Happy Birthdays in November

Have I mentioned how much we enjoyed having Traci here in October and November?  My kids are still talking about it!  It was a lot of fun for them, probably boring for her!  But WE LOVE HER!  While she was here we got to celebrate her birthday with her.  I'm sure that it wasn't much compared to the birthday that she would have gotten if she were at home, but I wanted it to be special somehow so I got her this book:

She had just finished reading New Moon before she got out here and I didn't want the fact that she was here in Washington to interfere with her being able to continue in the series!  :)

So we made her a cake.  We made it a special cake in the shape of a heart because we love her and baked it as a surprise.  Brendan was so sure that it needed to be a surprise that he tried to keep Traci out of the kitchen for most of the day.  He was SO excited!  Then we all sang Happy Birthday off-tune I'm sure! (and yes there is only one candle on there...that is all we had!)  Eliza had burned her hand and that is why it was all wrapped up.  :(

And for those of you who aren't familiar with our family birthday tradition set by Grandma Erickson on Brendan's first birthday, (I'm pretty sure that she wasn't attempting to set one)  The kids are saying in this picture:  Are you going to EAT THE CAKE?

And eat the cake they did!  And they ate a lot of of the frosting, too!

Hopefully she had a good birthday...and then 7 days later I had a birthday!  Traci watched the kids and Neil took me out that night.  If I remember right we ate cheesecake instead of regular cake because we were all burnt out on cake.  We SO enjoyed Traci being here because Neil and I were able to go out so often!  Oh I have to share about my best birthday present (not really) I got a call from the mortgage company saying that they hadn't received payment for the month of November...SHOOT! With everyone being sick at the beginning of the month, I TOTALLY spaced paying ALL of the bills...NO FUN!  So I spent most of the day frustrated at the fact that I am human.  What a birthday to remember!   I got all of the bills caught up just in time to have my honey return from the clinic and make me feel like everything was going to be just fine.  He always does this so well and I love him for that.  He is so understanding of all of my faults and flaws.  Someday I will be perfect, right?

2 ALREADY

Happy Birthday to Eliza! We can't believe that you are two years old already. You started talking so long ago so for you to only be turning two...I thought for sure it had already happened months ago. I love my Eliza. You are so full of wit and you make me smile more than you make me scream, which is a good thing!

Here's her butterfly cake that she helped me decorate:We sure had a lot of fun with all of our friends over here to help us eat the cake!

YUMMY!

And I didn't do anything tricky with wrapping this present and I don't know why it took her so long to find what was in there.

Happy 2nd Birthday Eliza...we hope you have a very good year ahead.

Brendan is Three!

I can't believe that Brendan is three already. Happy Birthday!!!
Grandma Bedke came to town for his birthday and it was so nice to have her here. I just want Brendan to know that there are a lot of people that love him and that he is a really spoiled boy. But we hope that continues to make you sweeter and sweeter. Here are some pictures from his birthday. He wanted a train cake for weeks:

Cousin Ryan sent him this Buzz costume for his birthday. Thanks Ryan. We have had so much fun flying to Infinity and Beyond!

And Grandma Erickson sent presents to him in the mail. We enjoyed opening them

and playing with them. The Lightning McQueen shirt is from Grandma Bedke and he wears it every day. I have to sneak it into the laundry so that I can wash it every so often.

Thank you to everyone that made this 3rd birthday so much fun. And thank you to Brendan for making our lives so much fun!