He's 5!

Can someone explain to me how this guy



is suddenly 5? I can't quite figure it out.
I've decided to give up on the whole fancy birthday party thing. We started out with so many great plans, all of which failed. Well, there were a couple that I just forgot, but that doesn't count. Matthias wanted Lego cupcakes for his birthday, so we got a nice Lego mold, some white chocolate and some makings for cupcakes. The kids and I made some fun white chocolate Legos and then started making the cupcakes. While it was mixing, I go to get my muffin tin. Lo and behold, I have none. I think it must have been one of the items that didn't survive the Great Purge that happened when we moved. Fortunately, Matthias though that a square cake would be wonderful idea so that's what we went with. It wouldn't come out of the dish. Fail! So we went to Costco and got a cake. I am henceforth purchasing all birthday cakes from Costco. Thankfully, Matthias was quite thrilled with his cake.



Don't be envious of my mad food photography skillz.



I'm not sure who he was sticking his tongue out at...probably Grandpa.



Wondering what happened to his hair? Well...for the second time in his life (you know, all 5 years of it) the attachment to our little clipper thingy broke while I was cutting hair. That's all I will say on the subject.



He's awfully proud of himself!



Lydia's not impressed.



Enjoying a chocolate Lego!



Time for gifts! As you can see, he enjoyed his chocolate cake ;)



Legos! Who would have guessed that he'd get Legos for his birthday?





Helping out big brother!



Kelsi helped too...and trust me, if he hadn't have had help we'd have been there all day!



Look at those beautiful girls of mine!



A Lego book that he's already read 3 times. At least.



Ok, seriously...isn't this the cutest think ever! Matthias loves to cook and often pretends he's Bobby Flay so my grandma made him this chef hat and apron! He wore it until it was time for bed =)



Goofy kids!



More fun stuff! He certainly thinks he's quite cool in this too!



Lydia and Grandpa reading. Lydia got a gift too. So did Kelsi. I didn't. Hmm...

Matthias got a ton of fun stuff for his birthday and was so thrilled with everything! I took 256 pictures, but I figured I probably didn't need to post all of them! I do think, however, that you need to see him in all his costumes/dress up stuff he got =)

First, his chain-mail armor, complete with cape and a new sword and shield:



Next, his chef stuff. This picture just cracks me up!



And finally, his Star Wars outfit. I'm so lame that I don't even know who it's supposed to be. Of course all his knowledge of Star Wars comes from the Lego game, so I don't feel so bad.



And finally, many thanks to my photography assistant who was rather mad about the fact that I wouldn't let her play with all of her brother's stuff.

Home Again!

That's right, folks...Jimmy has returned home. This time he's right outside our window, we can see him from our dining room even though he's slightly hidden by the trees. He hasn't said much about his ordeal with the Dragon Knights, so I guess we'll never know what happened, but he has quietly resumed his duty of keeping the children safe so I guess all is well.

(If you missed the first part of Jimmy's saga, click here. It is riveting I tell you. Riveting. )

Bunny Ears

A while back we made the decision to have our children attend the church service with us. It was such a great decision for us! It's been so much fun to see how the kids are responding to it, and we love being able to talk about the sermon with the kids on the way home from church! We've gotten into some great discussions with Kelsi and she thinks it's awfully cool when one of the pastors says "hi" to her.

It's been really surprising to see how much Matthias picks up from the sermons, even though he's only 4. One week the pastor said "Can I get an 'amen'?", and of course many people yelled "amen" in response. About 10 seconds later, Matthias did too. Another time the pastor used the term "party-pooper" and Matthias spent the rest of the sermon giggling. Of course it wasn't nearly as funny once we clarified that a "party-pooper" was not a party that poops.

Last night was a good reminder of how great the decision has been for us. Matthias recently clued into the fact that the words to the songs were always up on the screens, so after one of the songs was over he looked up at me and very excitedly told me, "Mom, did you see that? I sang the whole song!" He was quite proud of himself. Later, about 10 minutes into the sermon, I hear him say "Yessssss!" (Napoleon Dynamite style) and look over at him. He then proudly showed me how he had found 1 Peter, which was the sermon text.

At the end of the service, during the closing songs, Matthias was standing between Daniel and I holding our hands and Kelsi was on my other side and we had our arms around each other. It was at this point that I began thinking how great it was to be able to worship together as a family and how much the children had gained from being in service with us. Then I realized Matthias was no longer holding my hand, so I looked down at him. He was giving himself bunny ears.

The Rescue of Jimmy

Hello. It's me. It's been a while, right? I've decided that this little blog of mine has been too neglected as of late, I pop on occasionally to post a picture or two and that's it. Well, that all going to change folks. For a while at least ;) So today is all about this little dude:

And this guy:

And this guy:

Confused? Let me explain. We live in an apartment complex. There is a big garbage dumpster in our apartment complex (nicely hidden in a little fenced in area). Matthias loves to help his dad take out the garbage and one day they noticed this guy on the sidewalk...

...and decides to name him Jimmy Needham. Who's Jimmy Needham? He is the guy that sings Matthias' favorite song, "Grace Amazing" and the guy in that picture up there.. After this, every time we walk or drive by the "Caution" sign, we wave and say hi to Jimmy.

Tragically, we noticed yesterday that Jimmy was gone. That's right, folks, Jimmy had been kidnapped by none other than the Dragon Knights, the sworn enemies of the Lion Knights (for more information on this saga, visit Lego.com). We decided to hold out hope that the Lion Knights would rescue him before all was lost.

As we were driving home from church tonight, we found him! Although he must have been slightly confused from his ordeal because he was no longer on our sidewalk, but instead he was in a housing development about a mile away. Fortunately he looked as though he suffered no serious physical harm.

Field Trip!

Ok, maybe not a field trip since Matthias isn't in school yet, but I couldn't think of what else to call it. On Tuesday, Grandma and Auntie took us over to that big(ger) city to the west of us to go to a hands on learning/play museum thingy. How's that for a description? Well, the small ones had a good time and I got a ton of pictures. Don't worry, I won't make you look at all of them, just some of my favorites =)

After all the fun was over, we went across the street to the big giant park to have a picnic lunch. After lunch we decided to go on the gondola ride over the river to see the falls. Matthias was

quite thrilled. Lydia couldn't care less.

Here's one last picture of Lydia by the end of the day (which I think represents all of us!):