First of all, I can't believe that I have a 6 year old! Second, I think that she may be the sweetest, cutest, funniest, smartest thing ever. She had an all-out "Hello Kitty" party this year complete with friends from school. It was SOOO fun to decorate and prepare for. We both looked online for ideas for a Hello Kitty cake. This was the one she found (with just a minor change of the border). I was really glad because I was ready to make a 3-D Hello Kitty figure but Lizzy just wanted this simple round cake.(Thank You Lizzy!) We had pink EVERYTHING! Daddy even brought home pink flowers for her. Lizzy made out with the presents this year. There were 8 little 6 year olds in my house!! We watched "Barbie and the Diamond Castle" and then danced around to the music video. We opened presents, Gave presents to our guests, sang Happy Birthday and of course "Bit the Cake". It was so fun to finally do a party with little friends from school. Happy 6th Birthday baby girl!
(P.S. This video is so funny! First of all, I was holding the camera the wrong way at first and second of all, one of the girls is going all out with her singing ability! Just listen, this girl thinks she's a rock star. I don't even know who it is but it is so funny)
Dear Lizzy,
You always, always make me smile. You amaze me with your creativity and intelligence. You are always saying the funniest things. You LOVE school and especially love chatting with your girlfriends. You are so social. You are so silly and I just adore that about you! You love Pizza, Spaghetti, Hawaiian Haystacks, any kind of fruit but especially apples, and of course, cake. You are so sweet. You think of others and their feelings even at this young age. You are always looking for ways to help and please your daddy and me. I am so amazed by the things that you create with your crafts. You really think like an engineer when building the things that you do. You are inventive in your solutions. You love, love, LOVE bunnies!! You have about a million of them that you sleep with! You want to be a Vet when you grow up. You also want to be a "Cake Maker like Mommy" (You don't even know how cute I think that is!) You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I love to do your hair. I love to dress you up. I love to listen to you read (You are getting so good! I can't even believe it!). I love reading to you. I love listening to what you have to say. Your little brain fascinates me. You love to negotiate (and you are way too good at it!) I LOVE your smile. I love your silly, goofy laugh. I pray every day that I can give you what you need emotionally to grow up to be a beautiful, giving, loving, intelligent, well-educated, dedicated, strong young woman. My advice to you will probably be the same every year. Read and study the scriptures. There is such wisdom and such a sweet, noble spirit to them. Pray EVERY DAY. Your Heavenly Father wants to hear from you just as much as I do (well, actually probably way more). By staying close to him, you will stay close to what really matters and to what will give you the most joy in this life. Always be understanding and kind just like you are today. I love, love, LOVE you so much my sweet, beautiful baby girl.
My youngest brother is an adult! He turned 18. He loves Oreos so this is what my mom requested for him. I loved doing it. It was so fun. My only complaint was that it looked like a quadruple-stuffed oreo! I should have trimmed it down quite a bit.
Christmas was so much fun this year. My mom and brothers Steven and Quinn came up this year and spent the weekend with us. I LOVE having my family at my house! On Christmas Eve we had a yummy dinner of Black Bean Soup (SOOOO good!) and then Jacob ran out and delivered our Secret Santa gift in our neighborhood. After that we had our traditions of putting the Christmas Key on the doorknob for Santa (since we don't have a fireplace), spreading reindeer oats and glitter (so they smell and see our house from the sky) on the snow, leaving Santa treats, reading Christmas stories, and finally, having Santa come and visit!! On Christmas morning the kids woke up to lots of toys including 3 new scooters. Daddy got that table saw that he so "needed" and I got an awesome Ateca fondant mat and some other great things. We gave my brothers some "dating" shirts and my mom a really cool book. We ate all day and watched the new movies that we got. It was such a fun day of hanging around the house in our P.J.s all day.
Every year, Jacob gets his little girl a special present. This year he out-did himself and got her two tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet! Lizzy wanted to go with her best friend, so of course we absolutely had to take Clare along. We got all dressed up, had a great time playing around in the bathroom doing our hair and set off for the Ballet. My good friend, Dena and I had a blast watching the little girls faces light up at all the pretty ballerinas. It was a children's length ballet so it was absolutely perfect. She was so excited and enthusiastically applauded everytime there was a chance. We even got to meet the entire cast afterwards! I think she will remember this for a very long time.
Jacob's parents are always so wonderful about coming up here to visit every year when the snow comes and give the grandkids a wonderful Pre-Christmas. We had tons of fun taking Tracks to visit Temple square in a blizzard, opening presents, making candy trains and singing "Happy Birthday" to Jacob's dad in front of his beloved Trailer...in the form of a cake.
