Truly SWEET 16!!

Those of you who know Jade Lorraine, KNOW she is such a sweet girl. I am so blessed to be able to call her my daughter!

Today (at 6:46pm exactly) she is 16 years old. Where did the past 16 years go? I know people say your kids grow up so fast, I've always heard that, but I think Jade grew up EXTRA fast!

Here she was just a few short 16 years ago....

Here she is at 10 months....Here she is at 18 months....Here she is at 7 years old, LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of her! You can see the sweet innocence in her eyes! And I'm thankful some of that is still there!The little ducky necklace she's wearing is one I wore when I was little!Here she is at about 11-12 years old, on her girls baseball team called "The Hot Shots" ....Here's another one of my favorite pictures. It's of Jade and Kent when they were about 4 and 6 years old. I just love it because it is just a candid shot of them playing together and Jade just LAUGHING out loud. She was such a happy kid!

Just an informal invite for everyone this weekend:

For: Jade turning 16!!

When: Saturday, August the 23rd, at 3pm

Where: Jade's house

We are having a party for Jade's 16th birthday. I know it's kind of short notice, and every one has things going on, so no pressure! Just wanted everyone to know they are invited!

But for today, Jade's official 'for real' birthday, I told her I'd take her and her friend out to lunch anywhere she wanted to go (in silverdale!!). And she loves sushi (YUCK). She's always wanting me to buy it, but I never do cause it's GROSS. But since she gets to pick where she wants to go, she saw this sushi restaurant in town, so that's where we are going! I hope they serve something besides sushi, or I'll just be drinking water :o)

Here's a few words from JADE!!

I'll finish this blog when we get back from lunch, I know you want to hear all about it!

------ I N T E R M I S S I O N ------

And we're back! I took so many cute pictures, I couldn't choose which ones to put in, so I thought I just would leave them out this time.... just kidding, you get to see them ALL!! Here's when we picked up Jade's friend Katie, and Jade is opening her card from her...

Jeromy was able to join us for lunch, too, cause the job he's working today is actually on our own street! Our neighbors must have been driving past our house and saw the van and called! So he was just able to walk over from the job site and go to lunch with us! Never would have had that flexibility in the shipyard!

We went to the Japanese restaurant "Nakata". Kent originally pronounced it "Hakaka", I like that name better LOL!

Guess what my daughter ordered?

*****ELECTRIC EEL ROLLS*****

I can't believe she can eat that stuff. She also got some regular sushi...

This girl knows how to use chop sticks. So did everybody at the table: Jade, Katie H., Jeromy and Kent. But NOT ME!! I asked for a fork, and the waitress so "no cheating", but she brought me a fork. My family said I was embarrassing them by using a fork, I think they would have been even more embarrassed if I had used he chop sticks, I did TRY to use them, but not a good thing. Isn't she adorable????Here's what Jade's food came out on, a cute little table tray thing....Here's an extreme close-up of Electric Eel rolls......Here's Jade and Katie.....See, even Kenton knows how to use chopsticks....So that's about it. Katie's staying over for a bit before I go into work. I think the girls are upstairs playing Zelda... and cracking up laughing.

Have a great day..... and

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY JADE!!!!