Happy Birthday Brennan!

Happy birthday Brennan!!  Our little Bean is 5 years old, and we celebrated his big day with a fun morning of bowling with a few of his friends.

Kellan cheered from the sidelines.

 
Isla pushed through, despite going on 2 days without a nap.

Brennan really enjoys bowling and was thrilled to be "throwing some rocks" at his party.

 We celebrated Matthew's 5th birthday as well and the "birthday twins" got a kick out of blowing out their candles together.

Happy birthday, we love you Brennan!

Later that afternoon we decorated our Christmas tree.

The next day we had a little bit more b-day celebration with Grams and Papa.

"Staring contest: you - me, go!"

"Get in my belly!"

 
Getting ready to test out his new remote control helicopter.

 

We celebrated another day of Brennan with Grandma and Grandpa.

Make a wish!

Brennan and Isla made some birdfeeders recently.

Merry Christmas birds!  (I need to rehang these closer to the branches so the birds can perch and reach them.)

Snickers Gap

A recent morning snuggle; Brennan and Isla do not always get along (hard to believe, I know, but I don't usually document the fights and meltdowns) but they are both still enamored with Kellan.  I told him to soak it up, and I'm pretty sure he's playing opossum with all this day-sleeping and quietly packing on the pounds so that he'll stand a chance when he finally becomes fair game.

Brennan helped me decorate the mantel.

Brothers.

Off to Snickers Gap for our Christmas tree.

Ready to go with  a saw and some rope.

Following our fearless leader into the wilds of Virginia.

Brennan really liked the small trees; just his size!

We paused for some rock climbing.

And some rock lounging.

We found our tree!

Everyone got to help with the saw.

Mush!

Pulling the tree was a little slow so Patrick Bunyan, our personal lumberjack, just toted it on back for us.
 

Follow that tree!

Wagon ride back to the parking lot.

The fine art of tying a tree onto a vehicle.  We made it home so I guess Patrick remembered enough of his sailor knots.  Or as he likes to say "Can't tie a knot?  Tie a lot!"