Ashton's Birthday

On 1-3-13 Ashton turned 13. We thought all the 1's and 3's were pretty cool. 

Wow. I'm now the mother of a teenager. Crazy stuff.

On Ashton's actual birthday, we celebrated by having a fun family party including his favorite breakfast (egg burritos), his favorite dinner (Lasagna), then his favorite Chocolate Cinnamon Cake and ice cream plus games with our neighbors.

Ashton got a pretty exciting present - snowboarding boots to go with the snowboard he bought at a yard sale plus the promise of going snowboarding/skiing on Saturday as a family.

Can you tell he - and everyone else - was pretty excited?

 Look at that handsome teenager.

 He also got some very nice coupons from his siblings. Eliza made this "coupon hotel" with coupons for eating his vegetables for him one night, giving him a neck massage, and a few other nice things. Silas gave him a coupon for making cookies for him (he insisted on making them all by himself and they were the best ever!)  plus some blank coupons that he could fill in himself. Oliver gave him coupons for making his bed for a week and getting five things for him when he needs something and doesn't feel like going to get it. Isaac gave him some money (since Isaac has proven to be the best earner and saver around here so far). Ashton was so excited and kind to the kids about each gift. Love seeing these kids love each other.

Then on Friday, the day after his birthday, Ashton had a great pizza and games party. It was fun to get to know some really nice kids that he hangs out a lot with at school and it was hilarious watching them play Reverse Charades. Ashton declared it a totally awesome party and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Ready to play the game:

 Ready for cake and ice cream:

Then to top everything off, we spent Saturday up at Snow Basin snow boarding (Ashton) and skiing (everyone else) in honor of Ashton's birthday and Jared's birthday. The kids picked right up where they left off and improved quite a bit and I enjoyed getting some work done in the very nice lodge and helping people find each other and getting people fed. I think I'll stick with my "lodge mom" role when it comes to skiing. That out-of-control feeling just isn't fun for me.

That's Ashton in the middle on his snowboard. He's falling less and less!

We met up with our neighbors for a while - so fun to see the kids enjoying skiing so much.

Top 13 things I love about my 13-year-old:

1. Ashton is amazing with little kids including his younger siblings. He gets them and make things so fun for them. He knows how to explain things to them and how to make them laugh and how to get them to do things.

2. Ashton has this beautiful slow smile that brings out great little crinkles around his eyes and lights up a room. Sometimes he even lets his teeth (which really aren't all that crooked) show when he smiles. Then his smile is extra nice.

3. Ashton has great ideas - everything from how to fix something to how to make something fun to how to help his younger siblings improve their behavior (loved the "Ashton bucks" program he did with the twins for a while where they could earn an "Ashton buck" whenever the did something good and could cash those in with a special "brother date" to the candy store down the road after earning a certain number).

4. Ashton knows how to make computers and machines do what they're supposed to do. He's built amazing things in his robotics class at school and I'm so grateful for his help with my computer, with the DVR, you name it.

5. Ashton is a great writer. He wrote a story that got an A+ in Language Arts last month and it was a really well-written and interesting story that you wouldn't believe could have been authored by a kid his age.

6. Ashton is creative. He came up with the idea of using elements of the game Minecraft to fulfill a science assignment about rivers and different kinds of rocks. His teacher was blown away.

7. Ashton loves reading and really gets the nuances and lessons in the books he reads as well as in the scriptures.

8. Ashton has a great personality. He's funny. He's got lots of interesting things to say. He knows how to laugh at himself.

9. Ashton has made some really good friends this year. I loved getting to know his friends at his birthday party and got excited about all the good people I'll get to know over the years thanks to the friends of his that I'll get to meet.

10. Ashton's getting a little better at keeping his room a little cleaner - which is really hard for him.

11. I can tell Ashton genuinely loves Isaac and I love seeing him be a really fun and cool brother to Isaac quite a bit of the time. I love seeing them come in the door after school together, laughing and talking at the close of their walk home from school together. I love when Ashton gives Isaac a compliment and Isaac is so very proud to have his big brother acknowledge him.

12. Ashton is handsome. He's got those beautiful blue-gray eyes and that nice thick wavy hair. He's got a nice style of dressing and likes to look good (and some day I'm pretty sure he'll learn how to brush his own hair...).

13. Ashton's a leader. He knows how to get people organized. He's great at public speaking. I love seeing him round up people to pass the sacrament each Sunday (he's the Deacon's quorum president and one of only two deacons so he needs to round up quite a few men to help pass each Sunday). I loved seeing him do a wonderful job as the emcee of the Children for Children concert for the past couple years. I love hearing him call up inactive kids from church and invite them to young men's activities.

And I just have to add one more - Ashton's a kid who can do whatever he sets his mind to do and who isn't afraid of hard things. When he wants to learn a certain song on the guitar, he'll totally get it. When he wants to earn money playing guitar at the Farmer's Market, he'll do it and make good money. When he wants to learn to snowboard, he'll keep getting up again and again even when it hurts and master that thing. When he wants to bring up his grades, he'll do it.

How grateful I am for this wonderful young man of ours!