Happy 6th birthday Emily!

Six years ago, a beautiful baby girl joined our family and changed our lives forever.  She was the most alert and curious newborn I have ever encountered (which was a bit rough on two parents who had just been through 20+ hours of labor followed by a traumatic c-section!).  That curiosity has continued and I am amazed each day by the new things she learns and by the things that she teaches us.

We have really been trying to teach Emily about money over the past year.  This has included letting her earn and spend some of her own money.  She was very excited about the $6 dollars she got for her 6th birthday from Uncle Reed, Aunt Jamie, and Madison! (she was also excited about the Target gift card that came from Uncle Nathan, Aunt Christine, Ksenya, Crystal, and Kylie)

Emily loves to draw and she really is talented! Her favorite thing to do when she gets home from school is to go in and sit at the art desk she got for Christmas. We are frequently the recipients of sweet cards and flower gardens, among other things, that she creates for us. Here are some fairies, which were one of her latest creations (she took this picture herself - another of her favorite past-times is getting ahold of my camera and taking pictures!)

I asked Emily what she wished for as she was blowing out her candles, but she wouldn't share!

Emily was very excited that she got to celebrate her birthday with her cousins.  My sister Melinda and her three girls - Juliana, Krystyna, and Abigail had come into town and got to spend the evening with us.  Here's a picture of all the cousins together.

This year, it has been really fun to watch Emily learn so much in kindergarten. She has really come a long way with her reading, and lately, it melts my heart when she sits on the couch with Jacob and he brings her stack after stack of books and she reads them all to him. Last week, we checked out our first chapter book at the library and she and I have had fun reading about the adventures of Junie B Jones together.

The other day, she came to me and said, "Look! I wrote my name the "fancy" way (we read a lot of "Fancy Nancy" in this house)." She had written her name in cursive. I have to admit - I was impressed!

Last week at school, she got to be the "Rhino of the Week" and we got to make a poster about her.  Here it is (this is another picture she took).  It's fun to look back and see how much she's grown over the past year!

Emily is such a sweet and smart little girl and we are so blessed to have her as a part of our family!