Someone turned 10 and other subjects

Um, hi.

I woke up today and knew that today was the day I could blog again. I have no explanation other than the thought of blogging has been making me feel very anxious for the past 3 months.

Weird right?

I haven't even read blogs, I got off Facebook even. There must be some sort of technological phobia that I temporarily became afflicted with.

I'm still off Facebook for other reasons, but blogging has worked its way back.

So, because this blog is technically for my children I am going to go back a few months and start catching up if you will.

I love my children, and I know that they have missed seeing their own faces and hearing my words on this blog.

This is for you my lovelies.

Anne Marie turned 10.

First of all, I had this idea. It involved an American Girl doll.

See, when we moved here, we tragically misplaced a box that held treasures for many of us. It was the last box we packed up from staying at my brother's house for the in between time of moving from one house to another.

It contained Anne Marie's Kit and Ruthie American girl dolls that she played with every day.

We think it may have ended up at Goodwill.

So, in my attempt to soften that blow some, my mother in law graciously gave us an American girl doll with cut bangs. And I attempted to make it awesome for her.

This was the end result:



She was a slightly punk doll whose hair I colored using a blue sharpie. Cuz sharpie never comes out of anything right?

Wrong.

The blue of the hair started to come off on Anne Marie's hands, which then transferred to the dolls face, neck, and everywhere.  It was very sad.

We ended up buying her another doll because we had to end the streak of bad luck for Anne Marie and her AG dolls.

But before we knew all this, she was really happy about it.



One of the things we love about Anne Marie is that she is very generous. She doesn't like ANYONE to be sad. She can't stand it. So she willingly does things that might make other people fuss.

Because we had such a large gluten free population at her party, and she herself is not gluten free, she happily agreed to having her own individual little store bought birthday cake so that the rest of the cake could be gluten free.

She is awesome that way.



Probably the sweetest gift of the day came from Julia. She painted a picture for Anne Marie, knowing how much her little sis wanted one.



What makes Anne Marie special:

She strives to help others feel good and be happy.

She is amazingly creative and artistic. We are stunned by the fantastic plans and ideas that come out of her 10 year old brain.

She is mother hen to Henry and Nora and to any other child younger than her who happens to be around.
It's seriously amazing, little children love her so much. They follow her around because she plays with them. And she enjoys it. She doesn't get annoyed and she never runs out of energy to play fun things with them.

Anne Marie is very self reflective for one so young. She is always trying to do and be better. Our job is to help her see that she is already amazing:)

Her generosity is inspiring. She will give you the last bite, her last dollar, her favorite toy, if she feels it will benefit you more than her.

She is a wonderful daughter. I love how she will just come and rest her head on me or half lay on me to get a really good hug in.

She is developing her own testimony of Jesus Christ. And her personal desire to do what is right is inspiring.

Anne Marie is a gift to our family. She has many precious talents and gifts that bless all of us.

We love her and are so grateful to have her in our eternal family.

Happy Birthday boo boo.