New House, First Birthday

I am a terrible mother.  July 14 we moved into our new house.  We got up early so Doug could drop us off at our new house on his way to work since my car was in the shop.  The movers arrived at 8:45 and took most of the day to bring all of our stuff in the house.  I suppose they got tired of carrying things to the basement because in the end, it all got piled in my garage.  I walked the guy in charge through the house and said, "If it says laundry, it goes here and if it says bathroom it goes here.  This is the master...blah blah blah."  Well, they are ALL in the garage except the ones that say living room and they are in the basement.  Ridiculous.  We are still unpacking, but are to a point where we can comfortably live and I am wondering why I need anything that is still in the garage.  Except the hair clippers.  They boys desperately need their hair cut and they look like the Beatles.  Before we left Idaho, we spent over $1000 on food.  I am tired of seeing boxes that say "food" on them.  I am out of places to put it all.

So, about 10:00, my phone rang.  It was Doug's sister Marinda.  She said to tell Ethan happy birthday.  I had totally forgotten it was his FIRST BIRTHDAY EVER.  What kind of mom am I?  The other kids all had big fancy parties with themes and homemade invitations and special cakes and it was a big deal.  So then Brenden got all excited and sang "Happy Birthday" to Ethan at the top of his lungs about a half a dozen times.  We spent most of the day unpacking, with the help of 3 children.  Brenden is quite fond of the cupboards in the kitchen and EVERYTHING ended up in them.  I can't even count how many times he has re-arranged them.

Later in the day, our Bishop called (he happens to be the mechanic that was working on our car) and said he would just drive the car home from work and drop it by our house.  He and his wife and 4 kids stopped by and brought 3 different kinds of ice cream, including birthday cake flavored ice cream.  Doug also picked up an angel food cake at work.  As the movers were unpacking, they brought in a wrapped present and said, "Why didn't you just open this before you moved?"  I said, "Because TODAY is his birthday!"  Thanks to Grandma Boehme, Ethan had one present to open that day.  He was happy with that.  I am still a terrible mother because I have STILL not bought the kid a birthday present.  He will always look back on his first birthday and wondering why he was the child we never loved - although it is totally untrue, he will likely perceive it that way.

The next day, a very nice woman we had barely met named Berenice from church made Ethan a fantastic dinosaur cake.  She went WAY above and beyond, especially for a kid she did not even know.  She didn't use a cake pan, she cut this cake into this shape and decorated it.  It was SO cute.  I couldn't get over her kindness.  Brenden also decided that since we had a real cake, we needed to decorate, so we had to go through boxes until we found a few little birthday items.  I think Ethan had an ok birthday after all.

We weren't allowed to move anything flammable, so there is no fire.