Happy Birthday Nathan!

It's hard to believe Nathan is now 10. Double digits. Two years till young men's. Nine years till his mission. More than half his life at home is done. You get the point. Here are Nathan's favorites:

• Sport: Basketball


• Color: Blue


• Book: Diary of a Wimpy Kid


• Dream Vacation: Hawaii


• If he had an endless food supply of one food: Ice Cream


• Ice Cream Flavor: Dreyer's Double Fudge Brownie


• If he could be any animal: Shark


• Summer Activity: Play Basketball


• What he wants to be when he grows up: Basketball Player


• Food: Rice


• Movie: Harry Potter


• If he had $10 to spend at Wal-Mart he would buy: Basketball Cards


• Primary Song: God Gave us Families

Nathan's day started bright and early. By 8:30 he was unwrapping presents so Dad could go to work. Things were going to be too busy by the time Jon got home from work, and we wanted him to be able to use his gifts during the day. He used his old bike to the point that he just couldn't ride it another day. It was in really poor condition. He has been wanting a bike just like Tanner's--so that's what he got. I love this picture because he is actually smiling. And it's not a fake smile. He thinks he has to be tough, and doesn't show his genuine happy emotions very often.

After school he had Tanner and a couple of friends join him for a laser tag game at Trafalga, which ended up including miniature golf, rock wall climbing, etc. After dinner family joined us for some cake and ice cream. Nathan got a Deron Williams jersey for Christmas. He loved it...for a month or two until he turned traitor. Nathan refused to wear the Jersey after that. Now he has a favorite shirt again.

No more traditional birthday cake. He has given up the character theme cakes in favor of his favorite Boston Cream "pie".

Last year I really didn't feel up to having friend birthday parties. I was feeling very pregnant for Nathan's birthday, Calla was due a few days before Anika's birthday, and it wasn't fair to let Tanner have one when the others didn't. So I promised them all friend parties this year. The blessing/problem with where we live: TONS of boys his age in the neighborhood. And when you invite one, you need to invite them all. Then there are the friends from school. We had to "limit" the number to twelve. I am so glad it was a nice warm day. Most of the activities we were able to do outside.

One good thing with a large number of kids is that you can play big group games. They are old enough to understand some of bigger kid games, so we had a lot of fun.

Nathan's #1 have to play game: The candy bar game.

With March Madness on everyone's mind, Jon drew up a bracket and they played on the pop-a-shot clear through to a championship game. The noise level left our ears ringing.

We love you Nathan!