Eight Already?!

My sweet little Andy isn't little anymore.  He turned 8 in July, he loves sports, video games, bakugan, sports, and vegging in front of the tv.  The poor kid had a small birthday this year but got the best birthday present of us all.

Andy had a rough time with the move to Australia from the very beginning. My boy who was so excited and told everyone about our move, started missing everyone shortly after we got to Australia.  The words "I never wanted to come here!" were like a knife to my heart. Mostly because I knew how he felt  (I actually had always wanted to go there but I was just as homesick as he was)!  He had fun while we were there but he missed his friends and his teachers and his school more than anything else.  He would sob because he wanted to go home.  All I could do was hug him until he felt better, trying not to let my tears fall along with his.

We decided just a few days before Andy's birthday that it was time to go home. We'd had it with the sickness and the mold and the sickness and the mold. Oh, I already said that.  Anyway,  I took Andy and Jakob to see Harry Potter 7 Part 2 a few days before his birthday and he was so excited.  After it was over, we found out that going home was a possibility and he gave me a HUGE hug.  We started getting tickets ready for us to leave and decided to leave on the 19th - the day after Andy's birthday.  Andy had his wish come true for his birthday.  He got to go home!

We went to pick up Andy's gift from a shopping centre. He got to pick out a Nintendo DS game for himself before we headed home to pack.  Andy decided to wait for his cake until he got home because we wouldn't be able to finish it before we left Australia.  Plus he had something specific in mind and it would have been harder to do while packing!!

So off we went home, and Andy got to see all of his friends. His best friend was gone for a few weeks so he had to wait to see him but he got to see everyone else and he was happy again.

BUT the best part was that he got to be baptized with his cousin.  We had planned that for a year and then we ended up going to Australia. We had set up interviews two different times and tried to get things set up in Australia but it never worked out. And now we know why. :)

The  baptism went really well. They got to get baptized at the same time and then confirmed at the same time the next day. I was so happy and so was Andy!  We had our good friends come with us to Idaho and they were able to be there for it as well.

Last but not least, we got to make Andy's cake in OUR home in Utah.  He had wanted a hamburger cake for almost two years. Last year we didn't do it because we combined birthdays and made one big cake. So this year I went all out. It was three layers think and he was THRILLED with it.

All in all it was a pretty fantastic birthday for my Andy. He even got to be in Fiji for the day two days after his birthday!!