Before and After

Jared was in desperate need of a haircut.  He doesn't like to get it cut and  tells me frequently that I should just let him grow it long.  I told him he needed to get it cut and that he had either the choice of me cutting it or a professional.  Last time he did choose me.  His hair suffered greatly and it wasn't a good experience for either one of us.  This time he choose wisely.

Another view of his long hair.

Jared with his new haircut.   You can see from the confident pose that he actually did like it.  I knew he would.  I like that I didn't cut it.

He's such a good looking teen that I had to have another picture.

Jared's 15th Birthday 6-15-11

Jared's birthday actually started last Friday night when my parents (that were in town for Caleb's graduation party) took Jared and the rest of us out to Ci Ci's pizza buffet. Super yummy and we all pigged out on pizza, brownies, salad, pasta, breadsticks, cinnamon rolls, dessert pizza and soda! I think we all rolled out of there.

Then on Tuesday, Jared asked if he could have a few friends over for his Golden Birthday. He ended up having about 12 teens here. I'm thankful to Little Caesar's pizza that has $5.00 Large pizzas so that we could get a bunch to satisfy the group. We also had a ton of leftover cupcakes, cookies, pop, water and juice from the graduation party so all of the teens were happy to finish off those things. Wednesday night (the night of his actual birthday) he didn't want the family celebration because he was being thrown a party at Scouts at church so he asked that we celebrate it last night. Last night (Thursday) we finally sang to him. So I guess you could say that Jared is officially 15 now.

Some interesting facts about Jared you may not know:

He loves to read and between him and Alyssa they are having a contest of who can read all 7 books of Harry Potter the fastest. Both of them have read the series before.

Jared tried out for show choir and will be in that for his Sophomore year.

Jared would love to grow his hair out long and has asked me several times to just let him do it. It usually comes down to me threatening to cut his hair or get a professional. One time he actually chose me to cut it (that was only one time).

Jared has about 5 girlfriends at once (he says he doesn't, but I'm constantly seeing him with another girl walking down the street. Every night different girls call for him.

Jared loves White Chocolate

Jared was born at 4:08 a.m. 5 weeks early, but was a strong enough baby to come home without a NICU stay.

Happy Birthday Jared, we love you and are glad you are in our family!

Jared holding his new Wii game that he picked out.

Being silly.

This looks like his pie is on fire due to our poor quality camera and the amount of candles on that pie.

Here is Jared's birthday pie.  He wanted pie instead of cake.  He picked out a Peanut Butter pie, which is actually my favorite pie, so I was very happy to eat it.

Caleb's Graduation Party

The cake

Part of the spread of food.  We had chips of all sorts, veges with dip,  cup up mixed fruit, assorted cookies that either I had made or other friends had made and cut up cheese and summer sausage.  My Dad bought some meatballs with Ragu sauce, those were super yummy.  For drinks we had water and assorted sodas to choose from.    The flowers were bought by my Mom, aren't they gorgeous?

Part of Caleb's Shrine.  This posterboard had all the picture from his entire life with the ages printed above them.  The framed picture to the left is the picture of Caleb's group from Philmont Boy Scout Camp, the bowl in front of that held the cards.  Over to the right is the picture of Caleb as a Drum major with all the other drum majors with him.  In front of the board is the school newspaper article that was written about Caleb and I put it in a sheet protector so everyone could read it.  Then there was his Graduation program and his cap with the tassel.

This poster board had all the pictures that are Caleb's favorite pictures from high school.  Then in front of that board were his National Director's award for Band and the National Director's award for Choir, his seminary graduation diploma, his Celebration Iowa program, the All State Award Certificate and the ISU Honor Choir certificate, on the wall are two band pictures from Freshman and Sophmore years and then an art project he did when he was little.

Caleb with Ryan Person, his Choir Director.

This picture shows tons of cupcakes I mad that I obviously shouldn't have since almost all of the 140 were left over today, so I brought an entire massive box to the church and let the youth group devour them.

A close up of the picture from his life.

I made this book for Caleb out of a composition notebook, this way his friends could sign it.

A Celebration Iowa poster that all his cast members signed that I framed.

One of Caleb's senior picture.

The entire spread as seen from the front room.

Caleb holding a gift his girlfriend Bryn made him.

A better picture of the gift Bryn made.  I had just put it on the piano for everyone to enjoy.

Abby is already 15 weeks old, that went fast.

Abby at 7 weeks old

Abby at 15 weeks 3 days old

Abby is adorable!