Happy Birthday Jacey!

Jacey is 5 years old! That is crazy to me... This sweet girl started out her birthday with kind of a bummer of a day, but I think it ended on a good note. She got sick on Monday, and it carried over to Tuesday, which was her birthday. She woke up with a fever (not as high as the day before, but she definately was not up to par.) We let her open presents from family that morning. She loved her pink coat from Aunt Natalie and Uncle Chris (very clever, since Jacey still remembers her Aunt Natalie's pink fluffy coat from the first time she met her, before her and Chris got married!), her digital art kit from Grandma and Grandpa Sillito, her "credit card" as she calls it from Grandma and Grandpa Johnston (Visa gift card- she's SOOOO excited to go shopping, and has even told me she'll buy me something with it. :), and her camera from us. The day kind of went downhill from there a little. She had to miss preschool (which she was very sad about) because she was sick. She spent most of the day in bed. We couldn't figure out how to install her digital art kit on our computer (Dan finally figured out we had to download something else from the internet before it would work a couple days later), and her camera wasn't as cool as it looked on the box. The screen on the back was tiny and fuzzy, didn't show the picture right after you took it, and the flash didn't work. She tried so hard to be a good sport, even though it wasn't a great day. When I finally asked her if she really liked the camera though (because I thought it was kind of lame myself) she said, "I'm sorry Mom, it looked like it would be fun, but it just didn't really work." Luckily she was feeling better and her temperature was gone by the time Dan got home from school, so we just threw bedtime out the window and went out to dinner at her favorite resturant, The Rainforest Cafe. After that, we went and rode the caruesol at the mall, and at the end of the day, I think her birthday was saved!

So, Happy Birthday Jacey! We are so lucky to have you in our family! Here are a few of my current favorite things about Jacey:

1. I love that she's girly! Especially now that she's old enough that she enjoys getting her hair done, likes shopping for cute clothes, and wears dress-ups every day while she dances in the living room.

2. I love that she's more aware of right and wrong, and (usually:) makes good choices. She must have had a particularly memorable lesson in primary one week, because for the past little while she's been talking about following Jesus vs. following Satan. We do talk about following Jesus in our house, but I don't think we've talked a lot about following Satan. She gets very concerned that whenever Broden does something he's not supposed to, he's following Satan!

3. I love that she is so helpful! She calls herself a "mini-mom" and I've noticed that Broden sometimes uses "mommy" interchangably with Jacey and I. She always asks me what she can do to help, and a few weeks ago I gave her a squirt bottle with baby shampoo mixed with water and a rag, and told her she could wash the walls (more just to keep her busy than anything else). She took her job very seriously, and now considers that her "job" around the house.

4. I love the funny things she says. I love that we have real, grown-up conversations. I love that she tells me she loves me out of the blue, and the way she tries to interject big words into our conversations. In the past week she has told me, "I never suspected it could be this cool today." "Mom, I'm really impressed by the dinner you made tonight." and "Mom, Broden is so distracting when he makes noise while I'm trying to fall asleep."

Thanks for making our family so much fun, Jacey! We love you!