A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Today Rachel is 6 months old. She's old enough to have a half-birthday--how crazy is that! And we've survived parenthood for 6 months.

I don't know what is more remarkable, that Rachel has survived us for 6 months or that we've survived Rachel for that long. It's probably a toss up, but I think we're all pretty happy together.

To celebrate, I made a cake. A double layer pineapple-cranberry filled cake. I decorated it using Andrew's Christmas present to me. I had to hurry finishing it because we told my brothers that we'd come and play Quelf with them.


We get out of church at 4:00 and then we went home teaching and then we ran home and I finished up the cake and we hopped in the car, making it to my family's house by 5:45, on the dot--right when we told them we'd be coming.

Dinner was all ready, which was fabulous. I got to eat my fill and not worry about Rachel. And then after I fed her and we called Rosie to wish her a happy birthday (she's 11 today--Rachel was born on her half birthday. How fun!), I handed Rachel off to my parents, and we sat down to play Quelf. (We is Patrick, David, Garrion, Andrew, and me. Garrion is not my brother. He is Patrick's best friend and has been for going on eight years now so he's kind of like a brother, really...)

(I don't know why Andrew likes to take pictures of me when I feed Rachel--because I can't run away, I guess...)

Quelf is probably the most hilarious game I have ever played. It is like Curses, Cranium, and a few other fun games all mixed into one. My favorite part is the commentary on all of the cards--like on "What foods are poisonous to a parrot?" the answer was "Chocolate and Avocados," which was options B and D or something like that. Under the answer it read, "Go figure."

Funny, funny.

At one point I was cursed with having to put the box of the game up my shirt. So I stuck it up my shirt.


Patrick, however, was cursed with having to keep both of his thumbs in his mouth when it was not his turn--and had to touch both of his shoulders whenever he talked.

"Need a hint," the card prompted, "Cross your arms."

He looked something like this:


So while Patrick is sitting there looking like a moron, my mom walks into the room. Completely ignoring him she looked at me quizzically and asked,

"Why do you have a box up your shirt?"

"It's a curse," I sighed.

Satisfied with my answer she walked off.

Patrick mumbled through his thumbs, "Could be worse."

Ah, that it could. But apparently that is the kind of behavior my mom expects to see from Patrick...

I'll have to post some videos of the game tomorrow. I'm too tired to do that tonight. It's a hilarious game though. We were all in hysterics.


After the game was over and Rachel ate (again) we sang her "A Very Merry Un-Birthday" and each had a piece of cake (excluding Rachel). Dad even offered to break a candle and put half of it in the cake but since Rachel wanted to grab the cake anyway we decided that fire was a bad idea.

I can't believe that my little baby is that old. You realize that this means she'll be in nursery in a year! Yikes!