The Little Miss is SIX!

Why hello there, world. Let me introduce you to the heart of our family…

It’s none other than our tenderhearted, effervescent Little Miss.

Our SIX-YEAR-OLD Little Miss, that is!

Her arrival in the early morning hours of July 9, 2010 was quintessential Annabelle – totally wild, crazy fast, and full of emotion. We were overjoyed to meet her.

(And to be done with that whole labor business…phew!)

Now I may affectionately call her one of my “Littles,” but there is nothing little (or quiet) about my passionate girl. Ever since her crazy-hard-wonderful arrival, the Little Miss has been living life BIG in every possible way.

She’s big on FUN,

Big on LAUGHS,

Big on ENERGY,
(I’m telling you, this Lil String-Bean never stops moving…even in her sleep.)

Big on COURAGE,
(What can I say? The girl’s got moxie.)

Big on PLAY,
(especially outside, where her imagination and enthusiasm can run rampant)

Big on FEELINGS,
(And opinions! And more feelings! And maybe another feeling after that! For the life of me, I can’t fathom where she inherited it all from…)

Big on SMARTS,
(She has about 1,000,000 questions, storylines, and songs running through her head at any given moment. And just when you’re about to keel over in exhaustion from trying to talk to her about it all, she’ll ask you to read her a book.)

Big on STYLE,
(And in my eyes, so long as she can dress herself she can wear whatever she wants. Hooray for big girl independence!)

Big on BUDDIES,
(Pied Piper, Social Butterfly, Ringleader, Chief Trouble Maker…whatever you want to call her, the girl is magnetic.)

Big on FAMILY,

And big on LOVE.

(She wrote this note as a surprise for me after an evening when I had been really upset. She taped it up so whenever I saw it my “heart would feel happy.” Sob!)

And so to our sweet, sassy Little Miss Annabelle Jane on her 6th birthday, may I say…

Daddy and I adore you. We think you are amazing and we know that God will use you and your many gifts to do BIG things in the world. You are a treasure, and each and every day since your birth you have made our hearts so very happy and have filled our home with LOVE.

Happy Birthday, baby girl.

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UPDATE!

6-year-old birthday stats:
– Height: 48.5 inches (94%)
– Weight: 49.4 lbs (73%)

The Little Mister is FOUR!!!

It’s math quiz time, people. Get excited.

What do you get when you take this Lil Nougat,

and add 4 years?

Our FOUR YEAR OLD Little Mister, that’s what!

Oh, my sweet Little Man. Why are you growing up so fast?

I don’t know what it is about him that makes me break out into prose (like last year), but here I go again.

Bear with me. I feel a rhyme comin’ on…

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Ode To Our 4 Year Old Little Mister

He is sweet and sassy,
quiet and brassy.

He’s charming, disarming,
and can be quite classy.

He’s thoughtful and kind
and so very smart.

But lest you think he’s too serious…

just wait for his jokes about fart.

He loves to snuggle,
he loves to smooch.

But don’t squeeze to tight
because he must be set loose.

On many wild adventures
this kid has to go

along with his Big Sis,
and of course Little Bro.

(Clothing optional.)

He’s silly and spirited
to the extreme.

Well he is, at least,
till he runs out of steam.

And then, my oh my,
you better refuel him,

cause a cranky Little Mister
can send you to the loony-bin.

Oh Little Mister
we love you so.

More than you ever,
ever could know!

Soccer – Third Time’s a Charm!

I love sports. The hubs loves sports. So our Littles must love sports too, right?! Something we are both passionate about has got to be passed along genetically to our progeny, don’t ya think? It’s science!

Yeah, not so much…in the little years, at least. Don’t get me wrong, our kiddos have always had fun running around and playing with balls (especially when it means Mommy has to chase said balls down the street as they roll into oncoming traffic…lemme tell you, it’s just HI-LAR-I-OUS). But until recently, despite all of our encouragement, they haven’t shown much interest in actually competing.

Trying to ignite their excitement last year, I jumped the gun and signed the Little Miss and the Little Mister up for soccer. And, well, that idea didn’t really fly. Frankly, both of their seasons were pretty disastrous. One quit after just the first game and the other spent the whole season intimidated and uninterested.

Mama FAIL.

Drained from the experience, the Hubs and I decided to forget about signing up the Littles for any organized sports for a while and wait “patiently” for them to show more interest (i.e., he was patient and I just pretended to be).

And then, low and behold, guess who woke up one morning and decided (all on her own and with her own brand of bubbly excitement) that she wanted to play soccer again?!

Not wanting her to relive another panic-stricken meltdown on the field I asked her repeatedly if she was “really, absolutely sure” because she “didn’t have to” and there were definitely going to be cootie-breeding BOYS on the field with her like last time. You know, I took the low pressure route…I’m totally chill and zen like that.

She promised me she was.

And guess what? She was right.

(type in “wright” to watch the videos)

We were lucky that the Little Miss was placed on a team that was full of girl buddies to giggle (and do dance moves) with, and that was led by some very sweet, encouraging coaches.

And together they had FUN.

She still wasn’t very aggressive on the field, but she no longer seemed to mind if others were (or if those “others” happened to be icky BOYS!!!).

The Little Miss played in her own whimsical way (pirouettes and cartwheels included), learned a bit about the game, and – most importantly – had a BALL.

Ball. Get it?