Happy Birthday sweet boy! It's hard to believe that you are EIGHT years old. You are SO much fun and our family wouldn't be complete without you! You keep us laughing with your dancing, funny jokes and silly facial expressions. You love to make everyone around you laugh and I love that about you. I hope that as you grow up you continue to look for ways to entertain others and work to bring happiness to your little corner of the world.
This year you've spent a lot of time hanging with your neighborhood buddies. You have your little group of boys and y'all are always up to something! You love to play any kind of sport. Pickleball is one of your favorites right now but you also love football, basketball, swimming, and kickball. You've made some great friends at school too. I love seeing you at lunch interacting with your friends. They are a really sweet group of kids which makes me so happy. Speaking of school, you are doing great. You love your teacher and classmates. You are VERY strong in math and your reading has really come a long way in the last year. Your teachers always tell me how sweet you are and how good you are in class. This year you decided to run for student council class representative and won. I am so excited for you to have this experience and I hope you love it but most of all I am so proud of your bravery. I know you were a bit nervous to stand in front of your class and read your speech but you did it! And to top it off you're getting to do something that your sisters never did...and when you're the youngest of 4 this is a rare feat.
For years and years you were our grumpy kid and then one day you weren't. I'm real glad you outgrew that! You are pretty easy going now as long as you are fed frequently...lol! You do love to eat and are hungry ALL the time. When you get hungry you tend towards the dramatic side. That's how we know it's time for you to eat again.
JP, you are my sweet little helper. You love to help me in the kitchen, you will help me clean, you love to help daddy in the yard, you are always looking for ways to serve others and I am so thankful for your servant's heart. You have started taking on some neighborhood "jobs"...watering plants and collecting mail when neighbors go out of town. You take your responsiblities seriously and you have big plans for when you're old enough to cut grass!
You spend most of your days running around in athletic shorts and tshirts wihtout a care about what you look like. But every now and then you have an occasion where you feel the need to get dressed up. You will painstakingly pick out an outfit, gel your hair, and put on some cologne. It is absolutely adorable to see. And I love the days where you try to pick out an outfit that matches daddy's. I love the way you look up to him and want to be like him and I hope you keep looking up to him and trying to be like him!
I get a kick out of watching you with your sisters. Each relationship is different. Ruthie is your partner in crime. I'm pretty sure that when y'all are teenagers the two of you will be responsible for a quite a few of my gray hairs. When you're not up to shenannigans you can also be found snuggled in a chair reading a book or talking to each other. Emerson is your other mother. She'll snuggle you, read to you, and is happy to take you under her wing. Ellie is a little of both. She's where you turn when you need a quieter playmate but she's also been known to come up with some pretty elaborate, fun adventures. You have such a great friendship wiht each of your sisters and I am so thankful for how close y'all are (especially since you were absolutely terrified of them for the first few months of your life!).
I have loved watching you grow and change this year. You are an absolute delight and I can't wait to see how you grow over the next year!
Love,
Mom
