Nick's Super Great (or not) 8th!!

Somehow this little boy of mine has gone and turned 8 years old! Around here 8th birthdays are a huge deal!! It's the year that you get baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is the most important birthday of all because you make one of the greatest decisions ever. We're so proud of our awesome Nickolas and the decisions he's making!!

Nick's birthday did not start out too great. I woke up at 4 am with a raging migraine....the worst I've had in forever. I was way too sick to even get any pain killers to stay down and could barely lift my head when the kiddos woke up in the morning. Poor Ben had to suffer with me so he was sleep deprived too. Then to make matters worse, little Lex came climbing into our bed with a burning fever. So poor Nick didn't get his pancake breakfast or any special treatment the morning of his birthday. He said it was the worse birthday morning ever! Sad!! Ben stepped in though and took Nick to Krispy Kreme to get some donuts for his class and that made things a little better.

 Luckily I felt better when it was time to go out to dinner even though Alexis was only okay because she was loaded on Tylenol. We went to Brick Oven pizza to get both the boys' free birthday meals. Alexis got progressively more miserable throughout dinner and was burning up towards the end. We decided it was probably time to take her to the Dr.

On the way to the Dr. we noticed that they were about to light the Y on the mountain for graduation....or maybe it was for our little cougar, Nick's birthday?

It was a good thing we headed to the Dr. when we did. We found out that poor Alexis, now with a fever of 104,  had strep! Oh, we're so sick of strep!! So, after a trip to the pharmacy, we finally made it home nice and late to get to open presents.

Even though Nick's actual birthday wasn't too awesome, his gifts were! He was stoked to get some Ben 10 guys (we scored a bunch on clearance!), some books, and of course, LEGOS for our LEGO maniac.

The day after Nick's birthday was much better! Alexis was still not feeling too awesome but luckily my parents stepped in as babysitters so that Nick's big birthday party could still go off without a hitch. If mom & dad can't be there, grandma & grandpa are the next best thing, right? Thanks so much Mom & Dad for filling in last minute!!  My parents are awesome and always get the grandkids their very own quadruple set of scriptures for their 8th birthdays. Nick was so excited to finally get his. What a special gift that he'll always treasure!!

It's been a tradition for the girls in my family to have their 8th birthday party at the Lion House. After Skylar's 8th birthday Nick asked if he could have his 8th birthday there too. I figured why not? I don't know why the boys haven't done it, but we decided Nick could be the first. So, no kidding, I booked his birthday almost a year ago. In fact, the very first day that you could book for 2012, I called in about an hour after they opened, and the time slot I wanted was already gone! It's that popular!! Anyway, I was still able to get my second choice and so his birthday party has been in the works for quite awhile. The nice thing about it is that mom doesn't have to do anything (but pay....haha!!)! This is especially nice for my kids 8th birthday since we also have to plan out a baptism on top of it. I think we might keep up this tradition!

Somehow we made it through downtown SLC with 10 boys to the Lion House. It was a beautiful day but for some reason the boys didn't want to take a ton of pictures! Boys!

Since Nick was the special guest of honor and sit in a fancy chair. I'm pretty sure it's the same chair I got to sit in for my 8th. I love that everything is the same. There's only one difference between a girl's party and a boy's party...the hats! The boys got to sport these cool coonskin hats (as opposed to bonnets). They loved them!

I think Ben looked especially mountain-manish with his on and his gnarly beard.

We went on a tour of the Lion House and got to see some of the cool things that Brigham Young had set up. He had that house very organized for all of the wives and children he had! One of my favorite things was the chairs that he made for each of his wives. He had each wife go sit in the snow so that he could get an imprint of her behind. Then he took measurements and made each of his wives their own special chair that fit their rear end just right. It's kind of crazy to feel the difference when you sit down. They boys got to play a little game of musical chairs so they could feel the difference in each chair.

They also played pioneer games like hiding the thimble and Button, Button.

Then it was time to pull taffy! This is always fun! The boys really loved it!

Then it was time to eat! The hostess told about how Brigham Young was always nervous that he'd get food in his beard so he would eat with a bib covering his beard. Maybe we should do this for Ben?

It was then time for cake & ice cream & singing to Nick!

The cake is not only super yummy but it has a special surprise in it. There's a gumball cooked into the cake. This is an old pioneer tradition. Whoever finds the gumball will have an entire year of good luck. Way to go lucky Oliver!!

Then it was present time and of course Nick got spoiled!

Even the Lion House gave Nick a present! The girls always get porcelain dolls. I still have mine! But for the boys, they give them a tie tack and a stuffed lion. Nick was so excited to get that lion, which he named Brigham! He also got some pioneer gifts....a bag of sunflower seeds that he's supposed to eat one each month mark of his birthday and some sugar cubes, which were super special back in the day.

Here are all of the boys with the party hostess, Brittany. She did a really great job and we all had a really fun time!

Ben and I were glad to see our Nickolas have such a special birthday party!

On Sunday I made Nick's favorite dinner, spaghetti & meatballs and we also got to eat the leftover cake from the party. As you can see, Alexis was finally feeling better, however that night Nick started complaining of a sore throat. Yep, he had strep too! At least we got the fun stuff done before he started feeling icky!

Happy Birthday to our awesome Nickolas Duncan!! We are so glad you're our kid!! We are so excited to see you growing into such an amazing person. We love you!!!!