We've had a birthday, shout hooray!

JC turned 28 this week!
My blog is underlining my words again...I really need to figure this out.
But, before we get into the birthday fun, here's some other highlights from our week:

James spends a lot of time trying to bond with Scout lately.
Unfortunately, much of the effort toward bonding comes in the form of unintentional violence.
But, here we've captured one of the nice moments...these happen often as well.
Usually, while he's petting Scout, he can be overheard mumbling things like,
"Scout's a good cat."

We've been spending a lot of time in the music room. It's just so dang hot, even our most fun outdoor activities are on the back burner. But, the music room calls to us a couple times a day and off we go for some dancing, playing, marching, singing, and here:
a teeny tiny little piano lesson.
Because Bethany wanted to know how to play just one part of her favorite primary song.
I just assume leave the teaching to the professionals but I couldn't resist.

Ben's piano of choice.

So, getting on to JC's birthday, it came around on a Thursday this year. Just so happens, JC has Thursday morning off. Odd, I know. But it works out rather nicely! Especially for a birthday!
So, we spent the morning kind of hanging around, eating some yummy breakfast and visiting with JC's dad who came by with something fun for the kids (future post once we get some uses in!). Then, mid-morning, we decided to make something nice for daddy for his birthday.

Just the occasion for some water color paints.

While Daddy does this.
Seriously, what could be a better birthday present than a nap?
I can't think of much that is more treasured at this point in our lives!

By the way, he fell asleep watching this:

I thought it was worth mentioning.

Anyway...

When it came time for cleanup, our finished product was this...

and this.

Once he went to work a little later, we had the chance to display the lovely works of art and create some lego towers to act as celebratory statues.
Along with a hat that Bethany made from a piece of paper and crayons.

Everyone liked it very much.

We celebrated without cake this year, since JC and I just started getting pretty hard core about building healthier habits and he just really didn't want one!
And we celebrated without presents because since he is going hunting this year, he was reserving birthday money for a trip to Sportsman's Warehouse.

Which we actually went and did the next night on our birthday date night. Thanks to a willing babysitter in JC's mom, we went out for seafood and some shopping. Then came home to watch JC's free birthday rental from Hollywood Video. Who knew they'd ever make another Fast and the Furious worth watching?
I sure am branching out these days in the kinds of movies I'm enjoying.
But anyway, it was nice. And hopefully a good couple of days celebrating his birthday for him.

I always enjoy a reason to celebrate my sweetheart. He's a favorite.

Speaking of which, I am going to go hang out with him. I don't know what is going on today but I am BEAT and though it's a happy beat, it's a tired beat. So, off for some couch potato time before my new 10:30 bedtime I am striving to stick to. It makes such a difference when I do!

Guess whoever said that whole early to bed, early to rise thing knew what they were talking about, yes?


But first, a little story from our day - - today we almost didn't go to church. My back has started going out overnight occasionally (probably due to upping the intensity of my workouts) and I was feeling grumpy about it, the kids were fighting, we were struggling to get ready on time...we had sort of decided to let it slide.
JC and I were laying on our bed half wishing we were asleep, half wrestling with the boys and in wanders Bethany in her church clothes. Shoes and all.
I look at JC.
"What does this mean?" I say
"That we have twenty minutes to get ready" he says

And we did.
And we had a great day at church. One of Bethany's favorite ladies has become her Sunbeam teacher so she went straight to class with no tears (tears have become the norm lately after a slew of changes in teachers), Ben went to nursery without any problem whatsoever (unheard of), the fifteen year olds in our class were attentive and one of them complimented me on my shoes (sorry, had to be said, it made me feel happy), JC made it most of the way through priesthood without nodding off (about as rare as Ben going to nursery without problems), and I really really enjoyed Relief Society. I learned a lot and came away renewed in my conviction to do this lovely work of raising children and building the kingdom.

Thanks Bethany, for the good example.
We are lucky to have such a faithful little lady in our family.

Come to think of it, we're pretty lucky all the way around.