::eight::

Honestly I can't believe I'm saying this, but my old Max turned EIGHT this week!! YIKES!!

This is his first birthday where we haven't been traveling or visiting somebody for years. Last year we were in AZ for a work trip, and both years before that we were visiting family in Utah. So we were home, and we had a pretty fun day I think.

Max got to have a pretty lazy day. There was no school for him that day and he got to open a pretty awesome present in the morning--old school hot wheels tracks.

He played with them all morning. Then he got to watch some Sponge Bob, which hasn't happened in a while since he was mimicking the super annoying voices ALL the time. He was banned for weeks. He got a chance to try again since it was his birthday. (So far so good on the annoyingness.)

Later in the day Max got to go to his karate class. Then we all went and had a delicious dinner which included chocolate malts. Mmmm.

After that we finally made it home for cake and presents. HOMEMADE cake for the first time in a while.
It was tasty.

And the candles and singing are 100% up Max's alley.

I think he had a great day. And his actual friend party was the following day. I'll report on that later.
But for now, here's my favorite birthday picture of all for you.

Good night!

::my birthday 2::

So on my birthday Kris and I were flying back from Florida. We went for a big pediatric dental/orthodontic conference and Kris mom was sweet enough to come and watch our boys. We had a great trip together, first time in forever we were all alone. I barely knew what to do with myself the first few days!

Anyway, we flew home the morning of my birthday. It was a long flight, but kidless it was so easy! We watched a grown up movie, we read books, I took a nap. It was amazing. It made me remember that flying isn't ALL that bad after all.

We got home after lunch and came home to a very festive lovely house.



It was so cute. And we found out that Sandy LOVES love LOVES balloons. He sat and played with the balloon that was tied to his chair for ever. When he got done it was all covered with peanut butter and jelly smears, ewww.



And we had to wake poor Sandy up from his nap. He was sleeping so solid that it took me a few tries to wake him (unusual for our little light sleeper!) and when he woke he was so cranky that he wasn't even excited to see me! But he warmed up after a while.

Grandma helped Max pick out a gift for me--he got me a heart shaped pillow (cute!) and a little countertop fountain. He was so excited and proud of it--what a darling.

Look at Sandy's face! What is Kris doing there in the background?



It was a great birthday. Kris had some lovely gifts that he had bought for me early and they were waiting, and Kathy did so much to make me feel special. What a lovely day, after a nice and relaxing week. I'm pretty lucky I have to say!

::happy birthday to me::

Here's what I came home to today for my birthday: (Kris and I were on a business trip--more about that later).


Kris's mom was here taking care of our boys, and she helped Max (and we all know what that means) set up for my birthday. It turned out so cute!


More later, but now I've got to go and get some sleep after all the revelry!

::sandy's birthday part 2::

A little more Sandy for you.

At the end of the day we got to have cake and a few more presents.

Sandy loved his little space shuttle--way more than I thought he would really.


I like to see him concentrating so hard. Max of course wanted to play with it too. He did a pretty good job controlling himself--Max did. He tried to let Sand get all the attention. It didn't always work but he tried.


The crazy candle on the cake came from a lady at work. When you light the candle in the middle, it opens and lights up like a sparkler and plays the happy birthday song. Plays the song forever and ever and ever until someone (Max) reads the instructions and cuts one of the cords.

To end this post about such a lovely and joyous day, we have a cake devouring series.
Sandy was very careful and neat with his cake. He tried to eat most of it with his fork.
It was adorable and took about 40 minutes. It may have been one of the best moments of his little life, considering how much he loves to eat.







Cute, right? Have you ever seen a cleaner baby after eating his first birthday cake?
(You can see that he's in his new high chair with a five point harness. The restaurant high chair just wasn't cutting it anymore and I didn't want to end up with him on his head on the bricks.)
Happy birthday to our sweet Sandy! We're so glad to have him!!

::sandy's birthday part 1::

Oh, wait, that's the wrong birthday!
A year ago today our sweet little guy was born. We feel so lucky to have him here in our family.
Today was a great day for him. He started out by eating pancakes made by dad--one of his favorite things in the world.

Max helped him open a present or two and then we got ready for church.
After church and a nice long nap, Max brought Sandy his best and biggest gift--a walking toy that's also a little cart for blocks. He was very very excited about it--almost as much as Max! Max was a model brother today--helpful, enthusiastic and excited about the birthday, but never jealous pushy or unpleasant. (Though incredibly obnoxious, as per the usual.)





More of the day later.
Mostly it was just a good happy day and such a lucky one for us. We're so grateful to the Lord for sending us our sweet boys.

::::

This this sweet little guy has any idea that his birthday is tomorrow?

::a birthday::

It's Ken (Kris's dad's) birthday today.

We've been thinking about him a lot today and missing him.

We're so grateful for the gospel and the promise of more life after this one. Can't wait to see him again someday.
For now we miss him and just hope he knows we're wishing him a happy birthday today.

Loves.

::many happy returns::

It's Kris's birthday!  His thirty-second, to be exact.  This seems crazy to me, but it's true.
He had to work most of the day, so we all came in to work to keep him company.  We do this lots of days anyway, but we definitely wanted to keep him company today.  We had pizza for lunch with the staff and then finished up with the patients a bit early and closed up shop.

After that we went downtown to do a bit of window shopping in the galleries and eat dinner.  We ended up at a restaurant overlooking the plaza in the middle of town.
The view was nice, and there was a little mariachi fiddle group playing down on the green.  Max really enjoyed watching and listening to them during dinner.


And here are some photos of my goofy menfolk--we were waiting for our dinner at this point, so they were a little hungry and silly.


Bet you can't guess who's the goofiest around here.


Oy.

After that we went home for some cake and presents. (Max got Kris some curry ketchup, one of his favorite things. I was so impressed with him for thinking of it all by himself!)
We had cream cake with berries on it. (From the store, since I was at work all day.)
Then we played pool together for a bit before bed.



It was as close to a perfect day as a work day can get I think--and I hope Kris thought so too.

Happy birthday to my man amoung men! I LOVE YOU!!