Happy Birthday Tristen!!!

Wow! Tristen is 12 years old today. That makes me...OLD! I can't believe it's been 12 years since I first held that sweet little baby boy. He was so cute and perfect. He was a momma's boy and SO well behaved. He really was an easy baby and toddler. I figured it was just because I was such a good mommy (then Jarek came along and blew that theory!). He's always been super smart. From the time he was tiny he would sit and let me read to him for as long as I would. He was speaking in full sentences long before he was Camden's age (Camden's still doing the single syllable thing). He has always done extremely well in school, always at the top of his class, and in all of the accelerated classes now in Jr. High. I'm jealous of his ability to retain information. Just this past Sunday I heard him tell Jarek that he had "memorized all of the Articles of Faith yesterday," then sure enough, he passed off all 13 of them to the Primary President after church. He's very excited to be a teenager in one more year (YIKES!!!) and his little pre-teen attitude has definitely emerged (UGH!!!).

I got up early to make him pancakes this morning and we're going to have his favorite, taco salad, for dinner. He asked me to make a Pillsbury Chocolate Caramel "Ultimate Dessert." I decorate cute cakes for the other kids' birthdays, but Tristen goes for taste over looks. I've agreed to let him have his first ever slumber party this weekend. Scary! Actually, it will just be a group of three other friends from elementary that still get together regularly. They're all really good kids, so hopefully my house will still be in one piece Saturday morning.

I wanted to make him a slideshow, which was no easy task considering that he came along long before I had a digital camera, so I had to scan in all of his pictures. I decided to just stick to the professionals, but there still ended up being a LOT.