Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays

Ah, the month of March.  Gotta love it.  I love that it starts to get warmer in March but occasionally Mother Nature gives you a few days (such as today) to remind you that winter is not quite over.  March is also a month for birthdays.  We start off with my brother-in-law’s on the first, then Mark’s sister on the fourth, then a sister-in-law and a niece on the fifth, then another niece on the eight, mine on the ninth, Mark on the eleventh and finally my mother-in-law’s on the thirteenth. 

This year Mark surprised me with a new bike which I’m super excited for.  It’s so much better for my knee and we can now go on family bike rides to the park.  Just wish the weather would cooperate so we could actually do it.  I (sort of) surprised Mark with roller blades for his birthday, along with knee, elbow, and wrist pads.  He’s determined to learn how to roller blade.   Hopefully he doesn’t kill himself in the process.  We were able to get babysitters (my awesome nieces) to watch the kids while we went out to dinner.  I was finally able to get my sushi I’ve been craving.  It’s been over a year since I last had it, which was way too long.  We found a great little place on Main Street in Lehi, although their service was slow.

After dinner we were going to do some shopping and just walk around some stores but the car wouldn’t start after we filled up with gas.  Luckily there was a nice guy there to jump start our car and so our date night ended with us at Checker Auto and an employee there helping us replace the battery in the Hyundai.  Fun date, right? 

This year was a big milestone birthday for Beverley (Mark’s mom) so we planned a big party for her and tried to get all her kids together.  We got four out of five, which is pretty good.  Unfortunately, Mark’s brother had to work.  We were able to surprise Beverley with a mother’s ring.  She lost one years ago and really wanted another one.  She had no idea the kids picked one out for her until she opened the box.  The ring is gorgeous.  If you click on the pic it will get bigger so you can see it better.

The décor was centered around Scrabble since Beverley loves the game is really good at it.  Leslie bought a Scrabble game and my nieces glued the words on it.  Pretty clever.  (oh, and thanks Leslie for posting these pics on your blog so I could copy and use them!)

After dinner, chatting, opening presents and seeing a DVD that Mark put together full of pictures of Beverley and her life, it was time for pictures.

The story behind this picture is that in almost all of Mark’s  pictures growing up he has a hand on his hip and his hip is sticking out.  So all the siblings decided to mock him.  Although, I think Jeff is doing it the best here.

All we need is Tim on the far left to complete this picture.  Here they are in order of age (although going right to left).  Bruce, Beverley, Jeff, Leslie, Mark and Leah.

Here’s our attempt at a human pyramid with all the grandkids.  The kids have gotten heavier since we last tried this almost two years ago.  And somehow Nicolas managed to escape and not get in on the action. 

To end the night we put 70 candles on the cake and made Beverley blow them all out.

This is just a random picture but I love it because from behind you can’t tell I’m the aunt and I’ve got a niece on either side of me.  I’m in yellow, in case you couldn’t tell.   Tamsyn is on my right and we stood back to back that night and we are exactly the same height.  She’s sixteen and has been my height for a while now.  And on my left is Megyn.  She is quickly getting to my height as well and she’s twelve.

I love my nieces and nephews.  I love that my kids are so close with their cousins.  Their favorite babysitters are their four girl cousins Tamsyn, Megyn, Markee and Marin.  I have great memories of being close to some of my aunts when I was a teenager.  I have some pretty cool family.  Hopefully our nephews and nieces think we are pretty cool too.