Happy Birthday, Brigham!

It's been almost a week but I feel I've sufficiently prepared myself emotionally to post about Brigham's birthday.

Ah, but I'm teasing! I'm just lazy.

Brigham's birthday was Sunday and we usually eat with family but my parents were sick because certain other members of my family apparently, with no concern for the safety of others, just went and left their germs lying about for any unsuspecting relative hoping for a good time with family to pick up. I narrowly escaped the onslaught myself in spite of the overt generosity and pleasant visits.

Anywho, so that left Sunday night free to celebrate. We decided to open presents first since dessert was still cooling. My camera ran out of batteries as soon as I took the first picture and when I came back he had already opened the first present and was playing with the wrapping paper.


I guess it was more fun than the awesome bubble mower we got him.


He tried it out but decided that it required too much effort to get the bubbles out. On to the second present. Since the bubble mower was relatively inexpensive we decided to get him some regular bubbles too.


This is the present he had been waiting for. We spent the next hour and a half or so blowing bubbles on the front porch. The bubble mower was still a hit, just not with Brigham.


Jonathan put it to the test while Brigham enjoyed his "regular" bubbles.


We sang to the cookie brownies(only two left) and helped Brigham blow out his candles. It was a good birthday and I hope he enjoyed it. Happy Birthday, Brigham!

It's about time!

The plan was to get out the pool the first Monday after school got out. As many of you might remember, it rained for the first few weeks of summer vacation. It was almost cold enough for a jacket on the first official day of summer! Well, the pool plan kept getting pushed back and pushed back until Sunday night when I read a blog post from my friends about their pool fun(Jason and Jan, I wasn't kidding when I said I was getting out my pool!). I knew it would take a while to inflate it so I got started that night. Jaaromy and I weren't exactly on the same page about the pool's emergence from storage late on a Sunday night, but being the good(and strong!) dad he is, he helped pump it up part of the way. After 45 minutes and sore arms all around -Nathaniel and Jonathan helped a little - I called my dad to see if he had something a little less, um, manual to help us out. He did! The next morning he brought over a little vacuum that, in addition to sucking air, also blew air. The tube didn't fit over the larger valve so I just held it next to it and it worked beautifully! I had the whole thing blown up in less than a minute. I was so pleased with the results that I couldn't help but laugh, if somewhat maniacally. The kids were very excited and got in even before the water was even a couple of inches deep.


The water was cold so it took some getting used to.


Nathaniel was very slowly getting wet. So slow, in fact, that I ended up pushing him into the water.


Of course Jonathan was the first one to "go all the way".


At first Brigham was content to walk around and just splash his hands in the water a little.


But with Nathaniel and Jonathan splashing around it didn't take long for Brigham to get all wet.


As you can see this was taken later in the day. The novelty had worn of for Nathaniel and he was back playing games on the computer. Jonathan was making Brigham laugh by throwing the hose nozzle(? that sounds so made up) and making a big splash. I LOVE the look on Brigham's face.

In the end they were in the pool for six hours! I brought lunch out to them earlier and we had a little picnic. Finally it was time for dinner and we had to be a little more aggressive. They did not go willingly, but with a dinner of pancakes and scrambled eggs waiting, they got over it pretty fast.


All that sunshine can really wipe you out!

Nathaniel's Birthday

Well, it's been another year and Nathaniel is now 9 years old! Birthday Sunday with my family fell on his birthday this year so our family celebrated it on Monday. I forgot to bring my camera to Rachelle's house on Birthday Sunday so all my pictures are of Monday night.

First we watched Empire Strikes Back, continuing our our Star Wars Marathon(and by "marathon" I mean: one movie a week). We got a late start and so we didn't get to the good stuff until after 10:30.


I decided to make Cookie Brownies. Mostly because I bought three boxes for Birthday Sunday one or two months ago but ended up "trading"(thanks, Stephanie!) food assignments, so I have to make and eat the Cookie Brownies all by myself.


I think Nathaniel did a good job blowing out the candles, it gets tougher every year!


Finally, after waiting a whole extra day, Nathaniel got to open his present.


I was anxious to see what he thought of his present because he finally just beat Ocarina of Time on Friday after a couple of years of playing. He liked it.


As 11:00 neared we finally ate the delicious cookie brownies.


And then I noticed something...


My boys can't smile and eat at the same time.


Try not to look TOO happy.

I have to tease Jaaromy, it's my job. To be fair, he did have a headache and it was way past bedtime. But what a fun birthday! Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!

He has to get around somehow...

Today in Sacrament Meeting Jaaromy was trying to encourage Jonathan to think spiritual thoughts so he asked him to draw a picture of Jesus. So Jonathan drew a picture of a space ship.

Jaaromy told him that it was a nice space ship but he wanted Jonathan to draw a picture of Jesus. Jonathan's somewhat impatient reply was: "Jesus is inside the space ship." Silly Dad.

Nathaniel's Words

Me: You have to look out for Brigham when he's outside because he's very independent.
Nathaniel: Yeah, like Thomas Jefferson.