Happy Birthday, Chase!

Almost a week has passed since Chase turned 14. Fourteen?!!
On Chase's birthday, we woke up to the news that school had been postponed and then found out they were going to cancel it. The roads were too icy and cars were sliding off right and left. We actually had a driveway full of people waiting to get back on the road. That said, it's not a bad way to start your birthday to find out school has been cancelled. Chase spent the morning designing his own custom shoes on the Nike website. He is very artistic and frequently draws pictures of shoes with custom logos, so this was the perfect birthday present for him. We are anxious for the shoes to arrive. After the road conditions improved, we headed into town where Chase looked for something to buy with his birthday money from grandparents' Christensen and Hawkes. He settled on the NCAA 2011 videogame. Then we headed over to TimeOut Pizza, a local pizzeria decked out in sports paraphanelia and flat screens broadcasting games. Chase chowed down on Meat Lovers pizza, checked out the LeBron shoes--those are some big feet, and then headed home to play basketball at the school with the old guys from church. When he got home, we ate some delicious Whoppers cake I baked from a recipe in the Baked cookbook. It's a must try recipe, it was so good.
Chase is an AWESOME kid. He is so kind and peaceful and treats our family members with love and respect. He has a great sense of humor and is frequently laughing and finding the humor in situations. He is very creative and artistic and expresses himself with his wonderful drawings and designs. He is an amazing athlete, but is also a good sport. He works hard in school, is intelligent, and gets good grades (sidenote: he & his friend just won 1st place in the school science fair). It has been a blessed fourteen years watching Chase grow and develop into such an incredible young man.