18

This incredibly beautiful daughter of mine turned 18 on December 1st. As much as I would love to turn back time I also love watching the woman she is becoming.I honestly think she has taught me far more than I have taught her.She is such a warm sweet person both inside and out. She has a lot of passion and drive. She is a hard worker and sure is not the shy little girl who used to cry when any man would try to talk to her, or even look at her.She is confident, warm, funny, witty, charming, kind hearted, a great big sister, a HUGE flirt, a little conceited (cough, cough). loves to sing, loves kids, and most importantly a Daughter of a King. She has such a strong testimony and blows me away with her knowledge of the gospel. She knows exactly who and what she is.

she has applied to BYU-I. The one and only school she has chosen to attend. Many people will think it is crazy she only applied to one college, but it is where she has always wanted to go to school. She told me if she doesn't get accepted then she will work full time and then put her papers in to serve a mission when she is 19. She plans on going into elementary education, has planned on it since she was about 10. Her mind has never wavered on that. She is even tossing the idea around of special education. She has worked with the special education kids for the past two trimesters and loves them. She also teaches preschool age kids after school each day and is crazy about them. She always comes home and talks about "her kids" how "her kids" did this or that or how cute they are. Any educational decision she makes will be a great one. Any child would be blessed to eventually have her as a teacher. She will be an amazing mother and wife one day.

Her birthday fell on a Saturday and I asked her how she wanted to spend her day. imagine my surprise when she said with me. This child of mine didn't choose to spend the day with friends or have a party. We began the day with hash-browns and orange juice from Mcdonalds  Then we went to the Blackfoot School of Massage Therapy and had massages done. Because this is a school they are only 25.00 each. With my birthday so close to hers we justified the present to ourselves. Then we brought the girls home lunch and left for Idaho Falls to Christmas shop. We spent most of the day shopping, and treated ourselves to lunch at Garcia's. We shopped a lot and had fun. By the time we got home we were to tired to do anything else so we watched movies. What a fun day.

How blessed I am to have this sweet spirit sent into our family. Thank you Autumn for being such a fun and wonderful daughter. I look forward to the new phase of your life.