Sweet 16

Cora turned 16 this month.  It was a pretty low key birthday.  It also fell on Thanksgiving so Dave was able to be home the whole day, which was nice.  We started first thing and opened presents.

One of her presents still has not come in the mail.

She requested Holly's Hawaiian Pizza and Caesar salad again.  She also asked for Angel Food cake, but I didn't have any strawberries or raspberries.  Her second request was homemade coconut cream pie.  When I went to take her picture she said, "You can't take a picture with me and the whole pie! I thought you where going to dish up a piece."  I started laughing and reminded her that you usually take a picture with someone and their whole cake and no one suspects that they ate the whole thing themselves.  But she was still concerned.  So no, Cora did not eat this whole pie by herself.  :)

We hung around the house.  We did some Wii Just Dance, got some chores done, kids did some drawing and crafting.  It was a nice day.  In the evening Dave and I took Cora for her patriarchal blessing.  She had been planning for 2 years that this is what she wanted to do for her 16th birthday.  When her birthday fell on a Monday and Thanksgiving, we weren't sure she would be able to do it.  The stake patriarch was so kind and let us come.

It was a really neat experience.  Just before he began it occurred to me that most blessing you sit through with your kids, you have a bit of knowledge what is going to be said.  Help for the test, blessing before school, etc.  But sitting here this time we had no idea what we where going to hear.  She is one amazing girl.  He talked about some of her gifts that we have seen in her and keep telling her she has, but to hear it from him, someone that doesn't know her at all.  There was no doubt that Heavenly Father knows her personally and loves her.  And she knows it.  I feel privileged that the Lord has given this amazing righteous daughter of God to me and that I am able to learn from her.  It was a wonderful way to spend her birthday.  After we grabbed some dinner together and went home to watch a movie.  Happy Birthday my girl.  You are one of a kind.

*So I still can't upload pictures.  Guess I will have to get Dave involved.  These I screen shot, direct messaged to Cora on instagram, she screen shot, cropped, and emailed back to me.  Well traveled photos don't make for the best quality.