Seven Steps Up: Today is Julie's "Sweet 16"!

And it makes me giggle... All these years I've been trying to sweeten her up! I love her so much... for all of who she is. She was born with her mind made up. She would not let her older brother learn ANYTHING without her. They were my "dynamic duo"! She had to test me every.single.day. during toddlerhood. She watched us... studied us... she knew what buttons to push. She was 1-1/2 and could have her 3 older siblings in tears!!! I'm laughing now, but, sometimes it wasn't fun and I wasn't laughing during those moments. But, the girl's got spirit.

From an early age she had an eye for "fashion". She would walk through Gottschalks and glance at the shoes, pass through the purses and then tell me what would go with each outfit. And I'd stand there, amazed. Because I have just about no fashion sense myself. I love it when we are out together now and she points out what would look good on me!

We had some rough times and stood toe to toe many days. I can actually find things to be thankful for even in that! Her determination can drive me batty or I can let it inspire me... And to mothers of daughters out there... you know when they hit about 12? They wake up and take you on! It's like, they realize they are a woman and for some crazy reason think that they know what's what and criticize you. I have been picked apart now by 3 different daughters... But, there's a beautiful end to it. I realize not all daughters go through this with their mothers, I just happened to have 3 that did... each in her own way. And I am okay with it. I had lessons to learn with each one... and Lord knows they had some lessons to learn, too! LOL. All that to say that here, on this day, her sweet 16, she IS sweetness in my life. We can hug!! We can sit close together and chat away. We can get all excited over some song. And laugh. Oh, yeah, bring on the laughter!!

I had a beautiful weekend with her and here are our special birthday celebration photos...

It all began Friday... Scott took off work early and called me up to go out shopping. He wanted to get a special gift from him to Julie. He found just the thing... (in the little girl's section... which is where we have to shop for Juile and Rebekah because they are size 12-14 in girls for things like pj's and shoes and socks, etc. God made me a couple of little girls...).

We decided that Julie could open one gift Friday night. Her good friend was over for a while, too. It was high excitement when the box was opened and the contents revealed... talk about squeeling! And a very loud, high pitched, "Yippeeeee!"

The next evening, Shasta came over and we opened more presents...

First... the card... she's a smart one, she is!

Then some gifts...

Then the premier gift from mom... ha ha...

Followed by the cake!! It was a lot of fun to make.

Then the little thing needed to go night-night... lol

The girl loves her Frodo dog.

The next day (after all, you only turn 16 once... the celebration should never end.. right?) Back to what I was saying... the next day we got Julie's eyebrows waxed. She and Rebekah talked me into getting my upper lip waxed, too. Oh, wow! OUCH! After screaming, I asked, "Is there blood?" And when we went through the salon, a lady asked me, "Oh, was that you I heard scream?" To console myself, I bought toe rings for us girls. And Julie scored on an outfit.