Morgan's 12th Birthday

We now have a 12 year old! How did that happen? Truly amazing how 12 years can go by in a flash. I remember Morgan as a baby so clearly and my ups and downs of adjusting to motherhood. She's a firecracker, but she is one talented girl and we're blessed to have her in our family. Here are 12 reasons why we love Morgan:

1. She wakes herself up every morning at 6:15 to get ready for school.
2. She likes trying new foods and has very sophisticated taste buds.
3. She keeps herself very organized with her schoolwork and we rarely have to bug her about it.
4. She gets good grades because she works hard in school.
5. She is a very modest young lady and doesn't try to push the limits with her dress standards.
6. She's very good at organizing a group of kids for an activity.
7. She has a beautiful voice that I love to listen to.
8. She's very creative.
9. She's actually pretty tidy for a pre-teen.
10. She's not worried about being "popular" and has chosen very nice, good friends.
11. She can make lunch/dinner for the kids if we're gone.
12. She's old enough to be our very own  IN HOUSE BABYSITTER!!!

We celebrated her birthday over 4 days, so I hope she felt like she got enough attention!!

• We went to Shi-Ra-Soni (a japanese make-it-at-your-table kind of restaurant) for dinner on Wednesday.
• On Thursday, she requested tri-tip and potatoes for dinner. And I made her a pumpkin pie-her favorite.

 

• On Friday, she and I went birthday shopping to get her hair trimmed up, some sandals, a skirt, and her EARS PIERCED! I thought she would scream or act all traumatized from getting them done, but she hardly even moved or said a thing. She admitted they throbbed, but the pinching wasn't that bad and she was so excited to have cute little blue flowers in her ears. It was a fun mother-daughter outing.

• And then on Saturday, she had her friends over for a party. They played games, went on a picture scavenger hunt around the neighborhood, ate nachos (another favorite of Morgan's), played Rockband, and went swimming (a great bonus to living in California-pool party in April!!!) They were really cute girls and it was such an easy (and cheap) party to plan and do. They took care of themselves, didn't need a lot of supervision and were just fun.



• And then today she got to go to Young Women's! She's been looking forward to this day for a long time and I'm excited for her. She'll have great leaders and a great group of girls to become friends with at church. She is fairly a mature 12 year old, so we went ahead and gave in and got her a cell phone. It's on a trial basis with A LOT of rules, so we'll have to see how she does. I hate seeing kids with their noses in ther phones and texting all the time and not being a part of the world, but there have been several instances in the past year with her being at middle school and such, that we wished we could get a hold of her, so we're gonna give it a whirl.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORGAN! WE LOVE YOU!