five.

Blakely Ann, today you are five. I cannot believe you are f-i-v-e. That is totally crazy. 38 pounds and 42.25" tall.

You will soon be a Kinder! 

 You love deeply.

You love your people a lot! 

You love Zizi A. LOT.

You love your sister A. LOT.

 You are sensitive, timid, and shy in public.

You are headstrong, confident, and hyper at home.

 You are very opinionated through all of the daily decisions in life. 

You know: clothes, food, activities...

 You are extremely dependent on others when it comes to playing, but very independent when it comes to working on a task.

 Today we celebrate you Blakely and the 5 years of joy you have brought to us all who love you.

 Today you got to dress just how you wanted, wear your hair just like you wanted, and got to pick just what we did. First things first, Toys R Us!

 Out of the entire toy store you picked a Rapunzel Barbie (and named her Rapunzel Barbie.) and a Mermaid Barbie (named Rapunzel Mermaid Barbie).

 You picked Urban Cookhouse so you could have a peanut butter fluff (pretty much the only thing we can get you to eat).

 You are full of life girl. There is no in-between with you. You are either extremely up, or not at all!

 You are silly. You think you are so funny and will laugh and laugh at yourself.

I pray you will always just laugh at yourself like this, and not care what others think.

 You are unyielding when you get something in your head.

I pray you will be able to transfer this characteristic into an unyielding faith.

 You wanted Doodles for an after lunch treat, so off to Doodles we went!

  You love singing. You will sing so loudly in the car and around the house. Nobody else is allowed to sing when you do & you will remind us all of that!

You, sweet girl dream of princesses. You love them all. You love Ariel, Elsa, Rapunzel and fairies the most. I love watching your imagination. 

 You were so wanting an Ariel cake this year and thanks to Kaki, you got your wish!

 Like I said before, you love your baby sister. You love her so so much.

You are very inquisitive. You ask questions all day long. It sometimes frightens me to see how sponge like your brain is these days. You watch my every. single. move. and copy me often. What a great overwhelming responsibility it is to be your Mommy.

Sometimes I see a 15 year old girl in you. You are wise beyond your years my sweet girl. Your memory is like no one else. 

You remember vividly things from when you were 2 and tell me stories often. 

If something was given to you by someone, you never forget what it was and who gave it to you. 

It is truly amazing. 

I love you. You are and always will be my buddy G.

I love you this much too sweet angel. Actually, I love you to the moon and back.

You love nature. Flowers, sunshine, animals, and even some insects (except ants).

You love your brother most of the time. The two of you typically do really well together. He watches you like crazy and loves to mimic everything you do!

 I truly cannot believe you will be walking through the halls of an elementary school in just a few short months!

Blakely Ann, 

I love you and all your spunky, sassiness. 

I am so blessed to have you as my little girl. 

I love you with all of my heart. 

Frozen on Ice

I had one of the best days today. Watching these littles light up and sing sweetly brings joy beyond words. We debated going to Frozen on Ice, and I am overjoyed that we decided to go! It was such an incredible show! 

 We wouldn't tell Blakley where we were headed. We just told her to pick from either her Elsa or Anna costume. She chose Elsa (no surprise there!) and headed to the car! What a fun birthday surprise!

This boy loved the show as much as anyone!

 He especially loved when Buzz and Woody skated out before Frozen started!!!

 Alli Kate even watched most of the show!

 My favorite =)

 and whats a show without a couple of $16 shaved ices?

 The cups sure are cute though!

 The snowman was really amazing. The whole production was pretty impressive!

 Mimi and her buddies! =)

What an incredible day this was! 

Month #3

What a month it has been, my sweet Alli Kate. You have grown so much this month. 

You were dedicated to The Lord this month!

We don't have a doc visit this month to get your stats but you are 12 pounds (according to a home scale)

You eat around every 3-4 hours.

At night you will fall asleep around 8:30 and wake up to eat sometime around 2:00! (lately it has been even a little bit later than that)

You concentrate intensely on faces and voices 

You laugh and smile all. the. time.

You have started 'talking' to us a lot. Lots of goos, gurgles, and chirps! Be still my heart!

If I could stop your growth, it would be here. I LOVE this age! Instead, I'm just trying my hardest to soak in every single second and seal it up in my memory.

I wish I was better with my words and could describe the love I have for you. You bring our family so much joy. You are joy.

I absolutely do not know what we did without you as a member of our family.

It has done me so much good to have you. I've had to let go of a lot of my obsessive tendencies. You force me to just go with the flow. We do not have a planned feeding schedule for you, so we just take it one day at a time--and it works! Really, we take it one hour at a time. It is freeing to live this way. You've allowed me to just let go of a lot of unnecessary stress. I am so thankful for that! I don't worry as much over mess or order. Also, having you has pushed me to trust fully in The Lord for strength and patience in the awesomely messy responsibility of having three children.

This month has also been hard. Wolfie went into the hospital with a ruptured large intestine on May 9. You were one of the only things to bring a smile to his face.

I said it in previous posts last week, but you LOVED the beach! You slept on the beach a lot. The times you were awake looked a whole lot like this. 

Oh sweet Alli Kate, I love you deeply. You have stretched my heart more than I ever imagined it could stretch. Thank you God, for my little blessing.

That. Smile. 

It makes my day--that smile! 

Day 4

It is our last day here and I am trying to just enjoy the day, and ignore the fact that we will soon be in the car headed home to reality. 

 These babies have had the time of their life!

 Parker was ready to dive in the water today!

We found a splash pad in Aly's Beach. Blakely wasn't a fan but Parker LOVED it.

 Between Mimi and Clint, two fish, a crab, and a bunch of shells were caught!

Thank you Mimi for such a perfect trip! We had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed each and every second!!!