Happy Birthday Times Two!

Today we celebrate not one, but two birthdays! Tonight we were able to spend time with Emily for her birthday. We were invited over to her friend Krysta's house for some pizza and cake. It was nice to see some old friends again and catch up a bit. The kids had a great time playing with cousins and other little friends. Thanks for inviting us!

Two quick memories of Emily that I have are one, when we were growing up, I remember Emily was usually reading something and learning and using many more words than I ever knew. I would tease her and call her "vocabulary-head". Now, I find it ironic that my name calling was a result of very low levels of my own vocabulary! I am very sorry Emily! If I could go back in time, I'd throttle the younger me and tell me to be more appreciative of your talents. Deep down I realize I was just envious of your superior linguistic acumen. I now subscribe to dictionary.com's "word of the day" in an effort to improve my own vocabulary. Hopefully I've learned my lesson. Better late then never I guess.

The other memory I'd like to share is when I was on my mission, mom put together a family tape one day and on it was a song of some old show or movie tune sung by Emily. I loved it because it just brought me back home. The girls were always practicing their singing and I got to hear Emily practice the most. The la-la-la, ca-keh-key-ko-cu, other vocal exercises seemed annoying at the time but I found I really missed that when I was far away in the mission field. So thank Emily for always sharing your tremendous talents with the family!

Now the other birthday belongs to our very own Jake! How exciting this year will be, old enough to receive the Priesthood and advance to the YM program! Time sure flies! Jake is full of personality and has a kind heart. It was great to spend some time with him this summer and he was really a great big cousin for our kids to look up to. Despite a bit of an age difference, he was more than willing to play with Ben and help him with his Legos toys. Ben really had a fun time. I was also impressed with how he looked out for Savannah and helped her when she needed it. He also has a pretty good Napoleon Dynamite impersonation you should check out sometime. Jake, hope you had a great birthday and hopefully our people can get together with your people again sometime, ok? :)