Loren Turns 12

It's so hard to believe my boy turned twelve today! New Year's Eve 1998 we welcomed our 6 lb. 11 oz. 19 inch baby boy into this world and I became a mommy for the first time. He is now 5 foot 4.5 inches tall and 106 pounds!

As a preschooler, he knew everyone celebrated with parties on December 31st....but he kind of thought they were celebrating his birth. He didn't quite understand that they were actually celebrating with New Year's Eve parties :D We've gotten in the habit of having sleepovers for the last several years for his friends that are in town. We made a deal with him this year, though. Instead of paying and taking everyone to laser tag or a movie before the sleepover, we gave him an Option #2. Option #2 was to pick only a FEW friends this year and hang out at home for the sleepover. The money we save in taking the boys out for the evening we would put towards 1/2 of an xBox 360 with Kinect (he had already saved up for 1/2 of it). Once we presented him with Option #2, he went to his room, closed the door, screamed, came back out and said he'll pick the latter option. He thought he would be saving for another year for it so we had ONE HAPPY BOY.

Once Chris, Jesse and Billy showed up they started the xBox game playing. Cousins Lenny, Anessia, Uncle Len, Rich, Nana & Papa came for pizza, cake and gift opening. This year the crowd was alot smaller and it was pretty laid back. They stayed up until midnight to watch the ball drop and to set off their party poppers. Each boy had their own personal-sized bottles of Martinelli's Cider to toast in the New Year of 2011. Loren is crazy about that stuff, as well as mom! Then Loren, Billy and Jesse (Chris went home for the evening) brought their sleeping bags into the living room and went to sleep.

THIS BLIP PHOTO IS OF THE GIFT AUNT WENDY, UNCLE RON, AMANDA, LANEY AND ANNIE GOT FOR HIM. THESE THREE NERF-TYPE GUNS FIT TOGETHER TO MAKE ONE ULTIMATE WEAPON.