Four!!!!

Our sweet little Ethan turned 4 today (although according to him, he didn't turn 4 until after he ate birthday cake). Last weekend, we were in Logan so Jen could witness the birth of our newest nephew, Owen Paul Teare. Congrats, Emily and Daniel. While we were there we had a little party at Grandma Morrey's house, and Ethan had a blast.

He got more random cars from the movie Cars. Now he has a Trunk Fresh, Octane Gain, Re-volting, and another one we've never heard of. He and Brooklyn love to play together with the cars.

Now the kids have some dishes for the play kitchen. When we got home, we reclaimed six plates that the kids were using to cook with.

Brooklyn got a little jealous about all of the presents Ethan got. We actually let her have two of the Cars shown above.

We had some simple cupcakes. Ethan had a hard time blowing out the candles. He tried and tried, and finally Jen gave him a little help.

Brooklyn loved her cupcake and ice cream.

Isn't is amazing how, regardless of how much we spend on our kids, they always have the most fun with the containers?

Today was Ethan's actual birthday, and Jen made a Toy Story themed cake of Andy's bed.

Ethan had a hard time waiting all day waiting for Dad to come home so he could open his presents. Since it was his birthday, he wanted to act out the first Toy Story movie. When he got to the part where Andy has his birthday party, he got frustrated that he couldn't open his presents. Mom wrapped up his Buzz Lightyear in newspaper just to give him something to open.

Brooklyn was still jealous of all of the presents and other party preparations ("Where's my cake? Where's my balloon? Where's my presents?") Ethan was a good bother and let her open one of his presents without us really having to ask. He really is growing up.

He loved all of his new Lego kits, but especially the one with Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and RC.

We were happy to see Ethan blow his candles out on the first try this time (and with minimal spit on the cake as well).

So, the other day Dad was driving around with Ethan. Out of the blue, Ethan exclaimed, "There's a kangaroo following us. I think it's made out of trees." Sure enough, up on the mountains by our house there is a clump of trees that kind of looks like a kangaroo. Clever boy.

Shortly after we got back from our vacation, we started planting our garden. The kids had a fun time planting broccoli seeds. More recently, we planted our tomato and pepper seeds. Bring on Spring!

BTW, don't think we're done posting vacation pictures. There's still one more installment to come!