Teenager!

Jonah turns 13 today! Can't believe how quickly the time has passed since you joined our family.  Becoming a mom is the greatest gift that I have ever known. From the moment they put you in my arms, I knew I would never be the same..being a mom makes you see things very differently than I had before.  The love I felt was amazing and continues to amaze me, watching you grow and learn and become a caring young man is a wonderful feeling.  I hope you realize how much joy you bring to our family Jonah and how proud I am to be your mom! Here are 13 of the things I love most about you!!

1.  Your love of family
2.  You are  always willing to hug and snuggle :-)
3.  That at 13 you still love to sit on mom and dad's lap
4.  Your big brown eyes and how they sparkle and dance when you are excited about something
5.  What a neat freak you are...you never have to be asked to pick up your room, everything is always in it's place.
6.  You are an honor student
7.  How you are so good at playing with your younger cousins and making them feel special
8.  You can be a goofball at times and like to dance and sing!
9.  You can always make me laugh...even when I am trying to be serious or mad at you!
10.  How you love your dog Dodger
11.  Your caring heart
12.  How you treat me and seem to really enjoy being with me. You never make me feel like I am just a mom.  When I am feeling sad or just having a bad day, you have a way of just putting your hand on my shoulder of giving me a hug when I most need it.
13. How you don't really seem to care what other people think, you have your own opinions and aren't afraid to do something different from the norm.

As you enter your teen years Jonah I hope you continue to be your own person and don't let others influence you or get in the way of your hopes and dreams.  Being a teenager can be hard at times and I just hope you remember that you can always come to us for anything!!  I love you with all my heart and feel blessed to be your mom!!

LIttle Assassins

Are we bad parents if we are 3 months late having our sons 11th birthday party?  If so I guess you can call us BAD!  We just celebrated Jensen's 11th birthday  2 weeks ago and his special day is October 20th...With sports and the holidays it just was never a good time, so we procrastinated. We took J and 6 of his buddies paintballing and they had a blast shooting at each other and dodging bullets. Jonah took a bullet to the mouth and had a face full of yellow paint~we all thought it was pretty funny!!  The boys didn't care that we were partying a little past the actual birthday.  One of the boys mom told me that he wouldn't let her wash his sweatshirt until he wore it to school so that everyone could see it.  Kind of like a war wound I guess you could say.  Needless to say it was a fun night and I am sure that Jonah and Jensen will be begging to go back again soon. Guess it was even better than sitting in the basement playing Call of Duty online with their friends!  The best part of the night was after everyone had left and Jensen came in to tell me goodnight and thanked me for the awesome party--what a great kid!