I am now the proud owner of a TEENAGER.

Invariably, when you have a child at the tender age of 15, you will have a teenager by the time you hit 28.  Well, I'm 28 and my little boy is now 13.  He turned 13 on September 1 and I've been meaning to blog since then but I've been busy chasing an almost two-year-old everywhere (oh, and looking for a job - two interviews next week!).  I really can't believe he is a teenager.  He is a great kid.  Sweet, respectful, smart, and well-behaved.  He is in a much better place in his life than I was at his age.  It is hard to believe that at his age, I was only a year from becoming pregnant with him.  Watching him grow up has really put my life into perspective. 

Here we are on his 13th birthday.  I would upload a picture of him as an infant, but honestly, I am too lazy to find one and scan it in.  I had just gotten home from a long day's work (3ish hours =D) and he had just come home from school. 

We had an intimate family dinner that night with the usual suspects (my five + dad) and made Jake's favorite food - bratwurst and pierogies.  My kid is strange.  The rest of us ate bacon wrapped pork tenderloin.  While we grilled, the kids swam in the pool:

Jacob is such a good big brother.

Then we had a little cake, featuring the cake that I wrote about here.

After blowing out the candles, Joel hit him with some silly string.  Bailey was TICKLED.  Can you tell?

While "Bubba" (How country, right?) opened presents, Brayden perched himself on the couch.  Is he not the cutest kid you have ever seen?

We got Jake some new clothes because suddenly, after all these years, he wants to wear "less immature" shirts.  Anyway, he got really excited about the Polo shirts he got because frankly, they are all the rage in junior high right now.  He also got some Abercrombie shirts, a Tommy shirt, some Hollister cologne, a new phone, some clothes to wear to his weightlifting class, and a couple of Xbox games.  I'm still trippin' on the new clothes that he asked for.  Junior high definitely changes kids...