Happy, Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Nana and Papa! We have thought a lot about Nana and Papa in South Africa this week because they both celebrated their birthdays within the last 5 days. We had a birthday party for them Monday night for FHE which the boys loved. (if you need any good ideas for FHE, this one is great. The boys loved it. They were both so attentive and focused during the lesson and games I am tempted to do this every week. It beat chasing Braxton down and pinning him in our laps to try and make him pay attention which is what usually happens : )

Jace and I made a Birthday cake. It was cherry chip cake with about 2 lbs of icing on it. The boys thought it was delicious. And yes I do know that the lettering is awesome. : )

Ashlyn sends a birthday smile to Nana and Papa.

Here is proof of how attentive the boys were...Braxton sitting in his chair all on his own.

We played a game where the boys got to guess different things about Nana and Papa, (like favorite colors, foods, Book of Mormon characters, things they liked to do when they were little), which were on the strips of paper, and then tape it under the correct name when they got it right. They loved it and were so excited when they got it right.

Here is Ashlyn displaying the finished game board.

After the lesson and game we sang Happy Birthday to Nana and Papa and the boys blew out a candle for each of them. Then they got to dig into their cake.

We hope you had great birthdays Nana and Papa!


This past Friday Tim's extended side of the family had a fall BBQ which was lots of fun with smores, a pumpkin hunt (like Easter egg hunt but with little plastic pumpkin bags) and lots of good food.

Here is Braxton's loot bag. I guess he thought you could see inside it if he opened the handles wide enough.

Ashlyn snuggling with Oma.

Jace, Brax and Tim doing smores. Jace kept lighting his on fire but would still eat it. I think this was their favorite part of the night.

Jace got one of those blue push-up suckers in his pumpkin hunt bag. When we got home and he saw himself in the mirror he was so excited that his tongue had turned blue he wanted me to take a picture of it.

One last story mostly for me so I can remember it....

Jace got this action figure for his birthday that he really liked playing with, and because he really liked it that meant that Braxton really liked it too. Jace played with it all afternoon one day and Braxton kept trying to sneak it away. So, Jace decided to hide it...in the oven. A little while later I turned the oven on to preheat so I could cook dinner. I after a couple minutes of preheating I saw smoke coming out of the sides and thought, what the heck... So I open the oven and there is his toy, melted, not beyond recognition, but beyond repair. The head fell off and an arm, and his legs melted together...anyways, it was tragic. Jace was devastated and after he realized that daddy couldn't fix it he sadly threw it away. The next day at preschool he was a little late so I walk him in and the first thing he says is "Guys, guess what? Don't put your toys in the oven because they will melt, ovens are just for food." Then he sat down. Little kids are great because they all just looked like "hey thanks for the info". No questions asked.