Happy 12th Birthday, Spencer!

It's kind of hard for me to believe that Spencer turned 12 yesterday. Seriously. TWELVE. If you're not familiar with Mormons, 12 is a pretty big age for a kid. You graduate from Primary and start attending Mutual, which is the church's program for youth (ages 12-18). It's a pretty big deal: Sunday classes, weekly activities, conferences, all sorts of fun stuff. For boys, if they are worthy they can also receive the Aaronic Priesthood when they turn 12. This is also a big deal and and big responsibility. (And why my family is joining us for Christmas this year - so they can be here for the ordination. Yay!)

So you can understand why him turning 12 is very exciting and big and is making me feel so very old. I swear he was 7 just yesterday.

Since Spencer is now in Middle School and has to leave before anyone else in the house is even up, we've been spending the mornings alone together. It's been nice! On his birthday he woke up to this:

And this:

Because on your birthday you get birthday pancakes with a candle and a song, even if no one else is up. (Unless you're the mom. Which my kids couldn't understand last week. Why on earth wouldn't I make everyone pancakes on MY birthday?!)

He't too cool for smiles now. And that's okay.

Spencer's having a few friends over for a birthday LAN party on Friday. So last night we celebrated with dinner out. (Because the kids love it, and because this mom feels like she should get a night off on the days she got hacked open and gave birth.)

Spencer chose a new place in town, Cheddar's. The service was a little... green... but not horrible. And the prices were reasonable and the food was actually pretty good! (Get the fries. Yum.) Best of all - it was NOISY. And full of families. So we blended right in.

We made the kids wait to have their drinks until right before their food came out. That's because whenever we go out they fill up on drinks waiting for their meals to come and then aren't hungry and don't eat! They were quite offended with this decision, but they did eat!

Tess is so weird. She ordered the mac and cheese, which was pretty good. (NOT the boxed stuff - real homemade mac and cheese.) And she wouldn't eat it because there were crumbs and melted cheese on top. Crazy, thy name is Tess.

Then there's these two. They decided it was HILARIOUS to blow through their straws on each other. Fortunately, the restaurant was so busy and loud that no one else even noticed.

Oh, and don't worry about Tess - she didn't starve. She stole french fries and ate the lettuce off of Spencer's burger condiment tray. (Crraaaaazzzzyyyy....)

It's very seldom that these two play well together. Which is why I let them get away with this.

Just look at Cole's face!

Who else would show such pure joy in misbehaving?

Since I'm making a cake for the LAN party, I made a small dessert for his birthday night: Snickerdoodle Bars. (Spencer luuurves snickerdoodles.)

The candles were supposed to flare like sparklers, but they were a little disappointing.

Still, it took some effort to get all of them blown out!

Success!

Time for the loot. He got a gift card from Grandpa Viggo and Grandma Laurie.

And an Airsoft Gun from his dad and (very wary) mother. (He has a group of friends that get together once a month for a big Airsoft battle. It's very manly.)

He got this awesome camping pillow from Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie. (Let's hope this one doesn't get lost...)

I don't know what Josh was doing in this picture... but I like it.

I saved the best gift for last: a Kindle Fire!

He actually knew he was getting one, but thought it was back ordered until next week. I got an email a couple of weeks ago that it was coming early and decided to just surprise him. Success!

Why so many pictures of him with the Kindle? It's not really of Spencer - what is up with Josh?! He was on one that night...

Spencer is really a great kid. Sure, he gets a little snotty and attitudy every once in a while, but who doesn't? And sure, he doesn't think his parents know anything about algebra even though we've been doing it for 25 years. But. He's really REALLY great with little kids. And he's so good about doing the things we ask him to do WITHOUT complaining. (A big deal around here!) And he behaves at school and is getting really, really good grades. He's good at church and has good friends there, and is a great example to others.

What I'm saying is, despite the fact that he is our oldest child and thus our parenting guinea pig, he is turning out so well! I'll take a little credit for it, and Lance can have some, too, but really it's mostly Spencer. He's just a great person and I feel so blessed to have him in our family!