Jack is FOUR!

Holy cow... how did my sweet, quiet, chunky little boy turn into this tall, rowdy, adorable boy?! I still remember going to the hospital with killer labor pains and finally delivering my baby, only to have him whisked away for over a half hour while the nurses cleared his lungs of meconium. The only thought going through my head was that I hoped he was okay. And boy, he was more than okay. He was full of life and energy and hasn't stopped since! His amazing red hair and huge dimples get compliments almost daily, as do his mischievous smile and limitless energy. Jack has started preschool (he'll be in there for two years because of his late September birthday) and is already doing well. He's learning all about "circle time" and how he has to listen and not use his hands in place of his words (i.e. he smacked a kid's mouth because this kid was being "too loud").

For Jack's birthday, he wanted a Super Mario Brothers cake. Jack is overly obsessed with Mario and Luigi at the moment, thanks to the Wii game that he plays a lot. He talks constantly about the game and the characters and does pretty well considering he just turned 4. So, I set about researching Mario cakes online and finally settled for something cute but relatively easy.

Jack's birthday was September 26 which was a Sunday. After church we went to my parents' house and Adam and I made homemade eggrolls with sweet and sour sauce (my friend from Ohio, Lori, gave us this recipe and it has literally changed our lives!) and Celeste made fried rice (I seriously love her fried rice) and my mother made a delicious Asian salad. After dinner we had my aunt and uncle and cousins come over for cake and ice cream. Oh, and presents!

I didn't think a single cake would feed everyone, so Celeste and I made "one-up" mushroom cupcakes too.

The cake in all its' glory. It actually didn't take that long to make, hence the bushes that are bigger than the castle, but it was almost 10pm and I wanted to go to bed, so I just piped quickly and knew Jack would love it no matter how "to-scale" it was (or was not).

Cutie Madelynn in her pettiskirt. The skirt came off as soon as she started eating. She's a messy eater.

During the singing of "Happy Birthday". Our family rendition of this classic birthday song has been known to make babies cry :) I love how excited Olivia is for Jack.

And Jack blew out his candles before we were even done. Apparently we were taking too long.

Do you see how proud she is of the mess she made?

Bryan wearing Madelynn's pettiskirt, trying to make her laugh. He didn't actually succeed, but he pulled off the look well.

Jack got spoiled for his birthday. He got lots of Imaginext toys...

A Didj and Spongebob game... (like he needs another gaming system to be obsessed with)

A Mario shirt...

A Webkinz horse aptly named "Nightmare" (he can go online and play games with his horse)...

And some Batman toys. He also got a package in the mail from Kelli with an awesome shirt that he loves and some more Matchbox cars that he plays with on his train table.

First day of preschool. He was super excited although I'm sure he wasn't quite certain what was going on or what to expect.

Typical Jack picture.

Jack gets to see Nana at school every day since she is the secretary. Every day when I walk Jack into school, Madelynn runs as fast as she can around the desk and jumps into Nana's lap. It's way cute.

We also took our traditional trip to Red Robin, which Jack was way excited about because he knew he would get sung to and get ice cream. He's pouting here, though, and I can't remember why. I think it's because he was being impatient for his chocolate milk to be made?

That's okay, he settled on Adam's Coke instead. Adam came straight from Priesthood session to have dinner with us.

Madelynn just got way serious with her coloring.

When the servers started to gather around, Jack got all shy.

They gave him a balloon "hat" to wear and sang super loud. He loved every minute of it and was even nice enough to share his ice cream with Olivia and Madelynn.

In honor of his 4th birthday, here are some things about Jack:

4 Things Jack LOVES:

Super Mario Bros. and the Wii

Chicken nuggets (with no sauce!)

Batman, Spiderman, Ben 10

Playing with his bad guys and his castles

4 Things Jack HATES:

Taking naps and going to bed

Condiments, especially ketchup and BBQ sauce

Getting his teeth brushed

Getting washed (likes baths, hates the washing part)

Olivia and Jack when he was a couple weeks old.

Happy birthday, Jack! Some people may see you and think you are too much to handle (which may be true sometimes!), but we wouldn't change you one bit. You keep me on my toes and make me laugh (and sometimes cry in frustration), but you are my Jack and I love you.