Happy Birthday Bros!

Tim and I both have brothers whose birthdays are TODAY! Brian turned 22 and Nate turned 25!10 favorite things about Brian:

1. He knows his dorm room really well (because he is a studying machine)
2. He's super shy with the ladies (and actually finds most annoying)
3. He puts up being the only male sibling in the family real well
4. His dislike for Sean Hannity and most republican talk radio.
5. His long flowing locks of precious brunette hair (before he cut it)
6. His patience (especially with all of us female siblings)
7. He knows weird facts about EVERYTHING
8. His ability to cook really well
9. The fact that he is a total Momma's boy (so cute)
10. He is one of the kindest most patient men you'll ever meet.

10 favorite things about Nate:

1. His sexy beard (Tim's words)
2. His way with women
3. He rocks harder than a granite slab
4. He has exquisite taste in music
5. His Vespa is the besta
6. His flowing locks of sandy blond hair
7. He doesn't have a beer belly - "it is a fuel tank for a sex machine!"
8. His older brother (Tim) is one sexy man
9. He's (really) the nicest dude in the ranch
10.Nate can be counted on for anything

Happy Belated Birthday Dara!

So I'm just about a day behind and all of my family member's and friend's birthdays. :) Dare Bear just turned 24 on November 11th! Dara is my sister that is currently in law school in Minnesota. I have SO MANY memories from my childhood with Dare Bear! When my Dad and Step-mom lived in North Carolina, while my dad was doing his residency, we would play in the thick green and very wet forest behind the house and pick blackberries from the landlord's farm. In the evenings we spent the majority of the time catching and collecting fireflies in glass jars (that were not ventilated, and we were always so sad when we woke up the next day to discover they had died).
We were also notorious for putting on "poopet shows" (AKA puppet shows). When we were very little our plays would take place behind the big round boogery (thanks to Brian) papasan chair. When we got really good at the poopet shows we would make elaborate sets and charge the parents to attend these well practiced shows. At some point, Dara and I decided that we were too old for the plays and we became apart of the audience to some of these "lovely" plays, of which we have some recorded footage, and if I ever get my hand on it, I will post it!
Currently, you'll find Dara living in St. Louis, going to school, studying like a mad woman, and playing with her very naughty, but cute, oversized miniatured dachshund, Sophie. Happy Birthday Dara, I love you!

Happy Belated Birthday Erika!

Reeky turned 26 on November 10th! I thought this would be an appropriate time to take a walk down memory lane. Erika and I met when we were 8 years old and have remained best of friends ever since. We met on the ice at the Bountiful Recreation Center just weeks before the ice show. We were in the same flapper show program and Erika had the solo for our group (such a talented ice skater she was).
When we were little we would have "week-overs." We would literally live each other's homes for weeks at a time (during the school week and all). I have some great memories of our sleep-overs. We would call into Disney Radio and request outrageous songs in disquised voices. We would rearrange our furniture, sometimes breaking our beds and then we would try to discreetly hammer them back together. We would attach pillows to our bottoms and pretend to ice skate on the hard wood floors and would use the pillows as butt pads when we would fall.
Also...many of you don't know this, but Er and I are were once crowned the glory of the Fiesta Figure Skating Championship Ice Pair Shadow-dancing Competition. We had lovely red and black Latin dresses and we choreographed our entire number the day before we competed (this was after our parents paid to have it professionally choreographed and then we turned around and redid it ourselves).
Besides our Latin skating get-ups, Er and I liked to dress alike a lot. You would have probably seen us in the same attire almost everyday. We would shop together at the Gap and our parents would appease us by buying us the same thing. I would say we were attached at the hip.
Later in life, we would pretend to be sisters from England and when we would order food at restaurants with our oh so sneaky accents (they never knew we were American). When we woudl go on vacations together, people thought my little sister, me and Erika were either triplets or sisters close in age. We never disagreed and always played it up.
In our college years, Er and I shared an apartment together and found ourselves staying up all night with raging heat and a broken fan. Erika thought that by putting water on the fan it might make the propellars go around--we quickly found out that that doesn't really work well. :) Erika and I went onto graduate school together and currently you'll find her working for St. Marks as a clinical therapist and on the side making beautiful cards for her company, Plain Jayne Cards. But out of all of these memories, I remember laughing with Erika almost everytime I'm with her. Happy Birthday Er, I love you!

The Spooktacular Boo Crew!

Cutie Patootie Logan Grant as a little itty bitty Kangaroo
Tiny Gus as a little creepy crawly crab
Marucs and Jack as deadly reapers.
Tug from the dark side as Darth Vader

Nikki as a "boo"-tiful Glenda--good witch of the East