The J. Thalman Family: JOSIE'S 12!?!

How did this happen? I mean, really? How did she get so grown-up? How did she get old enough for Young Women's? Where has the time gone? Jared and I had a talk about this just yesterday - how we need to freeze time for just, oh, a year or so, so we can get caught up on all the things we are supposed to be doing but the day-to-day gets in the way and slows us down. On the other hand, it seems Jos has been with us forever - she was such a beautiful, petite, bronzed baby (thanks to the bilibed). And, she still is - well, beautiful and petite. :) I honestly can't imagine life without her.

So, her birthday dawned and Josie is our early riser - our alarm clock, but I had to get up and make breakfast in bed, before she woke up. What a challenge! As I have mentioned, I am a sleeper. However, since pregnant, less of a sleeper, unfortunately. Anyway, I beat her up and got her breakfast ready - her request biscuits and gravy. (She is definitely not my daughter in the eating department - she is not picky at all! She will eat anything, really, she is the BEST eater in our family).

She was pleased as punch with her breakfast, which is always nice. And, somehow, she lucked out - she is pretty lucky - and didn't have school on her birthday!!! It just happened to be a parent-teacher conference day! But, just for her and Jaxon, all the other three still had school. It made it pretty fun. After opening her present - clothes - we got ready for the day, I had a big day planned. :) I decided to take her to get her first pedicure. We had so much fun - we got pedicures and then splurged and got gel toes. A first for both of us. It did take a LONG time - hours! Josie got to choose her colors first and decided to go festive - with french tips. But, hers took quite awhile so I decided to go full color - we both LOVED the way it turned out. However, I had my pedicure first so my nails were soft and 3 of them only stayed on for 1 week - they were supposed to stay on at least a month. Josie's stayed on much longer - a month or so. So, if you go to get yours done, don't let them fool you into thinking it doesn't matter if you have the pedicure first or after the gel toes - definitely better to happen before the pedicure. :) Either way, they were definitely cute and festive. And, Josie LOVED her first pedicure!

As you can see, another thing Josie got from her daddy, his toes! :) Jared says having the 2nd toe longer than the big toe is a sign of royalty - I say, whatever it takes to make him feel better. :)

As soon as we got done, Jared and Jaxon were waiting for us. Josie had decided that for her birthday she wanted to go to the temple and participate in baptisms. So, off we went to Manti - it was so awesome. We have never gone just as a family before but I had called a bit before to set up an appointment and off we went. Jared got to baptize both Jaxon and Josie and I got to hold towels and mop the floor up. It was such a special experience, one I know I will never forget and I don't think Jos will either. It was actually pretty funny because Jaxon was about 5'9" at the time and Josie is, well, I will have to check, substantially shorter so Jaxon was a lot more challenging to baptize, whereas, the water went up to Josie's chest, almost, just standing in the water. The temple workers even commented on it, how all she would have to do is bend her knees a bit. Anyway, they both also got to have some confirmations and, although, a bit overwhelming for Josie, I know she loved it. I can't imagine something better you could do on your 12th birthday! And, neither could she. :)

Well, how could we top that? We couldn't so we didn't even try, but we did stop for a treat at the candy store - I got fudge and we shared it. But, we were in a hurry to get home because both Josh & Jaxon had basketball games that night.

So, in between the two games we went out to dinner - Josie chose "Pepperbelly's" and it was just the 3 of us. It was delightful - she is such a fun girl! This pic is of her ready to go out - in her new birthday outfit. I don't think it is her favorite, luckily, she can pull off anything. :)

After Jaxon's game we finally got to have the rest of her party - you can see she was thrilled with her present. She really wanted a flip camera so she could make diaries for the new baby "J" - like on "Good Luck, Charlie" - it is a wonderful idea and I hope she will make at least a couple - she would give great advice as she is a wonderful older sister.