Bridger's Birthday

Today was Bridger's 3rd birthday. Jared is currently giving Kellen and Bridger a "special birthday pass" on a reasonable bedtime. They're watching a movie of some sort.

So today we treated Bridger to oatmeal (one of his favorite foods) with dinosaur and orange sprinkles (his favorite color).

Then we headed to Sam's Club to pick out cupcakes for his party. Out of birthday theme, Elmo, basketball, or Spider-Man, there wasn't even a moment's hesitation. The Spider-Man cupcakes had it. Then we got some individual milk boxes and waters and some Sonic ice and headed home to get ready for the party.

At 1:00, we met some cousins, aunts, Grammy, Grandma, and Grandpa at the park to play, open presents, and eat cupcakes. It was pretty windy, but I think the kids all had fun. When Bridger asked who would be at his party and I started listing some cousins, I said Rilla, and his face lit up: "Oh RILLA, that's my friend." Such cute cousins.

He opened up his presents. He got a basketball, Batman cave/house, and a flashlight/headlight set from Mom, Dad, and brothers. Grammy got him a Batman shooter Batwing to go with his Batcave. Grandma and Grandpa got him a remote control truck. The remote control is just a wheel so it's easy to control. Rilla gave him some candy and a card she had drawn. She even wrote her name, it was so cute! Ben and Abby gave him "Tale of Despereaux," which is a really cute movie. When we got back to the house, the boys played with the new toys for a really long time. When I first asked Bridger what his favorite gift was he said, "Rilla." I didn't know she was a gift.

(This is what happens when a man wraps the presents and/or you've just moved and can't locate regular-old Scotch tape.)


Thanks to everybody that made such a great birthday for him. He loved all of the attention most of all!

For dinner we took them to "a surprise special birthday fun place" which was Peter Piper Pizza. The boys had fun playing and Bridger got most of the attention with Mom and Dad both helping him out with whichever games he wanted to play.

(This wins the Guinness World Record for SLOWEST and SMALLEST Merry-Go-Round on earth. 2 tokens and even Kincade looked bored.)

And Jared threatened that if I didn't post this picture, he would:

Why did I EVER volunteer to play that stupid shooter game with him?

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #30

I'm thankful for my birthday boy, Bridger Gunn. He turned 3 today. Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Some funny things he says/has said:

"My underwear is all fudgy!" (uh...I don't even WANT to know what that means)
"Kincade's hair is all angle-y." (where did he even find a word like that?)
"Kincade's going to have that flashlight FOREVER." (everything is forever)
"in the whole wide world" or "whole entire city" (if it's not forever, it's in the whole wide world or entire city - trust me, it sounds funny coming from a 2 year old)
When asked if he wanted a baby sister: "How about.......no." (He uses 'how about' to answer just about any question.)

He's notorious for his "thoughtful" expression (somewhere between a scowl and a questioning face). People say he usually has it on because he's always assessing the situation, the people, the discussions. He's always thinking. People have been saying he has a serious face since he was a baby (poor kid will be like his mom with the serious face).



He always claims he's not tired. You can see how "not tired" he was:


If you know him at all, you know that he has been potty trained for several months and he takes off everything from waist down to go. Then he runs around half-naked as long as he can get away with it (which is usually most of the day). I don't think he cares whether he's dressed or not, it's just easier not to get dressed again, so he doesn't. I don't complain since he takes care of the actual potty issues all by himself.

Bridger always has been and remains such a fun kids to have around. He's constantly cracking us up and then surprising us with his sweetness (I'm not sure why it continues to surprise us...). He is sometimes slow to warm up to people and situations, but once he does, he has the most infectious, bright, intriguing smile.





I've always said that pictures cannot do Bridger justice. His cuteness is really created by his fun personality. I want to remember this stage forever! Pretty soon all I'll have will be pictures of his third year of life and a lot of the day-to-day memories will have faded. It makes it a bit sad for me that he's now 3.

Bridger, you make each and every day brighter because you're in it! Your facial expressions, the words and phrases you say, the things you do, and the way you do them bring us so much joy. We're glad you're part of our family! Happy Birthday Crazy Silly Boy!

(C'mon admit it, how cute can one kid get????)

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #29

I'm thankful for a purse-toting, big-stick-carrying, brother-idolizing Mama's Boy 1-year old. He does anything and everything his big brothers do. He carries a purse like Mama (he even says purse). And he manages to locate each and every stick-like device throughout the entire house. But, oh my goodness, is he a fun kid to have around. He's also a very thoughtful kid (not in the kind sense, in the other way). If you tell him to do something, he'll resist at first and then after considering it for a few seconds, complies happily and willingly. He's not the kind of kid to do impulsive things (unless following a certain impulsive brother).

