Holly is 15!

Well, Happy labor day to me and Happy birthday to Holly! 15 years ago my life was forever changed as we welcomed our first child into our lives. At 9:33 AM, after about 36 hours of labor and an all natural childbirth, we met Holly. We did not find out what we were having beforehand, but I knew in my heart that she was a girl!

And now, here we are 15 years later. Where have the years gone? She is daily becoming a young lady after God's own heart and I am proud and thankful to call her my daughter. As she has grown up, the changes in her have been awesome to watch. She truly loves Jesus with all her heart.

I have not really ever had a "favorite age" as my children have grown because each stage is full of so many fun things. I do miss the little girl days but I am also loving seeing her become a young lady and wondering what God's plan is for her life.

At this point in time, she loves playing Piano, singing in the choir, Bible Quizzing (this is her 8th year in a row!), History, Reading, Playing Games, being with her family and being involved at church.

We spent some time this morning going through pictures from when she was little. Here are a few of them (remember, Holly is old enough that I can say "we didn't have a digital camera back then" so these are scanned in and the quality is not so great!

Newborn rocking with mommy:


Newborn with daddy:


At about 2 years old:


For her day today, we did what we always do and let her pick the meals. She chose Breakfast Bake (recipe courtesy of Aunt Kimi!) for breakfast and chicken salad on croissant for lunch served with pickles and carrots. Tomorrow night we will have her dinner. We left early today for quiz practice, so dinner tomorrow for her bday will be homemade fried chicken (we never eat that, but it sounded good to her when she was choosing and she wanted something different) with homemade mac and cheese, green beans and cornbread. Her dessert tonight was Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding Pie - yummy!

Then, when we got to church tonight, I let her get behind the wheel of my van for the first time ever. I am not a proponent of letting kids get a lisence too young and 15 is definitely too young, but we will slooooowwwwlllllly start letting her get the feel for it so when the time comes (in a few years) she is ready and comfortable. Whew. I am too young to be dealing with all of this!!!

(I have more pics to post, but blogger is acting up, so I will post more tomorrow - I am getting sleepy and giving up! Hope this will even post, the way it is acting!)