A Dozen Years

We have a 12 year old!!!  I can hardly believe it's true.  How can I possibly be old enough to have a 12-year-old on my hands??  Hahaha.  We couldn't let the day go by without documenting the highlights of it, and here, with the pictures, are 12 things about Ethan and who he is right now, on this day in time.  :)

1.)  Watching TV is a treasured pastime.

2.)  Harry Potter #7 is still is fave book.

3.)  Games and puzzles are his thang.

4.)  His current favorite memory involves surf, sand, and long road trips.  Hahahahahahahahaha.  J/K.  Only the beach resides in that misty, watercolored memory.

5.)  Orange is still his favorite color.

6.)  Amazing Race and American Ninja Warrior are the peanut butter to his jelly.

7.)  If given the chance, he'd order pizza every night for dinner.

8.)  His greatest strengths are his persistence and tenacity.

9.)  He has dreamboat eyes.

10.)  I think his subconscious dream is to flip houses for a big profit.

11.)  He has a faux dimple in his right cheek.

12.)  He has the same size foot as his mother.

And there you have it!  This IS a friend party year, but we were a little slow with getting the invites out and planning the whole thing, so the party will take place in a couple of weeks.  He seems to be okay with that.  I'm hoping that we've done enough today on his actual birthday to make him feel as special and wonderful as he is to us.  Because he most certainly is.

I love how this kid will rise to any challenge thrown his way.  To close, I'll leave you with the following example.  For the last several months, we've been talking about how great it would be if Ethan could finish reading the Book of Mormon by his 12th birthday, when he will enter the Youth program and receive the Priesthood and become a Deacon.  Each night at bedtime, Scott reads the Book of Mormon with him before moving on to whatever else he is reading.  Starting a few months ago, I began encouraging Ethan to read a couple more pages after Scott was done so that he'd be on track to finish by today.  WELL, as I'm sure you can imagine, reading scriptures alone was not all that exciting a prospect for a kid, and he had fallen quite a bit behind by this past weekend.  He decided that there was no way he could finish on time and that his new goal was to finish by the end of the summer.  However, my powers of persuasion are apparently even greater than I supposed, because after throwing down the gauntlet on Sunday afternoon and telling him that I still thought he could finish if he put his mind to it, he totally took the bait and buckled down with single-minded focus and determination to get it done!  In his words {and I'm paraphrasing}: "Aaaaaahhh!  Why do you have to be so persuasive??  Now I kind of want to do the challenge!"  Hahaha.  On Sunday night, he was still at the beginning of 3rd Nephi.  Since then, he's read about 20 pages every night, and only has 25 more pages to read tonight to finish it off!!  {He's got half of Ether and all of Moroni left}.  That's my boy.  :)  I am thoroughly impressed and delighted that he has risen to this challenge.  He is turning out to be quite an impressive young man.  What a treasure to have in our family.  :)