Brian's 32nd Birthday

I find it rather fitting for Brian to have a fall birthday.  The rest of us are in the summer time, so it's nice to break things up and have cake in November, too.  Additionally, it's football season, and Brian is a big BYU football fan.  So, he always gets a football cake!  This year, I added "Y" brownies to the party.

I'm thinking he's getting too old to "light the Y".  Next year, we will have to cut it a few candles short.

By the time we got back from dinner and had dessert, Sadie was tired and grouchy.  She would have NOTHING to do with singing the happy birthday song!

Happy, Happy, Birthday to (almost) Everyone!

A major reason why the blog gets neglected all summer long is because it's Birthday Season!  In a short 6 weeks, we celebrate 4 birthdays!  Then, just 2 weeks later, Brian and I celebrate our wedding anniversary, so I get tired of eating cake, thinking about parties (so far, I've succeeded in the kids trading in parties for bigger things, like Disneyland passes), and buying gifts.  In fact, this year, I didn't bake a single birthday cake all summer long.  We took the kids out for each of their birthdays and let the restaurant treat count as the cake.  (I'm sure I'll feel guilty about that later, but, for now, it's great!)

So, here are our birthday stars!

Morgan turned SEVEN on June 18th.  

Favorites:

Nickname: Morgan Rae

Color: "I don't really care what color, but, I do like Blue and Caramel."

Animal: every animal, especially humans

Book: Laura Ingalls Wilder Series

Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean

Song: When I am Baptized (she learned to play it on the piano)

Food: fruits

Drink: ice cold water

Outfit: "I don't care, as long as it's beautiful!" (for a 7 year old, this pretty much encapsulates the   entirety of her wardrobe.)

Game/Toy: playing with stuffed animals (which, due to her mean mother, she only has 2--a dolphin and a bunny)

Friend: myself

Activity: reading

Restaurant:  not a big restaurant fan

Dream Vacation: Denver (this was talked about A LOT this summer, as we prepared to and sold our house there!)

What do you want to be when you grow up? "I still haven't decided!"

On July 16, Carson turned TWO!

Favorites:
Nickname: Carson Dude or Little Buddy
Color:
Animal:
Book: The Napping House
Movie: The Little Mermaid or Annie (he definitely has a thing for redheads these days!)
Song: Pirates of the Caribbean (Yo Ho!  Yo Ho!)
Food: Bananas
Drink:
Outfit:  Mickey Mouse Shirt
Game/Toy: drill set
Best Friend: Morgan
Activity:
Restaurant:
Dream Vacation:
What do you want to be when you grow up?

(Obviously, many of these are still blank, because he can't quite speak for himself.  I just filled in the ones that I know almost definitely!)

All day, he walked around with his balloon, saying, "Monster!  Boon!  Birthday!  Me!"

On July 27th, our sweet Sadie turned FIVE!!

Favorites:

Nickname: Sadie Bug or Sadie Pearl

Color: yellow and blue and purple

Animal:  Hippo (she may just be partial to Lulu, though)

Book:  The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss

Movie: Horton Hears a Who

Song: I am a Child of God

Food: Bean Burrito (preferably from Los Cabos, but, Taco Bell will do in a pinch!)

Drink: Lemonade

Outfit: pink dress

Game/Toy: Candyland

Best Friend: Morgan

Activity: build a tower with blocks

Restaurant: Chipotle (not really, she hates their bean burritos, because they're not mashed up)

Dream Vacation: the Statue of Liberty or Hawaii (she has it stuck in her mind that when Daddy finishes his tests--finished this summer!--he's taking all of us to Hawaii to celebrate)

What do you want to be when you grow up? a police officer

And, finally, on August 2nd, I turned 30.

Brian and the kids made me breakfast in bed, and, per tradition, woke me up with an annoying (but cute!) YouTube video of a Happy Birthday song.  (Last year, it was a mariachi band, this year, the Disney version.)  The kids picked out flowers for me and Brian was sure to bring home a balloon to rub in my age!  Then, I spent the evening with a dear childhood friend, Jennie Taylor, who was getting ready to move to Utah the following week.

And, don't worry.  I'll eventually get around to Brian's November birthday, complete with a cake that I baked and decorated AND a surprise!

Q-Fest and Papa Dale's Birthday

Last month, the kids and I went up to San Dimas for a day trip, so Brian could study.  Grammy and Grandpa were getting together with all their BBQ friends. 

Since it wasn't a competition, Grandpa Dale didn't have the back of the trailer filled with "BBQ", as the girls say!  So, the kids decided the couch and futons made a fantastic jungle gym!  They loved wrestling and climbing all over the place!

And, it happened to be Grandpa's birthday, so we brought up German Chocolate Cupcakes (which, he only likes the frosting, so next year we may just make him a batch of frosting and nix the cupcakes altogether!) and sang to him.  It was too windy for candles, though.

January Arizona Trip

Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, we took a quick trip to Mesa to visit Grandpa and Grandma Boring, as well as some of our Boring cousins!  Of course, I forgot the camera, so all the pictures are fuzzy from the iPod!

Carson enjoying a snack at the hotel!

Can't possibly be comfortable, but, hey, they're sleeping!

Sunday afternoon, we went over to the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center.  I always love visiting temple grounds.  There's such peace and comfort to be felt.

While at the Visitor's Center, we watched a short video.  It was called, Only A Stonecutter (thanks, Logan!), about a man who lost both his legs in an accident, yet still walked miles every day to help build the temple.  Such a touching story and chance to reflect on whether or not I am doing all I can to build the Kingdom of God.

Despite the big box of toys that I brought to entertain this busy guy (these Boring cousins don't have any little ones at home!), he found it much more worthwhile to stack soup cans in the kitchen!

Family picture in front of the temple.

This guy LOVES the "aack you!"  I see a janitorial position in his future at BYU!

Grandma Boring's birthday happened to be the week after  we visited.  So, we decided to celebrate early!

On our way out of town, we stopped for lunch.  Just for the record, I was NOT impressed with the In-N-Out in Avondale.  But, I was grateful for the hats that entertained the kids in the car!

31

Brian turned 31 on November 15th.  Morgan was assigned to be the photographer that evening.  We had a great little celebration.  I bought a small cheesecake (his favorite, but we didn't want leftovers!), and he got a new polo.  Fun times!