Birthday Bash

For mine and Curtis' birthday we decided to take a trip up to Utah to visit the fam.  We flew up on Oct 19th just in time to celebrate Alli's birthday.

We have lots of October birthdays in our family, after Alli comes me and Curtis, and then my nephew kaleb.  All within a week!  So of course we had a big birthday bash for all of us.

As is custom with me, I forgot to take out the camera almost the whole time we were there.  So even though there is no pictorial evidence, we had lots of fun!  Curtis was able to stay almost a full week but then had to leave to get back to work, while Nathan and I stayed an additional week.  Nathan had a BLAST!  He loved playing with his cousins, and they were absolutely adorable with him!  Kaleb (who just turned 4) was always very mindful of "Naph Naph" (as he called him), making sure he was always happy.  He even let him play with his brand new toys that he got for his birthday.  Jaden, the oldest, is used to taking care of his little brothers and was therefor a pro at taking care of Nathan. On the last day we were there I asked Jaden if he could do Nathan's hair for me, since he is so good at doing his own.  He happily agreed and took Nathan by the hand into the bathroom where he wet, combed, gelled, and styled Nathan's hair.  Nathan just loved following Jaden around and loved doing whatever he was doing.  When Jaden wanted to play the wii Nathan plopped right down beside him to cheer him on.

(notice their matching hair)

Every time the boys would come over they would bring lots of swords and knives to play with.  They always made sure Nathan joined in on the fun. 

It was just so exciting to see Nathan finally interact with his cousins! Even Bradley (age 2) and Nathan had fun together!  One night I heard lots of little boy laughter coming from the hall, so I decided to take a peak.  I found Nathan sitting in front of the coat closet laughing his head off because Bradley kept popping out and making him laugh.  

Another fun thing Nathan got to do with his cousins was celebrate Halloween.  Bradley and Nathan were the best looking Batman and Robin I have ever seen.  Since it was raining the night of Halloween the boys had the great idea to go trick or treating indoors.  The divvied up the candy that my mom was passing out and placed a bowl of candy at each door of the house and went around trick or treating to all the doors.  The adults sat at each station while the boys went around and around and around and around for what seemed like an hour.  Jaden helped Nathan trick or treat and Nathan loved it!

The thing Nathan loved the most (aside from playing with his cousins) was going outside.  I guess he doesn't get out much at our house because we still haven't gotten around to finishing our backyard, and our frontyard is full of rocks which Nathan loves to put in his mouth.  Plus there aren't as many adults around to take him outside anytime he wants to go.  He quickly figured out that there were plenty of adults that he could weasel into going outside with him, and so he would grab someones finger and drag them to the back door about 30 times a day!  Even when it was snowing he wasn't deterred.  He loves being outside!

Nathan not only got to know his cousins better on this trip, but his Grandparent's as well.  And this kid could not get enough of his Grandpa!  Anytime my dad was home Nathan was by his side.  He cried whenever he left and would run to him when he came home.  Curtis and I went to a BYU football game while we were there so we were gone for most of the day, when we got home I was sure Nathan was going to be excited to see us.  I made the mistake of trying to take him from my dad's arms to say hi to him and he cried and cried until I gave him back to his Grandpa.  He must remember that it was Grandpa who came down to Arizona to build him his cool playroom under the stairs.  I think Nathan also prefers men, because once Curtis left Nathan was either clinging to his Grandpa, or his uncle Charles.  Of course Nathan quickly learned how much fun his Grandma is too.  He was a Grandma's boy by day, and a Grandpa's boy by night.  I am pretty sure that I could have left him for a week and he wouldn't have noticed.  He definitely has been more lonely and in need of more attention ever since we have come home.

A few hours before Nathan and I had to catch our plane Crissy and I decided we wanted sugar cookies (hey, we're pregnant, give us a break!)  We let the boys play with their own dough...

and it wasn't long at all before Nathan realized how good the dough tasted!

It was such a fun end to a super duper fun trip.  I can't wait for these kids to get together again!