happy birthday dear daughter

dear daughter,

our "sissy" turns 7 years old today.  that's you.

the same day that my grandma (your great grandma lloyd) turns 93.

it's a special day.

you're special, daughter.  just look at you.

you take my breath away.

earlier in the month grandma linda took you to see the musical "mary poppins" for your birthday and aunt natalie and i were lucky enough to be able to tag along. 

since you had your pinkalicious party last year with your friends, we stuck with a family-only party this year which we had this past weekend up at east canyon.   do you remember?

the drive up was beautiful. i have to say, i'm glad you were born in the fall and i hope you'll have fond memories of driving up the canyon for your birthday as you get older.

i took this photo with my phone.

as requested, i made "colorful cupcakes" for you to share at your party.  you were thrilled with how they turned out which made the monotony of laying the colorful, heavily dyed batter all worth it.

(another phone photo)

we had sloppy joes for dinner (grandma made them. apparently, according to you-children-who-i brought-into-this-world, grandma's sloppy joes are "a lot better" than mine).  

you opened presents and you were patient with me as i requested photo after photo.

from aunt natalie, uncle jon and gage you were given a t-shirt decorating kit which you were way excited to show to your friends. 

earlier in the week you'd asked me if uncle josh would be at your party.  apparently, he gives the best presents and he did not disappoint this time around.  you went on and on about your new sparkly purse filled with girly-goodies and on the way home you said, "see, i told you his presents are the best.  remember last year when he wrapped my present in newspaper?  that was so cool."

great grandma lloyd wasn't able to celebrate with us but, she did send a present up which you now have sitting on your dresser in your room.  your first fall decoration.

{insert random photo of our favorite nephew/cousin}

siblings {aka my beautiful offspring}

grandma julie and grandpa doug gave you a very vocal puppy named "cookie."  fortunately for us, we were able to find the "off" switch before leaving to drive home.  we didn't want to listen to that dog bark and whine.  unfortunately for grandpa and grandma, the off switch was not assessable while the dog was still in the box so they had the pleasure of listening to that dog for two months prior to your bday.

grandma linda and grandpa craig gave you the mary poppins doll and outfit.

uncle travis was there.

so was aunt lindsay who was kind and brought the balloons to make the party official.  lindsay was able to visit an "american girl" doll store while on a business trip recently.  she came home with a new dress for "bitty baby" and didn't make your wait for your birthday.  i started to remind you on the way up the canyon that travis and lindsay had already given you a present but you interrupted me to tell me that you hadn't forgotten.  bitty was already wearing that special birthday dress.

great grandma tripp was there too.

dear brooklyn, 

your dad really did have fun at your birthday party.  don't let this photo fool you.

amanda and peter were there with their dog lizzy.  you love the attention you get from amanda.  

also in attendance: uncle brad, aunt trish, chris and her friend clint as well as aunt diane, uncle dave and your grandpa doug (he didn't want to be in a photo.  feel free to judge him).

"happy birthday to you ...."

"happy birthday to you ...."

isn't this a funny photo?  it looks like cayd is feeding his shirt but, we know better ....

we know better because he usually feeds his entire face and then tries to dodge the camera when we attempt to capture proof ....

your dad took a picture of me.  eating.

today, on your actual birthday, you had school.  most kids would be bummed out about this but not you.  school is not somewhere you have to go, school is somewhere you get to go.  you love school.

at the end of the day gavin and i dropped by your classroom with goodies for your classmates.  it so happened that you were in your chinese class when i arrived so the kids sang to you "happy birthday" in mandarin.  i thought it was really cool.
(i recorded it)

when you got home, you had one last surprise waiting for you.

gavin and i decorated the box while you were at school.  our finest work.

oh my, you were excited.  your very own tumbling mat.  you didn't wait to unfold it before you gave it a try.  now we just need to find somewhere to put it. 

you also had tumbling today so you were able to try out your new mat with your new leotard on.

the perfect day.

after tumbling, cayden's football game, and dinner we headed to frogurt for one last hoorah.

doesn't your dad look goofy in this photo?  payback for a photo of me eating (as seen above).

i hope you've felt loved on your birthday because you're loved an awful lot.

xoxo