My Baby Brother

My youngest brother, Michael, turned 18 yesterday (he is the one on the right)! To me he will always be my baby brother, but he sure has grown up. He is now much taller than me, and a great kid. He works at a laser tag place, and ended up having his party there. The management was nice enough to let us all play for free, and we got free food. :)

When we first showed up Caden was a little scared because the place where we were going to eat was dark, and he started to cry. We were able to get the lights on, and he started to have some fun. He even ended up going in for a game of lazer tag. I wish I would have taken a picture of him with the gear on. It was so cute to watch him run around and "shoot" people. He teamed up with my niece Maya (Nancy's daughter) and ran around the course like he was a pro! I don't think that he actually got anyone, but he had so much fun. He even woke up this morning and was still talking about it.

It was nice to be at the party. It made me reflect on Michael and how much he has changed and grown over the years. I am so proud of how well he has done in school. I think that he is #35 in his class (out of over 700). He is such a smart kid. He will be going to UofA in the fall, and has gotten scholarships galore. We will find out later this week if he got a particular scholarship that he applied for. If he does he will have a free ride in school because this scholarship pays for everything that his others don't! I wish I would have done more to get more of an education, but I only got a few credits from the community college under my belt. Anyway, I am excited for him, and the opportunities that he will get because of all the hardwork, and determination he has put in. He was even lucky enough that he friends got him a laptop for his birthday! I wish I had friends like that! (My friends are really great...don't get me wrong...and I would have never expected to get a laptop, I actually got great gifts from them!)

Michael is a great kid, but has had to deal with alot. I think in a lot of ways he has grown up alot faster than most kids. My mother was 47 when she had him. There was already 7 kids, and the closest one in age was 6 1/2 years older than him. He had no one to be a kid with. I have watched him as he grew, and it has been fun to see him change. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful little brother. He loves us all, and is always so willing to give of himself. Happy Birthday Michael! You are loved!

Excuse the 'white trash' messy faces of my children...they enjoyed the pizza, and ice cream cake far too much!

On the way home Syd crashed in her carseat, and I knew Caden wasn't too far behind. He went potty when he got home, and I got busy doing something. When I came out I found this....

I think that he was trying to 'hide' but fell asleep in the process...not that he could really fit his whole body under the couch anyway!