How lucky are we to have Jake!

Today my little boy turns 15! I love that I can still call him my little boy.

I guess he is taller than me. I guess his voice is deep like his dad's. I guess he does drive us home from church. I guess he is starting high school this fall.

So how come I still feel like he's my little boy?

I guess it's because he still gives me a hug and a kiss every morning when he gets up and each night when he goes to bed. I guess it's because he doesn't mind snuggling with his mom on the couch every once in a while. I guess it's because he loves to play all day (sorry, I mean "hang out"). I guess it's because he loves to tell me all about his adventures and enjoys life like a two year old at the park for the first time!

For the 2nd year in a row, Jake is at scout camp during his birthday so it makes me even more sentimental toward him. I can hear his infectious laugh in my head as I imagine him having the time of his life with friends.

I don't know how we have raised three children who are so completely different from each other. Each so unique. Each so special. Each making our family whole.

So many reasons why I adore my Jakers:

---I admire Jake's love and loyalty to his family and friends.

---I'm in awe of Jake's fearlessness in adventures of any kind. He's definitely the bravest of our kids.

---I'm so proud of Jake's high level of integrity in everything that he does.

---Jake is extremely competitive. He relishes a win to the fullest, but it doesn't get in the way of his being gracious to another he knows outperformed him.

---Jake's dimples KILL me every time!!

---Jake is one of the hardest workers that I know. Whether it's practicing in a sport, studying for school, working alongside his dad in the yard, doesn't matter. He puts 110% effort all the time!

---Jake's devotion to the gospel and doing what is right humbles me everyday.

---Everything about Jake reminds me of Brendan. They are so much alike in so many ways, which is yet another reason why I love him so much.

It's hard to not sit down and count my blessings each day. Jake is at the very top of my list for today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!

THANK YOU FOR COMING

INTO OUR LIVES AND FOR

MAKING OUR FAMILY BETTER

THAN WE COULD HAVE EVER

IMAGINED!

All Done

It happened.....nothing I could do about it......I am the mother of an official adult! So weird!!! Graduation wasn't as sad as I had anticipated. The days and weeks building up to it were much worse. Either that, or I had run out of tears by that night.

Seminary Graduation May 17, 2009.
There were so many students that a separate graduation was held by each Stake.

I just had to post the photos of Jordan's get-up. This is what he wore as his evening wear for Mr. Lehi the week before. He borrowed it from a friend who seems to have a costume closet in his house. He insisted on wearing it to church and to seminary graduation. I figured he might as well get it out of his system now. Seriousness takes over soon enough

Jordan and Savana
Kari and I have been best of friends since 5th grade. Our kids have been friends (more like cousins) since we took 6 month old Jordan to meet newborn Savana at the hospital. We lived by each other in Orem and shortly after we moved to Lehi, they moved to Eagle Mountain. Jordan and Savana have gone to school with each other their whole lives, but did not have a single class together until the last semester of their senior year. They both graduated with honors and in the top 10% of their class!

Jordan and Eythan Barney, his soon to be BYU dorm roommate.
I see "party all night" written all over their faces...oh boy!.

Our whole family is growing up! I have heels on and Allison is still almost as tall as me! We celebrated together by going to dinner at Tucanos with Grandma and Grandpa Howard and Brian and Lauren, Jack and little Miss Kate.

Then it was the all night Graduation Party at the Legacy Center. I was on the committee for that and helped out with the "So You Think You Can Dance" competition and other prize giveaways. I stayed until 4 am! It went till 6.

Jordan decided that he and his friends needed to go to IHOP for breakfast and watch the sun come up. Then it was time to watch Star Wars. Are you kidding me? He came dragging in just after 12 noon the next day!!! He showered and went to work at the carwash from 2 to 7 and then to another party. I guess you only live once, but I'm surprised he's still alive after all that.

Jordan's life has had so many life altering events happen in the last few weeks that we're still trying to adapt to them all. As if graduating from seminary and high school weren't big enough.....

1. He decided that being "single" was the right thing to do as he prepares to go on a mission. Mom had to have a little therapy to make it through that one. By now she had become a part of our family and my daughter.

2. Two days before graduation he was offered a full time job working as a teller at Western Community Bank. He'll go part time once school starts. Great hours, great pay, great experience (especially since he plans on majoring in Finance), great practice wearing a shirt and tie everyday :)

3. We'll be one short on Sundays as he is planning to attend our Stake's Young Single Adult ward.

4. Already had his interviews with the Bishop and Stake President to be sustained and ordained and Elder. An ELDER!!! That will happen later this month and then he'll start on his mission papers before he leaves for BYU at the end of August.

