My Little Jakers

I know that being taller than me is not that hard to do, but it's something that our boys have loved achieving. Jake has had such a growth spurt this past year. He now wears the same shoe size as Brendan and is MUCH taller than me. His voice has changed too. It makes me so sad. Jordan has always been very mature and was never much of a little boy. But my Jake has been my little guy from day one.

It's a good thing that he's still a sweetheart and shows me how much he loves me every day. Even when I take him something to school that he has forgotten, I'll peek into his classroom, give him his paper or whatever and I've been nicely surprised that he usually gives me a hug and kiss on the cheek to say thanks. That's my boy.

One thing that he's way ahead of than Jordan was at his age is his busy social life. Jake seems to be gone way more than Jordan lately. It's funny to hear him walk in and hear him put "his keys" away. He has key-napped Brendan's church keys so that he and his friends can play basketball every spare second. We love his group of friends. They are all in our neighborhood and they are such incredible young men. When I know he's with them, I know I don't have to worry. They play basketball almost every single day during the week for 2 to 3 hours. He certainly knows how to have fun and I love his laugh with his new older voice.

He's so responsible and such a good prioritzer. He knows if he has to do his homework right after school, or if he can finish it up at bedtime. He's the only one that I never have to ask, "Is your homework done?" I went to parent teacher conference and his teachers said that he's doing amazing, but that he needs to relax and chill a bit. He's always so worried about his grades and it seems to them that he almost stresses about them too much. How is it that you have to tell one child, "You need to try a little harder and study more," and yet to the other one you have to say, "It's ok, you can't get 100% everytime. You did your best and it will be fine." I have found that is probably one of the hardest parts of parenting. Life isn't fair. Parenting isn't fair. You have to parent differently because they are so not wired the same.

Last weekend, Jake's friend Riley Bunker was playing basketball at his house when he came up on his backboard that had been lowered and gashed his forehead open. He had to run to the insta care for staples and hurry back for a party. The very next day shortly after getting home from that party, this happened to Jake.....

In his words to an email sent to his grandma and grandpa he wrote, "Hey Grandma and Grandpa this is Jake. Yesterday, my Dad and I were playing basketball outside and the ball was going to go out of bounds, so I tried to save it and my head hit the pole. I was on the ground covering my head and my Dad says, 'Let me look at it.' At first there was no blood, then all of a sudden my hand that was holding my head was covered with blood, and blood was just gushing out of my head. My Dad says, 'come on we got to go', so I put a gauze pad on it, and we rushed to instant care. 2 and one half hours later, we were still in the waiting room and my blood was all dry on my hair. Well, I went into the doctor’s room and my legs were shaking like crazy because I was so nervous if it would hurt or not. I got 4 stitches, but the worst part was them cleaning my head from all the dry blood. Man it was soooo scary.

Last night he got all dressed up to go to the much anticipated Lehi Jr. High 9th grade Night Dance. It's not a date dance, but only 9th graders get to go and it's a fun evening to dress up. Here's my handsome boy getting ready~~~~

Quit growing up you guys!