The Twins Turned Eleventeen!

These two awesome kids recently had a birthday.  Later I heard Ashlyn explaining to Charlotte that now she was officially a "teenager" and then next year she wouldn't be a teenager, but then she would be a teenager again when she was thirteen.  What?!?  I asked Ashlyn to explain that concept to me.  She started with, "Well... I am ELEVENTEEN now."  And she was totally serious, that was the kicker.  We had to let her down gently when we told her she was actually just ELEVEN and that she could save those teenage hormones for two more years.

We told these two monkeys that the couldn't wake us up until 7 a.m. to open presents and you better believe they were up at the crack of dawn wanting to open up all of those presents their brothers and sisters had worked so hard to buy.

Ashlyn got Tanner a watch.  He was so excited.  His old watch broke a long time ago and he has wanted one for a long time. 

Tanner got Ashlyn a Littlest Pet Shop to add to her collection as well as a digi bird, which she loved. 

I got myself Ashlyn a snow cone maker and it was the best present she has ever got.  That thing paid for itself in one day. 

The kids had a small party at the house later in the day and we invited some friends over to slip and slide and have snow cones and ice cream cake.  Did I get a picture of the party?  Nope.  But I sure got a picture of the snow cone maker and lots of pictures of the cakes!

May I present the cakes:

No more cutesy frosting jobs, play sets, or fondant creatures.  These mature kids are all about the taste now.  And not being a lover of cake, I am so excited that we can finally take that next step and bring our birthdays up to the level of ice cream cakes!

Tanner's was a cookie dough/ brownie ice cream cake and he made it himself.  It had a Chip's Ahoy cookie crust, cookie dough ice cream, hot fudge sauce, whip cream, and brownie cookies.

YUM!

Ashlyn also made her cake this year:

This cake was layers of ice cream sandwiches intermixed with layers of chocolate pudding mixed with oreos and whip cream and then frosted with Cool Whip.

I honestly cannot say which was better, they were both to die for! 

Not sure what they wished for, but I know I couldn't have wished for better kids!

Ashlyn's Top Ten Birthday List:

1.  Ashlyn still has a very soft spot for animals.  She loves her pets and takes very good care of them.  She collects stuffed animals and My Littlest Pet Shops.  I can see her choosing a career that involves animal care of some sort some day.

2.  Ashlyn is very organized.  She loves her room to be clean.  Every thing is always put in it's place and at any given time I could go into her room and it would be in perfect order.

3.  She is a good gardener.  This year each kid was given a row in the garden to take care of.  Ashlyn was given the peas.  Her plot in the garden is meticulously weed free and the kid always remembers to water the garden and all of the plants every day.

4.  Ashlyn is very social.  She makes friends easily and never wants to leave anyone out.  It is hard for her to ever just pick one friend to invite over because she just loves everyone.  She sticks up for others when they are picked on and has an ease with talking to anyone, boys or girls, and even adults.

5.  Ashlyn has an amazing talent for art.  She is the kind of kid that is given a coloring book and will sit down and color every single page in that book from cover to cover and do an amazing job at it.  She loves to draw and she blows us away with what she creates.

6. She has a talent for music.  She has played the piano now for going on four years and she is starting to get really good.  She has a natural talent for the piano and loves to play.  I love to see her in her spare time sit down and play for enjoyment.  She also played the violin this year at school and picked it up quickly.  She plans to continue both instruments into next year.

7.  She is a fish.  She LOVES the water and would be outside swimming all day every day, rain, sleet or snow, if we let her.  She is really looking forward to swimming lessons soon.

8.  She is a good cook.  She likes to bake and can bake a good batch of cookies all by herself.  She recently had a bake off with her brothers where I told them to make a batch of any kind of cookies they would like.  They had to look up a recipe online and then make the cookies all by themselves with no help from mom.  Ashlyn made some cookie dough truffles and they were amazing!  She even decorated them beautifully and she won the bake off.

9.  She loves to go to Young Women's with mom and attend her Achievement Days girls meetings.  She is very ambitious and has long ago completed the requirements she needs to complete her Faith in God award.

10.  She is a very kind and good sister.  She helps take care of the little ones and they love her.  She helps to babysit.  She changes diapers.  And she plays games that she makes up with the smaller kids.  The kids always know Ashlyn will have a good idea for a game to play.

We love Ashlyn.  We are so glad she is in our family!

Tanner's Top Ten

1.  Tanner is very kind and sensitive.  He is always very grateful for everything he is given and is always thanking us and telling us he loves us.

2.  He loves fish and ocean animals and is especially interested in sharks.  He always blows us away with all the facts that he has learned about sharks.  He has a fish aquarium that he got for his last birthday and he has learned to care for those fish and keep that tank clean.  It has been fun watching his little fish grow so big.

3.  He is a voracious reader and will stay up at all hours of the night reading.  He earned a reading medal for being the best reader in his class at school at the end of the year.

4.  He loves basketball.  He loves playing it.  He loves watching it.  He loves learning about the players.  He especially had fun watching BYU play in the NCAA March Madness this year and cheering on some of his favorite players, Tyler Haws and Kyle Collingsworth.

5.  He discovered a love for soccer this year.  He decided to forego baseball this year and give soccer a try.  It was a big leap of faith because he had never played soccer before and wasn't quite sure what to do, but he learned quickly and has had a stellar season only losing one game!

6. He loves scouts!  He is a good scout and finished off his cub scout career by earning not only his Arrow of Light (the highest award for a cub scout), but also all of the Webelo Activity Badges that he could earn, which also earned him a special award.  He got a boy scout uniform for his birthday and he is so excited to start the camp outs and all that goes with being a boy scout.

7.  He loves to build with Legos and can spend hours building the most amazing houses, boats, vehicles and creations that I would have never considered making.  He also builds the most amazing Lincoln Log houses ever.  He is clever at designing and it will be fun to see where his interests take him.

8.He takes his testimony of the church very seriously.  He really wanted to know for himself if God existed and he studied his scriptures and prayed so hard this year to know for himself if there was a God and if the LDS church was true.  He feels like he got an answer and in doing so, he strives to be the best boy he can be.  He packs his scriptures with him every where.  He sits quietly in church meetings and listens.  He asks questions and he always strives to do what is right.

9.  Tanner is a hard worker.  He is always looking for ways to help around the house.  And even when we aren't home, he is looking to pick up litter or looking for anyone that could use a hand.  No matter what Tanner puts his hand to, he will give you his best effort.  We love watching him play his heart out in sports, doing his best in school, and succeeding in his music.

10.  Because he is such a hard worker, Tanner is also becoming very musically talented.  He has also taken piano for going on four years.  He practices very hard and he is becoming quite amazing.  He also started playing the cello this year at school and plans to continue the cello next year in 6th grade.

We are so happy to have Tanner in our family.

Love both of these great kids and appreciate their patience with Zac and I as we constantly learn to be good parents.

Happy Birthday Kiddos!