The big day

 Sean turned 4 on Sunday, January 13, 2013. We surprised him in the morning with some balloons and fun Lightening McQueen decorations. The kids love the party blowers. Mark made an awesome McQueen cake by tracing a pattern he found online. The boys were very excited(especially Mark!)

 I bought Sean his own Book of Mormon and case. He took it to church and asked me read it to him and show him the pictures. He felt pretty cool.

 Sean finally got his own big boy bike. He has been riding Claire's pink princess tricycle and we felt like it was time for an upgrade. He is very happy and rides it in the basement any chance he gets.

 Someday the snow will melt and he will get to ride it outside. Mark is already looking forward to bike rides with his big kids.

 Grandma and Grandpa came over to help us celebrate. Sean loved every part of his birthday. Last year at this time he was struggling quite a bit. This year he was very aware that this was his special day. He loved blowing out candles and opening presents.

 Grandma and Grandpa gave Sean a musical guitar. Sean doesn't respond to music as much as the other kids. It was so exciting to see Sean light up over his guitar. He danced and "rocked out" as much as I have ever seen him do before. What a funny kid!

                                     Blowing out his #4 candle again!

 Way to go Mark! The other kids are already requesting their birthday cake designs.

It has been an awesome couple of weeks celebrating Sean. He is doing so great right now. We are so grateful that Sean is in the Giant Steps program getting the help that he needs. We have had people comment that Sean seems much happier now. 4 is going to be a great year for Sean.

More January

 Claire lost her first tooth! She held onto that tooth until it finally fell out while she was sleeping. She came into our room at 4:30 in the morning to announce that it came out. I found it the next morning so she could put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. We love her new smile.

 Luke and I joined Sean on his field trip to the fire station. Sean was so excited to go see the fire trucks. His teacher told me that he talked about it all day at school. Sean sat quietly during the safety video and had fun seeing all the different trucks. He asked the fireman for a pink hat. We had a great time.

 We grew a pretty awesome icicle on the house. I took pictures of it a day or two before it warmed up and fell down. The kids love seeing icicles everywhere we go. This is the coldest January I can remember. We are looking forward to the springtime already.

Sean's big month

 Sean on his first day of Sunbeams. He has great teachers that are so patient and helpful. They said that Sean was the best kid in the class that day! He sat still in his chair, folded his arms for prayers and managed himself quite well. Go Sean! He loves being in primary with his big sister. Lukey is now our lone son in nursery which he.......loves! He thinks he is pretty cool being the big kid in class full of 18 month olds. I think it's a bit crazy watching Luke be one of the big kids.

 Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin came over for an early birthday celebration for Sean and Lyman. Sean carried around his #4 candle all day. Mark baked and decorated a cake for the birthday buddies. Sean said, "It's so beautiful!"

                        Then we all had to pose with Sean's "beautiful" cake.

Starting out the New Year with a Bang!

 Sean and I started potty training the day after Christmas. We were snowed in and had fun new toys to play with. I decided to be brave and try it out with him. He earned stickers and M&Ms for every time he went potty in the toilet. The first two days were pretty messy but things turned around on the third day and he hasn't looked back. Sean was clearly ready for this big step in his life. He has not had any accidents at school and has managed to be successful with his bowel movements as well. After filling out two potty charts we celebrated by going bowling where of course he had an accident(he was wearing a pullup)! We are super proud of Sean's accomplishments.
   We hosted the BYU trio on New Year's Eve. The kids played well together, the women chatted and these guys caught up on their much needed BFF time.

 We tried to see how many kids we could fit under Dad's new queen sized fleece blanket he got for Christmas.

 We had a nice lunch with the Hamblins on New Year's Day and afterwards joined the Cook family for sledding in Traverse Mountain. It was our family's first experience sledding and our kids loved it!

2012 was an awesome year for our family. I will be entering my third trimester in the next couple of weeks. We are excited to see what new levels of crazy we can achieve in 2013!