HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACE!

I can't believe my little boy is already 4 years old! He's growing up way too fast. He was so fun to celebrate his Birthday with this year. All he ever asked for for his Birthday was Thomas the Train toothpaste. Then, he wanted to go to school on his Birthday and celebrate it with his school friends and have them all tell him "Happy Birthday Jace!" Lucky for him, his Birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, which happened to be a school day. We celebrated his Birthday this year by going to Jungle Jim's on Saturday with Lance and I's families. That way, I didn't have to do anything but make a cake. Jace was in HEAVEN when we got there. He was hugging every one's legs and just couldn't stop smiling. Even though there were a lot of kids and it was a little hectic, it was SOOOO worth it to see that smile on his face. Sadly, I don't have my camera with me to upload the pictures of his party. On Wednesday, he got "Mommy's donuts" (isn't it sad the local donut shop is mommy's donuts?) for breakfast and then he got his wish and got to go to school.
So, here are a few things I love about this kid:

*Even though sometimes he's a little rough with her, he loves his baby sister. He constantly has to hug and kiss her even if she is smothered by it. Yesterday, in fact, she was in her carseat on the floor and next thing I knew, he had her pulled out onto his lap so he could hold her.
*He keeps me on my toes. I'm constantly cleaning up after his messes, whether it be crayons on the wall or strawberry syrup painted on my kitchen floor. Not fun to clean up, but something has to get me up and going in the day!
*He gets excited over everything! And he'll always tell me "Oooh...I love that!"
*He is turning into my big helper. Not necessarily the best thing because things can turn a little messier than they already were, like when I ask for 1 diaper and he brings me a whole armful of them and drops them on the floor, or he unloads the dishwasher and sets the clean dishes with the dirty ones, so I never remember which ones I already washed and which ones still need to be washed.
*He is always so concerned about people. My in-laws all caught the flu on Monday and Jace kept asking me if we were going to go over there so he could take care of them. Unfortunately, I wouldn't let him. Then, my mom had surgery a couple days ago. When we went over there this morning, he asked her "Grandma, are you feeling better? I said a prayer for you that you would get better." Cutest thing in the world!
*He has the sweetest voice I've ever heard. It's hard to turn him down for things he wants because he's so sweet!
*The way he gets excited over a dollar and says "Look! I have 50 dollars!"
*The times I hear him reading to himself or singing a song I didn't realize he even knew.
*The way I find his toys under the covers taking a nap or with food on them because they had something to eat.
*How he predicts the weather forecast for the day. He's always been right telling me which days it's going to rain (when there's not a cloud in the sky) or it's not going to rain.
*He's my little shopping list. I'll take him to the store and he'll tell me which things I need to remember to buy. Leave it to him to remember things I probably would have forgotten.

There are so many more things I could say about this little boy. He's just such a blessing to me. He teaches me patience and a whole lot more. I honestly could not imagine not having him as part of our family.