sunshine

Today our baby girl turns five. Five years of having the most beautiful little girl grace our lives with rays of sunshine beaming on us every single day.

It was hard to comprehend when we found out we were going to have a girl. What in the world does one do with a girl?!?

But the day you were born was one of the three most amazing days of our lives. You were perfect. Beautiful. You took awhile in coming, but you let us know loud and clear that you had arrived. Your brother adored you and even stepped on you the first day you were home.




The months flew by and I tried to stop time every single day to cherish every moment with you, but to no avail, you kept growing. Learning how to chatter and drool. You drooled all. the. time. No matter how many bibs you wore, your clothes were soaked and you went through outfits like water through a sieve. And the moment you learned how to smile, it rarely disappeared.



At one year old you were learning how to walk to keep up with your brother. Laughter was second nature to you. Your independent-ness was also showing itself.















Two years wasn't terrible at all. Maybe to your brother it was though. You followed him around, wanted to be by him all the time and waited for him to come home every day from school. This was the year you decided that naps were not necessary. You were adding words to your vocabulary every day and chatter never ceased unless you were sleeping.










Three years was the year of the three letter word. Why. You were soaking every possible thing in with that question. Your little brain was processing at speeds which we were on our toes keeping up with.








Four years old and we witnessed your personality explode. You loved to dance, sing, read, color, draw, and talk. Your imagination was always on the go. Playing princesses, dollies, school, babies, kitties, and anything else that crossed your mind. Your desire to learn was so great. Watching your brother do his homework, taking his counting paper to teach yourself to count to 100, taking on the challenge of learning how to play the piano by yourself, wanting to know what everything said, spelling words left and right and recognizing words in books. How your brain held all these things is hard to comprehend and you still continued to ask theological questions that would boggle our minds.


Year five. It's all a blur now, the months and years have blended together to bring us to this day. This year you go to school. You are so excited to start and have started praying every day that you have a good first day of school. Your giving and loving heart is a huge example to all of us and your love for Jesus has grown by leaps and bounds. I never thought five years later I could love you so much more and deeper.

This, your fifth year of life, is going to be full of adventures that will shape you. You will learn so much, meet new friends and grow. I continue to cherish each day with you as soon, you will be gone to school. Someday I hope you have the blessing of a daughter who will teach, humble, and be an example of child like faith to you as you have done and shown us.

Thank you Father for loaning us this bundle of sunshine who has graced our lives so many times over.

Happy birthday Alina Carlen. Our Beautiful Woman.