Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Alyssa is 4 today! She is so excited. She loves birthday's and it's even better because it is her own. This is her just after she woke up this morning. She was so amazed by all of the streamers I had above her head (that you can't see) and the flower and her name 

I drew on the door with window markers. She was all smiles. 

I was up way too late decorating for her but, I love to see the kids excitement when they wake up and see the decorations and they know that it is a special day for them. It is so worth it.

After breakfast she ran a few errands with daddy and she told everyone that today is her birthday and scored a free cookie out of it! 

She has her share of Ponies now! but I am sure she could never have too many.

Trying to be patient

Yummy cake! but it was soooo rich. This is what we had for lunch so we could do it all with dad before he left to work. The kids really had lunch after we ate cake, we just did it backwards. But they didn't mind. And I was surprised that they actually ate even after having cake. I was pretty impressed.

It's fun to think back on the day she was born. I sometimes forget all of the details.

She was right on time, maybe even a few days past the due date, at 7 lbs, 14 oz.

It all happened so fast. I was in the hospital under 2 hours when she made her entrance into the world. It was not easy though. She had her arm wrapped up around her neck and didn't come out easy. She was so blue and I had to push with everything I had at all costs. She came out and didn't make a sound. They carried her straight to a side table and all I could hear was code blue over and over. Justin and I just stood there staring back and forth from each other to all of the dozens of people surrounding her not really knowing what to think. Finally they got a good pulse and her color was coming back and they carried her over to me to touch her tiny little hand for a brief second, and then off to the NICU.

14 hours later I was finally able to go in and look at her.

and then some hours after that I was finally able to touch her and then hold her.

For some reason her lungs were underdeveloped. So, with only a short time in the hospital (almost a week) she was breathing on her own and we could finally take her home.

Alyssa is such a fun girl with quite the personality. 

She loves to make people laugh and smile. She is so kind and sweet and thinks of others. She is very creative. 

some of her loves are dressing up and nail polish, make believe, playing in the dirt, finding bugs to play with, coloring/ painting, reading books. She is a goer. She never stops. She has always been my busy body of the three. She can be so sweet and caring but her feelings are crushed very quickly and easily. We have a lot of crying in our house daily. She is a very Sassy girl with attitude too, hence her nickname. She keeps me on my toes.

We love you Alyssa!