Birthdays

My Mom, Nini, and my brother's wife, Laine, were both born on July 14th so we usually celebrate their birthdays together each year. This year my brother, Jason, volunteered to host a cookout at his house and Helen made the cake. We were glad that Laine's mother, Judy, was in town to celebrate with us. It's always nice to see her and we appreciate that she's always been very thoughtful of the boys.

The birthday girls showed off the jewelery that my sister, Kelley, sent them as gifts. Kelley also sent Helen a necklace as a belated birthday present.

While we were getting ready to leave for Jason's, there was a milestone reached - Derek told Helen that he was going to try to start putting his bunny and blanket at the end of his bed instead of cuddling with them each night. He thought that he was getting old enough now and wanted to "try it". Adam ditched his bunny long ago (although he still sleeps with his baby blanket), so we were wondering when Derek would finally give up his beloved bunny and blanky. Of course, Helen teared up almost as soon as the words left Derek's mouth. There's rarely a day that goes by that we don't talk about how fast the boys are growing up and how we just want to bottle these times.

On the trip over to Jason's we jammed out to the boy's current CD of choice - Alvin and the Chipmunks. It's actually really cute and has a bunch of country music stars (Billy Ray Cyrus, Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, etc) cutting up - like when Alvin's girlfriend gets support from Tammy Wynette to "Stand By Her Man".