His current purse (better than the original sequined Wonder Woman purse he had picked up):


One of his big sticks along with his mischievous face because he was trying to sneak it inside (they're now confined to the garage or backyard):


My frequent view of him begging to be picked up:


Big brother Bridger is his hero:


I'm so glad we have this boy in our family. Life would just be boring without him. ;)

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #28

I am thankful for Kellen. He's been with us less than 5 years, but it's hard to remember life before him. He's such a sweet kid and brother. He tries so hard to do what's right and make people happy. He is one of the friendliest kids I've ever known. The other day he says to Jared in Lowe's: "I'm going to say 'hi' to everyone I see. Well at least he people who work here." (He can't tell the customers from the employees, so that meant every single person.) The other day he said hi to some random person we were walking by. People are always somewhat startled by this and it often makes me giggle. But this time he noticed and asked me why I was laughing. I said that sometimes people don't always expect you to say hi and they're surprised and I think it's kind of funny. He asked if I was laughing at him, and I said no, not at you. Then he was satisfied and went on his friendly old way.
He loves to have parties, look at recipes, and plan things (Mama's boy). He also loves to learn, read, and play. He's so much like his Dad in so many ways. We're so thankful to have him as a son. I'm thankful for each day I have with him.

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #27

I'm thankful for pictures. It's hard to imagine that a short many years ago, pictures were extremely uncommon and very expensive, I'm sure. It's so amazing that I can now take hundreds of pictures each year. Even when I was a kid, I remember cameras and camcorders being such a big deal. And then to get the pictures printed was also expensive. Now there's so much competition for picture-printing (you can even do it right from your own home!). But now I don't have to worry if the picture I took was really worth printing, because I can keep all of my pictures on my computer to use and print anytime I like. Here are some of my favorite pictures (I have too many favorites to show them all):


Bridger - Thanksgiving '07


Cousins at New Year's Eve - Bridger, Rilla, Riley


Bridger's newborn photo shoot - Courtesy of Still Life Photos and good friend Matt Wheeler (http://stilllifephotos.com/index1.html) This photo shoot is where the "crying pictures" came from that I have up in my house.


Kellen in New York '06


holding Kincade

These pictures really are worth a thousand words. They were all taken the same day. And you can see what Jared was doing in the last picture.




(By the way, I'm sure this was actually my fault. And it was worth the grief of cleaning it up because I LOVE these pictures. They make me smile every single time I look at them.)

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #26

I am thankful for Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday. I get to eat dinner at two places, with turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, my Mom's yams, fruit salad, bean salad, rolls, corn, green bean casserole, and pie. What more could anyone want from a holiday? Oh yeah, I get to be with family. That's a perfect holiday if you ask me.


Kellen has been looking forward to Thanksgiving for weeks. He kept asking about eating turkey and finding the wishbone. I finally asked him where he learned about that and he said from reading a book at Grammy's. Unfortunately, no one saved the wish bone and he was quite sad. But I promised him that when I cook our $4 turkey, I would save the wishbone for him. He actually did eat the turkey and fixins. Good boy.


This is the place setting at my parents' house. My mom always goes above and beyond when she hosts. You can see the pumpkin rolls that she picked up at a bakery (but the place settings are still paper and we still get our food buffet style!)


My mother-in-law, Carolei. She hosts for 50-100 people at her house every year. Good thing there's a big backyard! And we live in Arizona. It was actually quite warm and sunny this year.


Part of the spread at the Phelps'. It's so much food! For both dinners, I ended up making 3 no-bake pies, bean salad, fruit salad, and corn (my best dish according to Jared ;).

It was a great day. Can't wait for next year!

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #25

I'm thankful for the water on the earth. Maybe that's a weird thing to be thankful for. But I love natural landscapes with water. Be it a waterfall, lake, river, creek, dam, ocean, or puddle, I love the water. I think it adds such beauty to the earth. Not to mention the nourishment it provides our bodies.

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #24

I'm very thankful for Jared's job. Not only does it put a roof over our heads, food on our table, cars in our garage, and more, but it allows him to work from home while doing all of those things. Some days it's a curse, but most days it's a blessing!

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #23

Is it bad if I can't think of anything I'm thankful for because I'm sooooooooooo tired? I can't think of anything but sleep. So there it is. I'm thankful for sleep!

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #22

Why does it always have to be someone else's poor health to remind me to be thankful for my own good health? Bad practice on my part I suppose. But I am thankful for my good health!

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #21

I'm thankful for my new house. We finally got everything moved in. Life has been crazy crazy which is why my "thankful things" are late. Sorry to all of my faithful blog followers. hah

There's still painting to do and boxes to unpack, but we're officially here! Here's what it looks like right now:






Unfortunately, once we were set to move in and I started "touching up" the paint where there were drywall repairs, none of the colors really matched. So, I basically have to redo all of the paint throughout the house, which has its pros and cons. I'm really enjoying it even though it's in shambles! I'm loving my second pantry (my bro-in-law calls it my "appliance garage"), the 3rd car garage and cabinets, and the game room. My kids are loving dumping out all of the toys onto the floor. Can't wait until we can get everything in, but it already feels like home!