Saturday, December 17, 2016

Happy Birthday Emmie!

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Dear Emmie,

It's hard to believe that you are SEVEN years old today! As I look back over the last seven years I am so amazed by all the changes we've gone through and I just love the sweet girl that you are today.

You are my biggest helper. You are always willing to help clean, cook (one of your favorite things!), set the table, help with your siblings, or any other job I ask you to help with. You are always willing to help your friends or anyone else who needs help. I love your servants heart. With your servants heart and your BIG personality and strong will I know you can do big things and make a big difference in your little corner of the world.

Emmie you are such a good friend. I tell you all the time how important it is to be a good friend and I also tell you all the time how proud I am of you for showing kindness to your friends. You are always making things for your friends or writing sweet notes to them. You also love to make new friends. Anywhere we go you can find a friend within just a few minutes! You are also a wonderful big sister. You love each of your siblings so much. They all think you're pretty wonderful and I love to see the different ways you interact with them. You pretty much still boss the younger two around but I love how your relationship with Ellie has changed as y'all have grown up. You do still like to tell her what to do but y'all have also learned to play together as equals and I just love it.

You had such a wonderful year in kindergarten and learned SO much. I loved watching you grow as a reader. You went from only reading a few words to reading chapter books seemingly overnight! You now love to read and my favorite moments are when I find you curled up in a chair or on the couch with your sisters, reading them a book. You have had such a good  year in first grade so far. You have lots of friends in your class and you ADORE your teacher. You were a little sad about Christmas break because you wouldn't be seeing her! This year you started doing Reading Counts quizzes and we are so proud of you! Math is harder for you but you have worked hard at home with me and I love seeing how proud you are when you realize that the concept you struggled with for so long suddenly makes sense. You absolutely beam!

There have been some rough times when you get grumpy and dramatic and "teenager-ish". But overall this has been such a good year. I love that you have learned to (mostly) channel your strong will and use it for good!

You have a BIG personality. I remember reading a book when you were younger about parenting the "spirited" child. It talked about how spirited children FEEL everything so deeply and that is you through and through. You feel disappointment and anger and sadness more that others which can sometimes lead to rages and screaming fits. But you also feel joy and excitement and happiness so strongly and I just LOVE watching you when you get excited about something. You absolutely light up! As hard as the hard times are the good times tend to be EXTRA wonderful!

Today you received one of my American Girl dolls. I was so honored to give it to you. It was so special to see you fall love the doll that I spent hours on end playing with during my childhood. Tonight you stayed up after everyone else went to bed. Daddy and I had so much fun just getting to spend time with you. We played a few games and just enjoyed BEING with you. I love that you're old enough to sit and play games and interact with us on a more mature level. I hope you enjoyed that special time as much as we did!

I still remember the day you were born. I remember how many emotions I had. I was so nervous as our lives were drastically changing. I was so excited about the changes for our family and finally meeting you after 9 long months of imagining what you would be like. Most of all I was in awe of how perfect you were. Your little fingers and big cheeks. Your sweet baby smell and baby noises. You were born and I was instantly in love. It's hard to believe how fast you've grown. You have totally lost all of your baby "look" and now look like a young lady. You are no longer the round the stocky little girl with the big tummy and it makes me a big nostalgic to look back at those pictures and remember the sweetness of that time. But I also look at where we are now and know that it too is a special time. I am so glad you still love to sit with me and snuggle. I still love to hold you and rock you. I promise you Emmie, no matter how big you are, you will never be too big to come sit with me and snuggle and rock. I tell you all the time, and it's so true, you are ALWAYS mama's baby.

Emmie you are loud, kind, a helper, smart, dramatic, loving, beautiful, creative, passionate, and tender hearted and I wouldn't change a thing about you!

I love you Emerson Jane!


Newborn


1yr old


2yrs old


3 yrs old


4yrs old

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5yrs old

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6 yrs old

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