Better Late Than Never

Okay, so in the midst of my absence in blog world I didn't get Jadon's birthday blogged. We celebrated in October his 4th birthday. I still can't believe how fast he's grown up. It seems like yesterday he was this little bundle of extreme cuteness with an extremely bald head. He was perfect in every way. His beautiful porcelain looking skin, big eyes and soft completely bald head. Yes, I know I keep mentioning his bald head, but the kid literally had no hair, not one piece of hair on his head until he was like 1. None the less he was perfect.

Now, he's 4 and can't wait to go to school, get married, be a daddy and a heavy equipment worker/conductor/pilot. (italicize added.)

He is so smart, he loves learning, much like his daddy. He has been doing addition for about 6 months now and he is working on subtraction. He is really into learning how to read. So, all day he works on his phonics. He's even started working on sounding out words he sees as we're driving.

He's just memorized his 13th memory verse since September, mostly working in the gospels. I pray that one day the words will become real in his to him. That they will not be words that fall from his lips and mean nothing, but that God's Word would penetrate his heart.

And for the most wallet challenging change of this wonderful 4 year old. His feet, which no longer fit in toddler shoes. We now get the unfortunate privilege of buying youth sizes, which if you are not there yet, let me just say, "ouch"! My check book chokes a little when I say Jadon needs new shoes. I have found wonderful new stores to shop at to find the best possible deals for the best possible shoes. Any advice on places to shop for athletic shoes would be greatly appreciated.

For their birthdays we let the kids plan the entire menu. I was quite excited when Jadon informed me that he wanted birthday pancakes for his dinner. Excited because Todd often talks about when his grandparents were alive the entire family would get together and have pancake dinners. His grandfather who was a cook in the military would whip up his pancakes and Todd's dad would make peanut butter syrup. This is a very fond memory for Todd.

So, I couldn't wait to tell Todd what his son wanted to have for his birthday meal. Todd wished he had his grandpa's pancake recipe, but he researched the Internet and found what he thought would do. At Jadon's family birthday party we had Todd's homemade pancakes with Pappy's peanut butter syrup and bacon and sausage. I think it was enjoyed by all and Todd got to be the man of the house making the pancakes for his family, taking pride in it much like his grandpa.

Here are some pictures of Jadon's birthday party.