19 candles on this cake!

Happy Birthday to my "bee bee" brother Brad. I can't believe he's already 19 years old. I still remember him as a baby. I was 9 years old when he was born, and I thought I was his 2nd mom. I remember one time when he was a toddler and my mom was out of town, I stayed up late into the night with him as he crawled around and didn't want to go to sleep. It was so much fun for me and from that time on I couldn't wait to have my own baby! My mom tells us how when Brad was a baby, my sisters and I would run home off the bus because we couldn't wait to see him. He was THE CUTEST little baby and we all fought over who got to hold him, feed him his bottles, and take him out during church when he'd cry. (In fact sometimes when it was my turn to hold him during church, I would purposely make him cry so I could take him out. Evil, I know.)

Brad was spoiled with 4 older sisters but he deserved it for some of the things we put him through. We liked dressing him up as a girl and teasing him about girls when he got a little older. This is not a joke - Brad slept with us until he was about 7 years old or so (maybe even older?). He had his own room but every night he'd rotate who's bed he slept in, and we didn't mind at all. We ate it up because he is the baby of the family!

I have a few favorite memories of Brad as he got older. *Him & I used to drive around and look at Christmas lights together when he was about 10 years old or so. *Nobody in our family will ever forget the Lime & Chile experience. As a birthday gift to Brad, I won't tell about it on my blog, but it was hilarious and we always threatened him with telling the story at his missionary farewell. *He has a love for the movie "16 candles", just like the rest of our family. One year at Lake Powell, he put me and my sisters to sleep by quoting the movie word for word. That summer I think we slept on our family room floor every single night watching the movie, so we all knew it pretty good. But Brad had every line memorized. *A more recent experience that also involves the movie & our family's love for crank calling: About 1.5 years ago, my cell phone rang and when I answered it was an operator asking me if I knew how to take a TTY call (is that what it's called?). Anyway, it had been a really long time since I had ever talked to Amber on the phone, but I figured it was her calling me for some reason. I told the operator that I knew how to do it - and so she starts talking to me, relaying what the caller is typing in to her. It was so funny because the operator uses a monotone voice and she said to me "Jenny, Mike, Sarah, Sam - everybody up" (the first line of the movie). It caught me off guard and I was so confused. It took me a little while to realize it was Brad crank calling me and I still don't know how he managed to do it using the TTY system.

So my post is getting really long but I can't believe how fast the past 19 years have flown by. Kids grow up way too fast. Brad will be leaving on his mission to Brazil in less than 2 months, and it's crazy that he's old enough to be a missionary. Before I know it, Noah's going to be 19 and I already dread the day!

Happy Birthday today, Brad! We love you and appreciate the good example you are setting for us. We hope the next 2 years really are the best of your life, but we'll miss you. (The other day Noah asked me if he could go to Brazil with you.) Put your gift to good use and write us lots of letters!


I just had to include the picture below because I love the "Nacho Libre" look on Roxy.