Phoenix, Part Two: Jeff

We arrived in Phoenix on Saturday, which happened to be my brother Jeff's 47th birthday. I couldn't pass up this opportunity to talk about him and post some embarrassing pictures!

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I'm sure he never dreamed he'd be celebrating this birthday at Phoenix Children's Hospital, but what an incredible blessing it has turned out to be!

A great belated birthday present he received just yesterday was the news that Callie will be coming home on Friday! We are all so excited to have her here again!

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He was surrounded by family as we celebrated his big day with pizza and a huge chocolate cake. We missed our youngest brother Darryl, who lives in Missouri, and our sister Karla, who was on her way to the Grand Canyon with family.

However, our brother LeRoy and his family joined us. That's LeRoy, his wife Lori, and their children Katie and Nate at left.

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We were also joined by several of Karla's children: Genevieve, her husband Scott, and their little girls Brooke and Jaycee; Elyssa and her husband Ross; and Celesta, Brianna, Mariah, and Julien. It was so fun to see them all!
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Later that night Jeff and Dana were treated to a Suns game by their daughter Ashley, and they ended up with extra tickets for LeRoy and his daughter Katie to attend also! They had a great time, and it didn't hurt that the Suns won!

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Now for some nostalgic fun! Jefferey Alan was born on November 1, 1961 in Fresno, CA. He's the middle of my three brothers and the second-youngest of five kids.

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Awwww! Here he is at 2 weeks old. Wasn't he adorable? And if you like this one, you're going to LOVE this next one . . .

He's starting to look like the Jeff we all know and love now, right? Including that cute little bum that Dana finds so attractive!
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Jeff was always the most easy-going of my brothers, the one who wanted everyone to get along, the one who laughed when he was being spanked.

He was also easily embarrassed by anything that stood out from the norm. When he was about 10 I recall him asking me to sing more quietly in church so no one would hear my alto over the melody!
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Who goosed the baby?! Here we are in February 1962. Left to right: Mary (me) at age 7, Jeff at 3 months old, LeRoy at almost age 3, and Karla at 21 months old.

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I'm pretty sure that's not a real gun Karla is playing with!

Here is my cute, chubby little brother learning to walk when he was just 10 months old. (I have no idea who the boy in the little car is--probably a neighbor kid.)
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And this is Jeff on his first birthday with what appears to be one of my mom's 3-layer German chocolate cakes with coconut-pecan frosting! (Drool!) One of my favorites!

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When he was 3, Jeff broke his foot by jumping off his bed. I remember that he gave up walking altogether and crawled everywhere until the cast came off. This was taken in December 1964.

I can't end without including a picture of "The Boys," as we always referred to them! This was taken in April 1970. They were very into sports. Jeff is in the middle, age 8. On left is Darryl a few weeks before he turned 7, and on right is LeRoy at age 11. As kids, my brothers did almost everything together--for better and for worse--and they're still close buddies today who love to get together for any reason.

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I'm proud of you, little bro! I hope your birthday was as great as you are! Love ya!