And Then He Was Five

Brennan's fifth birthday was last week. Um, I have a five-year-old! Wow, where does the time go?

Of course, he was all kinds of excited. He is very proud of being five. Not that he's not also looking toward the future. Actually, I think he's got his 6th-10th birthdays already planned, haha. He's got goals, you see. This past summer he got to hang out with his cousins while we were in Indiana. He found a buddy in his cousin Matthew. Matthew was 10 at the time, and to Brennan that is his ultimate goal. To be a big kid, and be 10 like Matthew. :) I'm just glad time doesn't fly by quite as fast as he wants it to!

Brennan is still all about Spiderman, so we had a Spiderman filled birthday.



I even hobbled around and made a Spidey cake.


Time to open presents!

These Magformers are awesome. We have played with them every day since he opened them up.







The birthday hat. Ha!


Can't have a birthday without balloons!




The birthday boy with his cake.

Please ignore the black run on the front of the cake. Turkey runs on 220v electricity. We can use our 110v appliances here with step down transformers, BUT the hertz are different, so things like mixers, hair clippers, fans, and digital clocks run too fast. So, no low speed on my mixer makes it hard not to overmix icing. It was still tasty though. :)

Five candles.


Make a wish!








I like how he had to stop and watch the smoke from the first one he blew out.




Still mesmerized.


Alright. Time to get down to business.


Fist clenched in determination!


Another breath.




He did it! But, of course, I don't have a picture of that. :P


Happy Birthday, Little Man! We love you so much!!


XOXO,

Christmas and a Brand New Year

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a nice quiet one - family time, friends, lots of food, presents. Fun.

This year Santa got cookies and milk and chocolate covered cherries. We also had to put carrots out for the reindeer, plus a pan of water. Brennan is very thorough. No thirsty reindeer at our house. Christmas Eve we watched Santa Claus is Comin' to Town and the listened to a reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Brennan said he was "so nervous" when I tucked him in. I don't know if he was nervous because he was excited, or nervous because he was afraid he was going to be on the naughty list. Ha.

As it turned out, he did make it onto the good list. This was right as he realized Santa had left presents under the tree. I love it!



Brennan had a blast opening his presents and helping us open ours. He was just as excited about the presents that weren't his. See my new Keurig on the couch. Yep, awesome! Thanks Santa! ;)





Brennan's new scooter. The scooter that was the stand-in for the skateboard that was on his list. Which prompted a discussion about Santa not always getting you want you want, but what is best for you after Brennan told us Santa "let him down" by not giving him a skateboard. I think all is good now. And for as many times as Brennan has wiped out on this thing, Santa definitely made the right call. :)



Jason got a home beer making kit. He's been wanting one forever, so he is a happy camper, or in this case, Beermaker. Apparently, coffee and beer make the world go 'round in our house. Ha ha!



The rest of the week we spent mostly kicked back relaxing. It was nice. Apparently, I was extra relaxed, because the only other picture on my camera after opening Christmas presents is the cinnamon roll Christmas tree I made for breakfast Christmas day. I know, right, totally not my normal take pictures of everything self. :)



And so that is that. Farewell 2012! I can't say it was a bad year, because it did have lots of good parts, but is was definitely a year of change and being unsettled for us. With Jason's deployment, we were apart for half of it, and then after he got back, most of our time and efforts were focused on getting ready for our big move. So now here we are, in Turkey, (most of) the hard parts are over, and this year we can hopefully just focus on being together, having some fun and adventures, and enjoying this amazing opportunity we have to be part of a different country and culture.

Welcome 2013!



I'm looking forward to it!