Party Time

Yesterday I had a faculty meeting at work. To my utter amazement, my co-workers surprised me with a baby shower/party. Among other things, they gave me some balloons. Nancy, one of my colleagues, told me to take the balloons home and let the kids play with them. Well, I wanted to let her (and the others that contributed to this wonderful day) experience some of the excitement they felt when they woke up this morning to several balloons awaiting them. They truly are amazing kids that bring so much joy to our life. I am also blessed to work with such wonderful people who would go out of their way to make somebody's day. Heather and I are extremely lucky.

A Little Breakfast Entertainment

I thought you all might like a little breakfast entertainment. Katie wore an outfit today that I've wanted her to wear for many days, so I was already thrilled. Then she decided to humor me with a little song. Enjoy!

Can you do that when you're 7 1/2 months pregnant?

The circle of friends that I walk in currently consists of at least seven pregnant women (my apologies if I left anyone out). Among those friends there is a wide discrepancy on how they do or do not follow the doctor's orders. Some are incredibly cautious and follow the rules to the t. Others, I shan't mention any names, are a little more relaxed. None, however, are as uber cool as my beautifully pregnant wife. Don't fly within the last trimester? To heck with you all. I'll do it anyway. In fact, I may not come back until I have three and a half weeks left.


Be careful what you do for exercise, for you may not want to over exert yourself. Pish Posh. I've been doing the Baker bop, a slightly provocative dance move that originated with Mrs. Virginia Baker, for years. Doing the Baker Bop on a consistent basis is not only fun but it allows you to keep that pregnancy weight down to a minimum.

And finally, you should be careful not to do anything where you might risk falling because falling can be potentially dangerous. I'll see your caution and I'll raise you one. I'll go ice skating on a rink in the middle of Sacramento where it is 59 degrees outside, the ice has more bumps in it than a elementary school parking lot, and I will do it all while looking super hot! Doctors beware. This may not be your ideal patient, but she does make for a phenomenal wife, not to mention mother of the year. We are truly blessed to have her in our midst.

Remember, I'm a Baker

This blogging site was originally dedicated to the Brimhall/Baker family, with the intention to teach people what it meant to be a Baker/Brimhall. I'm not sure I've met that objective, until now. They say a picture paints a thousand words. Now I may not want to know all of the words this picture paints but at least it gives you a little glimpse into my life as a Baker.

Imagine walking down the streets of Sacramento and seeing this herd of...walking blueberries, smurfs, Kevin Feterline wantabees, fill in your own blank here ______. It is a site that is hard to comprehend. 15 people dressed exactly alike, from middle aged to 8 months old. Would you find it even harder to believe that Shelby and Heather found these hats the day of? And they matched the sweaters remarkably. They definitely made the outfits, not to mention the night, a little more lively. Overall, I think Baker and Lindsey get the reward for pulling off the outfit the best.

Although Uncle Jim gets an honorable mention:

Baker Turns Two--Part Two

WANTED!

Lest you think Baker's Birthday Bash went off without a hitch, let me introduce you to Lip-Smackin' Lindsey Louise. From all accounts she is wanted in several states. You may ask yourself, what is such a sweet, young, innocent child wanted for? Don't let her crocodile tears and pouty lips fool you. While we were all minding our own business Lip Smacking Lindsey Lou snuck into the dining room downstairs, where the train cake was securely fastened under several layers of the finest protection. Once there she dismantled any attempt to keep the cake secure and laughed in our general direction. Unfortunately, she did not plan on getting caught. Now she is doing time in the Prison of Shelby, a small isolated cell in central Florida. Her sentence has yet to be determined. However, in talking with other criminals that have spent time in the Prison of Shelby, the outlook is bleak. I happened to catch up with "Table Knawing Nathan" a few years after serving time. According to him, he's never had to wash as many garbage cans as he did after being locked up there. "It's amazing," he said. "One minute I am the life of the party, thoroughly entertaining all of my cousins, the next I'm up to my elbows in garbage pails and toilet bowls." All we can say is that we hope that moment of delicious, unresistable, frosting was worth your years of servitude. Good luck Lindsey Louise!

Though witnesses claim she tried to deny it, here is a picture of the aftermath:

Baker Turns Two

On Saturday, December 22nd, Baker finally turned two. It is an event that we have been anticipating for several weeks. We are still trying to adjust our schedules and family traditions around having a birthday boy in December. I wish I could say that we've successfully managed it thus far, but I know it doesn't rival the parties we've thrown for Katie (although you'd never know due to Heather's ability to create magic from the Internet and a couple of pipe cleaners). Perhaps we will consider more earnestly celebrating his half birthday when he grows older.

As for now, we had to wake the poor boy from his nap to let the festivities begin, hence the glazed look above. If not it was going to throw our carolling off by an hour. Although it took him a little while to become coherent once he did he was alive.

For those of you who don't know Baker has recently developed a love for anything Thomas (which he calls "choo-choo" in his soft little high pitched voice--perhaps the cutest thing you've ever heard,--except for when he wakes up and says, "Choo-Choo pan cakie, Daddy?"). You can imagine how a little boy who absolutely loves choo choo trains would react to this cake, a cake that Heather made from scratch in about an hour (see previous comment about Internet and pipe cleaners). A modern day McGyver. The kids were in candy heaven.

Except for Baker! When he found out he couldn't eat the cake until after pictures he began to slowly dawn his pouty face, another very cute feature that Baker has perfected.

Finally the time came where he was free to indulge. Here is a picture of him next to the magician herself, stuffing his face with a...? (Can anybody guess the item he choose to devour first? Hint: He takes after his dear old dad.)

Here is another picture, several minutes later, of the entire family. You'll notice that again Baker was not thrilled that right after he was given free reign of Thomas the Train cake (who was making a special delivery from Cavity Land) that he was being asked to pose for a family picture that was at least three feet away from the cake.

After we were done feasting on the cake the festivities began. Heather had purchased special little conductor hats and had spontaneously created three fun activities that the children could do. As the kids were eating cake we put about 70 little black stripes of construction paper in a line (resembling a train track) throughout the house. The kids were told that they were conductors and that they had to follow the tracks in order to discover a special surprise. Along the way they had to do several things that helped the trains continue to function. For example, at one stop they had to "coal," which consisted of rolled up black socks (Thanks poppy for letting us raid your sock drawer), and throw them back into the engine car.

Overall, it was an enormous success, except for one thing. Before going to CA we began to notice that Baker had a slight nervousness whenever he encountered a dog. We informed Grammy and Poppy, who have two dogs of there own, that they made to initially watch their dogs until Baker could warm up to them.

Well, in order to win over Baker, Grammy and Poppy's dogs, being the nice dogs that they are, gave Baker a little gift; a gift that would welcome him to the family. It appears, however, that Baker didn't seem to appreciate their humor. Even though the dog in the picture below was stuffed he about flew out of his chair. I guess we'll have to bill Chelsea and Diego in a few years when Baker is receiving treatment for his paranoia of all things furry ferocious!