An Even Dozen

On Friday my little girl became a young woman. I really wanted to do something special for the occasion, but we never came up with much. We just made it a day to be with Chloe. First off, here are some of the pictures we took from her birthday shoot.

Brandon took the day off to spend with her. She requested apple muffins with a streusel topping for breakfast.



Then we opened gifts. Brandon and I had David Boman draw a carichature of her with Abinadi. He's the guy who wrote the "Who's Your Hero?" series. Abinadi is her hero, so I emailed David and asked him if he could do it. He did amazing! I told him she liked astronomy and reading, and I love how he incorporated them both into the drawing.



We were at IKEA one day shopping when I found a bedspread I liked. Chloe asked me if she could get it for me for mother's day. I told her that would be fine, so she's been bugging me ever since. I told her I needed to take care of one holiday at a time, but then we figured we could fit it in on her birthday, so we made a stop at IKEA.



And then it was on to the aquarium. That's what she requested to do for her birthday.



We picked up a pizza on our way home for dinner. I didn't give her just one special dinner -- all week we had her favorite meals! She asked for a carrot raisin cake. The white icing just blends right in with the pan here!



One last little project that I just threw together. I probably should have spent more time getting this just right, but I ran out of time, so here is just a look at Chloe through the years.

We are so grateful for this daughter of ours. She is so intelligent and a hard worker. Our family is blessed to have her in it!