Sydney Sue, I love you!

Sydney turned 12 this year.  What?!  This girl is still one of my top four favorite kids ever!  She wasn't all that excited to go to Young Women's and even asked if she could still be in the Primary program.  That all changed after she came to Young Women's for a week or two.  Then she was happy to cut all ties to primary.  We even got to go on a baptismal trip just a week after her birthday.  Love our new temple and love these girls!!

Twelve is the last year that we do birthday parties.  Sydney decided to have a game night with a whole bunch of friends.   It was pretty crazy.  Something about this age makes girls think they need to scream and be louder and more dramatic than everyone else.  I seriously wondered if the neighbors were going to come knocking asking us to keep it down.

However loud they are, I am so grateful for these friends of hers.  She has been lucky in the friend department.  Many of these kids have been here since they were toddlers.  They are a good group of kids.  I hope they all remain friends for a long time.

They had tied themselves in a not and had to untie without letting go.

Conner Nielsen was the only boy who ended up coming.  Sydney and Conner have been friends since they were two.  It wasn't a big deal for either one of them to have him there.  But, it was a big deal to a lot of the other girls.  They spent the night teasing and commenting about it.  I found it a bit annoying and inconsiderate.  I finally told Sydney she needed to tell her friends to stop.  But, it made me grateful that my girls aren't silly about boys.  They've both never gone through the "boys have cooties" stage.  They have friends that are boys and are comfortable around them.  It's no big deal.  I think part of that is because we don't allow teasing at home and part of that is because they're just awesome girls.  Hopefully, things stay this way because I think it will make teen years a lot more fun.
 

Sydney requested that she got her own birthday cake because she wanted to reenact this scene from her first birthday. (But, with clothes on, of course.)

Here is that chubby baby eleven years later.

This girl loves to play.  She is so fun and is so easy to parent.  I've always said that Sydney makes me look good as a mother.  I am so grateful for her kindness, her patience, her forgiveness, and her desire to do what is right.  Love her!!