LL's 9th Year

LL turned 9 at the beginning of February.  Here's a look back at her 9th year:

February

She turned EIGHT years old!

LL and Matt went to their 4th Father/Daughter Dance together!

She had her 8-year well-visit and is a happy, healthy girl!

We had LL's birthday party at Tiny Bubbles!

LL saved her money for months and we took a girl's trip to Atlanta to visit the American Girl doll store!

March

We did one of our favorite activities during Spring Break - went to pick Strawberries!

This girl loves to be outside!

April

First swim of the year!

LL got dressed up all pretty for Easter!

LL's 8 year old pictures from our family session were beautiful!

May

LL wrapped up 2nd grade!

We kicked off summer with a trip to her favorite place - the BEACH!

Both kids have one thing on their minds when summer comes around - as much pool time as possible!

We celebrated Memorial Day at Grammy and Pop's house!

June

LL loved our trip to Calloway Gardens with Grammy and Pop!

Both kids were in Heaven when we got a pool for our house!

We took a fun day trip to Jax with our best friends!

Another thing LL loves in the summer is spending time at the water park at Wild Adventures with friends!

July

We tried to pack in as much fun summer stuff as we could!

LL loves the 4th of July!  Fireworks, swimming, and friends!

LL loved going to VBS with Cooper in our new building!

LL ended the summer the same way she started it - another trip to the beach (and she wouldn't have it any other way!).

August

LL got an awesome "back to school" haircut!

She moved up to the Elementary School and started 3rd Grade!

LL loved all the hype around the Solar Eclipse!

September

Even though she's a huge animal fan, we said goodbye to our chickens and found them a new home!

One of the biggest deals this year was that LL finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels!

October

We took our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

She loved going to the Air Show with Cooper and Ben!

LL was the cutest Moana ever for Halloween!

November

LL loves babies, so she has been smitten when Anna Reed comes to town!

All of the kids had a blast together over Thanksgiving.

LL and Cooper did a great job picking out our Christmas Tree!

December

LL loves all of our fun Christmas activities!

She got an award at school for Honor Roll!

She was a happy camper when we went back to Snow Mountain this year!

And, of course, Christmas is always the best!

January

I can not even begin to tell you how happy she was when we got an amazingly awesome snow in January!

She went to Avenger's Live for the first time and absolutely loved it!

We are so thankful and blessed with a happy, healthy girl who had such a great year!  I have a feeling that being 9 will be even better!

LL at 9 Years Old

Our sweet LL is NINE years old!  Here are nine things about her personality at nine years old:

1- This girl is a little artist.  She has always loved to draw/color/paint, but this area has really flourished in this past year.  This is what she spends a good portion of her free time doing, and I just love it.  She has about a million little journals in her room that she just writes and draws in.

2- She has really had to step outside of her comfort zone this year - especially at school.  She moved to a new school (elementary school from primary school), and she didn't really have any friends in her class from any of her earlier years in school.  She started the school year pretty terrified, but now she's got the hang of it.  She's not scared of the school anymore, and she has branched out and made lots of new friends in her class!

3- She is still a really good eater!  About a year and a half/two years ago, she started to be more open to trying new things.  She realized she could try it, and if she didn't like it, chances are we wouldn't make her eat any more of it.  This has led her to being way more open to trying new things, and in turn, liking new things!  She still has her picky moments, but overall, she's a pretty great eater who enjoys really healthy foods!

4- She still loves outdoors and animals.  This girl would live outside with a million animals if we let her.  This has been her 100% since she was about 2 years old, and I don't see it changing anytime soon.  She has also really started loving babies this year (human babies - haha).  She's got such a "Mommy" personality.

5- She has stepped up her chore game.  We need to figure out a strategy to be more consistent with this (with both kids) during the school year, but LL is really good about doing things when we ask.  She cleans her room with minimal help, she can help change out laundry, she feeds the animals - she's just a great little helper.  Any recommendations for consistency for chores for a 9 year old during the school year?

6- She is definitely curious about everything that goes on around her.  Basically, I'm trying to say in the nicest possible way that she has become extra nosey this year - haha.  Matt and I have to be very careful about what we say around her because little ears are listening alllll the time.  We have to tell her multiple times a week that she doesn't need to worry about something because it's not her business - haha.  She's growing up and understand so much more about adult conversation!

7- She's lost a lot of her fear.  We went through like a 4-5 year phase where this girl was scared of everything.  And I mean everything.  There was a time where she wouldn't even go to the bathroom alone in our house.  We've dealt with night time issues like every 6 months or so since she was born (I can't tell you how many hours Matt and I have spent on her floor during the night).  It has slowly gotten better the last few years, but this year I feel like she has really come a long way.  We rarely have night time issues anymore (they are so few and far between these days), and her fear of places in our house or doing things alone have really faded away, too.

8- She is a hard worker (especially at school!).  She is very much a combination of me and Matt in this area.  If it's something she doesn't really care about, she will give up easily.  If it's something she wants to do, she'll put 100% of her effort into it.  At school, she really surprises me because she's 100% into it every day.  She still has her bad days and occasionally struggles with a concept, but she is such a hard worker at school.  

9- She is such a good friend.  Once she connects with someone, she puts her all into that friendship.  She's a great encourager, and can be so sweet and caring to the friends that are around her.  She's rarely bossy with them (it can happen sometimes), and is typically just happy to be with them and play!  I pray even now that she will learn to surround herself with friends who are good influences on her and will lift her up instead of tearing her down.