Birthday Fun

This past Tuesday was my 26th birthday. Hooray! It was a great day (except for the snow). Clint and the kids did a lot of fun things for me. Mitchell and Caleb had a great time helping Clint blow up balloons. They loved learning about how to make them stick to the ceiling and walls.

Clint and the kids had a great time making the birthday cake. I am including a video of Clint making the cake. I apologize to any of you who may have found a surprise in your piece. Mitchell also had a great time frosting the cake. He really loves to help in the kitchen. He was able to count out all 26 birthday candles as well.

We had a lot of family and friends over for the evening. Caleb's favorite visitor was his pediatrician and uncle--Dr. Uncle Paul. He has been a bit shy lately about going to other people but didn't hesitate at all to climb into Paul's lap. I think the fact that Paul had chocolate cake sitting in front of him may have been a factor, but cake didn't persuade Caleb to sit with anybody else so it must have been due to genuine affection.

Thanks to everyone else who able to come! We really missed those of you who couldn't.

We have had a problem with our toilet for the past few months. It was leaking from the tank a few months ago so Clint got out his tools and fixed it.....almost. The major leak was gone but it was still leaking very very slowly. We weren't sure where the leak was coming from and Clint hates to do plumbing so it got put off especially as we started the sprinkling project. But the procrastination came to an end this past week when I noticed a large puddle of water near the base of the toilet. Clint eventually had to take the whole toilet off and investigate every piece to find where the leak was coming from. Unfortunately he had to replace more than just where the leak was (obviously you can tell that I don't know the name of the piece that was broken) but he also had to replace the connection from the wall pipe to the toilet AND the main water shut off valve coming in to the house. It was quite an adventure. Luckily he only took 4 trips to Lowes before he had it all fixed and the kids enjoyed helping him with his tools.

Friday evening Clint took Mitchell to a scout camp-out at Grantsville Reservoir. This was the first time that Mitchell had ever been camping. We have been too wimpy in the past to attempt camp outs with him because we didn't know how well he would sleep. We were scared for a reason. He did really well eating the tinfoil dinner, roasting marshmallows and hanging out with the scouts but when bed time came he could not sleep. The wind had really picked up and was blowing the tent cover around which was making noise. So this is what Clint heard all night.

Mitchell: Dad, The wind is being noisy.

Clint: Close your eyes and go to sleep, Mitchell.

Mitchell: Dad, Dad! It's really bright outside. (There was a full moon)

Clint: Just close your eyes and sleep.

Mitchell: Dad, I need to use the bathroom.

Clint: Go outside then and go pee.

Mitchell: Where?

Clint: Go stand by the car.

Mitchell: Okay..................Dad. It's cold.

Clint: Put on a sweatshirt.

Mitchell: (puts on sweatshirt and goes outside)...............................................Dad, it's too windy to go pee.

Clint: Just stand close to the car and pee.

Mitchell: It's too cold.

Clint: Just hurry and do it.

Mitchell: (Goes and relieves himself and comes back in)............................Dad, the wind is being so noisy.

Clint: Go to sleep.

Mitchell: Dad, I'm cold....I want to snuggle. (He then proceeds to drape his entire body over Clint's and continually kicks his feet against Clint's legs).

Apparently this went on and on during the night with a few breaks of sleep in between. We'll probably put him in his very own tent next time (if there is one!).

Saturday was another exciting day of working on the sprinkler system. Clint spent most of the day working outside in the wind. In the late afternoon he started noticing some microbursts and hoped that they wouldn't bring a large tree limb falling down on top of him. A few minutes later a microburst picked him up off the ground. The same microburst also blew over our neighbor's fence taking our satellite dish down with it. Our neighbor is in New Mexico working and Clint is going out of town tomorrow so it could be awhile before its fixed. In the meantime hopefully the fence will keep our neighbor's weeds at bay so we won't have to pull as many from our lawn.