Happy 12th Birthday to Jared!

Today is the day. We’ve ordered a big balloon bouquet that we’ll go pick up. We have decorations, presents and such. We plan to spend the day celebrating….wow…12 years. Seems like yesterday he was born in the hospital beside the park in Hardin, MT. He gave us quite a scare when he developed RSV and it was back to the hospital at 4 weeks old. Times does go fast. He is maturing into quite the young man. He loves to run with Jamin and has begun lifting weights (low pounds and well-supervised) with Josiah and Jamin. He loves the Lord. He’s a good kid/young man.

We’ll post pictures later….

Back on 7 January.

Wednesday went well as far as birthdays go. We have the week off of school; an extra celebratory bonus for Jared. {grin} Early in the a.m. Josiah drove to retrieve Jared’s balloons.


As Cy came in the back door, I called Jared and told him I wanted a 12 year old picture….it was funny that he was posing in front of the French doors leading to our library and Josiah and the balloons were in the background unbeknownst to him.


After finishing a couple of projects at home we headed for Kids Kingdom on the Concho River. This is the favorite park of the younger children and I had promised them last weekend when we were down there geocaching that I’d be sure to bring them back this week. We all went. Jamin took a book and found a secluded nook. Josiah went to the downtown library to return books for me and Jared watched the little ones. Have you noticed that 12 is a great age for sitters because they still like to PLAY??? When we walked up we saw a boy that reminded us of Craig, a friend from AK. This got me to wondering if school was out or if there were homeschoolers at the park. It turns out that there were two homeschooling families there. The moms popped over to the shade where I was encamped and I stayed and visited with them. They had babies nearly the same age as Stacia. In fact, one little girl is only 2 days older than Stacia. They had planned an informal park day for Thursday and invited us to attend. After speech, we did just that. The kids are excited that they may have made some new friends. Even the older boys were able to visit with a 17 yo who sort of “understands” them. Andrew’s father is retired military. He just finished seminary and has moved here to be the assistant pastor at a local church. They homeschool. God taught me a lesson on this one…I was stressed that my list of “projects” was being put off for park days….but a greater prayer for friends may have been answered…who would guess we’d find families at the park with children who range from newborn to out of the home – just like us????

The evening found us eating at Jared’s choice of restaurant :::drum roll::: International Buffet. We then went home for gifts and our family’s famous signature ice cream cake. Was there ever a family as sold on ice cream as this one???

Jared was excited to have received a paint gun (so he is no longer Cy’s target practice), paint gun “stuff”, a sling shot and a few other odds and ends.
I forgot the “pig hat” girls…but the pig will live in TX once again. {grin} I think he’ll live again AFTER my birthday. {smirk} Yes, I regretted the noise makers but at 8 for a dollar after New Years who could resist??? I did save them for the remaining 4 boys birthdays coming up. Finally Jared called ENOUGH PICTURES! {grin}