Nicholas Pickolas

Nick turns 16 today! I have two children who can drive cars. Yikes. Actually Nick will take his driving test tomorrow but I am assuming he'll pass. And I have finally found the solution to not posting late for birthdays. We just celebrate them 3 days early. :-) Nick can be summed up in two words--basketball and exercising. Maybe another--silly! It is SO hard sometimes to think of what to get teenage boys for their birthdays. Nick's obsessions made it easier though. He just really wanted some basketball shoes. We threw in some clothes and a basketball and he was as happy as a clam. He is constantly driving everyone crazy trying to get people to play basketball with him and to his delight he found out on Sunday that the bishop of the ward that meets in our building is setting up a basketball game for every Thursday. I am actually really glad he isn't one of these kids that's addicting to online gaming or anything worse but he sure does love his basketball. He is quite a determined young man (perhaps a little TOO competitive sometimes) but it has served him well. He has lost 60 lbs. in the time he grew from being 6 ft. 1 in. to 6 ft. (nearly) 5 in. That is really impressive. If I lost 60 lbs. I think I'd die of happiness. I joke by telling him I'd do anything to do what he's accomplished....except all the eating right and exercising. :-) Because seriously, there is no other way to do it as far as I'm concerned. We're really proud of Nick for many, many reasons and we absolutely love having him in our family. Happy 16th Nick!

This was a birthday flower candle thing I found that I wanted to try out for his birthday. Kind of fun. I must say it was a little harder to think of how to celebrate his bday this year since he won't eat cake or ice cream. Thank goodness they make fruit bars that are like 40 calories so he could still have a treat (we still had cake and ice cream for the rest of us)! I will never have that kind of willpower.