Four

*Play song, "Your the World to Me" (incorrectly named though, it's supposed to just be "World to Me") for this post

My baby turned four on Christmas Eve, which is just surreal to me. At times it's unbelievable for me to think that that much time has past, it seems like it was yesterday that I was holding my gorgeous girl in my arms for the first time.... Other times, I can't even remember what our lives were like before her.

Four is an age that will forever hold a special place in my heart. It is the age my sister will be etched in my memories until I see her again. It is also the age of children I have been working with and teaching for the last 7 or so years. It is a great age. One filled with wonder, excitement and imagination. I am so excited to see what this year will hold for my dear sweet angel! 

It has been quite the roller coaster ride these four years and sometimes I wonder how we survived it all with our sanity in tact...... well, mostly in tact ;) I love my girl more than I can describe and I am so grateful for her each and everyday. So, I only saw it right that we celebrate her in the way she deserves.... and for the first time ever on her actual birthday! Christmas Eve has always been filled with way too many things that it was impossible to do any sort of birthday festivities, which is why we defaulted to celebrating in January somewhere near the day she came home from the hospital which was the 22nd. One of the biggest things that usually happens on Christmas Eve is Steve's work Christmas party, which is always a movie.... and not a kids movie, so I always feel awful having someone babysit my girl on her birthday. But this year, since it was on a Saturday, they did the movie on Friday the 23rd, so we had most of the day open! Just breakfast and presents at Steve's parents in the morning (that's when we celebrated Christmas with them since that was the day that it worked best for everyone), and then the annual Wilde family Christmas Eve party that evening. So, actually it was pretty packed, but we knew we could make it work! 

After we were done with present opening at the Peters', we had a special package for Emarie to open. A package that was packed with love from a very sweet Ch18 family in Michigan, the Bowen family. I teared up just when I saw the size of the box sitting in front of our door. And more tears came when I opened it first to prepare it for Em to see. Sweet notes and pictures adorned the top of the box, and what was inside was way more than we could imagine. Thank you Bowen family from the bottom of our hearts. You are such an amazing family and we consider ourselves lucky to consider you friends.... actually family, because we're all in this roller coaster together :) And even though we haven't met you, we feel like we know you as well as family and can't wait for the day when we will actually meet!

 Looking at the pictures of the adorable Bowen kids

 Here's a small portion of what they sent which included some clothes that their daughter has outgrown, they are all absolutely adorable! 

And the last item we opened.... Em's face says it all! 

Our card seemed a little less impressive after all this, but we gave it to her anyway ;)

 "Reading" her card.... I just love how expressive this girl is! 

 The surprise in the card was a gift card to go to Build-A-Bear and to do some other fun things (which we didn't get to, but I'll get to that later)

So, as soon as we were done here, we headed straight for the mall. Our plan was to hit Build-A-Bear at the Orem mall, then head to the Provo mall (don't have a BAB at the Provo mall anymore) to ride the train and carousel.... but thanks to a grandmother that was at BAB with like 10 of her grandchildren getting them all a bear for Christmas and they took forever, we planned to be there 30 minutes or less, which we would have.... but whatever! So since it took almost 2 hours, it was the only thing we got to do :( But, we're planning to do the other stuff when we can (trip then hip surgery, it would probably be a month before we could do it... but well, now the surgery has been postponed of course ((more on that later)), so we may be able to do it sooner than we thought).

 Choosing just the "right" one can be tricky business (see video below for just how well Em did this!)

 Holding her choice of an empty bear and waiting.... waiting.... waiting for her turn to fill it 

 Yup, still waiting..... I should also point out Em's cute shirt that says "One Cute Birthday Girl!" a hand-me-down from Kennya and Kennedy (friends)

The process of filling is in the video below :)

 Choosing the clothes is equally as tricky and important!

 Finally it's ready! I think she's happy :)

Love it!

And later we headed to the Wilde family Christmas Eve party (more of the Christmas celebrations from that in a following post) where her grandpa Mitch and grandma Jen gave her this....

 Yeah, I had the same look as Em.... thanks guys.... that's just what we needed... a Barbie bigger than our daughter ;)

And here's Em at the end of the night with all her birthday loot! The Jingle dog and book, jingle music toy, Rapunzel baby, birthday cake wooden puzzle, socks, Rapunzel gel window clings, Rapunzel purse and Rapunzel pillow and throw (plus all the clothes) were from the Bowen family.... told you it was a lot! Then Steve's mom made her the cutest little rabbit family set, complete with a zip-up carrot holder. And then of course the Barbie ;) Can we say spoiled??

All in all I think she had a great birthday.... what do you think??