The big Brown birthday party!!

On Saturday we had a big birthday party for all of our family birthdays in the next week or so: Kayleigh, Cameron, Dad, and Laura.  It was the big first birthday for our little ones, so they each had their own special cake to annihilate.

This is my first attempt covering whole cakes with fondant...I need practice! :)  But it was fun.

We spent the whole day at Laura's house, and most of mine was used putting the cakes together.  I took a break long enough to watch the kids open their presents.

She loves it!

What's that?

Oooh, fun!  Thanks grandpa and grandma!

After all of that excitement, it was nap time!

for lots of people...

After dinner, they were ready for their cakes.

Kayleigh just wanted to pull the circles off of hers.

Great grandma tried to help her see the yummy stuff inside...

She wasn't sure she liked it that way.

Then daddy tried to help her get into it by pushing her hand into her cake.

She knew she didn't like that!!  What can I say?  She's a dainty little lady.

Aunt Laura tried a more gentle approach to get her to taste it.

Then Meleah made an attempt...

But she didn't think it looked very appetizing.

She did finally realize that it was not disgusting.

And then she was a little more exuberant.

She still was very careful and methodical though.

Such a girl!  I love those long Turpin fingers :). 

Cameron didn't have any problem digging in once someone showed him how.

He just kept looking over at her and wondering, "what the heck was wrong with her??  It tastes fine to me!"

Jay helped him get a little more messy.

Time to clean up!

Here is the final damage on the cakes

While the babies ate their cake, some of the kids enjoyed the "edible playdough"

After all of that everyone else finally got cake and ice cream.

 

All Clean!!

Play time!

Christmas

This is the star that Jayden and Ethan made this year.

After our late night, we got a later start than planned.  We got up at 8.  It's a good thing we let the kids sleep as long as we did!  They were still tired even at 8.  Ethan wanted darth vader for Christmas, and after searching all of our local stores we had to order one on ebay.  I wrote to the person we won the auction from just to make sure that it was coming.  I'm glad I did because she contacted me the next day (10 days after the auction ended) and said that she wasn't going to send it...She lost it... and didn't feel inclined to let us know in time to order another.  I'm sure she didn't know what it was for based on the date we bought it.  Anyways...  We did order another one that night, but she sent it media mail and it arrived today(She was supposed to send it parcel post, and I even told her my sob story and offered to pay for priority.  Oh well.)  I wish I could have made it work out, but luckily, he was at least tolerating the fact that Darth Vader wasn't coming till later.  He didn't seem overly excited, but he apparently believed my story that Darth Vader wanted to visit the north pole so Santa was going to mail him to us.  He just kept telling people that he is going to get Darth Vader like he had up until Christmas.  And he was SO excited today to get his package.  He never let the toy go all afternoon.
Luckily Christmas went on without Darth Vader.  Santa brought him a clone trooper helmet, and that seemed to keep him happy.  Jayden got his Devastator he had been hoping for and then, after we were done opening presents, Jay found a couple that santa had hidden.  They got pillow pets that Jayden had talked nonstop about too.  Santa was WAY too nice to us this year :) 

Kayleigh trying to wake up after her late night.

When Jayden opened his pillow pet, he immediately wanted to try it out :)

Ethan followed suit.

Jay's dad dropped in for a few minutes and then we went to his mom's house.  She makes cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate and then we open gifts and let the kids play all morning.

Ethan was happy to get another hat!

Jayden had a long conversation with aunt Ginger.  How cute :)

Daddy loves to tease as usual.  Kayleigh didn't like his sour candy.

Kayleigh finally got the sleep she didn't get the night before.

I LOVE this pic.  What a handsome husband!! :)

Next we saw Great grandpa Turpin and came home for a little while to play with toys and clean up.  My parents came into town Christmas day, so they were our next stop.  We spent the evening visiting with that side of the family. 

My favorite part of the night was listening to my sisters' beautiful harmony while mom played Christmas carols.  I didn't get a picture with all of them, but here is the one I got.

We have large close families, and it makes Holidays pretty busy.  But that is what is most important.  Our lives would be empty if we didn't have family.
After we got home we put the boys right to bed with their new pillows and blankets.  Ethan was already sleeping, but Jayden said: "This is the blanket I always wanted. It's soft like heaven." That, combined with earlier that morning when Ethan said: "Whoa.  That is too cool."  They made it the perfect day for me.  Kids are the best!!

One more funny quote from Ethan was a couple days later when he was playing with his Megatron toy.  Megatron says something like "I will crush the autobots"  Ethan added his own spin to it "I will crush the autobots in the face k?"  What a cutie! :)