Madelyn is NINE!

Holy smokes, has it been a week since I posted?? I have so much I've been needing to post about. Oh well. Luke's been sick for the past 5 days and it started developing into pneumonia, so on top of the crazy birthday weekend/Christmas scramble I'm sleep deprived and exhausted even more because of that. I JUST LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR.

Anyhoo, Madelyn turned nine on Saturday!! I can't believe it!!

This was when she was five--I don't have baby pictures of her on the computer. But my, how she and Luke have grown!

Our very busy day started with choir practice at the church--I had to be there for the ward choir and Madelyn for the Primary. Everyone sang to her as a surprise at the end and then had donuts and juice afterward (not for her birthday specifically but it was fun). Then I had promised to take her and her "BFF" Emma out for ice cream.

 Her friend Kamryn came, too. Those three together are something else.

 Madelyn is the oldest of the bunch but they all had to flash me nine fingers. I can't believe I have a PRETEEN.

 

 We browsed around the cute little shops downtown, got ice cream at Bulloch Drug and the girls each got a blinged out jewelly Christmas ornament.

 After that, Emma came to watch her open her birthday presents.

 After lunch we hopped in the car and drove down to St. George. We dropped Luke off at his cousins Nathan and Ava's and we went to see The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. 

Finallyyyyyyyy!!!!!

 It was all she wanted to do for her birthday all year. That's my girl! She loved the movie (we all did), despite being disappointed that they left out the scene in Mirkwood where Bombur falls into the enchanted stream and falls asleep for days and the other dwarves have to carry him around.

 Her auntie Meg had just come home from college and was able to come with us! She is twice Madelyn's age at 18 and I think it's really weird that I had a baby when my sister was only 9 years old.

 

We went and got Luke and drove by the St. George Temple on the way out of town to see the Christmas lights. So pretty!

 The next day, I finally got around to making her birthday dinner, potato soup (her favorite). We had sparkling cider and even got out our goblets for the occasion.

 Luke just had to use one, too.

And tonight we finally got around to having her birthday cake! It was a store bought cheesecake and not quite as good as mine, but I just didn't have the time or energy to make one this year. 

♥♥♥♥♥Happy birthday to my smart, sweet, spunky, sensitive and super little girl!!! ♥♥♥♥♥