Brothers

It seems that Elora and Joshua will be having another brother in just a few months. Naturally (I suppose) my thoughts have turned to my own brothers and their places in our family. After my sister, Kiera, and I, there are three boys:

"Jimmy" is the oldest, about six years younger than me.



Then there is Thain on the right (eight years my junior) followed by "Schnaupy" on the left. He's the baby of the family at 11 years younger than myself.
So yes, I used Thain's real name, mostly because the only nickname we ever teased him with was "Sally". And I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea.



As in any family, each of my brothers are very different from one another, proving that you can't really make stereotypes of what 'boys' or 'girls' are going to be like. For instance, Jimmy is the rebel. He graduated from college a year ago and now lives in Japan. But Jimmy comes in different flavors. Observe:

Pink.


Ace.



Curly.



Emo.



Ice.
Yeah, I totally made up those names just now. (Last two photos courtesy of Jimmy. He's pretty creative too.)
Like a box of chocolates, you never know just what you're gonna get. But don't let his colorful appearance set you off. Jimmy has a clever sense of humor that always keeps us amused.


Then there is Thain. On the surface, Thain may seem like Jimmy's opposite. Currently a student at BYU, Thain is friendly, though quiet, and reserved. Elora adores him and he's always willing to play with his nieces and nephews.


Just as in his youth, Thain is like a big boy scout: loyal, honorable, kind.... and ladies under 24....he's single! Wink, wink, nudge nudge.


He's also the first kid in our family to actually go to social things like school dances in high school, and to date before college. Way to go on being normal, Thain! Oh yeah, and he's an awesome sax player too, or so I've heard.





Then there is Shnauppy. He's weird. Okay, maybe he is persecuted in our family for being the youngest, and I know him the least because I'm the oldest. But Kiera and Thain at least would agree with me. (Please disregard any posts I may have previously written about said brother and how weird he is.)

In some ways, he's an amalgamation of his two older brothers. He is social like Thain, dating and hanging out with friends. But like Jimmy he also has no problems standing out from the crowd, dressing like a Jedi at school and so forth. He also has Jimmy's curly hair. Schnauppy graduated from High School a year ago, and hasn't quite decided what to do in life, (read: doesn't do anything) but hopefully he figures it out soon.



Anyway, while they're all very different, they get along surprisingly well, both in younger years, and today.


(Please ignore the mindless drone faces in this photo. Trust me, they're having fun.) No matter how Elora and our boys turn out, I can only hope they get along with each other as well as my brothers!

Joseph's Proposal (circa 2003)

No, it's not even close to my wedding anniversary, but I felt like sharing the story Joseph wrote for me when he proposed. It's not as long as it looks, though it does get off the subject a few times (Which is soooo like Joseph). Enjoy!

(Isn't this the coolest notebook ever? You have to slide the sticks to open it.)









(See, he's in a bear's cave and found some treasure...)







(Hey, grown-up William is kind of hunky!)






(Hmm, wonder who this could be?)



(We're up on that mountain..)


(Sorry, moved this while I was scanning it! That bunny is in most of the pages after this.)




(The small sign says, "Court Jester's Union." There's the bunny behind the tent on the left.)




(It was about here that I began to suspect this wasn't just a story.)






On this last page, he had glued several pages together, and cut out a hole to put my ring inside the heart. Aww.

Weird things I know about myself

I hate sitting on the back row.
This goes for the bus, classrooms, you name it. I would rather sit by myself in the seat of my choice (second row is perfect in a classroom) than sit by a whole row-full of friends in the very back. I always found it odd that on bus field trips everyone wanted to sit in the back where it was hot, crowded and noise. I was fine with sitting on the front row and having two or three seats between me and the rest of the students.
One time "Adam" a guy who kind of liked me, convinced me to sit by him in the very back of our summer Psychology class my Junior year in college. About fifteen minutes into the class, I was so annoyed that I couldn't make eye contact with the teacher or stay focused, that I got up in the middle of class and moved to the front. Adam and I never went out...but I think it had more to do with me saying I hated sports and couldn't run around the track even once: he was on the track team and thought I looked like the running type too. (Its okay, I wasn't really interested.)

I have to have a good reason for going to someone's house (or talking on the phone).
I had enough childhood experiences with friends avoiding me because I came over to their house too often, that now I am very cautious about imposing on others. I generally don't go to someone's home unless I've been invited, and the only people I call on the phone regularly are my sister and mom. Even though I had a telemarketing job (actually two) for more than a year, I am still very uncomfortable calling people, especially if I don't have planned out exactly what I will say. Joseph thinks its funny when I make him call people for me, which I do regularly.

I am also very uncomfortable with inviting others to my house.
As a youth I was always a little embarrassed about my house and rarely had people over, while in high school I NEVER invited people over (though I always wished certain people would spontaneously show up..but why would they?) Even now, I am a little antsy when people come over- even good friends- if I don't have exactly planned out what we will do. The idea of just having to sit and talk with no purpose is mortifying to me...though really, it usually turns out fine once they're here. I am NOT into entertaining guests! Poor Joseph, he never gets to invite people over.

These traits combined tend to make me seem aloof or maybe anti-social to those who know me, but really, I am so much better with social situations now than I was ten years ago!

The End

What we did on Easter

Because, you know you're not tired of it yet.



We've got all the regular Easter stuff (all on Saturday.) Coloring eggs,



Meeting the Easter Bunny (Elora wouldn't leave him alone and kept getting in other people's pictures...),



An awesome Easter egg hunt divided by age groups (always the best way to do it!). Josh was in the youngest category, 2 and under.



Elora was in the next group up, 3 to 5. She only got like five eggs (half as many as Josh, who gathered them all himself!) but she was still pretty happy about it.




Then there was the traditional enjoyment of the spoils.



We were so happy to not have snow on the ground this year! Although it snowed a few days later, but that's beside the point.



Hope you had fun too!

Picture Rotation time

At our house, it is time for picture rotation in the living room! I think we started taking new pictures every Easter because it happened to be when Elora was 6 months old (and 18 months, etc.) She's exactly 3 1/2 right now.
So this is Josh's current 8x10 in our wall arrangement. It's from last March (Easter of course) and he's only nine months old!


We got tons of cutie pics this year. I was going to have you help me decide which to use, but I ended up picking one before this was set to post. Still, I'd like to see what you'd pick if it were you. What do you think?


1.The appeal of this one is that its horizontal.. I won't have to change the frame orientation. And his mouth is so cute. Btw, I need to clean up all of these- you know, like that tale-tell white around his head. Oops.




2. Doesn't he look like a sweet boy here?




3.This is the one from the Easter post. I love how this angle makes him look so big!




4. He just has the funniest expression!





5. I love this grin. I also love that he's kicking his feet.





6. Okay, here I just wanted you to see his funny squinty smile. Its a mom thing.





This is Elora's 5x7 that is on the wall right now. It is from last April as well.



Which one do you think would look good in its place?

(So, when I cut her bangs, they always look straight when I first cut them..I don't know what happens to make them this way the next day. Poor girl: her hair always looks disheveled like her mother's.)
I just noticed how much her hair color has darkened since last year!

1.




2.




3.




4.


oh...and there is her deliberately 'sad' picture too:

6.