Carson's Big Day

I really tried to up my birthday game for Jonah and Carson's birthdays since we were stuck home. Over the last few weeks, after the little boys go to bed, Carson, Eli, Jeff, and I have been watching our new favorite show, Lego Masters. I've loved having a show we all enjoy that we can look forward to watching together. 

For Carson's birthday, I brought our Legos downstairs and made a Lego challenge for the boys to work on while I got crepes ready for breakfast. 

Carson got some (less controversial) artwork hung on the banister for his big day. 

My friend Leslie gave me the idea to do a scavenger hunt around the house for Carson's presents. 

It turned out really cute and I want to make a present scavenger hunt a tradition from now on!

Carson loves Legos, so he got a fire station Lego set and a fire truck Lego set. After opening those, morning entertainment took care of itself. 

Carson just wanted to play Legos and video games all day long, so that's exactly what he did! Then he requested spaghetti with breadsticks for dinner. Emphasis on the breadsticks. He made sure I knew the important part of the meal was THE BREADSTICKS! Mama delivered. 

Then he chose angel food cake for dessert. 

It just so happened that the Lego Masters finale was the day before his birthday, so we were able to watch the finale on his birthday. I loved that!

Carson's been cracking me up with his at-home studies. You never know where you're going to find him. 

Carson is always so sweet with Jonah. One evening he helped Jonah color a garbage truck picture. 

Carson turned 8 this year for his birthday, so that meant it was time to get baptized! We debated a little bit on whether to hold off on his baptism until stay-at-home orders were lifted, or if we should just go ahead with it without anyone being able to attend. 

Because everything has been so uncertain, we didn't want to be in limbo of waiting for things to open back up, so we just decided to go forward with his baptism as scheduled. The great part was we were able to do a Zoom call so all of our family and friends were able to join in that way. We had more people "there" this way than we would have with a traditional baptism, so I think that turned out to be a neat way to do it!

Jeff's parents were able to come. We were happy to have the extra hands as Lincoln and Jonah proved to be a handful with me manning a camera and Jeff trying to keep the show running smoothly. It was nice to interact with some friendly faces after so much time being stuck to ourselves! 

He did it!

 Mary made Carson a blanket with some fabric her mom had given her. Carson just named it his "movie blanket" and cuddles up with it whenever he's chilling on the couch.

Teresa made this cute pillowcase to help Carson remember his special day. Their family also sent a bunch of sweet notes and pictures. We miss them and appreciate their thoughtfulness! 

Carson is such a good boy with a kind heart. He is sweet, gentle, and compassionate with everyone he meets. He is creative, clever, and has a great sense of humor. He loves to take care of babies and animals. He is good at following rules and likes to do the right thing. It's been so fun to watch Carson grow and mature. He's turning into a little man and we're so proud of him. 

Jonah is Three!

We had our first quarantine birthday with Mr. Jonah! I sat down with the big boys before bed the night before and we all made pictures for Jonah to wake up to. It turned out to be a great idea because it helped the older boys to spend some time thinking about their brother and what would make him happy. Jonah loved waking up to all the pictures made special for him!

Jeff drew Jonah a picture of Gekko from his favorite show, PJ Masks. Jeff drew from a picture he found online, and as soon as he was done he proudly showed Eli and Carson his picture. Eli and Carson were quick to point out Gekko doesn't wear a cape and began incessantly questioning why he had drawn Gekko with a cape. Jeff said he was sorry and didn't mean to cause such a revolt with his picture.

Jonah came down in the morning, quietly took in the sight of the balloons, the presents, the banner, and then his eyes found our pictures. He proudly admired each one without saying a word until he got to Jeff's Gekko picture. He scrunched up his nose and uttered the first sentence of his birthday, "Why Gekko have cape on?"

Jeff really caused a stir with his drawing. Ha!

Another thing that caused a stir was one morning when we were getting ready for church. Lincoln wasn't wanting to get ready, and as I was pulling his clothes out of the closet I noticed the brand of his church shirt was "French Toast." I hadn't noticed that before and thought it was just the ticket I needed to get Lincoln to put his shirt on.

"Lincoln, come look at this! Your church shirt is a FRENCH TOAST shirt. Isn't that funny?!" I called our from the closet.

Lincoln did not come running, but Jonah did, "I want french toast!" He enthusiastically announced.
"No. I'm not making french toast. Lincoln's shirt says French Toast on it. Isn't that funny?"
"I want french toast." Jonah continued...for the next four hours.

Jonah was actually sick that day and stayed home with Jeff where Jeff listened to Jonah tell him he wanted french toast for the entire duration of church. You can guess what we had for dinner that night and you can guess what the french toast fanatic had for breakfast on his big day.

Oh, here's a close up of what Lincoln drew for Jonah. All the boys were so cute. Before they started drawing, they all said, "Hmmm...what does Jonah like? I know!..." and then the scribbling began. I just really loved seeing them put that thought and effort into something for someone else. Melted my heart.

Then it was time to open the presents! When you have a birthday in quarantine, turns out you get pretty good presents because Mom's eager to give the kids an easy boost of entertainment!

This Duplo set has been one of my most favorite toys we've ever gotten. We love Duplos and Legos anyways, but this one has a bunch of cute animals and characters that the boys have been playing with for a month straight. Major win!

His favorite animal from the set has been the whale. I don't think he understands the irony of that just yet so I'll leave that info here for older Jonah to appreciate.

We "went out" to eat for lunch on Jonah's birthday.

We had to go out because it was garbage day! Didn't want to miss a minute of the show!

I bought this little Dr. Seuss book set for like $4 on Amazon, purely because it was a good deal. Little did I know it would be Jonah's favorite gift of the day. The books came in a little box with a handle that Jonah called his suitcase. He carried that thing around with him everywhere he went all day long.

Grocery pickup was impossible to schedule and I wasn't ready to venture into a pandemic-panicked grocery store, so we skipped a cake and tried a giant cookie with ice-cream for Jonah's birthday dessert. It ended up not being Jonah's favorite, but I think I've found my new birthday dessert from now on. 

Happy Birthday to Jonah! Jonah is such a fun addition to our family. He adores all of his brothers and does an impressive job keeping up with them. He is a quick learner and is very persistent and observant when he is working on figuring out a new skill. He is a goofball and loves showing off silly antics for the family when it's dinnertime. He is brave, tough, and resilient. Whenever he gets hurt he brushes himself off and gets back to whatever he was doing. We love Jonah!