Happy Birthday, Nate!

This morning we got up and Autumn & I went home so we could get ready for church.  Autumn was really good at church and as soon as we got out of church, she wanted to go to Papa & Mimi’s so she could see “Drew.”  We got over there and Andrew was zonked out on the couch and looked so cute, b/c he was holding his blanket and sucking his thumb and Emma was laying right next to him keeping watch.

The kitchen was a disaster area b/c Mom & Dad started packing up all the dishes in the cupboards for the big kitchen make over that starts tomorrow.  I had told Nate I would make him a funfetti birthday cake if he would let us eat the Cake Plate cake on Friday.  That was a fun adventure trying to find dishes to cook in and going out to the garage to get eggs out of the fridge, but I was able to pull it off.

For his birthday dinner, Nate wanted rouladen w/ spetzla & gravy.  It’s a German dish that Melitta taught Mom how to make when we lived there.  It is insanely delicious and we all ate until we were sick, but couldn’t stop b/c it was so delectable.

Nate was excited about his funfetti cake w/ funfetti frosting.  We had fun singing to him and spending time celebrating his life.  There are so many things I love about Nate.  He’s so much fun to be around.  He has that special Hatch gene that just draws people to him.  We have similar tastes in music and movies and humor.  He’s always stylish and has some wicked awesome dance moves.  I’m so glad he’s a part of our family (even if he gets away w/ murder b/c he’s the youngest).

We were joking about the funfetti cake, b/c we still had some Cake Plate cake left and I was saying, “Why on Earth would you want to eat the nasty funfetti cake when you could have CPC (Cake Plate cake)?  It’s like drinking dirty toilet water (the funfetti cake) when you could drink fresh spring water (CPC).”  But, the funfetti cake was for sure the favorite.

After we ate, Lex & Jon & Andrew had to leave so they could get home before it got dark.  We were so sad to see them go but were so glad that they came up to spend the weekend.  After they left, Autumn was good until about 6:00 and then had a MAJOR meltdown b/c she hadn’t taken a nap today and b/c she was so worn out from the weekend and her sleep schedule was off.  She got so upset b/c Mom & Dad didn’t have any milk and she wanted a bah bah and I kept telling her she could have water but she did NOT want that.  And right as she was having her meltdown, Mom & Dad’s home teachers came, so I grabbed her and all our stuff and headed home.

The tantrum didn’t stop when we left, either.  I had to hold her foot the whole way home b/c she was trying to get out of her car seat and I had to make sure she stayed safe.  We got home and her tantrum increased in intensity (which I thought would be impossible to do), b/c we also had no milk and she did NOT want water in her bottle.  She ended up having to go to time out a few times and I finally took her to the fridge and told her to get the milk out so we could make her a bottle.  I think she finally realized we really had no milk when I did that, and settled for a bottle of water.  She sat on my lap and was asleep within one minute of me holding her.  I enjoyed EVERY SECOND of it, b/c I never get to just hold and cuddle her and kiss her sweet little cheeks while she sleeps.

I tried to wake her up after an hour, b/c I didn’t want her to sleep too late and then not go to bed.  But, when I tried to wake her up it was like waking a hibernating bear and was NOT pretty.  So, I gave up and just let her sleep in my arms for 3 hours and then she finally woke up at 8:30.  I made us a late dinner and we watched TV and then she finally fell asleep at 11:00 pm.  It was party packed weekend.  I’m kind of sad my plans for camping out in the backyard and doing dutch oven cooking didn’t work out, but we still had a blast just being together.