Happy Father's Day!

I thought we had a really nice Father's day this year.  It felt a little rushed in the morning, but it usually does when we have 9:00 church.  Our little tradition just doesn't do well with early church.  So we started out, just as usual, with breakfast in bed for Daddy (I feel bad about how weak this breakfast was.  I'm not sure what I would have done with it, but I was cramming to get things ready for my Primary class at the same time, so it wasn't my best cooking.  The sausage was a little overcooked, and the bacon was wimpy.... I couldn't find the nice thick kind at Dick's :(.... but Nate was really nice about it, of course), the kids were so excited to give him their presents, and we were in such a hurry that we made him open presents while he ate :).  Every year I let the kids pick out their own present for Nate.  Sometimes it's hard to not want to talk them out of some of the ideas, and sometimes I have to based on how much something is, but I try to let them really pick it out.  We started with Erika.  She put on the shirt she "picked out" for Daddy (Nate's really been needing some new clothes, so I let the kids all pick out a shirt for him and instead of wrapping it, we had them put them on, and model them as they brought him his present), it was gray and said, "Train Hard, Win Easy", then she gave him a bunch of pants and shorts and a white shirt for church.  Noah picked out the shirt with the superman logo on it :).  When I saw it I just knew Noah would be all for it :), he loved it.  Noah gave Nate a bat!  A bat that is just Noah's size :).  It was so funny when he picked it out, he said, "I wanna get this for Dad!!"  And I said, "Would that bat be for Daddy or for you?"  And he quickly answered, "For mmDad!  For Dad AND me!"  Made me laugh.  Wouldn't be the first time one of them bought a present for themselves Dad and them.  A certain Thomas train set comes to mind ;).... And that brings me to Luke.  Luke was very precise while picking out a shirt for Nate.  He wanted nothing to do with the clearance or sale racks, and he was set on one certain shirt, probably the most expensive one there, and wouldn't budge.  It was a nice shirt though, so I let him talk me into it.  It was perfect for Nate, he knows his Dad.  He didn't want to wear it to show it to him though.  Luke has a present idea that has worked for several years now whether it was for Christmas, Nate's birthday, he just knows it's a winner and that is what he wanted to get this year.  It just happened to be the same thing I was going to pick out to be from Erika (since I get to pick out her present :)), so I let him go all out and get him a REALLY NICE watch.  Usually he just picked one from the little $12 ones, and Nate has always worn them with pride.  But not this year, we just had to spoil him.  Luke picked out a really nice watch, the one I would have picked out in fact, and Nate loved it.  Just need to resize it a little.  Brad picked out a green shirt with white stripes.  He was very set on finding a green one.  It looked good on Brad and really good on Nate too :).  Brad's present was probably the funniest this year.  As we were walking through Costco, I had to keep turning down Brad's ideas.  They were just too much.  So when he came up with the idea to get the 53" stuffed bear that was only $30, I just couldn't say no.  So that's what he gave him :).  A giant stuffed bear.  We justified it later by saying that it would be the perfect thing for Daddy to lay on after church on sunday when we all crash in the family room.  It is pretty cozy to sleep on.... everyone's enjoyed it :).  Kelly picked out a very nice redish shirt.  And made him a duct tape wallet. She picked out some very attractive, neon green duct tape and worked SO hard on his wallet.  Making sure it had all the right pockets.  She loves to make her gifts.  It's kind of her trademark.  Charity picked out a blue striped shirt (blue being her favorite color of course, since green- Nate's favorite color- had already been done), it looks really good on him too.  Charity went all out and wrote Nate a song.  She sang it to the tune of Lullaby, Lullaby.... she also typed up one of her favorite stories from the Friend and red that to him as she gave him her present.  It was really thoughtful, and I had NO idea she had done it!  She searched EVERYWHERE for a book for Nate.  It was really hard to find one she liked!  She finally picked out a book called, "Daddy's Little Girl" Very sweet and thoughtful.  While we were shopping I had noticed that nobody got Nate anything fishing related!!  And normally we get him a fishing license, but I decided we needed something else.  So we got him a Gift Card to Dick's Sporting Goods too.  Hopefully he will spend it on himself.  That was our morning.  We made the maddest dash to get ready, and took stinky unbathed kids to church.  I did my cookies in Brad's class, turned out to be a really bad idea, frosting cookies for their Dad's.  The frosting was just too runny!  So Hayden had frosting all over himself.  That was a bummer.  Nobody else got any that I could tell, but I felt really bad about Hayden, and well, just wished I'd realized what a crappy idea it was before I went to all the trouble.  I wish I'd just done the Pop Rocks thing.  Anyway, the kids all sang to Nate in Sacrament meeting.  Luke kind of moped and dragged his feet, but once he got up there, he sang his cute little heart out, with his big smile, right out on the front row :)  Love that!  All of our kids are getting so big!!!  It's so crazy to me!  When they stand up there in front of everyone, with all the primary kids, I realize that they are not my little babies anymore!!!  So sweet though.  I don't know if Nate feels the same way I do, but that's one of my most favorite things about mother's day and Father's day.  That and the treat from the ward!!  HA! Just kidding.  Nate got a muffin this year!  When we got home, we hurried and had some lunch, and then we all crashed.  As usual, to one of our church movies.  Course the kids don't sleep as long as Nate and I.  It was nice though.  I made dinner, my Mom and Simon came and spoiled Nate with a gift, and then we ate and went up to Grandpa Hatch's house to wish him a Happy Father's Day.  We didn't go to Nate's Dad's this year because we were told they were going to be in Colorado, we were bummed to find out (too late) that He actually was home!  But Nate called and they had a nice conversation.  We had a lot of fun at my Dad's.  Gave him his cashews :) that's another tradition.  I always get my Dad nuts.  He had gone all out, spoiling us when we were supposed to be spoiling him and there was a smorgasbord of treats and food.  It was a very good time.  Minus the dumb movie my kids picked out on my Dad's Instant Netflix.  One hour and forty one minutes of pure torture.  Well, I shouldn't say that, it was only 24 minutes that I was sitting there "watching" it.  But that was long enough.  We did our little hershey's kiss song!  I was so happy that I remembered the kisses the night before.  We've actually been able to keep this tradition up for the last couple of years without me screwing it up and forgetting!  That makes me happy :).  Brent and Sarah were there too, so all three Dads sat there and got slammed with kisses.  They all carried it a little farther than I would have liked, Dad and Steve were having a fight with them, and seriously if a kid had accidentally walked through the line of fire, and been the recipient of one of THOSE kisses.... we could have had a serious injury on our hands.  They were having fun though.  That's always good right?  Kelly was funny, trying to clean up the kisses for the longest time, and getting really frustrated when anyone would take kisses out of her bowl to throw, and then as it continued, she was the one throwing bowlfuls of them around like she was in a parade or something.  I'm glad she changed her attitude, but I was also ready for them to be done throwing them.  I spent the rest of the evening trying to come up with a good, funny replacement for the kisses next year.  Something that we can throw, but still take a break from all of the madness.... just for one year :).  I thought it was a nice day.  I hope Nate felt spoiled and had a good one too.  Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!!