Ode to Uncles

I don't know what it is about Uncles that is so cool for my kiddos. I think that a big part of it is that for most of Sarah's life she's had four bachelor Uncles, two on each side of our family. Braden got married last year so my brother Jordan is the special uncle on my side of the family. Anyway, I was looking through some pictures on our computer and started seeing some great pictures that I wanted to post regarding my brothers and brothers-in-law with my kiddos. While we lived with my parents during grad school (about 18 months), both Jordan and Braden lived there for a good portion of that time. So Sarah, particularly, feels really close to Uncle Jordan and just the other day completely out of the blue she said "I want to call Uncle Jordan" so we did. Uncle Kris has been our most frequent family visitor since we've been in Idaho, which has meant a lot to us and our kids. Anywa, here are some samples. They are not in any particular order, just randomly posted as I find them on the computer. One of my favorite parts about all of these are some of the "awkward Uncle holds" when uncles that are not parents try to hold an infant. There are some good demonstrations of this below!

This is the most current "Uncle" pic, from just last weekend when Mary and the kids went down to Utah for the weekend. This was at Braden and Amanda's house in Provo and Uncle Kris came by to spend some time with his sister and his niece and nephew. I don't think that Kris got his afternoon nap on that day. Kris is a pretty handsome kid, huh! If you know of any eligible young ladies in the Provo area, just let me know and I'll forward the info... not that Kris is in need of a date or anything... and he usually does quite well on his own... just not that well yet.

Here is Uncle Michael, Mary's oldest brother. Seriously, you have to be an Uncle to dress up in this kind of outfit when: 1) you're an adult; 2) it's NOT Halloween; and 3) There is a camera around. Nice work Uncle Mike! If you ever want to hear a hilarious story regarding Mary and the above Famed Hughes Frog Costume, just ask! In looking through our pics I was disappointed to not find any of Uncle Mike with our kids, though I have plenty with his other nephews. Then I realized that he hasn't been around Nathan much and he likes to wrestle and play roughly with my nephews, so Sarah has largely opted not to be a part of their rough housing. Mike is a great uncle though, when he's awake that is.

We invited Uncle Kris up to our place (from Provo) for his birthday in January. He came and didn't get much sleep but I hope that he had fun being with family on his birthday. Here he is letting Sarah help him with his candles on his birthday cake.

Here is Uncle Kris letting Nathan look at one of his birthday presents in January.

Here is Uncle Jordan holding Nathan last November when we were at Robb and Heather's for Carson's baby blessing. They're just watching college football together... hopefully the first of many opportunities!

Here is Uncle Kris with Nathan and Mary. Mary and I have done annual hikes with our siblings and whenever Kris has gone with his two sisters, he has been the packhorse because every year (three years running now) one of his sisters has had an infant and the other one has been pregnant so he has literally been a packhorse! Luckily, Uncle Mike joined them last year so he had some help. Mary reports that Kris has been a trooper despite the weight he has to take with him.
Uncle Kris reading to Sarah, Jacob and Gideon at Nanu and Bumpa's house in Leavenworth.

Uncle Kris drove over (from E. WA) for Sarah's 2nd birthday party. She was pretty happy to have her Uncle there, as you can tell!

Uncle Jordan reading a book to Sarah at Oma and Opa's house.

Uncle Braden and Sarah sharing a candy cane and a Winnie-the-Pooh story book at Oma and Opa's house.

Uncle Jordan and Sarah came up with this game where Sarah would sit at the top of the stairs and Jordan at the bottom and she would throw the balls down to him and he would carefully toss them back up. Sarah (and later Nathan) really enjoyed this game and enjoyed learning it from her Uncle Jordan at Oma and Opa's house.
"Sure Sarah, go ahead an play with my cell phone/PDA!" Uncle Jordan seems to be having an enlightening conversation with Mother Mary (Ruby) while Joseph (Sarah) checks out the latest technology. This may be the last sighting of Jordan's stylus for his phone. Here is one of those clearly awkward Uncle holding moments as demonstrated by Uncle Braden.
Sorry Uncle Jordan, Uncles aren't allowed to sleep when they're on Uncle duty!

Uncle Jordan seems like a pretty proud Uncle to Mary, Joseph and an Angel on Christmas Eve.

I'm sure Uncle Kris never foresaw this picture on the World-Wide-Web. I think Nathan is trying to imitate Kris in this picture. Sorry Kris, I just couldn't leave this one out ;*P
Uncle Jordan with Nathan as an infant... another awkward Uncle hold demonstrated by Jordan.
Uncle Kris with Nathan as a newborn in the hospital. It's great when Uncles come and visit in the hospital because they are very excited, but they don't really know what to do with themselves besides awkwardly hold the baby, pose for a picture and then try to stand off to the side with their hands in their pockets while they involuntarily listen to conversations about things they want to know nothing about and would prefer not to hear but they don't feel like they can just excuse themselves politely.

This is Uncle Braden returning from his mission in Korea. Sarah was really excited about seeing him at the airport and enjoyed making signs for him. Sarah and Nathan's great-grandmother is in the background. Even though none of my kids are in this pic, I wanted to include it because I liked it.

Last winter (06-07) when it snowed like crazy we had enough snow to go out and enjoy it and Uncle Jordan (back left) and Uncle Braden (back right) were right out there building a snowman at Sarah's command. Honestly, they did most of the work and followed just about every directive from Sarah.