Korben's 4th Birthday!!

I was talking to my brother Jared the night before he left for the MTC about how long two years is. To him, two years was seeming like a really long time. But when I thought about how long two years is, I realized that two years is nothing...in fact two years happens so fast that somehow, in what seems the blink of an eye, my 2 year old is now a 4 year old. I know I have had times in the past two years that have seemed never ending; times like a puke filled pregnancy, and months on end of doctors appointments for both Korben and Logan; times with job changes that kept Mike away from home, and times of having long waits between family visits. And yet, now it seems like everything has gone all too fast and I wish things would slow down a little bit. Logically, I know that Korben didn't just one day go from a newborn to a 4 year old. All the same, I thought it would be good to check and make sure - and sure enough, as you can see, he did go through all the stages just like he was supposed to.

From Korben's 4th Birthday

Seeing it doesn't necessarily make the time feel longer, but at least I know that no matter how fast time seems to fly, we have documented it all - which hopefully means I won't forget anything.

So....drum roll please...here he is....
Korben Michael Harrison - 4 Years Old

From Korben's 4th Birthday

Korben was so excited for his birthday this year. It is the first time that he has actually anticipated opening presents, picking his type of cake, and having a party. As soon as he saw the wrapped gifts it was all he could talk about for the entire week. It was so fun to see how much he has progressed in one year. Last year on his birthday he just seemed overwhelmed and lost and although he had a party he didn't really seem to enjoy it. That was also the day he had the first of many evaluations...it is awesome to see how far he has come since then.

We decided that this year would just be a family year as far as gifts went. It was casual and fun because he could open one gift and play with it as much as he wanted- as opposed to being rushed to open the next one when a lot of people are waiting. He loved all of his gifts, but funny enough his immediate favorites were the $1 store puzzles - go figure. :D

From Korben's 4th Birthday

After he had played with all of his indoor toys, we decided to "officially" give him his new bike. This one wasn't necessarily a surprise, because it was a bike that we had purchased off of craigslist a few weeks earlier and he was there when we bought it. Apparently a Trek bike is a high quality bike (according to Mike) and regardless of the color, for $50 was a screaming deal. So even though it was dark purple, we decided to get it. I guess you could consider it a unisex bike since it was purple and blue, but it was just a little too girly for my liking. So, we took it apart, sanded it down, spray painted it, glossed it, put it all back together, and viola...a new bike:

From Korben's 4th Birthday

Even though he already knew about the bike, he was stoked to finally get to ride it. He calls it his "blue's clues" bike and pretty much asks to ride it all day. Here's a pic of his first ride around our neighborhood:

From Korben's 4th Birthday

Later that night we invited a few of our friends and their families over for dinner and cake and ice cream. It was a perfect ending to the night because Korben was able to have the party he had been asking about all week, and we were able to share a good meal and evening with our friends.

Thanks to the grandparents on both sides that sent gifts, the Wise family for his new cars, Great-Aunt Kathy for the cute card, and Toys R Us for the free Thomas train that worked perfectly for his cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KORBEN!