Thirteen

Well, the last of my babies is officially a teenager today...  

I'm not sure what the significance is of having all of your kids officially past the age of 12, except that it means I'm a mom of older kids...which means I must be old, too.  But I don't really feel old yet.  Most days, I just feel like one of them, so maybe this just means they're all finally catching up to me.  :)

McKay is the BEST kid!  He's so happy and easy going and gets along with everyone.  He loves to invent stuff.  He loves to be outside.  He loves hanging out with his dad.  And he loves to EAT!  um...I have needed to significantly increase my grocery budget in the last few months.

There was a Stake Youth Dance scheduled for tonight, and since the girls wanted to have a pre-dance party, we celebrated McKay's birthday last night at his new favorite seafood restaurant.   He ate all of his dinner and half of Craig's...the boy is a bottomless pit these days.  

After dinner, we picked up his first birthday present...from the Verizon store...it's not that thing he's looking at.  It's just a new little flippy phone because he dropped last one doing a backflip on the last day of school...or something like that.  He did get his hopes up, though, for a minute that he was getting something more impressive.

We saved the rest of the presents for this morning to open while we ate the cinnamon coffee cake he requested for breakfast.  The girls got him Chick fil-A sauce and two t-shirts.  He REALLY likes Chick-fil-A sauce!  

Savannah sent some birthday wishes and surprises from Germany...along with a bunch of stuff she didn't want to drag around in her suitcases anymore.  My mom sent a new Aloha shirt from Hawaii, and the Grs sent some much needed new UT socks (University of Texas, not UTAH...) since his old ones have seen better days.  

We also got him the coolest trumpet silencer...it's like a mute, so his practicing is quieter in the house, but it connects to an internal microphone so he can hear himself.  

Coolest. Thing. Ever.  

I actually love listening to him practice because he's really good, but the girls don't always love it, and sometimes when we're in confined spaces or when we're traveling, there's not really a good place for him to practice.  Now he can practice anywhere.  Amazing.  

I think it was a pretty good birthday for him, despite the fact that his house was filled with a dozen or so older kids who were super loud and super excited to go to a dance.  They were so sweet, though, and lured him downstairs so they could sing Happy Birthday to him.  

Tonight, while the girls and I were at the dance, Craig and McKay went out to eat, probably for more seafood, and then they did "boy things" like shopping for canoes or camping gear something.   

I'm so grateful for McKay's energetic, happy, adventurous little spirit that blesses our family every day.  I can't believe we've had him for 13 whole years!  Holy cow, how time flies!  

Happy, happy birthday, to my favorite little trumpeter!...who isn't all that little anymore.