Amanda's birthday cont....

When Amanda got home from dance Monday night, the night before her birthday, we decided to give her the birthday present...so she could get it all set up. 

We really surprised her with the phone! I wish we were more prepared and had our good camera out.  She thought she needed to wait 2 more months for the contract to end, so it was a great surprise!

 I took her some lunch at the jr high on her birthday.  Some sushi (from Smiths), a little throwback mtn dew and a tub of cookies to share with her friends.  She went to her friend, Susie's soccer game and another friend Hayden came by and brought her some Iron Man temp tattoos and masks and a chocolate pretzel.  He's a nice kid!

 We took her to dinner at Texas Roadhouse!  When she went to the bathroom, Mike told our server about her birthday, so surprise surprise!  She got to sit on the saddle and get a YEHAW!

 We sat down to have cake and the doorbell rang.  It was Keslee Stephenson and Celesta her mom. These are soccer friends and Celesta also teaches dance at L2D.  Kambree and Cash came along too. They brought her an Iron Man cut out and a cupcake.  She was sooo excited!

 Amanda and Sydney recreating awkward photos.....and then the doorbell rang again!

 It was Lizzie and she brought Amanda some more cute Iron Man stuff!

 Then we tried to have cake again and gathered the fam around......

 In the meantime, the kids recreated the following pictures......

 What a difference 5 years makes, right?

So, finally everyone including Iron Man, gathered and we enjoyed the cake!

Here are 15 things that we love about Amanda!
1.  She is a self-starter, go-getter about school and gets great grades!
2.  She is a beautiful dancer and we love to watch her hip hop because it's her favorite and she always has a big smile while dancing.
3.  She loves soccer and her soccer girls.  She keeps that team bonded together.
4.  She's always up for adventure. She hardly ever hesitates when there is something new to try.
5.  She's a great snowboarder!  She goes boarding with the guys and can totally hang with them.
6.  She's a great wakeboarder! She has been working hard to jump the wake. Good first mate on the boat and turns the battery off.
7.  She is social and is kind to those around her.  She has friends everywhere she goes because she's nice to everyone.
8.  She is taking responsibility to gain her own testimony. She loved EFY and she reads her scriptures every night.
9.  She likes to tease her Dad and do practical jokes.
10. She has a great voice!  I love to hear all our kids sing. They inherited their singing voices from my parents....
11.  She loves Max our dog.
12.  She still talks to us as parents and we know we can trust her.
13.  She's so excited to drive......ugh!
14.  She has a funny sense of humor
15.  She is an amazing, smart, beautiful, fabulous daughter and we couldn't be more proud of her!

Love you Manda Panda!

Amanda's 15th birthday

The wee hours of the morning of Amanda's birthday!

 Since Amanda goes to bed later than Sydney, Syd thought it would be smart to get up at 5AM and decorate for Amanda's birthday.

 We blew up balloons to do the balloon avalanche, but couldn't find the painters tape (later located IN Amanda's room), so we just put them in on the floor while she was asleep.

 Sydney was extremely hype about this whole deal, but didn't want her picture taken this morning.

 She was jumping around everywhere! After we got the balloons in Amanda's room, Sydney started ripping crepe paper and decorated Amanda's bed with her in it!

 Later, Amanda said she heard us, but was too tired to open her eyes.....

 Candy poster by her siblings....

 Then, at 7:15am, these cute friends came over and made Amanda chocolate chip waffles for her birthday!

 Amanda imitating pictures from her youth.  She used to make the funniest faces and I would tell her someday you won't like that picture....but the pictures just make her laugh now!

 Amanda and her 'twin' Maddy....I have no idea why they are posing like that....

 Susie, Maddy, Amanda & Liz....Fearsome Foursome

 They liked their laughing pictures...

Mary, Ally, Erynn, Susie, Maddy, Amanda and Liz

Such a fun and cute group of girls!

Sydney's Birthday cont....

 Sydney informed us that she doesn't like Mrs Backer's cakes....what?!?!  So, for dinner on Sunday, she made a box cake. She also informed us that she doesn't like frosting.  So, she only frosted half of the cake.....well, it's her birthday ;)

 The Beehives in the ward Heart-attacked our door on Sunday night and Sydney didn't see it before she went to bed....Below: Brandon and Amanda did the candy poster for their sister....

 I saw this idea on Pinterest.  A balloon avalanche! Amanda helped me rig Sydney's door. Luckily she sleeps with her door closed!  In the morning, she opened her door and fell backwards because the balloons scared her!  But it worked....the balloons fell into her room!

 Amanda used the rest of the crepe paper and decorated the basement!

 The morning of her birthday, Mike & I took her outside to see the front door.

 I can't believe we have another young woman in the house!!! Hard to believe she's 12!

 Sydney also informed us that she wanted an oreo ice cream cake from Coldstone for her birthday cake.

