Happy Birthday Abi...January 8

It's hard to believe my Abi is now 12 and already a Young Woman! We couldn't be more proud of our sweet little girl. I think the best quality about Abi is her heart. Even when she was a little girl, she had this big heart and wanted to be a friend to everyone. One thing I have always admired about Abi is that she is kind to everyone. It is second nature to her to find someone that needs a friend and be that friend. She is very sensitive to the needs of others and doesn't follow the crowd if it means making someone else feel left out or excluded. I've watched her for many years and always wondered if that characteristic would wear off eventually but she is true to herself.....that is who she is. She is very loving and kind and loves to see people smile. She is an amazing student and works hard in school. She is musically talented and truly enjoys playing the piano....although at times the practicing gets to her a little. Abi's priorities are exactly where they need to be. She knows she is a Daughter of God and that comes first in her life. She reads "The Friend" (church magazine) every morning during breakfast (I guess she will be moving onto the teen church magazine soon), and many times she is the reminder we need to have family scripture study at night. She sets goals and accomplishes those and always wants to choose the right. She is truly a joy to our family. She has been amazing with Meili. Abi will probably never realize how grateful I am for the countless hours she has helped me with Meili or for doing household chores so I could tend to Meili. She truly goes above and beyond what is expected of her. She is a wonderful daughter, sister, cousin, granddaughter, and friend. We love her dearly.

Abi's birthday started out pretty awesome. The day before her birthday (Friday), she arrived at school to find her friends had decorated her locker. It made her day. I picked her up from school and took some photos which I guess, at that point, some of the decorations had been ripped off.....but still pretty dang cute. Also, her friend, Rissa, had brought her a donut (thanks Janna--Rissa's mom) for a little breakfast treat.

Since we only do birthday parties on the big years, Abi has been looking forward to this birthday since her 8th birthday. As we started planning her party, she started making up the list of friends to invite. She came up with 25 names!!! Are you kidding?? Can you narrow that down slightly? In the end, she really couldn't narrow it down. She has some amazing friends and they are all pretty close. I think she would've invited the entire 6th grade had I let her because there were quite a few she felt bad she couldn't invite. But 25 was the magical number and we had pretty much everyone show up except for just a couple of girls. Abi planned pretty much the entire party and it was so fun to watch her.

We have an amazingly talented lady in our ward, Julie Stenquist, who is a professional caterer. She makes the most beautiful things and the added benefit is that they not only look absolutely beautiful, they taste amazing!. For a couple of years, I've been telling Abi we could ask Julie if she would make a special cake for Abi. She was so sweet with Abi. Abi was able to go down to her house and pick out exactly what she wanted. It turned out fabulous and was the talk of the night. The cake was sooo delicious too.....coconut....mmmmm. I'm pretty sure Abi felt like a princess that day.

Abi had some great ideas for games and the theme she picked was a music/dance theme. The girls danced, had pizza, played games, made up some pretty awesome music videos, and of course danced some more. Abi sent them home with little bags of nail polish, lip gloss, manicure tools, etc. Such a cute group of girls....it was a great night. I even had a blast!

P.S. btw, ignore the wires and torn up walls in the background please? We are doing a little remodel job and I tried to talk Abi into waiting until the little remodel job was done but she really wanted the party on her birthday so we rolled the carpet back and tried to ignore the tore up mess. I think some of the moms wondered if that was the norm at our house. :)

Happy Birthday Sweet Abi! We love you! Always be the sweet girl you are today. You have so many blessings, always be grateful for them. Thank you for being such a good example to all of us. How lucky we are to have your as part of our family. We have watched your little testimony grow and know that your Heavenly Father is so proud of you. Love you Sweetheart...