Keaton

I cannot believe my baby is turning 7!!! I love the little boy you are. You have such a sweet heart and a independent soul. You are serious, cautious and organized, you get that from me. Don't get me wrong, you are all boy and still do normal boy things and make boy messes. You are very competitive, you get that from your dad. You love all sports especially basketball and football. You get upset when you don't win or if it doesn't go your way. But don't give up, you will learn great life lessons from all your efforts.

You are extremely smart and I am so glad we decided not to hold you back a year in school. Even though you are one of the youngest kids in your class, you are having no problems keeping up with them and even excelling. School seems easy to you. You have a great memory. I noticed this for the first time when working on scripture memorization for AWANA. You also did great learning your line for the 1st grade class Christmas presentation. Your line was long (On Dasher, On Dancer, etc) but you learned it easily and presented it well. You looked out into the audience of parents and spoke loud and clear.

You had your share of notes sent home from your teacher. Most of them stated you were having problems paying attention or talking too much. I never stressed too much about such instances because I know you are a good kid, just being a kid. (I got in trouble for talking a lot in 1st grade myself) I honestly feel you were even a little bored, and so we usually disciplined you with positive reinforcements. If you corrected your behavior we would reward you hard work and efforts instead of punishing you. We wanted you to know we recognized your good behavior and not just punished you for the times you got in trouble. Because in the great scope of the year, you were a very good student....and son!!

Keaton-7 years old

54 lbs

51" tall

I love it when I see your cautious side. We recently ate dinner at Carrabas and from our table could see the grill light up with fire. We tried to assure you that it was normal and we were completely safe, but you sat mesmerized the entire dinner. You were worried the restaurant would catch on fire. And then the other day, Cort stopped up the shower drain and was playing in the water accumulating at the bottom of our stand up shower. We overheard you tell him to stop because he was going to flood the whole house.

And I also love it when you make me laugh. One day when I was pregnant with Gage, I was driving to work and laughed so hard that I started crying. I was thinking about you and something that happened the night before. We had all been upstairs and you wanted something to drink. You didn't want to go downstairs by yourself, because it was dark and you were scared. We told you to turn on the lights and you would be okay. You ran as fast as you could down the stairs and through the kitchen, grabbing a juice box, and ran back upstairs....the speed of lighting. There was a noise from the kitchen as you whirled past the kitchen counter. We questioned you when you topped the stairs about the noise and you said with a quick comeback, 'oh that, don't worry about that, that was nothing'. It may not read as much here in written words, but the sauciness in which you said it was hilarious and had your father and I rolling in laughter.... and then me in tears even the following day. There was also the time you tried to convince us you could speak Chinese. I was in tears again that day from laughing so much.

You are a negotiator. Others would say it crosses the line of back talking and at times it does, but I can see you are a debater, a salesman like your father. I hope this quality, as it develops, will help you to achieve your dreams and make you successful in life.

You are showing us the first signs we are soon to be broke......from groceries. Sloppy joes, Manwich, is your favorite meal....and you can eat 3 of them.

Happy Birthday Keaton Edward!

I am so glad you were born!

Now can you stop growing??