ZJ is SIXTEEN!!!

This cute girl, my baby, is sixteen years old!!!  How did that happen!?!?  She's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the out!  She has literally been my right arm for the past few months, as well as, much of the past few years.  She knows where everything in the house is.  She knows how to do anything that I can do in the kitchen, in the laundry room, in the craft room.  She's amazing!  She's got a strong testimony and a strong will!  Don't mess with ZJ!!  She'll tell you how it really is!  She has courage or hutzpah to stand for truth and righteousness!  Seriously, she will not be bullied and won't let others around her be bullied.  She takes a stand when it's needed!

She's loud and fun and friendly and just plain Zeej!  Everyone loves being around her because she is the life of the party.  Yet when she wants or it's the right time, she can be very reserved and "appropriate".  I've been so proud of her in Young Womens because she makes sure that everyone feels included and important.  If she sees something that's of interest, she goes for it!  She's currently taking a pottery class and learning guitar.We couldn't be more proud of this girl!

For her birthday, we went to breakfast, her choice, at Angie's Restaurant.  Grace was at Bella rehearsals and missed most of the fun that day, but it was a great day... even though there was a void of Grace and Quayd.

Doug and Zee took a bike hike across the Bonneville Trail and down to first dam.  We drove to the dam with the babes and waited for them to come down the mountain, which Aylabelle thought was pretty cool!

These two kind of like each other.  Aylabelle can't get enough of Aunt Zee!

When Grace got home, we had her gift opening.  No treasure hunt.  Zeej is not a fan of birthdays.  She hates the attention to be focused on her, very much like her dad. (Doug HATES anyone to sing Happy Birthday to him!  So does Zeej.)

When Grace turned sixteen, she got her first solo plane trip to Arizona and a week with Liza, who killed the fatted calf and even set her up on a blind date with a boy in her ward. Zee is more of a homebody and didn't want to fly.  She's not a fan of birthdays either, which made it even harder.  (Hence, no birthday interviews for the past few years, by the way.) So, I had to come up with something else for her birthday.  SO... 

We had sixteen gifts for her sixteenth birthday.  Zeej loves hair and makeup and fashion.  So, we bought her a very cute make-up organizer (Farmhouse style like her bedroom), make-up brushes, make-up, new awesome sandals, snazzy summer jammies, a belt, a fancy water bottle (I can't remember the brand but it's a thermos type and apparently, pretty cool) and more.

One thing that I knew she would not expect was a stuffed sloth.   EEWWW!  She's wanted this sloth for two years, every single time we go into Hobby Lobby. She puts it into my cart or carries it around.  I finally decided to get it for her, more as a joke.  She laughed so hard!

Grace and I hate the sloth!  It's UGLY!  But, she will be able to say she has it now, just like the sock monkey that she begged for for years!  Then she forgot that we'd given it to her.  So the sloth has been a constant reminder of the sock monkey that she still insists she never got, but we all remember - except her! 

 There was some serious teasing here!

 Her final gift was a pizza box with $50 and change, that was folded in wedges to look like a pizza with pepperoni.  She was so happy with that!

Aylabelle and Zee wanted to make the cake together, so she made her own birthday cake, which had a strawberry extract in it and was very tasty!  

We're allowed to sing Happy Birthday at home, but NEVER in a restaurant!

Zeej really is not a big fan of birthdays, but she told us that this was her best and she might could start to like them now.  We laughed.  She only has one left and then it's just fast cash for her gift each year.  I guess I had better make next year's pretty special too!

Zeej had wanted a birthday sushi and since not everyone is up for that, Doug and I took her to Black Pearl for all the sushi she could eat this afternoon.  She was in heaven!  We came home and played a new game, Roll for It, for a bit before she left for Young Womens Activity Night.  Grace, again, is at Bella.  Her last three months of high school are keeping her pretty busy!

Seriously, I could not love this girl more!  She's incredible.  She's amazing.  She's wonderful!  She's my girl!  And like I said, she's my right arm, these days!  I also could not be more thankful for her!

HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN, ZJ!!!