A Birthday for our Tween

Makayla is 12! Can you believe it? Despite us warning her she is not allowed to grow up, Makayla thinks it is okay to just turn 12 years old. Rude. 

Makayla's birthday was on a Saturday this year and we had so much fun celebrating our girl all day long. She opened a few presents in the morning. She got a new dress for church, a toothbrush, and a swimsuit. 

She wanted French Toast for breakfast. 

After we went to Caden's game, the two of us went out for a day of fun. Makayla has really been wanting her 2nd ear pierced, so we went to get them pierced. My hair lady does piercings, but she uses a needle instead of a gun. Makayla was nervous, but so brave. 

Look how cute it looks!

I got my 3rd piercing. I went with a constellation piercing. I love it! 

Then we were off to the Utah Gymnastics meet. Makayla even got a picture with Swoop. And the Utes won!

After that Makayla wanted to go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Do you want to know a funny story? We called and got placed on the list, but they said our reservation was about 90 minutes away. So after waiting in the car for what seemed like forever, with the kids getting restless and hangry, we finally got the text that our table was ready and we could head into the restaurant. Well Grandma and Grandpa had called about the same time to sing Happy Birthday to Makayla so she was talking to them as we were walking into the restaurant. The hostess had us wait in the line to be seated and we were literally next to be seated when Makayla handed the phone back to Tyler. We had a weird message from Texas Roadhouse saying we had been removed from the waiting list. I guess while talking to Grandma, Makayla had accidentally sent a text back to the restaurant. The automated text responded that we had been removed from the wait list. We didn't know what to do until the people behind us got called to their table, then the people behind them got called to their table. I told Tyler to go show the hostess our text and sure enough we had been removed from the list... as we were literally the next people in line... after waiting almost 2 hours for dinner. Luckily Texas Roadhouse was able to find us a table and brought us out some yummy rolls so our kids would not die from hunger. 

We had the best steak dinner and Makayla got to sit on the saddle while they wished her a happy birthday. 

After dinner we went shopping for some new pants for Makayla. See the problem with Makayla is that she is so tall and so skinny, so a lot of the pants I have been buying her end up being floods. We went shopping at some new stores and Makayla got some cute new trendy pants. The style now is totally from the 90's with baggier jeans with holes in them. Funny how styles always seem to come back. Makayla looks so trendy in her new pants. 

The next day we had Makayla's family party.  We had Teriayki chicken for dinner and then opened presents. Makayla didn't get one toy this year.. sad. Instead she got lots of gift cards and clothes. 

Makayla came up with the game again this year. We played "Incoherent Family- Makayla Edition". This game has nonsense words that when said out loud make sense. They were all things that either described Makayla, or were things she liked. Let's see if you can guess some of them: (answers are below)

1) Shh hop king at tar kit. 2) Fem mel leave fake hay shin hue dis keel hand 3) Tough hay for writ chai old

How did you do? If you guessed 1) Shopping at Target 2) Family vacation to Disneyland and 3) Favorite child, you win. We were laughing so hard because if you know our family, you know how loud everyone can get and when they are speaking gibberish, it's pretty funny. 

Carson took 1st place, Karly got 2nd place, and Colton got 3rd place. 

Then Makayla blew out the candles on her cupcakes. 

Makayla thought her cupcakes needed to go this way... nope. Even though Makayla is very mature for her age, she cannot be 21!!

Our fun wasn't over yet because the next week was Makayla's friend party. She invited Haylie, Chloe, Layla, and Brighton from school and Maddie, Avery, and Harper from dance. We had pizza (which by the way, teenage girls do not eat a lot.. we ended up with 4 extra pizzas), opened presents, and then headed to Airborne where the girls played and jumped on the trampolines. 

They had so much fun! This was such a cute group of girls. Then we came back to our house and ended the fun night with cupcakes. 

Happy Birthday Makayla! We love the beautiful young women you are becoming. This year is going to be a great year that will be full of so many new experiences including middle school and girls camp.  I love to see the excitement you have at all the new opportunities that being a 12 year old will bring. It is bittersweet that you are no longer a baby, or even a little girl, but it is so humbling to watch you become a young woman and to see your confidence grow. You have a high standard for yourself in school and dance, and even when we tell you that you are too hard on yourself, you continue to strive for better.  You value loyal friendship and know how to choose good friends. I love how you challenge yourself in dance and even though you are nervous about competing a solo this year, you continue to push away your doubts and I can't wait to see your confidence grow as you perform onstage. You are so fun to be around and I love that you like to go shopping with me, or go get a drink at Fiiz, or just hang out. You love listening to music and are always dancing around the house... my favorite is when you bust out some hip hop moves. You are a great big sister and a great example to Caden and Brynnli. I know they look up to you and admire you. We love you so much and are so proud of you. Happy Birthday cute girl!!!

Here's Makayla's responses to her birthday interview questions

What are some things that you like or are popular today? " I'm thinking... stop typing...target, Taylor Swift, I like hanging out with friends"

What do you like most about yourself right now? "My second piercing "

What do you think your future job will be? " a vet".

What are you good at? " Dance... making jokes... and technology "

Do you have a celebrity crush? " No."

Who are your friends and what do you like about them? "You want me to name them all? Ok the top three are Maddi because she's really funny and we're besties. Layla because we like hanging out at recess, and Chloe because we have a lot in common and we're in the same class "

Where is your favorite place to eat? "Costa Vida "

What makes you really annoyed? "Caden and Brynnli when they steal my stuff and tease me "

What makes you feel proud? " When I get a new dance trick or tumbling trick"

Which of your nicknames do you like the most and why? "What if I don't like any of them?"

What is your favorite subject in school?  "Language Arts"

What do you wish you could do that mom and dad won't allow? "Watch YouTube shorts all day "

What is your favorite thing about Brynnli? "She's very funny and makes me laugh "

What is your favorite thing about Caden? "We are closer in age so we have a lot of similarities that we can talk about "

What is your favorite memory with Dad? " When he took me to get ice cream without mom knowing"

What is your favorite memory with Mom? "Going black Friday shopping"