Good Deeds (and Dads) Never Go Unnoticed

We celebrated Nate's birthday last week. And in true Nate fashion, he spent the day watching all the younger kids while Clayton and I went to an all-day BYU organ workshop.  He also got them out doing yard work - pruning, aerating the lawn, raking soil, spreading grass seed.  I am married to such a good man!

I did make Nate's favorite lemon cake. . . which I totally botched. . . again!  It collapsed when I pulled it out of the oven (just like last year) so it tasted like a fat lemon gummy worm and looked like a squashed donut - waaaah. I almost cried.  But guess what? Everyone loved it anyway!

That's a lot of candles. . . 

It took two hands to light them all. 

We may be getting old, but at least one of us still has the lungs to blow all those candles out with one breath.

The kids made gifts and cards - all originals, as always.  Eliza wrote many many cute notes stuffed into a thousand envelopes.  She also wrote and wrapped this book called, "Turtle, Turtle What Do You See?"  In the end, all the different animals are suddenly surprised to see an enormous dinosaur looking at them!  Her own theatrical reading of it made this gift one of the best ever!

Lydia demanded Clayton help her with her card.  Which he did patiently and obligingly. She picked her favorite colors, drew a mermaid, and then dictated her message to Clayton.

She then threw a screaming tantrum when she thought he'd written the wrong words because she couldn't find the "S" sound at the beginning for the word, "Sank you".  No amount of explaining could convince her that "Sank you" is actually really pronounced, "Thank you."  You should have seen us all hovered around her with our tongues on our teeth channelling all the speech therapist skills we could muster.  In the end she finally (exerting all her effort) tried out the "Thththth. . .ank you" herself and then giggled, realizing we were right, and wiped her tears.  Nate loved her card. "Thank you for taking me to Weeki Wachi Mermaid Park.  I love you!"

Clayton made a funny pop-up card.

And an origami X-wing with it's own stand.

Isaac made a card with two airplanes - one with it's engine on fire and the other just nearby.  The caption read, "You're my wingman!  Happy Birthday, Dad"

I loved his drawing of our family inside.  He wrote: "Dear Dad, Happy Birthday.  I love you very much.  You set a good example fo me and I want to be a father like you. You are a great dad and you do everything a dad is suppsed to do.  You work to get money for our family, work with the young men at church, and have fun with us.  I think you are a perfect dad and I love you very much.  Happy birthday!  Love, Isaac"

On the next page he wrote his own joke:  "How many dads does it take to change a light bulb?  Answer:  Only one, but it will take him three hours to explain how he'll do it."  If you know Nate, you can appreciate the humor in this.

Brigham made a relief drawing of the front view of a hedgehog.

His cards always make me chuckle:  "I love you dad.  You're the best dad ever.  You play socker with me (sometimes).  You sign me up for baseball.  You let us watch Studio C on the computer.  You also teach us about stuff and do lessons on Sunday.  And earn money so we can buy nice things or food.  And most of all I love your humer!"

Eliza and Lydia also did some pretty great water color paintings of two of Nate's favorite animals.

Happy birthday to my Lego-building, grass-growing, hard-working, forward-thinking, garage-cleaning, bill-paying, church-serving, cougar-cheering, mermaid-playing, baseball-coaching, family-loving, book-reading, Bach-listening, scripture-teaching, pancake-cooking, cake-enjoying, wife-spoiling, life-appreciating amazing husband!  Your love saves the day every day.  You are my super man in every way!