Oh, where do I begin. Well, in the Latter-Day Saint faith, 8 is a big year. This is the year you get baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. All of this happened in the midst of our busy summer. J turned 8, then his daddy came home. We baptized him today, July 3o, and we leave at 5am tomorrow for Stuttgart, Germany! We were so happy to have many friends and family come and support Jack and his decision to be baptized. Some of the people that came were J's great-grand parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles, great-aunts and uncles, cousins, his best-friend {since he was two}, Devon, G's best friend {since she was two}, Molly, and many more. We felt so honored to have all of those people there. J said that 8 was the best birthday ever and that he was the luckiest boy in the whole world because his birthday and celebrations lasted for one week.
We also had a family swim party at J's Uncle Dave's and Aunt Auburn's house. I love our picture with the cousins {there are many not pictured though!} We have had such fun this summer reuniting with our cousins. We will miss them all terribly! J & G clapped out the candles. We also popped some party poppers.
For J's real birthday, he got to go to the Lego store and build with a "master builder". We signed him up for a class. After his Lego build, we had many family members meet us at J's favorite "restaurant" Chick-fil-A. He was happy to eat as much chicken as he wanted.
Jack is such a good boy. We are so happy to have him in our family. J is always thinking of others and is very sensitive to others' feelings and needs. A classic story of J is when he came home from school one day with trash overflowing from his pockets. When I asked why all that trash was in his shorts, he said that he hated seeing trash on the playground and by the bus stop, so he put it in his pockets to throw away when he came home. He wanted to make Heavenly Father's Earth beautiful. J is especially protective of little Sammy. He is quick to make sure he is safe on the play ground and is happy to get him out of bed in the morning and help his little brother with his morning routine. J likes to laugh. J also likes to take care of the underdogs. He has a melting pot of friends and comes home from school telling me thinks like, so-and-so is my friend now - he was playing alone all the time, so I invited him to play with me. J also loves people. He makes friends wherever he goes. We will be leaving a play place and he says goodbye to the other children by name {who were complete strangers} and then tells me he made a new friend. J is such a good son. He is constantly asking how I am doing and tells me he loves me. The other day after I got ready he exclaimed, "Wow Mom, you look pretty!" He is complimentary just like his daddy and I love that. J gives the best hugs. Just today at his baptism, he came up and hugged me 5 different times and said, "I'm just so happy mom, thanks for making this day special." We love you, J.
