Ella's Sweet 16 week!

Ella's sixteenth birthday week was filled with a lot of highs and lows! Being a teenager isn't for the faint of heart! The week started with some heartache with some friends, but ended on a positive note. She didn't really want to do much to celebrate with a big party or anything even though we spent a year trying to convince her. She doesn't really love all the attention on her. 

Her birthday morning she had the pleasure of getting up and heading to school. At least she got an extra hour since she didn't have seminary.

Birthday sign and donuts. 

She is in to the cinnamon twist donuts lately.

We let her pick any restaurant and she chose Culvers.. haha my kids are pretty simple. She also loves cookie cakes.

She got some airpods, clothes, shoes, drawing stuff, jewelry, you know...all the teenage things!

She then chose to watch "The Rise of the Guardians" as a family which is her favorite movie. 

During the movie her friend Kaleb knocked on the door and sang a song on his guitar "The Joker and The Queen" by Taylor Swift and gave her flowers and balloons and asked her to "Simply Prom" that our church puts on. She wasn't sure what to think at first because she has felt a little invisible and didn't want to go. After his sweet song and the courage it took to ask, she decided to say yes and go! 

Two days later was "Mormon/Simply Prom"

She looked beautiful in her royal blue dress that she and her friend went shopping for. They were looking for a dress for Katelyn her friend, but found her one as well. 

Kaleb is a friend of hers who goes to church with us, is in her orchestra class, and does Shakespeare plays with her. He is such a fun kid, a true gentleman, and full of life. I knew she would have a good time with him. 

Her closest friends Connor, Katelyn, Warren, Aspen, Cayden, and Alyssa were going in their group, so she was so glad she was able to join them. 

She looked so beautiful in her royal blue dress.

Beautiful girls

They got Olive Garden catered and she was excited about that. 

She said the dance part was actually fun. They played good music and taught them each to waltz and a couple other dances.

I'm glad she was able to go and had a great first date. 

Ella is 5'2 and staying there. She is done growing, so she will have to make do with her short but strong stature. She is an independent child, but very obedient. She does what she says she's gonna do. She is very smart, but often not super motivated. She has good grades and works hard, but is still learning to use her gifts/talents to their full potential. She has so many God given gifts, she is just having to learn how to have the motivation to use them. She is an awesome seminary student and gets herself up and ready every morning. She should finish her driving hours in a couple weeks and have her license soon. She wasn't super excited about driving at first, but she is a good driver. She still loves to draw and paint. She reads whenever she can but school takes a lot of her time. She is in voice lessons and has her first recital next week. I love to listen to her develop her voice. She also has a great gift of music with the cello and just hearing and knowing music. She loves chocolate, ice cream, and ice. Her favorite color is black or red right now. She still says "don't die", "fine", and "schnitzel" a lot :) haha She likes to keep a low profile but is great at observing people and situations. She is great fun to have around and I can't believe I only have 2 years left with her. She will do great things in her life!