Merry Christmas To All

Merry Christmas, dear family and friends, from the three of us!

28 weeks and growing, growing, growing!

Have a Holly Jolly Birthday

Happy 24th Birthday to my baby sister!

Sweet Hollybug, I love you so much. I am so proud to be known as your sister. You have grown from this adorable, cute, sweet little girl into a beautiful, thoughtful, generous, and funny woman.

You have always been the sweetest little sister. I remember sharing the same room when we were younger and staying up late, giggling and talking long after we were supposed to be asleep. I would always wake up with you sleeping diagonally across the bed- clearly over the middle line! It was the funniest position to sleep in, and I would have to move your legs back over to your own side. Sometimes I did this by kicking them, but you were asleep.

Big sister holding you. Look at all your hair!

You ready to start your Christmas baking

You are usually less messy of an eater these days

I don't remember a time in my life before you were there. I was only almost three when you were born, and all of my childhood memories include you, living them with me. I remember our house on Joshua Tree, playing with you in the backyard in our pink playhouse, riding bikes with you, driving our beloved pink Barbie car around with you. I had no idea how very very lucky I was to have you as my little playmate, my fellow teacher, or mom, or princess, or whatever we wanted to play. I remember sitting in the living room before bedtime with our hair in curlers, watching America's Funniest Home Videos with Mom and Dad and laughing so hard.

Making Dad laugh

I remember how excited we were when Trip was born and we had a little brother to play with. We would try to dress him up in dresses but that didn't last very long. He preferred his shorts and cowboy boots, even early on. I remember how happy we were to get our first kitten, Puffy, and how we would fight over who got to take a picture with her. We would spend our summers with our neighborhood friends, playing in little plastic pools or running through sprinklers. One of your favorite things to do, though, was to play in the mud. You would make mud pies for hours on end, with your cute little blonde braid- such a mix of girly and tomboy, just like Maddi.

So sweet

Six Flags-ing it up! Fanny pack!

Great stance

Going for a bow theme :)

As we got older, we spent more and more time with friends, and less time with just the two of us. No friend could ever have replaced you, though. You were and always will be closer than any friend, more like the same person than different people. I think I will always feel a mixture of protective of you and encouraged by you. Encouraged to be more gentle, more loving, more selfless, more brave. Encouraged to live a life of grace.

Beautiful, one of all time faves of you

It warms my heart to see the beautiful little family you have now. I see the way your husband looks at you, with such a loving expression, and it makes me so happy that you two are so in love with each other. I see your two precious, precious little girls playing together and it reminds me so much of you and me. It makes me happy to think that they have a lifetime of sisterhood ahead of them, and all that it brings- all of the laughter, the shared secrets, the shared clothes, the shared jokes, the shared memories, the shared smiles, and the feeling that someone really, truly, actually totally understands.

Cake, anyone?

Loving on your little one

You are a wonderful mom, wife, sister, and daughter. And you would never see it, but you are just lovely.

I love you dearly, forever, and I will always be here for you. 

Happy 24th, Holly Holly Christine!