I need to go stock up on my year's supply of tissues!!

Where did the years go?

Friday is going to be a bittersweet day. Jordan is graduating from high school! That's two days away!

Did I really just say that....GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL!

Growing Up!

Becoming an Adult!

Moving away from home!

Leaving a big hole in our day to day family!

Of course I couldn't be prouder! He's accomplished so much. He's had a very full life while under our wings. I look back with a thankful heart for every (good and not so good) memory that we have shared with him. I know that it's not over, but it won't be the same. He's off to a great start into the big world and I know the best for him is yet to be!

But a big part of my heart will be breaking. The years went by way too fast. What a blessing he's been. What a privilege I've had.

It must run in the family

We've been enjoying all the misinterpretations that Chris has been having lately thanks to Cindy keeping up on her blog. Does he need a vacation, a nap, hearing aids, or is he just being his smart-alecky self?

Last night we had a little chuckle ourselves. Brendan sent out a family email inviting everyone over to our house for Memorial Day. He asked for replies and everyone's two cents as to what time we should get together and what everyone wanted to bring. Allison and I happended to be in the office with him and as she read over his shoulder she got a very confused look on her face.

"Dad? Why does everyone need to bring two cents to come over on Memorial Day?"

It's nice to still have a little innocence in our house.

State Track Meet 2009

Jordan has been in track since 7th grade. He has done the long jump, high jump, 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay, javelin throw, and 100m hurdles. It seems that every year he changed events because he "finally found the perfect fit." But then the next year it was the same thing. We wish he would have stuck with the same events because he would have perfected some of them, but at least he can say he tried them all. He went to the Region finals last week and got 5th in the javelin throw. They took the top 4...he missed it by 3 feet! His relay team did qualify, however, and came in 2nd! He was so excited. So this past weekend they went to the State Finals at BYU. They were 1/2 a second shy of beating the school record so that was a goal they had besides placing at State.

They ran great, but their handoffs just didn't go well. They finished 5th or 6th in their heat and didn't place in State. Their time was 1/2 a second longer than their region time. How frustrating for them. They had done so great all week at practice, but you only get one chance when it counts. Just like the poor Olympians who train for years and then they drop the baton or trip during the games. Again, another "last," but it sure has been a great ride through the years.

I was so proud of him and his teammates anyway! Qualifying for the State Finals was no small task. Congratulations on a great season!

MR.LEHI

Mr. Lehi was quite the event with 15 boys competing for the title. The talents were "interesting," the swimwear was a little "different," and the eveningwear ranged from dinosaur pajamas to sweats to pin striped suits with alligator skin shoes (that would be Jordan.) He didn't win, but came home beaming! They had SO MUCH FUN and those memories will last a lifetime! My camera didn't cooperate with the lighting on the stage, but we did video tape the whole thing. When I get a minute, I'll try to take pictures of the paused tape on tv to post.

Who's calling me old?

Partial conversation recently had in our home:


Me: "So Jordan, how was your Sunday School class picnic this afternoon?"


Jordan: "It was fun, but why do you keep calling it a picnic? It was a BBQ."


Me: "Picnic. BBQ. Same thing."


Jordan: "No. It's so not."


Jake: "Jordan, it's ok. That's what old people call it."


Jordan: "Yeah, you're right."


WHAT DID THEY JUST SAY?

This drives me CrAzY!!!

Does anyone else ever encounter this scene when opening the door to their bathroom? Do I need to spell it out on a chore chart or something? How hard is it to change out the toilet paper roll?????? Obviously a bit much for all the people in our family. Just one of those days today.

Who celebrates Cinco de Mayo?

Apparently we do now.

On Brendan's side of our family are some of the biggest 4th of July fanatics you'll ever see. I say that in a very good way, it's a big deal and one we ALL look forward to each summer. So I guess it's normal to now get a little festive to celebrate "the Independence day of our neighbors to the South" as Brian so eloquently put it in his prayer as he blessed the food. I'm not one to laugh during a prayer, but this one got a little out of hand and I think even Grandma was chuckling a bit.

