My Daughter....

My daughter, Mackenzie, just turned 5 last week.  My husband turns 36 tomorrow!

I'm so blessed to have the family that God gave me.

I look back 5 years ago and it's hard to believe that it's gone by so fast!  She was a complete surprise to both of us.  We were married 5 years, then we find out through order of elimination that we were expecting!!!  I was completely giddy, yet completely scared.  I had fears of screwing her up, not doing what I was supposed to do....and whatever else my feeble mind can conjur up!

Her very first day, she picked her head up off my shoulder and was looking around.  She was already wondering what was going on around her in this great big world.  She did hate the light, though.  It was just too bright for her little bright eyes. 

She screamed her head off for the first 3 months of her life.  Colic is a very strange thing.  Sometimes she would go the entire day screaming, but mostly she would wait until around 5 pm before she started screaming again....just about the time that daddy came home everyday. 

She never liked for us to leave her alone.  She was never interested in taking a nap until her little body just shut down on her and she was forced into an afternoon snooze. 

She loves music.  She used to sit at the piano before she was 1 and would play piano, turn the pages in music books and sing.  Even now, she's constantly singing something....a made-up song, or even a song from the radio.  She loves going to church because she gets to sing in the children's choir and sings along during our praise team rehearsals.

She's CONSTANTLY moving.  She will not/cannot sit still for any length of time!  Sometimes this quality drives us up the wall as she just makes us nervous!  She loves to make noise.....any kind of noise is fine with her.  Whether it's stomping around the house, yelling at Coco (the dog), doing her best impersonation of an opera singer, beating drumsticks on our exercise bike, or just laughing and playing with whatever little toy she has.  She really loves noise.

Some of my favorite sayings:

1. Calling her grandmama "franmama"
2. Saying something about being in "frouble" (trouble)
3. The other day she was talking to her daddy about the crickets chirping.  She said to him, "Those crickets aren't supposed to be making all that noise, they need to stop cricking".
4. Anytime she makes a sentence, she makes sure that she can use the word "Actually" in it...."actually, that is my chocolate milk," "Actually, my teeth are clean," "actually, I pooped in the potty today." 
5. When she prays at church..."Thank you God for my mom, my dad, Princess and Coco, my dog".  She used to say something very similar to that, but would add "Coco, my jumpy dog."
6. At home when she prays, she prays that mom and dad will feel safe.  I often wonder about that statement as if she knows something that we don't.....

Those are just a couple of things that I love about her.  I also love that she is a child of God, that she has a heart of gold for other people, that she has manners, that she loves MATH, and that she knows right from wrong. 

No matter how crappy a mother I can be at times, she will turn out ok with God's help!