The Rest of January

More Archery! This time Will offered to carry both Amy and Tyler's cases. And Lee added a funny magnet to his car.

 

Amy's bestie, Kate Forrester, made me a cake for my birthday. I told her once that I thought my grandma name should be Daisy and then I said Crazy Daisy seemed to rhyme well about was probably appropriate. So now that's our theme. Daisies!

Amy turns SIXTEEN (insert cry from mom and dad)

 I'm not sure how it's possible, but yes, our Amy is 16. She had school and archery practice that day, so we celebrated after all of that. It was also basketball homecoming week at her school- and "pajama day" fell on her birthday. She was really excited about that one!

When she got home we had a Italian dinner setup for her. Then her favorite fruit tart for a cake and present time.

Some of her favorite gifts were:

A mug from MeMe that says: I may look calm, but in my head I've pecked you three times." We all laughed so hard at that. That's Amy alright!

Anna gave her a few smiley face things. A hat, a pillow, a necklace, a waffle iron..... Amy always 'leaves her mark' by drawing smiley faces on everything when she passes by.

She loves her overalls and new converse too! (That's my girl with the overalls!They really are the greatest pair of clothing ever invented.)

It's a "teen" tradition to make a post about someone on their birthday. I stole these from her instagram.

We just love this girl! How lucky we are that she's ours. She is so fun. She's usually in a good mood- and if not, you can usually get her back into one pretty quickly. She laughs at herself. She loves her dog and chickens fiercely. She isn't the sort of teen that sits in her room and we never see. She's rarely in her room. She makes up fun, random games for the boys and they adore her. It's their favorite when she plays with them. She is well loved by everyone- I don't think she has an enemy. She's able to be friends with all types of people and she makes everyone feel seen and loved. She loves to take funny pictures (as evidenced above. I said "Amy- all of your friends have crazy pictures of you. She laughed and said, "yeah, I should probably work on that!) She isn't embarrassed by her parents or siblings and loves having us meet all her friends. She loves the Lord and isn't afraid to talk about it. She does what's right because it's what's right. She can be highly opinionated and isn't afraid to voice her opinion. She works hard- sometimes she has to be pushed (like her Advanced Honors Science and Math classes- we had to push her- but she's doing really, really well in them.) She is a treasure and we love every single day with her. I cannot say enough about how awesome she is. We are all blessed that she's a part of our lives! 

She had a girls only friend party over the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't get a single picture of that. But if she got some, I'll add them later. But it was fun to have her friends, from all parts of her life, over for fun and laughter.

She isn't getting her drivers license quite yet. We aren't really ready for her to have it, and she even said, "I don't think I'm ready yet either." She's pretty timid on the road. But Lee does have her drive a lot and she's getting better and better. I wont drive with her because I've realized I'm a control freak and my nerves cant' handle her driving. hahaha.

Another Hike- This Time to Stone Door

The kids had off school for MLK day and rather than sit around and watch tv all day, we wanted to get them out moving around. We decided to take them to a place named Stone Door. It's part of newly made state park, Savage Gulf... which is a part of the Cumberland Plateau. It's a beautiful area of Tennessee and I love going anywhere in that area.

On the way there is this old LDS church. The plaque says 1944. The building isn't in use anymore, there's a newer, bigger one nearby, but it's cool to see this older one!

 

The first overlook. This area is pretty, but it is just a taste of what you get later.

Told ya- he's always carrying a football!

It was windy up there! And of course pictures never do it justice. But you have an entire panoramic view of the area. It's stunning- and high!

These really cool stairs lead you down a crack in the rocks. It's pretty steep but really cool.

After we finished exploring that area, we took another little loop towards Laurel Falls. I had never been there before, but it was beautiful. I don't know how we missed it the first time!

It was a beautiful day and a great way to spend a day off! I told the kids this was my birthday gift. Heaven knows I don't need anything else. But just being with them, exploring the world was present enough for me.