{ Erika’s 8th Birthday }

If there ever was a planner, I tell you, Erika is that girl. She had the details of her birthday planned out for weeks ahead of time. She had made a list of ever single thing she wanted that had to do with her birthday-the decorations, theme, friends, gifts, cakes-everything!, to make her 8th birthday a special day for her. She appropriately titled her master list:

MY BIRTHDAY STUFF

• Chocolate cake (which later got crossed off the list and changed to a cookie cake with chocolate icing)!
• Puppy decorations!
• Animal book!
• Pinyota (piñata)!
• Pockadot balloons!
• Blue wrapping paper!
• Friends over-Danielle,Katrina,Brantley,Nysia,Alex,Halle,Lilly,Arrianna,Melanie!
• Sprite!
• Art Set
• Barbie Hair
• 8 Stuff (scriptures, white dress, anything special that had to do with her baptism)
• Leapad
• Leapad games
• Dollars
• Pet Shop Toys
• Dog

Her list was so cute with the list color coordinated and drawings next to everything. That girl loves a list for sure! We tried our best to measure up to her grand planning, and as far as the decorations go, I think we did great!

Balloons-CHECK

Dog decorations-CHECK

Blue wrapping paper-CHECK

Animal Book-CHECK

One Happy Girl-DOUBLE CHECK!

As her birthday neared, she would come to me a couple times a day, and ask when exactly we were going to get all of her,”You know,..birthday things!”. I brushed it off that we would get them in time, but had been secretly squirrelling away all of her birthday requests for quite some time. When she came home from school, she was pleasantly surprised and super excited that all her birthday dreams were coming true.

We had opted out of the friends birthday party, which she assured us was okay, but we had quite a surprise up our sleeve for our birthday girl, that we knew in the end she would be so thrilled with her surprise, it would more than make up for any friends being here. We set up a fun treasure hunt for her, hiding all her 8 presents around the house, each with a clue to the next one. We had them all strategically planned so she would get her BIG surprise before some of the other presents.

She has been begging for an “official” art set for some time now, and was super excited with this one. She loves that she can tote it around with her from place to place or in the car. She is quite an amazing artist, and has been artist of the month twice now at school. I need to remember to scan in some of her art work-it really is so cute. She also got some watercolor paper and a sketch pad to use.

Her special “8 Stuff” as she called in on her list, was her own set of scriptures-in blue of course, her favorite color. And…I am not exactly sure why Austin has a festive brown ribbon/headband/Indian headpiece on his head? Birthday party hat-Austin version I am guessing?

Even though Erika had her list all written out weeks in advance, and I had been gathering decorations and some presents, her main present was throwing me for a loop. She was pretty insistent that she wanted a Leap pad-which is a kid version of a iPad, but with games you have to buy. She would look it up on Amazon and update me daily on the going price for it. She was pretty positive that she would be finding it wrapped up in one of her gifts. I am hesitant when it comes to any new electronics on my house, and this one was no different. I am sure it is a great little toy, but it seemed a bit much for how long she would be able to use it. I was sure those games would get old fast, and I didn’t want to see it forgotten in two weeks. Aaron and I stressed over her gift for a LONG time, and in the end we decided on…..

…A DOG.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am NOT a dog person, and pretty much swore up and down I would never get one. The truth is though, it has been a long time in coming, and this just happened to be the right time. I will have to write a whole separate post for the whole dog issue because it deserved a post all it’s own…or two or three really. Long story short, the kids have been saving up their money for the last six months, and Aaron and I chipped in the rest. We let the three oldest in on the secret because we really wanted them to help us pick out and buy some of the stuff, it was their money after all. In a few short days, we had reserved out puppy, which couldn’t come home for three more weeks, bought some essentials, and made a horrible embarrassing, but touching video that we showed to her to tell her about her new little playmate.

Austin and Brianna knew what was coming and were so excited for her…

She was stunned…and then speechless…and then the tears started coming…and coming…and coming. We were pretty much all in tears after the video. She had been dreaming of this day for a long time, and I think had maybe convinced herself that it wasn’t ever going to happen. That night as she was getting ready for bed, I asked her if she said her prayers.

She said,”Yes, and I just couldn’t stop crying when I was praying!”

Why? (already thinking I knew the answer)

“Because, I was just so..grateful.”

I had expected happy or excited or something along those lines. But gratitude was all that was in her little girl’s heart. I was pretty grateful at that moment too. Grateful that I had a new 8 year old, that had about a pure a heart as any. After she had been tucked in, she came back down into my room, her eyes all red, and said she just couldn’t fall asleep because she just kept crying! A heart of gold for sure!

Here’s a little preview of our little guy! He was just 4 weeks old at the time of her birthday. These great pictures were from our breeder Tammy Boleman at Horizon Labradors. She is so great, and I was so happy she loved to take pictures as much as me. She captured a bunch of cute ones to send to us every week.

We love you Erika! Happy 8th Birthday!!