Little Lampateeze, Vaughn The Helper,
& Mark Nakao's Birthday
January 1st - January 12th, 2008

You probably thought that after such a great party at Amy and Brenden's house on New Year's Eve, that nothing could be more fun. Well, I guess we forgot that little Alvin was still around. He always seems to find something to really get excited about. In this case, it was a Nerf sword that Vaughn got for Christmas. Alvin LOVED it! So here he is New Year's Day having some time with his new-found love.

He also took some time to really examine his weapon of choice, much to Vaughn's dismay. Poor Vaughn has never lashed out at another kid for taking his toys. He just suppresses a cry and holds in the tears. This case was no exception. We eventually had to take Vaughn's sword back, which led to tears on Alvin's part. It was a tough situation, but at least we got some cute pictures of Lampateeze!

On January 2nd I got the cleaning bug and decided to take down our Christmas tree. I like to start the New Year out fresh, and that means a clean house with no pine needles! The whole time I was vaccuuming up the needles, Vaughn kept protesting because he was afraid of the vaccuum. (He wasn't afraid when he was younger). So I took the time to hold him and let him hold the vaccuum hose while I was holding him. Then I showed him how it sucked up the pine needles. Well, once Vaughn saw that the hose sucked things up, he was hooked! He wouldn't let me do any more vaccuuming, and he proceeded to get every last one of the needles that had fallen off the tree. It was so cute to watch him concentrating! Thanks for your help Vaughn!

The next week, on January 12th, we went up to Draper to visit the Nakao family. Mark and Julie got married back on November 17th, and we hadn't been to see them since then. But we also had a fun excuse because it was Mark's birthday the following Monday. So we were glad to be able to spend some time with them that evening.

You know how people say that they make kids toys for the parents? Well, it's true! Julie brought out some toys for the kids to play with, and the adults wound up having more fun with them than the kids did! They were these really neat metallic connecting pieces that you could build things with, and we actually spent quite a bit of the evening playing with them!

One of the neighbor girls that came over built this palm tree. Isn't that cool?!

Brian decided to take a different route. He found that there was little to no resistance between the metal pieces when rotated. So he built this neat structure, and gave it a spin. He timed it to see how long it would continue to spin, and it lasted for over 15 minutes!!! Yikes! We couldn't believe it! And Brian couldn't believe how much his arm hurt after holding it up for that long!

Later that evening, Mark and Julie's girls came out with quite a display. They had gotten some of the balloons and as you can see, gave themselves some rear enhancements! It was so funny to see at the time, but I hope it's not offending anyone right now!

This was definitely my favorite one. I think this would qualify as what people call a Brazilian Bum Lift. Have you ever watched a plastic surgery show where people do that sort of thing? It looks SO painful, and in the END, things looks a little weird. I don't think a person could pay me to do that!

After the "Shake Your Bootie Contest" we had some great desserts and talked for a little while longer. It was a really fun and relaxing evening, and best of all, we got to spend time with Mark and Julie. And Vaughn really enjoyed playing with their two girls Shelby and Kaylie. Thanks you guys for a wonderful evening, and again, Happy Birthday Mark!

Love, Lisa