Eight is Great!!

It's hard for me to believe that my baby girl . . .

is 8 years old!

When did that happen?!?!

We had a great time celebrating Katelee's birthday this year.

We started the celebrations Saturday morning when we went swimming at the awesome Rec Center pool.  Katelee invited two of her close friends to join us.

Blake is working on mastering his "cheese" face.  :)

Then, Saturday evening we went out to dinner as a family for Katelee's birthday.  She chose Tucano's, yum!

Sunday morning she woke up to our birthday tradition - a room full of balloons!  Downstairs was waiting a big surprise - a loft bed that Gerald and I had built for her!  She was very excited and loved it!  However, as you can probably tell, we had run out of time and it wasn't stained or painted yet, so we are finishing up and will take pictures of the final product soon.

We needed to get ready for church, but Katelee also got to open up one more gift that morning.  She got a Lego set!

After church we let her open the rest of her presents.

I love Blake in these pictures.  "What is it?  What is it?"

"Aw, man, more girly craft stuff."

That evening, our local aunts, uncles and cousins came over for birthday cake.

Katelee had requested a "rock star" birthday cake this year, and this is what I made for her.

She loved how it turned out!

Make a wish!

After we ate, we played Karaoke on the Wii.  Blake and Elijah loved being part of the Wii action.  :)

I couldn't be prouder to have Katelee for my daughter.  She is an amazing, kind, intelligent, wonderful person, and I am blessed to be her mom and learn from her example everyday.

I love you, Katelee!