Happy Birthday Dad! (and a very busy weekend)

Today is my dad's 60 60th birthday (family joke)! Happy birthday dad and grandpa, we love you!

My brother Brandon and his wife Cara were visiting from Idaho so we filled the long weekend with as much as we possibly handle. Here's the weekend wrap up.

Friday
7 p.m.: We had a family birthday party for all of our February birthdays my dad, Ashton(8), Scott(3) and Lacey(2).
8:00 p.m.: We followed that up with my favorite family tradition, decorating valentine cakes. We usually do this on the Monday before Valentines day, but Brandon didn't want to miss out so we waited for him. Of course I didn't have my camera, but I borrowed the picture and the stats from my sister-in-law's blog. We were trying to figure out how long this tradition has been around and we decided at least 24 years. This year there was 32 cakes decorated. We might have to start using the church gym to fit our ever expanding family.

Saturday
10 a.m.: Ashton had her friend birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. The kids cousin's are really their best friends, but in an attempt to be a little less over protective and a little more social they get to invite school and church friends to their 8th birthday. As an incentive for booking our party at 10 am all of our guests got twice as many tokens and the building wasn't as busy as usual. It was fantastic not to worry about entertainment, goodie bags, food and clean up. All I brought was the cake. Everyone had fun, and with so many tokens everyone got their fair share of prizes.

5 p.m.: For his birthday present my dad wanted all of his kids to do a session at the temple. Out of the nine he has Austin isn't old enough yet and Jordon had to work, but everyone else was there. It was really nice

Sunday Happy Birthday Ashton!
9 a.m.: Aaron blessed his twin girls Erica and Elizabeth. Ashton wanted to wear her baptism dress, so we got a picture of all the pretty girls in their withe dresses. Elizabeth has the pink headband and Erica is in the purple.

4 p.m.: Chris's mom is in town for a few weeks so we hosted a dinner with his family that could make it. Not a big deal for some people, but I'm lucky enough to live close to alot of family and my parents open their home for Sunday dinner to all of their kids every week. I know I'm spoiled.
6 p.m.: Ashton's baptism. We really appreciated everyone who was able to make it, but don't feel bad if you didn't hear about it. I'm not good at remembering to invite people to things and we had to get special permission to even do it on a different day than the stake baptism so we weren't really broadcasting the event. We do, however, really appreciate everyone who came. It was really special and we are so proud of Ashton and her decision to be baptized. Some people might think that an eight year old child is to young to make that big of a choice by themselves, but Ashton and (and Kaylee for that matter) decided on her own that she wanted to be baptized.

7 p.m.: My brother Austin had a court of honor and recieved his Eagle Scout award. This makes seven for seven for my parents. All seven of their boys are Eagle Scouts now and I know it was a lot of work on their part as well.

All of our boys from L to R: Austin, Jordon, Brandon, Ryan, Jason, Brian, Aaron & my dad

My dad wanted all of the boys to wear a scout shirt. Chris didn't do a lot of scouting when he was a kid, but he wanted to look accomplished so he borrowed a sash full of merit badges from a 14 year old kid in our ward. Needless to say it was a little snug.

Monday
12:00 a.m.: About 20 minutes before we left for the baptism, Dalin dropped a heavy wooden box on his bare toe. I gave him some Motrin and luckily he was tired he slept long enough for the medicine to kick in so he was pleasant for the baptism. By about 11,l even with medicine his toe hurt so much he was inconsolable. He could bend his toe so I didn't think it was broken, but I did think it needed to be drained. I definitely did not want to be the one to do it so our option was the emergency room. By the time we got there he was acting fine (of course!) but we stuck it out. I was right on both counts and the doctor put a little hole in his toenail to relieve the pressure so although his toe still hurts, he is much better. Before we went to the hospital we had turned on Toy Story 2 to try and distract him, so when we left he was upset that the movie wasn't over. I told him he could finish watching it when we came home fully expecting him to be asleep therefore forgetting all about it. We got home about 2:45 a.m. and he was asleep, but he woke up when I got him out of the car and he remembered the movie so I let him watch it. Chris was nice enough to take over and let me go to bed. I found out the next morning that not only did Dalin stay wake for the rest of the movie, but he wanted to watch The Incredibles so Chris started that one for him.

9:00 a.m. (I know, still not done?): We had a breakfast to celebrate my dad's birthday. After breakfast my mom and all of the kids shared their favorite memories of my dad. I think one of my dad's favorite things is to be surrounded by his posterity so it was just what he wanted.

It was a great weekend filled with family, friends and special occasions.