 Photo bomb with Dad :)  The cake was delish....and I guess a bonus of her  changing tradition is that this cake was less expensive that Mrs Backers!!

Here are 12 things about Sydney for her 12th birthday!
1.  She is HAPPY!  As long as her blood sugar stays up, she is a happy kid!
2.  She's always singing or whistling
3.  She's always 'redecorating' or 'crafting' things in her head
4.  She figures math out in her head and not on paper.  She's gets math
5.  She's a fashionista
6.  She has a fish named Gil after the fish in 'What About Bob?'
7.  She loves her dog Max
8.  She can play the piano and dance like a champ!
9.  She 'does' her hair everyday.....she gets up EARLY so she can curl it and looks really cute
10. She is a great cook and makes dinners a couple of times a week
11. She loves her brother and sister and mom and dad and lets us know it
12. She is an amazing, smart, beautiful, fabulous daughter and we couldn't be more proud of her!

Love you Syd Syd!

Sydney's Birthday!

 On Sunday the 22nd, we had Grandma & Papa Gibson over for dinner to celebrate Sydney's birthday. Sydney picked the menu of S&S Chicken and funeral potatoes.  It had been the primary program at church and I also had sharing time, so by the time I got home and we started the chicken, dinner was a lot later than we'd hoped. Sydney made the funeral potatoes and cake and did a great job!

 Cute Papa & Grandma!

 Sydney's Mom & Dad

 It's not often we can surprise Sydney. She's good at guessing gifts...gets it from her Dad.  She also snoops!  Dad & I had bought her a phone for her birthday two weeks before and hid it.  Dad was convinced that she knew about it because the dumb cellular phone company texted her old phone (really old phone-it was mine from about 3 or 4 years ago) and said the changes had been made to the account.  Her old phone still worked though and so I explained it away as I changed some features.

 But, look at that face! That is TOTAL surprise from Sydney!

 There are a lot of these pictures, but I love the sequence of her total surprise, to her getting teary-eyed and finally at the last 2 pictures, Sydney returns as she poses for the camera!  It was so fun to see her surprise that I even got teary-eyed!

 Here come the tears!

 And Sydney hardly ever cries....this was so great!

She told us we were the best parents ever and we got a big squeeze and kiss from this girl!

Then, she spent the rest of the evening asking all of us if we knew she got an iPhone?

A Time for Everything

Sydney is an amazing dancer.  That's just it. You can see her talent as she dances the music.  She is a beautiful ballet dancer.   She is a cute cheerleader and worked so hard to get her back handspring this summer.

But, Sydney wanted to change things up a bit this year.  She isn't cheering anymore.  Last year it wasn't as fun.  She wanted to quit ballet, but when she got THE Clytie Adams as her teacher, I begged her to stay one more year.  And, I told her she could be in the Nutcracker performance one more time.

So, she stayed at Clyties. She added a Jazz class and a hip hop class (at L2D-Amanda's studio).  She tried out for the Nutcracker last week and this week we found out she didn't make it. What?!?!  I was shocked. I may be biased because I'm her mother, but even stepping back, I thought What??!!  Mike was shocked. Amanda was shocked. Her friends were shocked.  Amanda's friends were shocked.

We have two theories.  One, she's too tall.  In ballet, you have to look a certain way and be a certain size.  Sydney grew at least 2 inches this summer. We think that pushed her past the costume sizes for her age group.

Second, we caused a stir 2 years ago when she and Amanda were both in the performance.  We went on a trip with the Arvys and missed a practice and picture day.  Our punishment for that was to not try out for one year.  That punishment was served as we did not try out last year.  But, it could be that the powers that be remember us and decided to still punish us.  I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it's politics and it happens.  But, we wouldn't  have missed that trip for the world! It was SO worth it!

It's been a little hard on Sydney.  Mostly, when she goes to classes and hears the girls talking who have made it into this year's cast.  But, it's a great life lesson.  I told her she can do hard things and that the best way to not feel sad is to feel happy for those who made it in.

We haven't decided if we want to go to a performance, however.  I'll leave it up to her and won't make her go if she's not feeling it.

Sydney has already planned for her next year.  She is going to dance at Luv2Dance...where Amanda dances.  She takes hip hop there this year and her teacher is Christian...this amazing guy hip hop dancer. He's danced in Amanda's dances and the girls all love him. He's nice to them, too.  Amanda says that they will love her at L2D because she is an amazing dancer and super flexible.  She'll try out for a team next June and will get to dance 2 or 3 routines in around 5 competitions.

I just want Sydney to know that Dad and I are so proud of her!  We are proud of her because of the way she is handling herself since she didn't make the cast.  There is a time to everything and she's learning it's ok to not get everything you want.  That will make the times that she gets something she wants so much sweeter. We love you Sydney!