COLE'S 8th BIRTHDAY

Happy 8th Birthday, Cole Brenden!

This past Saturday was his birthday, but we ended up letting him open all of his presents the night before because of his noon time game, Brooke's horse lessons after, and Nathan's need to be at work for the evening to work on a project. You know Cole sure didn't mind opening them early. I worked on the cake all afternoon and had it ready by dinner, but he didn't want it until his real birthday. Nice.

Thank you Uncle Tim, Aunt Leslie, Emiley, Carley & Dayley!Thank you Nana, Pa & Christopher!

Thank you Uncle Brent, Aunt Gena, Breanna & Caleb!

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa!

Strangely, I don't have a picture of him holding your stuff, but you can see him opening it in the video.

Can you tell he was a wee bit excited?

Less money spent on a big birthday party with lots of people allows for more money to be spent on gifts. I feel bad that we haven't done a big party since we've lived here, but I think it has worked in his favor so far.

For some reason, I really don't see the strong resemblance that most people like to point out.

Aww...Brooke loves her big brother!

Brooke also loves her some Troy from High School Musical, or as he probably prefers to be called, Zac Efron. I spotted her a couple of times giving him a little smooch. She says that he's her boyfriend. Wouldn't that be fantastic if he was?! We would never have to worry about money again! I kid, I kid. He's just slightly too old for her...For now :)

Nathan has been wanting the UFC game (since we love mixed martial arts) ever since it came out a couple of years ago, but there wasn't a version for the game systems that we had...Until now. That's probably why Nathan was all for getting Cole an Xbox 360 instead of the bunk beds that we were planning on getting for his room. That is until I realized how much they would cost after adding up the mattresses and all the bedding and stuff. Uhh...No thanks, I'll pass.Look at Nathan's face...He's in shock that Cole can figure out the moves so quickly and beat him.

Cole was actually pretty pleasant most of the evening...Until about 15 minutes after he finished opening his presents. He decided to start being a little punk to his sister and just about got himself grounded from his new stuff. Ugh!!!

That boy...I think he enjoys taking credit for every new gray/white hair I get. Some days it's hard to believe that he actually made it to 8 years old.

When will the nonsense stop and the maturity kick in?!?!?!?!