Jeff, Tiffany, and Their 3 Little Baers: Lily is 7!

Happy Birthday Lily!
Lily is 7 today and she is so excited to be another year older! I feel so blessed to have her not only as my daughter, but as my oldest. She is truly the best example to her younger brothers. I feel like she has made it so easy to learn what works and has given me confidence as a mother to challenge my kids. Learning the articles of faith, reading The Book of Mormon, learning to read, excelling in music, creatively playing, excelling in school, she is full of talent and hard work. She wants to do things right and to get it right and is willing to practice until she does. She is competitive and that drives her to try and do better. She loves helping with Liam and often plays with him while I'm trying to get some things done or do dinner and she even wanted to learn how to change his diaper. She will read to the boys or plays legos with them. She shares her Barbies with her cousins and is always thinking up fun scenarios. She loves exploring and playing and being adventurous. She loves learning and reading and is never far from a book.

This year she started The Book of Mormon and is in 2 Nephi. She has learned 8 articles of faith and continues to work on them. She read well over 30 hours this summer (that was how much we actually calculated at the library) and has read too many books to count. For fun she practices in math workbooks, she reads science and world fact books. She loves her dolls and stuffed friends and has a hard time deciding who to have on her bed. She loves playing make believe and is often a tour guide, college student, mother, sister, ninja, orphanage owner, or hairstylist. She loves sleeping in my bed when Jeff is gone, which I don't often let her do, but on occasion and she thinks it's so fun. She loves spending time alone with me or Jeff and I love it too. She learned to swim all four swim strokes and got the award for most improved swimmer. She works so hard. I have loved how she even helps me reach my goals. When I started a book group she was often checking on me to make sure I was reading and going to get my book read in time. If she came in and I was nursing but not reading, she'd chastise me a little. She is also so sensitive and when I am having a hard day she tells me things like "having four kids can be so hard sometimes. I understand. I bet that's hard." She is a good girl.

I love my sweet girl and will thank Heavenly Father over and over again for blessing our family to have her.

When Lily got on the bus I told her to have a great birthday and the bus driver heard. So before she got off the bus the driver had all the kids sing happy birthday to her. While at school she got a crown and I went to eat lunch with her and pass out donut holes for her treat. She really enjoyed that and it was fun to see her at school and talk to her teacher.

After school she started working right away on her Ninjago water strider lego and wanted her own space to do that. Ja and Laura's family came over for spaghetti dinner and dessert and the girls had fun playing. I had to go to a parent meeting for music class so a babysitter came over, but overall it was a great day and she felt celebrated. I have learned that no matter what, you need to do something special on the birthday. Even though we had her party on Saturday, I insisted she not open her lego until her birthday because I knew she'd be disappointed to not have anything to open and be excited about on her birthday.