sweet sixteen weekend

two fridays ago, on the fourteenth, 

this little baby girl...

and this little one year old girl...

and this little two year old girl...

and this little four year old girl...

and this little five year old girl...

turned into a big sixteen year old girl!

really?

yes really.

i know.

i can't believe it either.

but it happened.

because fridays are so crazy around this place, and no one in the family, including the birthday girl herself, would be able to attend our traditional birthday family dinner, she opted for a saturday morning french toast kind of party with everyone in attendance.

(it's not fair that she is so cute, even in the morning without getting ready.)

most of her presents started with the words "justin bieber", as in: justin bieber perfume (it actually smells surprisingly lovely), justin bieber posters - which we will post later after we've found room on her walls for them, and maybe her favorite present of the day...

 a justin bieber tshirt!

in case it's not already clear, allie is a huge j.b. fan. HUGE.
and while sixteen may not be the average age of a girl with bieber fever (more like 12), that doesn't bother her in the slightest. she's loved him from the beginning and doesn't care that it isn't a super popular way to be in high school. i love this about her, she is not a fair weather fan. everyone knows of her love for j.b., even ethan knew a card with justin bieber on it would be a hit, all without any help or prompting from me.

 (justin on the front wearing purple, his trade mark color, and allie in yellow with pink hair. 

i can translate ethan writing, it says: justin loves you allie. i love you too. ethan)

needless to say, i think this card was her second favorite present!

later on saturday her big birthday plans were to go get a pedicure with her BFF, lauren, but when we went to pick her up, there was something in the backyard that lauren was dying to show her....

SURPRISE!

lauren, with a little help from her cute parents, threw a fantastic sweet sixteen party for allie that she never saw coming! it's possible i'll go straight to hell for all the lies i had to tell her over the last few weeks and especially on saturday, but they worked because she never had a clue about any of the preparations and was genuinely surprised to see so many friends in lauren's back yard. it was awesome.

the girls ate and played games and roasted smores by the fire pit, ate cupcakes, laughed their heads off and then snuggled up in blankets to watch a movie outside in the backyard. allie was so touched, she's pretty much been smiling for the the last two weeks over it.


it was a great thing for her to feel so loved and so special on her big day! 


my thoughts on having a sixteen year daughter are complicated. i admire her strength and her love of others and her strong testimony of our Savior's love. i worry about falling short on being the mother she needs - its often hard to balance when to push and when to step back and let her figure it out. some times i feel like i can't keep up with the hormones and drama of being sixteen! but more often than that i feel so proud of all the good things that she's choosing for herself and excited for her future that looks so bright. 


love. this. girl.

happy happy birthday allie !

 sixteen is going to rock.

(p.s. allie, i did this whole post in purple in honor of your beloved j.b.)

star wars nerds, ur, i mean, fans.

ok so, obviously, i'm struggling a little bit with keeping this blog current. i can't believe we're into the last week of october already. the idea of trying to catch up makes me want to dive into a vat of ice cream, so today, i'm just jumping in with some randomness. jumping into my blog that is, not ice cream.

the other day, i looked out the window to this scene in the back yard. proving, once again, that big boys are really just little boys on the inside. they never really grow up no matter how much hair is on their legs.

the best part, besides the fact that they are still in their pajamas, is that they mean it. light saber battles are not for the faint of heart at our house. they have had the bruises to prove it, and it's not a coincidence they're fighting outside instead of in. there's less chance of any dry wall damage if the battle stays outdoors. light sabers, and the desire to use them like a jedi, are a big deal around here because my boys, all of them, are such big star wars fans.

this summer when we went to orlando there was some kind of nerd, i mean, star wars convention going on at the disney studios park. there were tons of extra star wars characters walking around the park, and my boys were in heaven. and i'm not kidding, when jango phett walked by, the look on taylor's face told me it was maybe his best day ever.
who the heck is jango phett you ask?
exactly.
they're nerds.
nerds who want to use the force so dang bad.
and i love it.