Nation!

Yesterday was my 27th birthday -- eek. I had a fabulous weekend with great friends and great family, but it totally did not feel like a "birthday" kind of day. Which I think is ok! But today feels like a birthday day, because...today my brother turns 24!

Sorry, ladies, he's taken!
I couldn't help it, Big Sisters always need to lovingly embarrass the little brothers. I'm really just secretly jealous of his thick hair. No hot rollers needed on that head!

 

That's better. And now, a cheap birthday present for my favorite younger-brother-born-in-April :). 

N -- N is for Nintendo. I remember when we got our Super Nintendo, he spent hours trying to beat Super Mario and keeping a little log of passwords to unlock levels on Top Gear. He even talked our Granny into playing NBA Jam with him. True story. 

A -- A is for Aggie. Somehow this kid ended up with maroon in his blood, but I love him anyway. 

T -- T is for Tolerant. He endured many a Barbie-playing session, which he always ruined ended by driving one of my barbies off the bed in her red corvette. The bed, you see, morphed into a cliff, and the carpet became lava, so that was usually the end of Playing Barbies With Your Brother. I also tried to make him play Little House On The Prairie with me and our next door neighbor Lauren. You can imagine how well that went over.  T also stands for terrified, which is the expression on his poor little fat head in this picture. Meanwhile, I'm shooting my mother the evil eye for not dressing me in the appropriate red-and-green holiday color scheme.  

H -- H is for Hilarious Hispanic High achiever. He has a great sense of humor, graduated valedictorian of his class, won a Hispanic Student scholarship (hilarious in and of itself, seeing as how he got the light eyes and hair, and none of us speak Spanish), and now he's in dental school. 

 

A -- A is for Awesome. Who's awesome? This guy. 

 

N -- N is for Nation, which is what our Papi calls him because he can't quite pronounce "Nathan". Best       nickname ever. It also stands for Nathaniel, which is what I told him his real name was when we were little, and that we adopted him from the store because he was on sale. Please see "T" for Tolerant.

Nation, you really are awesome and I am so proud of you. You work so hard and are so good at accomplishing the goals you set for yourself. You are witty, charismatic, a fun big and little brother, and a good friend. Thanks for being such a good uncle to Wyatt, a good bro to Wader, and for picking Britt to be your sweet wifey. And thank you for not tattling on me too much when we were little. Happy 24th birthday, love you!