Samuel's 12th Birthday

I cannot believe we have a 12 year old! A pre-teen. A deacon! Not only because it ages Tyler and I but also because that means Samuel has been a part of our lives for 12 years. We love Samuel. 

Cecily and Sam having a zucchini club fight.

Samuel's birthday fell on a Friday. Luckily for him, there wasn't any school that day! That afternoon Steve and Lori came up and took us out to his favorite fast food restaurant, Taco Bell. Then that night we had our ward party. 

Tyler and I were asked, with another couple, to plan and execute, and it fell on Samuel's birthday. So, that afternoon Tyler and I were prepping for it while Samuel did his favorite thing....played video games. That night Steph, Emily, Shawn, Gma & Gpa Furber, Gma and Gpa Stoehr, Hannah and Rose came to the ward party. It was a success. We had 150 people attend. Even though we got rained out of the park we held it at church. Tyler and I made 80 pounds of smoked, pulled pork. The ward provided the rest. And I decorated with the help of some ward members that I recruited. It came together really nicely and without too much stress. I couldn't tell if I wasn't stressed because I had a minimal approach to the whole thing. Or did most of the prep the week of opposed to fretting over it for weeks (not that I wasn't preparing or thinking of it for the previous 3 that we knew about the assignment). Or because I am getting better at handling big projects like that. Not sure......Sadly, no pictures :(  Just imagine a western themed party with excellent food and company. Fun times. And we managed to embarrass Samuel by having the whole ward sing Happy Birthday to him. 

The next day was kinda chill. Steph helped me cut Colin's hair. Family showed up that afternoon. Then that gals--Steph, Emily, Lori, Gma F, Hannah, Jocelyn and I attended the Women's Conference at the Conference Center. That was really special as Jocelyn was able to see the prophets up close. And it was just a great conference! Then we came home to The Pi Pizza. Yum!! And Samuel got Papa Johns pizza because he and the kids don't like The Pi. 

We were able to host Gma and Gpa Furber this trip. 

This year was a special year as he received the Priesthood. Unfortunately, we did not get any photos on that special day. That Sunday all the family was able to come to our ward. It also happened to be our Primary Program. It was very sweet. Each of kids did an awesome job of speaking their parts. Although, Jocelyn and Samuel had memorized theirs their nerves got to them and they read part of it. Cecily had a complicated scripture to recite. They each sang well even if Cecily was a little bouncy in her choir seat chair. The last song, the primary song of the year, If I Listen with My Heart , that went along with the theme, "I know the Scriptures are true" was really touching. Especially since this was Samuel's last primary program ever. Sadly, Tyler chose to attend Music and the Spoken Word and missed the program. His attendance is borderline 80% so he ran the risk of not singing in General Conference the next weekend. One of those sacrifices we make for the choir. We opted to have Samuel set apart between the second and third hours. Our brand new bishop allowed us to have the ordination in his office, instead of in front of the whole priesthood, which made Samuel nervous. Plus, we had this huge crew of family it would have been kind of awkward. It was a very special blessing. I bawled through it. Tyler cried through it. He mentioned that Samuel was blessed with a big heart and that he's aware of other people's needs. He was blessed with this and it would magnify his priesthood power to bless others. I don't think Samuel understands the magnitude of what he was just given but it'll be exciting to see how, over time, he will. The bishop also mentioned to me that during his interview, he could tell that Samuel was saved for this day. A little scary yet very cool that he was prepared to be born and raised at this time. He's a special boy, er, young man. 

His favorite cake flavor--mint and chocolate. Each year he has some variation of this. This year I asked him to peruse Pinterest and tell me what he wanted. He liked this 3 layered chocolate cake with mint frosting, topped with rich ganache. At first I worried it would be a disaster because the cakes came out thin, a little sunken and fell apart as I took them out of the pans. Luckily, Hannah has cake decorating experience and she helped put it all together. Even to the point of making the cool frosting edging. It turned out to be very delicious and Samuel loved it!

Samuel opening his box of kleenex from Gma and Gpa Stoehr. Or was it??

He was happy with his $12 instead of a bunch of useful tissue.

Samuel in his kitchen bedroom in Paris.

In school Samuel took a test in one of his classes. He discovered that he's an extrovert. Not completely surprising as Tyler and I both consider ourselves more on the extroverted side. But now that I look back......while we lived in Paris (I'll throw in a picture for fun) it was just Samuel and I most of the day. And he struggled playing by himself. I had to be right there with him or actually engaged with him. Or he had to be stimulated by others....which kinda drove me nuts because it was just usually the two of us in this foreign country alone. But now it makes sense......he craves being with other people and is energized by them (even if it's online playing with friends). He'd hate it if I shared this but I am going to anyway because not many people read this...but he also talks to himself. That's how much he dislikes being alone, lol! When he is playing on the Ps4, the shower, etc, I can hear him having these play-by-play conversations or imagining stories. I love it. Just don't make fun of him for it :)



Even though this wasn't an official "friend birthday party" year I let him invite a few friends over. A week after his birthday, they had another 3 day weekend.  He wanted to just veg and play video games then watch his favorite movie "Warcraft" with them. However, a couple of the guys weren't as interested in these two major activities and I think he was a little let down by that. We should have kept it small to his closest friends. They ended up enjoying the chickens, played on the playground, nerf gun battles, and ate pizza and a bunch of junk food. He loved it.

Tyler took Samuel to his first priesthood session! They went to Culver's for ice cream afterwards to start a tradition (one that Tyler enjoyed as a kid).