OUR GROWING FAMILY: November 2013

I know, I know - this post is a week late! What can I say, 5 kids and homeschooling is keeping me busy :) But I don't love our baby girl any less and she will get her birthday post!

November 9, 2009 - I will never forget hearing J say, "it's a girl!" and how surprised and excited I was. I couldn't believe I had a girl!! Love at first sight!

These boys have always loved their sisser :) I remember telling you as soon as you were born how lucky you were to have two of the most amazing big brothers!

Birthday morning we did our traditions. You were so excited!!! You picked blueberry muffins for your special birthday breakfast. You got a Cinderella Barbie, Doc McStuffins check up kit and a new party dress and tiera for your party :) John-Mark went shopping with me and actually picked out the Doc McStuffins kit - he know you would love it and you do!

I think the highlight of your birthday was being in "school" this year and getting to be the party girl and take cupcakes to school! They had your name on the door when we got there and you were giddy with excitement!! You wanted strawberry cupcakes with pink icing for you and your friends and I delivered :)

For your birthday party we did a sweet little tea party with three of your favorite friends. We had it at a cute little girly restaurant and they were so great to let us use their fine china and set everything up for us. Like true 4 year old princess's you all had pink lemonade "tea" and hotdogs and chips on your fine china :) Everyone picked ice cream for their birthday dessert - pink icecream :) Love all these sweet girls. (Harper, Emma, and Rhiannon)

You and your Mommom - love how much you love each other and your special bond. She and Papa Steve got you your own jewelry box full of "jewelry's" as you call them. Lots of earring options now :)

Me and my only girl :)

Dear Gracie girl -
Oh, sister, how we LOVE you! You bring so much fun, squeals, dress up, and sweet and sassiness to our home! One of your favorite things to do is dress up as a princess and have your superhero brothers rescue you :) You also would sit in my lap for HOURS and have me read to you - baby girl I wish I had more hours to do this with you but hope you remember our special reading time forever. I look forward to enjoying books together when you're older and am already planning a mother daughter book club one day :)
I always say it but I love how God so perfectly placed you in our family - two big brothers ahead of you to look out for you and two behind for you to help mother :) For that matter you like to mother all the boys. Between the two of us they should keep out of trouble :)
You continue to amaze me with how smart you are. You LOVE your preschool and do so well. I am so proud of how you have handled being in a classroom setting and have surprised me with your ability to sit still and listen :) Now that I know you CAN actually do it I know next year will be great:) As much as you love school I can't wait to get you back home and have you with us for kindergarten. I will not be surprised in the least if you catch up to John-Mark next year and ya'll are both super readers :)
Just in the past few months your emotional female side has really made an appearance. One day you fell asleep before your ballet class and just would not wake up so you missed it that week. When you woke up a few hours later and realized you had missed ballet you were absolutely inconsolable! No amount of sound reasoning and hugs was helping. You took yourself to your room and in to your closet and cried like you were in a Lifetime movie! I had no idea what to do! Finally I remembered I had a kitkat hidden away and took it to you and we shared some chocolate, cried a bit more about the heartbreak of missing ballet and then all was well with the world again. Not sure if that was the best way to handle the situation but I was at a loss. I think I will have to find more helpful solution or we may both weigh 500 lbs by the time you get out of high school :)
I absolutely love your outgoing personality (which you get from your daddy) and love to see you make friends wherever you go. You are fun, fun, fun and seriously are the life of the party.Whenever you're not with me all I hear is, "where is Gracie?" You are well loved and God shows you favor wherever you go. I pray every night that the Lord would reveal your gifts and talents at a young age - when you tap in to what He made you for and realize how much favor He has shown you I can't wait to see what you do for the kingdom! You are a world changer baby girl!! So blessed by you and thankful you are mine :) Happy 4th Birthday my beautiful girl!!

Oh - one more thing - just to further show how absolutely adored you are by EVERYONE in the family - James made you a special Fancy Nancy card for your birthday and went in to his own money to give you birthday money - didn't I tell you you are one lucky girl :)

And here are just a few (or several few) more pics of our girl since who knows when I'll have time to get back to the blog :)

My girl - check out her bling :)

Holding baby chicks

My eager student! She asks me to do school all.the.time - I was hoping her being in preschool 3 days a week would satisfy her but she loves it! Praying that stays and rubs off on her brothers :)

Dress up day at ballet class

Gracie and Sydney Jane - these pictures are so perfect - two girly girls that live in a boys world most of the time! Love that they have as much fun together as their momma's and daddy's do!

Tierra and sun glasses - ready for school :) Another big deal for Gracie in turning 4 was getting a booster seat - she picked out hot pink and black and is so proud.

We finished the birthday weekend with a trip to Disney's Princess's on Ice - sweet girl wasn't feeling her best but she was still thrilled to see Ariel and the other princesses. Thankfully we were blessed by a friend with the tickets - Disney on Ice for 5 is a car pmt!!!

Gracie loves to get mail and had a great run of birthday cards but hasn't gotten anything lately so the day the Christmas American Girl Doll catalogue came she was pumped! She spent the next hour flipping through it. I'm not sure she would actually enjoy a real doll since she rarely plays with the ones she has but we may get her a knock off for Christmas and see how she likes it :)

On the left is how she dressed herself for school last week. The picture doesn't actually show how short this was in the back. The right was after I had to edit a bit - it was a cold day too!