Other birthdays and other stuff

Alright, now that Sterling has gotten his own post, I'll catch up on the rest of the news going on. This is the season of birthday's in my family. From March 12th to April 30th, there are 12 birthdays. (That I know of). All three of my brothers, my sister-in-law, my son, my niece, both of my brother-in-laws, my dad, my aunt, my cousin, and of course, my husband's, which I already covered. Whew! What a month! I, however, only intend to recap the ones with parties that I got to go to. Selfish, I know. Happy Birthday to all of you though!! 

My brother Ryan turned 19 the day after Austin's birthday and got his mission call!! Not on the same day, but in the same month. He and my other brother David came over for dinner and I made a cake. It looks good in this picture, courtesy of my fuzzy camera. Ok, let's be honest, it looked awful, but it tasted great!

He opened his mission call at his dorm on the 30th of last month. We video conferenced mom and dad in on it, so they got see/hear it, even though they weren't there. I took a video of it, hope you can hear it okay.

That's right! He'll be spending the next two years in the Chile Santiago East Mission. I was really annoyed because right after I stopped the video Ryan continued to read "You have been called to teach in the Mandarin language" to which everybody started yelling again saying "What?!". Then Ryan went on to say "Just kidding, I'll be speaking Spanish." It made everyone laugh really hard. So mad that I missed it. Hope one of his friends got it all on video.

Sterling also served his mission in Chile, though he was in the Concepcion mission. He says that Ryan has been called to serve in one of the richest neighborhoods in all of Chile. Sterling says there are parts of the town there in Santiago that make Beverly Hills look like a slum. Oh, what I wouldn't give to see that. Someday we'll go back down there to Sterling's mission.

My other brother David also had a birthday recently. He's 23 now. Wow. I just realized how old he is. We still have yet to have a party for him. We might do it on Tuesday this week, which happens to be my last brother's birthday. He's currently in Taiwan finishing his own LDS mission. He gets home June 20th (or so) and Ryan leaves July 21st (I think). So they'll get to see each other for a month.

The last little birthday party that I went to, we didn't even have cake. What kind of a party is that? Wait, I'm suppose to be eating healthy. Right. Blast. Anyways, it was for my brother-in-law and his wife who have birthdays in consecutive months. It was also for Sterling whose birthday falls right in between theirs. Fun fun. I love birthdays! Happy Birthday to everyone!

Apart from birthdays galor we haven't really been up to much. So I'll just post a bunch of pictures.

I baby sat Cami and Austin's cousin Beca a few weeks ago. The weather was nice, so we went to the park. This is how I got them there.

Playing on Uncle Preston. Hee-Ya!

Cami and I got haircuts recently. Her's has been such a rats nest. She wouldn't ever let us put it up in pony-tails or anything, so I took her somewhere and they did this. So cute! Now, I just curl it a little and she actually looks like a little girl. Amazing! Though she still insists on wearing a baseball cap everytime she goes outside. (As seen in the first picture.)

My husband gave me a miniature rose bush for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, it died the next day. But now, almost two months later, it looks like this! Courtesy of Sterling's green thumb. (Notice how my camera put the table in focus instead of the flower. Brilliant. I need a new camera.)

Cousins sitting together on the couch. I have a picture of Krista and me like this when we were little. Good times.

 

I think they used to make couches a little bigger back then.

Also, here's some other videos. The first is of Austin walking. I think he looks like a monkey. I love the way he holds his arms above his head. I guess it helps his balance. Or something.

This was Austin playing with his Uncle Preston. I don't know what was funnier, Austin dancing, or Preston. Austin loves music and whenever a good song comes on, he'll stand, just like Cami used to, and bounce up and down and wave his hands. Working on a video of that.

He also plays fetch with Sterling. Tried to get a video, but he decided to just run away with the ball rather than bring it back to Sterling for him to throw it again. Who needs a dog when you have a son, right?

This last is of Cami and Beca. Aunt Ruth took them out to get the mail and didn't want to be bothered with putting on their shoes and socks, so she loaned out a few pairs of her shoes. We got a good laugh of the two of them walking around like this.

One last thing, I'd like to give a quick eulogy to our fish Harry. A year ago on April 8th, we bought Harry and Lloyd, who were orange and white goldfish, and brought them home with us. They lived on the counter together for quite awhile. Some only believed that they'd live for a month, but both fish persevered. Then, tragically, four days before his first anniversary with our family, Harry went belly-up in his bowl. The cause of death is unknown as he had clean water and had been fed. Perhaps he was just old (for a goldfish). That afternoon he took a ride on the porcelain express where he will rest in peace forever more. Harry was preceded in death by his comrade-in-bowl and friend Lloyd who passed away last September. We will miss our little friends who were always so patient and never died on us even though I forgot to feed them time and time again. Their little bodies are gone, but their bowl remains and will someday be filled again. This time with a beta. RIP Harry and Lloyd. (Not pictured: Harry, Lloyd).