spray painted it and did a great job.
Jake was able to have his car race in the ward Pine Wood Derby but Matt had to do it for him because Jake got strep throat that day and couldn't go. His car did "Ok" but Matt knew it could do better. Lucky for Jake he got a second chance to watch his car race at the Stake Pine Wood Derby.

This was the big weigh in for the Stake Pine Wood Derby. They had a great scale and Matt and Jake kept adding weights to it until they reached the 5 oz. limit.

All Jake's hard work paid off. He got 2nd place in our ward. He was pretty excited about it too.

The proud father and son.

This being our first Pine Wood Derby experience...it was pretty fun. I really had nothing to do with the car building but it was fun to watch Matt and Jake work together. The races were really fun to watch too.
I never did get a really good picture of the car, but trust me it was cool.

Brandon's 4th Birthday

Brandon's 4th birthday was May 30th. We celebrated his birthday the week before with a "Spiderman" party. Brandon had wanted a "Superhero" party but we couldn't find what he was looking for so he settled on "Spiderman". He only invited 7 little friends. We planned on playing a few games and eating pizza, and of course cake and ice cream.

Here is Brandon with a few of his friends enjoying their pizza.

This is one of the games we made. Basically a bean bag toss but, Emma drew pictures of spiderman's enemies for the kids to attack or kill or whatever they wanted to call it. Emma drew, the Green Goblin, Sandman, and Venom(the bad spiderman).

We also played "pin the spiderman on the city scene" compliments of Emma again. It was pretty cool with more enemies placed throughout the city for the kids to place a spiderman on to "get" the bad guy.

This is the best I could do for a cake but Brandon liked it and that is all that counts. He did however insist that I add a smiley face to it. (It is not in this picture)

The highlight of the party was when Spiderman made a surpirse visit. He brought mini frisbees for all the boys and played some games with all the boys.

Each of the boys got their picture taken with Spiderman. They all thought it was pretty cool.
Spiderman was my awesome dad who actually surprised us by driving down from Utah, buying a costume and coming to the party. (He did the same thing for Jake's 4th birthday but dressed up as Batman)

Brandon was really funny when Spiderman came. I am sure he recognized his Grandpa's voice. He just stood there for a minute and I asked him what was wrong and he said "Spiderman is suppose to be skinny." (Sorry buddy this Spiderman is almost 68 years old.)

This is of course Brandon blowing out his candles. I don't know why but pictures of my kids blowing out the candles on their cakes are some of my favorite photos.Last but not least was the opening of all the gifts. As you can see Brandon enjoyed this part of the party.Brandon's birthday was a fun day and very easy to plan. I make my kids wait until they are 4 years old to have their first "friends" party. I would have to say it was a success. I think Brandon would agree.