Happy Birthday, Jan!

While these birthday posts take a fair amount of time thanks to all the scanning that needs to be done, I really enjoy seeing the pictures and thinking about the "olden" days when I had lots of cute little boys running around my house. Jan's birthday post is no exception!

Jan started kindergarten in Maryland when he was just 4. The school deadline was the end of December so I decided to go ahead and start him even though he was the youngest in his class. Here he is lined up at the bus stop with his good friend, our neighbor Chris, and brother, David:

Turning 5:

Being a dinosaur:

At the FDR memorial on the Mall:

After kindergarten, we moved to Utah. Scott took Jan and Garrett in the moving van across the country and they loved it, 1998:

With his three younger brothers, 1999:

On a camping trip in California, 1999:

Turning 7. Jan was a little reserved around other people but not at home. People would tell us how quiet he was and we would say, Hmmm. We haven't seen that so much.

This is one of my favorite pictures, Jan, age 7:

Holding his new baby sister:

David and Jan loved to build together. Bionicles were very popular at our house:

A horseshoe crab:

Starting school in Utah:

Visiting the hospital where Jan and Garrett were born in Wisconsin, summer 2000:

David and Jan loved to make frozen concoctions:

Visiting the Grand Canyon, 2000:

Glen Canyon Dam, Colorado River, April, 2000:

Here's the scrapbook page I made for his baptism:

Here is the story of what happened when Jan got glasses as he wrote it: "In August (2000) I got glasses and I forgot to pick them up (after jumping on the trampoline) and David ran over them with the lawn mower. So I got them repaired and then I lost them in September. Now I need to pay $25 for them and then I'll get new glasses. So I'm going to do extra jobs for them." I think he kept better track of them after that.

At Four Corners (Liesl is in background), 2001:

Jan's phases of the moon project, 2001:

Summer, 2001, I helped the boys make masks and then they put on a little play of Julius Caesar:

Hiking to Emerald Lake with David and Dad, summer, 2001:

Career goals in 4th grade. I guess he hasn't really achieved those goals. Maybe someday!

Turning 9 years old:

Getting his Bobcat:

Vacationing in Mexico, July 2002:

In winter 2002, the Olympics came to Salt Lake City. Jan wrote an essay (because his mother required him to) and got to go the biathlon--because he wrote the essay. Scott went too as a chaperone.

Holding new baby brother, Talmage, 2002:

2002 was Jan's year for accidents. Jan's school class was playing kickball in the cafeteria without shoes on so they wouldn't mark up the floor. He slipped in his socks on the slippery floor as he was kicking and broke his arm. Afterwards, when I was feeling frustrated that this was a preventable accident, I told the principal that going without shoes seemed like a pretty bad idea.

Earlier that summer on July 4, 2002, Scott took the oldest five boys on a hike to Stewart Falls. he let David and Jan climb up pretty high and Jan fell when they were trying to come back down. He got a cut on his forehead which had to get glued shut when he went to the doctor later. Hiking out was an ordeal.