Double Digits

I can't believe Conor is now in the double digits.  The big 1 - 0!  Where have the last 10 years gone?
It seems like yesterday he was just a baby.  After two plus hours of labor, an hour of pushing on my side, an internal saline catheter, an internal fetal monitor in his head, six pounds and eleven ounces of bouncing baby boy came out.  It's a boy!  We had not found out what we were having.  It's a shocker, I know.  I am your typical planner/control freak; you would think I would want to know so I could plan, decorate, and prepare. We didn't, though; I also LOVE surprises - really love surprises, and there isn't much more fun than having the doctor declare, "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!".

I remember that Conor was really strong.  He came out of the womb raring to go.  In this photo he was just a few hours old, and he was already trying to hold up his head.  He has been raring to go since the beginning and hasn't stopped since.

In this picture, Conor is one-year old.  I just love his hat and little smile.  Again, I'm just amazed at how fast the time has gone.  I know that this has contributed to our decision to home school.  Our children's pastor at church told me there's an app called "Legacy" in which you put in your child's birth date and it counts down the time until they graduate.  It's crazy, but we only have so many minutes and hours to pour Christ into our kids before they are gone.

Conor, essentially had two birthday celebrations.  One was with family.  For Toby's fifth birthday we learned about an organization called Icing Smiles.  They do special cakes for kids/siblings that have life threatening illnesses.  I had prayed about whether to do one for Conor this year, and then I had the thought - if something happens and Toby's medical situation would interfere with Conor's birthday, I'll get a cake.  Just a short time later we learned that one of Toby's surgeries would happen right before Conor's birthday.  That sealed the deal, I contacted them and they enlisted a local baker to make this cake.  It was amazing.  We were actually able to keep the cake a secret from Conor. He is so nosy and listens in on every phone conversation; he wants to know everything, but this time I was able to pull one over on him.

We joked that this was the birthday that never ended.  Toby was released from the hospital the afternoon of Conor's birthday, and the following weekend he had a party with his friends.  They played football outside, rode scooters in our basement in the dark with only glo-sticks to light the way, ate, had cake, and a few slept over.  They had a lot of fun!

I know a few of these pictures are blurry (my camera is awful), but Conor has such a great look on his face of laughing; I just love it.

Playing football!

Doing a group shot - serious and then silly....

To top the birthday off, Bruce has a friend that owns a Ferrari, and Conor had a chance to ride in it.  It really was the icing on the cake!!!

Even little brother got a chance to take a ride!