THE OLDEST

It's not easy being the oldest.  The oldest is the guinea pig.  He has the most responsibility (and privileges I try to remind him...) But really I think being the oldest can be pretty hard.  Lucky for us our oldest is pretty dang great.  Sure he can tease and harass in ways only a 13 year old boy can, but he brings so much good and happiness into our home too.

Jack started taking piano lessons from Grandma Linda this summer and I really think it is the highlight of his week.  He LOVES his lessons and fills our home with beautiful music when he practices.  He also fills our home with the Entertainer about 100 x's a week....not what I would call beautiful music (at least not the 1 millionth time you've heard it) but even though I beg him to stop, I can't help smile when he plays it.

 Jack is THE most helpful person to have around when we go skiing with the family!  He has boundless energy and helps get the twins and all their gear up the hill and into their ski class.  He happily skis backwards to help coach Grant and Grace down the hill and encourages Marian and Lucy at every step.  Even though I'm pretty sure he'd rather be off hot doggin it down black diamonds...that kid is fearless, he never complains about skiing with the family.


 Thanks to an awesome woman in our ward Jack has learned how to find names of our ancestors who need temple work done for them.  It has been so awesome for me to see Jack and Marian and some of their cute friends take those names to the temple and get baptized for them.  It is also a good motivator for me to get to the temple so I can do their temple work too!

Even though he is a full blown teenager in so many ways...he's not TOO cool to leave selfies like this on my phone every now and then :)

Jack  may be turning into a big tough teenager on the outside ( it's not going to be long before he and I see eye to eye...literally ) but he still has the sweetest heart on the inside.  He has always been comfortable talking to adults and new people and turning teen hasn't changed that a bit.  We have a friend "Grandpa Jack" in our ward who we love going over to visit.  My Jack is always so warm and easy at conversations with him I can't help but be impressed.  I am certain that talking with people is one of Jack's spiritual gifts.

 We have been bombarded with snow this winter and one Sunday after staying late at church for Young Women meetings I came home to this sweet scene.  Jack recruited Grant to help him shovel our driveway and sidewalks, and the driveways of at least 4 other families on our street! 

I'm telling you, being the mother of a teen is not for the faint of heart.  Figuring out rules and expectations for  video games, phones, school, and friends that Chad and I feel good about but that also allows our first baby the chance to grow and spread his wings of independence  is overwhelming sometimes.  There have been times when I've felt bad for allowing too much and times when I've felt bad for allowing too little.  At this early stage in my teenage mothering I'm realizing that I'm going to get it wrong ...a lot.  But I'm going to get a lot of things right too and learn more and more along the way.  I'm also realizing that I am SO lucky to have a kid like Jack as my first to help me figure things out.  Even though we can get pretty steamed at each other, he is quick to forgive and even when he really REALLY doesn't like certain rules, I'm pretty sure that deep deep deep down he knows that I'm acting out of love.  And truth is, if we keep LOVE at the center of our mother-teen relationship I'm confident we will do just fine.  Love and a whole lot of forgiveness...and burger runs, and new hair styles that may or may not be something I would pick and late night youtube binge watching etc... etc...