7 years. 7 memories.

Lauren,
Its official. You’re seven years old! I’m still not quite sure how that happened or where the past seven years went, but still here you are, thrilled to be announcing to people that its your birthday and you are officially SEVEN! This growing up process is bittersweet, on one hand it makes me sad that I can no longer refer to you and Sammy as ‘the babies”, and yet I love getting to see this sweet girl you’re growing into and more of your independent, joyful personality coming out every day. I could go on and on for pages about all the things you’ve taught me over the last seven years and how I don’t think I could love you more, but instead I’ll just remind you of seven of my all time favorite memories with you…

1) One of my first and favorite memories is how I would hold you in the rocking chair and sing you to sleep at nap time that first summer I was with you when you were about 10 months old. You slept better in my arms than anywhere else, and as soon as one of your siblings would walk in the room you’d stir and start to wake up until I started singing and rocking you again and you’d fall right back to sleep. Of course I was just thrilled to have this beautiful baby to snuggle with all summer long and couldn’t bare to put you down! Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Lullaby (Goodnight my Angel) by Billy Joel were your two favorite songs, they worked every time! ;0)

2) Also that first summer I was with you somehow every day you managed to get your lunch everywhere BUT in your mouth it seemed! There’s a big sink in the kitchen, so some days I would just bring your soap downstairs, pick you up from your high chair and hose you off in the sink! You always thought it was hilarious, and it was way less messy than trying to bring you upstairs to the bathtub, leaving a trail of whatever you had for lunch behind us the whole way up the steps!

3) Such a girl after my own heart, you always loved disney movies, and getting to watch them with you for the first time was always so special! I will never forget watching Peter Pan, Enchanted, and Mary Poppins with you for the first time ever and you were SO mesmerized, especially by Mary Poppins! You kept asking how she made everything happen, and laughed the whole time at all the funny things they did. You always wanted to interact with the characters while you were watching and would yell at them to turn around or look out if they were about to walk into a bad situation :0)

4) The summer you were really learning how to write, you wanted to write and mail letters to your friends all day EVERY day! We would write the letter and then you would fold up another piece of paper for an envelope, write their name on the back and draw a picture of a stamp and then want to go load them all up in the mailbox so they could be picked up. You always had such a desire to learn and do things for yourself!

5) You’ve always been so independent, and you get so excited whenever we get to do a special girls night sleep over! When I first moved up into my house, you were so excited to come spend the night. The first thing you did (naturally) was pick out your room and tell me how we should decorate it. You brought crafts, we popped popcorn, watched Enchanted, and just had a fun girly night together! I made you promise that we could still have nights like that even when you were 10 and too old for ‘miss jessie’ and you replied “of course, i’m ALWAYS going to want to come over here!” … remember that when you’re a teenager, okay?

6) One of my absolute favorite things to do with you has always been crafts and art projects. You are SO creative and it always amazes me how your mind works and the things you come up with! We would sit for hours coloring, painting, cutting, gluing, and go through stacks of paper and crayons and you never seemed to get tired of it! I love that you are content just to sit and color with me all afternoon, and even yesterday on your birthday, as soon as I saw that craft kit with the cute cupcake wrappers are knew you would love it, and I’m so happy I got to spend your birthday with you making little cupcake flowers and fairies!

7) Of course, this would be at the top of the list. I had dreamed of it for years but never thought it would actually be a reality! Nothing could have prepared me for how fun and special it would be to take you on your first trip to Disney World! Seeing your face absolutely LIGHT up as we walked down Main Street at the Magic Kingdom for the first time brought tears to my eyes. You couldn’t believe all the characters standing in front of you, and seeing the castle (OH my gosh, the castle!) close enough to touch left you overwhelmed and bursting at the seams with excitement! I could do an entire list of 7+ favorite memories from that week alone, but just know that taking you there is one of my absolute best memories of the past 25 years and I loved every second!

I love you to the moon and back!

No word is big enough,
Miss Jessie