8 Years Old!!

In less than hour, at 12:50am, my first baby girl came into the world!! When we first saw her, to our surprise, she had peach fuzz for hair! A year later we came to see this peach fuzz as her blazing red hair! We in no way expected to have a red head in our family, but I thank my grandma Blease for that! :) With her red hair comes her strong will for life and her temper too! But John and I love her to pieces! Here are some highlights....when she was one year old we found her in her crib with her diaper removed. She had smeared her poo all over the wall next to her crib, all over the blankets in her crib, and all over the crib itself. It was a huge mess but we still loved her! Move on into year two....she did many mischievous things here. My favorites are covering herself with sharpie market. First it was with black and then a week later with red! And believe it or not it was harder to scrub the red off! Another was finding her sitting on the toilet seat with her feet in the water splashing away!! It was so cute finding her with a smile spread clear cross her face...And lastly her favorite food at the age of two was the gravel rocks in grandma and grandpas driveway! We really had to keep our eyes on her! Year three is kinda a blur because this is when she became a big sister. How she loved helping with her baby brother Xavier. Its amazing I can't remember much that year. Year four....she started four year old kindergarten, she became a big sister again, got sealed in the Nauvoo Temple, and we moved back to Beaver Dam. Oh how I remember her walking into the sealing room with her brother and sister all dressed in white! I can't believe that in less than a week I will see her dressed all in white again,but on her own baptism day! What a special day it is going to be! I can't wait to see close family and friends all gathered to together to support her in this special decision! I know children grow up, but why so quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was picking her up from taking her first steps....and tomorrow I will be watching her get married....I am not prepared for it to go so fast...but what mom is? Happy Birthday Avalon Jade Raven Braatz!!