Brigham's Birthday

Brigham's birthday was Saturday but we didn't get to celebrate it because we spent the day looking at houses and then later decided we needed to go to the temple to clear our minds before we make any big decisions. We were supposed to celebrate it Sunday since we didn't go down to Grandma's but Jonathan fell asleep in the car when we drove by the temple (our tradition when we don't go to Grandma's) and I didn't want him to miss the party. So we celebrated Monday night instead.

I love this picture. He's upset that he can't touch the candles but it looks something from a horror movie.




Everyone enjoyed the treats.


Here's a picture of Brigham and his presents.

Jonathan especially enjoyed playing with Brigham's presents.

We celebrated his birthday with my family a couple of weeks ago. Here are a couple of pictures.

He LOVES that stacker. Well, actually all stackers. He stacks anything and everything, even his french toast! I think he may even have tried to stack his spaghetti once.

Jaaromy might have helped him blow out the candles, I'm not sure. Either way, isn't Brigham cute? He's my little neutron star.

I've been tagged!

Sara tagged me and I tried to pretend I didn't see but I can't pretend anymore. So here you go:

Three Joys:
1. Family
2. Music
3. Traveling

Three Fears:
1. Losing Jaaromy
2. Losing children (temporally and spiritually)
3. Falling

Three Goals:
1. Go on a cruise
2. Have a girl
3. Buy a house

Three Obsessions:
1. The Internet
2. Glen Beck
3. Political Blogs

Three Random Facts:
1. I love to play World of Warcraft with Jaaromy
2. I LOVE plaid
3. I sound exactly like my mother when I yell

I tag Megan, Jessica, and Cami

New Template...again

Many of you have been switching to templates from TheCutestBlogontheBlock.com so, as usual, I totally caved into peer pressure. I was hesitant because Jaaromy had done so much to make my last template perfect and I felt bad immediately casting it aside for bigger and better templates. Although I showed him some that I liked and he was completely supportive.
I really did like my last template but, honestly, the black and white started to hurt my eyes after a while. This is a little easier on the eyes. So I hope you enjoy it.

Nathaniel's Birthday

We celebrated Nathaniel's birthday this weekend. Saturday was his actual birthday and Sunday we had our family party. Saturday we went to McDonalds, Nathaniel's choice, and the boys played on the playground for a while. Jaaromy even got Nathaniel to go down the slides after a lot of screaming. I'm glad we were the only ones there, I started to doubt Jaaromy's plan of pushing him down the slide himself. Of course, once he got used to it he loved it and went down several more times after that. After that adventure we went home and had birthday donuts.

Since it was Saturday, the boys needed a bath. We told Nathaniel that he had to start showering by himself when he was eight so he did. He was nervous at first but he did great. Whew! Two brave things in one day! Here it is in his own words.

At the risk of making this post too long, I'm going to tell you about Sunday's party too. Everyone was there for dinner except Jared, who was in Chicago learning how to be an effective leader. I guess you can only go to Chicago for that. Jaaromy's family came for cake and ice cream. It was great having both families there.

I love this picture of Nathaniel right after he blew out his candle.

Grandma Bonnie gave Nathaniel a parachute launcher and all the uncles had fun playing with it. They had even more fun when it got stuck in the tree and they each took a turn trying to get it down.

Uncle Chris got it down first. Later it got stuck again and Uncle Scott got it down. They were the heroes.
It was so much fun. I love my family.

Here's one more picture, just for fun.

I love the look on her face!

BTW, we celebrated Brigham's birthday too, but I'm saving those pictures for his actual birthday. Stay tuned.

Glen Beck Book Signing

This is a little unusual for me since I don't really like to go places with big crowds but I went to an actual book signing today. Glen Beck is here today for the Stadium of Fire and stopped by the University Mall Deseret Book to sign a few books before the show. Jaaromy gave me his book for Christmas so I thought I'd go get it signed. How cool is that! Jaaromy isn't as big of a fan as I am but he came with me anyway and wrestled with the kids and everything while I stood in line. Mr. Beck was apparently taking a break so the line wasn't moving at all. I'd never been to one before so I didn't know what to expect. Well, Jaaromy gave up trying to keep the kids in the store so he took them to another one and Nathaniel stayed with me. Soon after, Glen walked right by me on his way back to the signing table. There were some other guys and a couple of mall security guards with him. He actually seemed a little embarrassed at the attention. Well, once he got going things sped right up. I had been planning on saying something to him, but his time was limited and they were moving everyone along pretty quickly so he signed my book, shook my hand, and said "thank you." He seemed to genuinely mean it. I said thank you too and that was it. It was a lot of fun, I'm so glad I went.

The Host: a review

I hesitate to even call this a review because I don't know if I know how to discuss the book without giving away too much information. I'll do my best. I really enjoyed it. It's kind of funny, I feel like I didn't enjoy it as much as Twilight, however, I felt it was a better book. Wrap you mind around that! It's possible that I feel that way because while the love story in Twilight kept me all a-flutter the whole time The Host was more thought provoking. I've read plenty of Science Fiction and this is my first one written by a woman, and I think it shows. The imagery of the aliens' lives and voyages seem, at least to me, much more fantastic and beautiful than any I've read before. In an interesting twist, the main character is Wanderer and she is one of many alien "parasites" that lives in the body of human hosts. The aliens have taken over pretty much the whole world. They saw the human race as too violent and felt they could do a better job. I'm always wary of books that try to stereotype humans as "evil" or whatever. I started to read a book like that but couldn't get past the first chapter in which all the magical creatures got together and bad-mouthed the humans. Look, we're not perfect but if you want me to read your book maybe you should lay off the insults. However, the difference was that while that was obviously the view of the aliens, the actual human characters were much more complicated than that. One major theme that Stephanie Meyer brushed over a few times is that everything in life has an opposite. True joy cannot be felt unless you've experienced the opposite.
On a side note: It's funny that I seem to be rolling my eyes at some of the over the top drama that could only come from a female, at the same time totally seeing myself in a lot of the thought processes. Complex indeed.