Anyhoo~Brian and Lauren called up to let us know that they were planning a party at Brendan's parents' that evening. Hey, any excuse to eat his mom's chimis is good for me. I picked up the boys from the high school where Jordan was finishing up track practice and Jake was done with his Basketball Open Gym session. We dropped Allison off at Timpview for dance and headed across the street for the Fiesta. Brendan met us there after work. We ate homemade chimis/burritos with Cafe Rio pork, chips, 7 layer dip, and salsa. I brought specialty drink mixers to make Pina Coladas, Strawberry Daiquiris, and very sour Margaritas. Yummo!

Brendan's brother Joe (the real party animal of the family) brought over a pinata for all the little kids. Cute little Jack was scared to death of it and refused to hit it, but there were plenty of other little hands (and big ones) who did the job.

Brian walked around saying all the Spanish phrases he knew and even had Mexican music blaring from some site that he found on the computer. I just sat back and laughed at how crazy this whole party was, but we all had so much fun.

Here are Jordan, Brendan, his brothers Brian and Joe, doing a little "Mexican" for our entertainment.

(I stole this photo from Debbie's blog because it's just so cute to see all the little cousins holding hands to cross the street.)

Everyone went across the street to the park to play baseball after the pinata. Problem was, no one could find a baseball or a bat. It's been a LONG time since kids lived in the house. No problem. The house was full of ingenious eagle scouts....they sanded down a stick found out in the yard for the bat (which was also used for the pinata). A whiffle ball just wouldn't cut it so they got masking tape to cover the holes and give it some weight. Oh these boys just get better by the minute. Jordan designated himself as the pitcher, but we all soon realized that just because you are a quarterback, doesn't mean you can pitch. They played until the tape started to unravel and the ball became useless.

This was my very first Cinco de Mayo celebration, but I'm thinking it won't be our last.

Prom 2009

Well, here goes another "Last" for Jordan. Last high school date dance. He had a great time at Prom this year. It happened to fall on Nicole's 18th birthday which made it that much more fun.

He had the BYU invitational Track Meet on Saturday morning, so their "Day Date" had to be on Friday. His group of 10 went to the Pleasant Grove Space Center (the place that everyone goes on a field trip to in 6th grade.) They had a blast fighting aliens and commanding the space ship. Sounds a little silly to me, but he's been talking about it ever since 6th grade and they all said it was very intense and lot's of fun.

Dance pictures were taken at the high school between 4 and 6 pm and not during the actual dance so that made one more stop along the way. Jordan and his buddies made the rounds to pick up their dates, had a few snags along the way which made them late, so they took their pictures at the school first, which limited our home photo shoot afterward to 5 minutes. They got to Jordan Dew's at 5:30 and had to be up in Salt Lake by 6:00. Such a bummer, but we did what we could.

They were so lucky that the rain stopped and the sun came out just long enough to get these gorgeous shots. Jordan and Jordan insisted on re-creating their famous poses they did last year for their prom photoshoot. Yes, Jordan Dew IS wearing a headband. Funny guy!

Nicole looked absolutely beautiful in her dress and perfect hair, makeup, nails, and jewelry. She's so cute naturally that it's not too hard. I don't want to jinx things, but I REALLY like her a lot!


She is so beautiful inside and out and the more we get to know her, the more we all fall in love with her. I'll admit that I pictured these photos with her in white instead of brown and liked what I saw.

She and Jordan have so much fun together and really bring out the best in each other. We'll see if they can survive "the mission." If it's meant to be....we'll see. I'm crossing my fingers though.

One of the highlights, for Jordan anyway, was his car for the night. His boss from work let him borrow his black mustang. This is the boss who's car Jordan rear-ended last summer. He's one nice guy, if you ask me. Too nice. I'm always nervous when Jordan goes out late, but I couldn't stop stressing all night about Matt's car. It's one thing to get in a wreck, but when you are driving someone else's car....not good. He had it valet parked for dinner and I was picturing the scene from Ferris Bueller's Day off when the parking attendants take their car for a joy ride around town. Thank goodness it was returned to Matt without a scratch.


They went to dinner at The Melting Pot in Salt Lake and then came back down to UVU's ballroom for the dance. The "after the dance" movie/hangout was at our house, but between curfews and everyone exhausted it didn't last long. I wanted to take pictures of everyone at the end of the day, but the girls all felt their hair was too messy. I forgot to post about MORP back in March, but I'll have to do that another day. Too much to do and blogging takes up too much precious time!