Sweet 16

Tuesday was John Bryant's 16th birthday.

Holy cow.

We met John when he was 10, and man have we seen change in this kid! I love all of the Bryants equally, but John and I have always had a special bond. He was just so stinkin' cute when I first got to know him, and at some point I made the statement that "I want to put him in my pocket". It's weird to say that now, but he was a little boy then! Over the years, John has made every effort to "stay in my pocket". One of my favorite examples took place in the Wal-Mart parking lot. He was tormenting Hayden (one of his favorite past-times), and I was telling him to stop. He did stop and then, with a look of concern on his face, immediately said to me "Am I still in your pocket??" Precious, precious John.

My other all-time favorite John story will melt your heart. We were staying with the kids for a weekend while Kevin and Lynn went out of town. Everyone was in bed upstairs (2nd floor) and David and I were watching tv in the basement. All of a sudden, David jumped up because he could hear John crying (which was impressive to me because I didn't hear anything!). He ran upstairs to find a sad, sick John because he had forgotten to take his prevacid. He was sick all night and David slept on the floor beside his bed (melt my heart again). At one point, John stopped crying long enough to ask David, "will you pray for me?". Just writing this story out brings tears to my eyes! Love him.

So, here is a post of more pictures of John Bryant (and Patty and the rest of the gang) than anyone will want to look through (other than me and David... I wrote this post when I was bored at home and had lots of time to look through all the pictures on our computer). They aren't in chronological order, and blogger sucks and won't let me align them just right, but here they are. Happy sweet 16, Johner. We pray the next 16 years of your life are as wonderful as the last 16 have been!