Eleven.

Over the weekend Carter turned Eleven. My heart was full of excitment for this boy who has been anticipating this birthday so much. Eleven means he can babysit his siblings and go to Young Mens. He is graduating from Primary at church and is so excited about it. This is his last year of elementary school and he is growing so fast and into such an incredible young man. We are SO proud of the person is he becomming.

Carter is such a "Cool" kid. His shoelaces in that top picture make me laugh because that wasn't rushed or like he just didn't have time or something was off... he literally wears his shoes like that every single day. Its hard because he distroyes his lashes so quickly every time but also I love this photo because it shows Carter just as he is right now. Sweat pants and undone shoelaces... he's the best.

Carter has gotten so much more mature over the last year. He is always so kind to his little cousins and so helpful with his friends little siblings. Honestly, he's the guy you just want to be around.

Carter's birthday day was a little taken over by "life" and he didn't even bat an eye about it. I was worried he would feel a little jipped but he just rolled with the whole day and was so happy.

Carter requested homemade cinnimon buns for breakfast. He was in heaven.

I wrapped his gift, made him a birthday card and decorated the table, as we always do, baseball theme for this guy!

Of course, we always do gifts way too early when we have barely just crawled out of bed. Bentley and Penny made him birthday cards too and watching Carter's expressions while reading the cards and opening the gifts is my favourite!

He loved his birthday gifts and was so happy. We had such a busy day ahead of us. We had to clean the church, get Bentley to his basketball tournament and then straight to Lucy's baptism. It was such a jam packed day. After the baptism, Penny had a birthday party to go to and the boys stayed home and played video games together at Carter's request.

For dinner, Carter wanted Dairy Queen hamburgers and then we had his favourite cupcakes for dessert.

Grandparents stopped by to spoil him too and he was just on cloud nine!

We finished off the evening surprising Carter with a family movie night set up. We watched "8-bit Christmas", had twinkle lights, his favourite chocolates and treats and brought lots of his bedding upstairs to make it as comfortable as possible. When he walked upstairs and saw everything he quietly said to himself "I love birthdays". It's fun for Brian and I to see those cute moments. Makes everything worth it.

So, to the boy who made us parents. We loved you before we even knew you existed. We longed for you. We dreamed of what you would be like. Would you be funny, sensitive, creative and kind? Turns out, you are all of those things. Since the day you were born you have filled our lives with joy. You teach us so many lessons that we could only ever learn from you. You have your own perfect personality and we are grateful everyday for you. Happy 11th birthday Carter, you are so special to us.