Happy Birthday, McKay!

My second nephew, McKay turned 9 today!

I cannot believe that this little guy:

is now this young man:

McKay has always been such a fun person to be around.

He has a great laugh and smile and I love playing around with him. He's also very smart and you can have more intelligent conversations with him than you would ever expect from someone his age.

McKay has had several serious injuries in his short little life but he is always very tough and doesn't complain. One time he even cut his lip open on a chain link fence but he handled it like it was a paper cut!

McKay is one of the messiest eaters I've ever seen (besides me!) and he always seems to get some of his Oreo milkshake on every part of his body & clothes. Looking back at my old pictures I found that apparently he has always been this way!

McKay has also been in to sports for as long as I can remember. He is a very good athlete and has a talent for all sports. He got his dad's competitive nature and because of that he works very hard to better his skills. It bothers him when other players don't give 100% and he makes sure he does every game. It's McKay's dream to play football for the BYU Cougars like his grandpa did and he once told me that he will just walk up to them and tell them that he's Steve Ogden's grandson and they'll have to let him on the team! I know that if he works hard and sticks to it he'll be able to fulfill his dream even without the name dropping!

McKay is a very tough guy but he also has a very sweet side (although he probably wouldn't want me spreading that around)! He is so sweet with his little sister, Emma and with Kiara. One day last summer McKay told me that it was a good thing that Kiara came to our family because there's no way anyone else could love her as much as we all do and he knew that Heavenly Father wanted her to be part of the cousins. In that moment I saw my cute little rough and tumble guy turning in to a mature and thoughtful young man and I was so proud of him. I am still so proud of him and the person he is becoming.

Happy Birthday, McKay! I sure do love you and can't wait to see you on Friday!

Love,

Kades