Happy 4th Birthday Kathryn!

I can hardly believe it as I sit and type this post! Our little girl is 4 years old today!!! It's been far too long since I've updated on her, so be prepared for a long post! First off, here is a picture from the day she was born. She was breathtakingly beautiful then, and continues to be to this day. We have been so blessed by this sweet girl. This past year has been such a fun one for me as her mom. I so enjoy her and this stage of her life. Mostly gone are the temper tantrums and constant training in obedience, and now we have entered into such a fun stage of constant learning and growth. Don't get me wrong, she still presents daily challenges, but it's just different now! She still enjoys dressing up, and will sometimes surprise us with her fun get-ups:

But mostly when she's dressed up, it's as a princess. She has funny sleeping habits these days. She no longer will sleep in her bed, but instead sleeps in this chair in her room. Occasionally we'll find her asleep on the floor, but the chair is her first choice. Last night I tried to move her into her bed, and she woke up immediately and moved back into her chair. We will be switching her from the toddler bed to a twin bed soon, so I'm hoping that she'll decide she likes the twin bed better (especially since we'll also be moving the chair out of her room at that time!).
She also loves to make silly faces for the camera. Sometimes it's hard to get a good, serious picture out of her for the silliness!

But she will still pose for a cute pic here and there.
I'm not sure if you can see the gum in her mouth in this picture, but that is something with which she is often found. The girl loves to chew gum, and is known to go through several pieces a day (or an hour), if she's allowed to!
She also loves her treats. Her favorite treats include chocolate, chocolate chip scones, and ice cream. For regular food, some of her favorites are salad, apples, spaghetti, almonds, granola bars, and cheese. She also loves to go out to eat at Chick Fil A and Bojangles. She especially loves going on daddy-daughter dates to Chick Fil A to get breakfast, where she eats Chicken Minis.

She loves to be helpful around the house. In this picture she was getting a stool to help me in the kitchen. She will often ask for chores to do, but of course prefers the fun ones like wiping things down, vacuuming, cooking, dusting, doing the dishes, etc. (as opposed to cleaning up her toys). But she is actually quite helpful most of the time. Today she saw me unloading the dishwasher and just started putting the silverwear away and getting the dishes out to hand to me to put away!
Another silly face...!
I thought she looked really cute in her new outfit, so we snapped a few pictures. These are from the day before her birthday.
Siblings!



Kathryn is also really into playing mommy, and has lots of babies that she pretends with. I often find myself caring for not only her and her brother (and the one year old that I watch twice a week), but also for one or more of her babies as well. She will feed them, change them, bathe them, rock them, etc. It's not uncommon for me to find them "sleeping" all over the house (in her bed, in our bed, etc.). She also can take her animals very seriously (see the picture above with her doggy and kitty). In keeping with the mommy theme, she will also often take it upon herself to be the boss of anyone who's around. Sometimes it can be helpful (like when she tells Jackson not to do something he shouldn't), but oftentimes it's a source of conflict! I have even heard her telling other kids what to do (or not do). I know it is just a normal thing for her, being the firstborn, at this age though.

She has also started asking us some really deep questions, like, "When will we see Jesus?" and, "How old is baby Jesus now?" (asked a few days after Christmas). She loves to sing, and will sing along to more songs than I realized she even knew!

Since my brain is starting to get scattered with all that our little girl is, here are a few more random tidbits about her:
-She wears mostly size 4T clothes, but can fit into some size 5 and even a few size 6!
-Her shoe size is 11.
-She is very social, and loves to go places and see people.
-She has a few made-up words and common phrases: "up in the mornin'" = tomorrow morning; "formiss" = forget; "formember" = remember
-She goes to bed around 8:00 (sometimes later) and sleep till 7:00ish.
-She has rest time during the afternoon, but doesn't always nap. If she does fall asleep, we have to wake her up, or she has a hard time getting to sleep.
-She is totally a daddy's girl right now.
-She is convinced that her newest sibling is a girl.
-She loves to do arts and crafts, and works really hard to color inside the lines.
-She is learning how to write her letters, and can write the first 4 letters of her name without help. The rest she asks me to do dotted lines, and then she will trace them.
-She knows more Bible verses than we can count, thanks to her Bible memory songs and Awana.
-She strives to do the right thing and be obedient (even though it doesn't always happen!).
-She loves the fact that she's getting older!

As always, there is a ton more that I could add, but for now this will do. Kathryn, we love you so very much, and are so proud of the sweet girl that you've become. We can't wait for all that this next year will hold for you as you live your life as a 4 year old! We love you!!!