Darin's 12th Birthday

Good Morning Early Bird and Happy Birthday!  Every year we have to remind Darin that he technically wasn't born until 11:53 pm of February 9th, so he shouldn't be waking us up at 4 something in the morning the day of his birthday.  But, he is always so excited that he will wake us up and cuddle with us patiently until we finally decide to get out of bed.

The birthday boy requested eggs, rice, and bacon for breakfast.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised these two were up and excited for their brothers birthday too.  They hate waking up early.

After 6 or so months of begging and begging us to let him buy an airsoft gun, Darin got what he wished for.  Those 6 months included numerous talks with his Dad about gun safety and writing up expectations, rules, and pledging to be responsible.  Darin was so surprised because he figured we would never give him an airsoft gun.

The other present Darin got was his own room.  Decorated in all of his favorite things.  It took me forever to find him acceptable bedding.  Darin's favorite colors are black and hunter green.  Not really popular colors right now:-(  He also really cared about how everything felt, basically I shopped by touch and found him the softest sheets and fluffy, cuddly blankets and pillows.  It kind of reminded me of shopping for his baby blanket, I didn't care so much about how it looked but wanted it to be super soft.  

Darin had moved into his own room 4 months before but we had never gotten around to changing up the drapes or bedding.  I think he was just so grateful to have his own space that he never complained about having purple drapes with butterfly lights strung all around them:-)  He is such a good pre-tween!

Here's me and Ginger trying to turn these black drapes with white circles into black drapes with green circles.  It didn't work out very well because it took forever, so we switched it around later.

After school got out Ken and the boys went out shooting.

Lola and Papa came over and Darin opened more presents!

For Dinner he requested Steak and asparagus.  For lunch Darin wanted Panda Express.

Darin with Lola and Papa.

Darin's birthday party with his friends was at Austin Park N Pizza.  We got a sitter for the girls so that we could play hard with all those boys.

Go Karts are the boys favorite.

Waiting for Laser Tag.

Me and my boy!  There is a massive arcade too.

We even played miniature golf.

Of course Darin had is usual Birthday Brownies.

The next Sunday Darin was ordained to the office of a Deacon.  It was a beautiful ordination.  Darin was ordained the same day as his friend Jared.  We hosted a lunch for the boys after church and had alot of families and friends to support the boys.  It was such a special day, lots of happy tears were shed by me and Ken as our oldest son began his journey in the Priesthood.  I wish we had taken a picture before church before our emotional day.