Happy Birthday Parker!

So Parker's birthday was actually yesterday - but Mom was totally trying to recover from the weekend and didn't put a post together. (I'll post about his later)

Today I have got my act back together (and my legs) and want to wish my oldest a very Happy Birthday!

Parker is turning twelve this year and we cannot believe he is that old - where did the time go? And I still don't feel old enough to have a twelve year old - but I guess that is a different story.

So in honor of his twelfth birthday here are twelve things we love about Parker

1) We love the way he teaches Carter new tricks (scratching his head, rubbing his tongue on his lips, waving bye-bye). He is completely in love with Carter and we love him for that. One day we are going to get his tricks on video so you can see what Parker has been busy teaching him.

2) We love the way we can joke around with Parker - he can take it and he loves it.

3) We love his sense of humor.

4) We love that he loves all sorts of things: models, sports, books, art, and writing stories.

5) We love that we can now leave him home with the kids while we run a quick errand! He is a great babysitter as long as he doesn't have to put kids to bed - which we are going to work on!

6) We love that he loves to play soccer. Man that kid can kick!

7) We love his creativity (see post about ice and mowing lawn)

8) We love that he is a complete Ute fan (even though the rest of his family is not). He picks everything because of the color - sheets, notebooks, pens, pencils, shirts....you get the picture.

9) We love his laugh!

10) We love his helpfulness - whether it be construction, repair work, housework - he is willing to help out most of the time.

11) We love the friends he chooses - he has awesome friends and they are all great kids!

12) We love that he tries really hard to be good - and most of the time he does pretty good. He is always understanding and even though he sometimes gets the short end of the stick because of Carter - he is totally OK with it. For example - he won't get a friend birthday party for a few weeks as Carter is scheduled for surgery and with recovery and all it probably won't happen until the end of September - but there are no complaints.

We love you Parker and we are so glad you came to our family! Hopefully this next year will be a great one for you!