Happy Birthday to Jan!

Jan just turned 28! He has many good qualities we admire. Jan is a cheerful and easy-going guy who enjoys a good joke and is always kind. As a baby he loved to eat and grew quickly. He ate every 2 hours for what seemed like a lot of months and weighed 20 lbs. when he was 4 months. A woman at church told me, "I just love to come to church and see how much bigger your baby is every week!" He is more than 2 years, 8 months younger than his older brother David but soon caught up to him in size. Still my tallest child.

He loved to be involved in the kitchen and would drag over chairs to help me wash dishes and cook, usually making a mess. He had a little blue scarf he enjoyed wearing around the house for a while. He liked to go grocery shopping with me and campaign for his favorite foods. He was a little shy around people and would stay pretty quiet in public. His teachers would tell me how quiet he was at school or church but this was not the Jan we knew at home. He could be plenty loud with his brothers.

Age 1

Age 2

Jan holding little brother Garrett--my friend thought Jan's eyebrows were amazing

Age 3

One funny memory I have of Jan is when he was about to turn 3. A present arrived in the mail and I asked Jan what he thought was in the present. Jan's eyes lit up and he said, "I think it's a dragon!" We opened the box and the present was not a dragon and a complete disappointment and he started crying. Right then I knew that I would be going to the store to find said dragon.

Garrett was born 2 days before Jan's 2nd birthday so Garrett had his 1st birthday right before Jan's 3rd birthday. After Garrett had his presents, Jan was pretty sure, it was his turn next. Not in 2 days, but the same day. It was rough to have your birthday one week before Christmas AND two days after your brother's. We celebrated his birthday on Garrett's birthday that year.

Age 4

Age 5

Age 6

Age 7

Age 8

With Dad at his baptism

I love that look on Jan's face.

Age 9: Jan broke his arm playing kickball in the school cafeteria with shoes off and socks on. The school didn't want the students to wear shoes because of the black marks they would make on the floor but when Jan slipped and broke his arm, I complained about that policy.

Age 12 with Everett's friend Gabriel

Early band concert, 2005

Jan was born with a somewhat unusual birthmark on his forehead near his hairline (I think it was called Nevus sebaceous) and a dermatologist said it might eventually become cancerous and we should get it removed. It's his Harry Potter scar.

He enjoyed hanging out with his brothers and they played a lot of games together: Dungeons and Dragons, Risk, Settlers of Catan, Farming Game, Bang, etc.

Keeping his brothers away so he could blow the candles out by himself. The dessert was Death by Chocolate

Age 13

Getting his patriarchal blessing from Grandpa Broadbent, 2006

Jan is very musical and liked taking piano lessons starting when he was 5 and trumpet lessons which started in junior high. He really enjoyed marching band and jazz band in high school and it was a good way for him to make friends.

Something Jan did for his 9th grade year was to get involved with the drama department. He was in two plays and played a lead in the second one--You Can't Take It With You

The giant Jan--age 14--and the tiny Mindy--age 2.5

Age 15

Age 16

Soloing with the Golden Tigers Marching Band

Because his eyeteeth were really slow to come in, Jan ended up getting the full braces treatment right before his senior year. The band teacher was a little frustrated because he was afraid it would really be hard for Jan to play the trumpet soloes he had planned for him but Jan managed to play fine.

Jan did really well in school and was the salutatorian for his class, getting a National Merit 4-year scholarship to BYU.

Jan was in the BYU marching band his freshman year but didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the high school marching band because it was a lot more about football games.

David and Jan got to room together for a semester after David got home and before Jan left.

Turning 19!

Eagle Court of Honor right before he left on his mission--we were hoping we could do a quadruple with the 3 younger brothers but Everett's didn't come through fast enough so we quickly did Jan's right before he left.