Noah's FOUR!!!

Noah turned 4 years old a little more than a week ago, on September 19TH. He caused quite a bit of trouble during the time he was 3 (who ever thought of the phrase " the terrible two's" must not have had kids; it should be "the terrible T's- 2, 3 and teenage years"); we're really hoping now that he's officially a little boy and not a toddler, he'll give us less grief and be the angel God made him, ALWAYS.

We celebrated Noah's birthday over the course of two days- Saturday & Sunday.
Keeping with tradition,
we let Noah open one present the morning of his birthday;
he received a bucket of toy soldiers
(every little boys dream)...... after which,
we took the fam to IHOP for a pancake breakfast
(and just for the record, this was our first time out to eat at a public restaurant
with all four of our children and they were all very well behaved;
it's easy breezy with four!
just kidding;
it was just luck that morning that they were all so well behaved).
Then...

we took the kids to Liberty Land
(it's a miniature golf place that has go carts, bumper boats, and other kiddie attractions);
Noah has been asking for MONTHS to go to Liberty Land.
First he rode the go carts... ...then an airplane!
He opted to sit out the roller coaster ride that Ian LOVED riding on,
he got soaked on the bumper boats with Dad, Ian and me
(Cohen & Bentley were just bystanders to all the days events),and then Noah played a round of miniature golf with Ian before leaving.

Service was a little slow around the place, but we all still managed to have LOTS of fun at Liberty Land. After we were done playing around at Liberty Land, we dropped Spencer off at our house (he went to the BYU/Florida State football game with friends and his cousins), then dropped Cohen and Bentley off at Les and Linda's house, and finally met my sister Tricia and her 8 kids at the movie theaters to watch the newly released "Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs" movie in 3D!

The movie was SUPER cute and funny!
I however fell asleep for part of it- I was exhausted after such a long day. Noah opened his presents after the movie that Trish and the kids gave him!
Then...
we walked over to the ice cream parlor at Thanksgiving Point and treated everyone to cones!

By the time we were done watching our movie and eating our ice cream and back to my in-laws place to pick up the two younger boys, it was already late in the evening. Spencer met us at his parents house on his way back home from the game, helped me get all the boys buckled into their car seats (it's a real tedious task; takes FOREVER to do with the four kids in car seats) and then we went home; the boys were all asleep before we even got home! POOR Noah though... we'd been so BUSY during the day we forgot to let him open ALL of his presents!!!

The following morning we went to church, then we had lunch and took naps. After the boys awoke from their naps, we ate dinner and THEN, finally, it was time to open presents and eat cake and ice cream. Spencer's family came over to help us celebrate. I don't bake; it's not my specialty, especially since I don't do so hot around flour... SO... I decided to order his birthday cake from Dippiddees Bakery in Lehi this year. They made him a cute/hideous looking cake that looked like a monster. It had ugly yellow spots, a big red uni brow, ugly yellow and white furry teeth, a red Mohawk, a HUGE spotted orange nose and a greenish/blue hairy face... SO CUTE! Noah absolutely LOVED it! He's been so afraid of monsters lately, I thought a monster cake would help him understand that monsters aren't really SCARY, they're just sort of SILLY and UGLY LOOKING (funny story... a couple weeks ago, I woke up from a late nap downstairs to the sound of my boys and Spencer marching around the house banging pots and pans, playing their harmonicas and calling for all the monsters in the house to "please leave"... they were "spooking all the monsters away"!)

Noah desperately wanted two things this year for his birthday...
he'd been asking for MONTHS for these two things...
a yo-yo
(he received 2, one from us and one from Megan & John)
and a robot...
he requested one with buttons that moved.
Spencer and I gave him a Wall-E
(it's really cute and does the same things Wall-E does in the Pixar movie,
but it scares Ian a little...
he loves to push the buttons on Wall-E and make him move and talk,
but as soon as Wall-E comes alive,
Ian bolts for a higher surface)!

A big thanks to our family members who helped make Noah's 4TH birthday fun and memorable!