Annie's 4

Little Annie is 4! Didn't we just celebrate her 2 year old "Wizard of Oz" birthday party last week? Time keeps speeding up on me, and I seriously don't like it!

I found this little video of Annie eating a lollipop back when she was barely two.

Oh, how we miss that little munchkin! Amazing how Annie is still just as fiesty today as she was back then.

Annie, of course, loved having a day centered on her. She could hardly sleep that night before;  she was so excited for her big day. She woke up around midnight asking if it was her birthday, and Tyler (who pretends to be a hard-liner, but is really a big softie inside!!) let her come sleep in our bed.

Hence, here she is waking up in our bed with breakfast -- waffles and eggs.

Loving the decorations that Daddy put up in the stairwell the night before

After finding all of her hidden presents, she started ripping in to them!

We quickly cleaned up and then zipped over to the airport to pick up my mom who was coming in town for the girls' birthdays.

First thing we did was take Grandma to the nail shop to treat the birthday girl (and ourselves, of course!) to some pampering.

Annie sure felt like hot stuff over there getting her hands and feet worked on!

We took her over to Tyler's office (so my mom could see where he works) and let Annie pick a "birthday prize" from the treasure chest. Totally felt like hot stuff again.

After Cole & Whitney came home from school, things were wild and crazy as we did homework and prepared for Annie's birthday dinner (Hawaiian haystacks). The kids begged me to go to the pool and show Grandma their tricks. And since the birthday girl begged with all her heart, I obliged.

Annie was loving all of the magical power that came with her birthday.... which left her feeling like hot-stuff yet again.

We celebrated with a simple cake, and she proclaimed, "This is the best birthday EVER!"

Thank you for being my sweet grateful girl.

4 things we love about our 4 year old Annie:

1) Her intensity for life. This girl is SUPER excited about the littlest things. It's contagious.

2) The way she says her "R"s. She sings this Bible song about servants of the Lord, and it comes out, "...all ye sowvants of the Lode..." We love hearing her sing it.

3) Her imagination. It is so vivid right now. She loves pretend play--phones, food, cooking, make-up, purses.... anything that feeds her imagination can keep her entertained for a long while.

4) Annie is super friendly and loves striking up conversations with strangers.... especially if they have a dog. "PLEASE can I pet yo puppy?!?" is Annie's non-stop plea to strangers as we walk the kids to school.

Happy Birthday, Annie!!

Annie's 4 year old Favorites (dictated to me by Annie):
Place: "Maddi's house"
Candy: "Starburst"
 Restaurant: "The Havit" (Habit)
Fruit: "Cantelope" (I NEVER buy it b/c I don't like it... don't know how she even knows about cantelope!!)
Vegetable: "Roast Beef" (??!?!?)
Friend: "Will... but my favorite cousin is Andrew"

Song: "Jesus Said Love Everyone because it's nice!"
Thing to do outside: "Jump on the trampoline" (we don't have one)
Game to play: "Hip Hotch--It's a game where you jump on squares and you get a big mushroom that has purple dots on it to make you go faster and at the end you get a piston cup!!"

Day of the Week: "Tuesday because it's Preschool day!!"
Animal: "Cheetah because it runs fast"
Job: "Clean my room because when you clean all the things at night and you wake up and it's all clean!"