Carrie is 3!!

Ok once I get my new phone all synced up to my computer, you will get a reallllly long birthday post including party, but I want all the pics and videos in 1 post bc I am anal so that will come later this week! For now, I want to talk about Carrie! And what life is like with her.

Carrie may have more energy than anyone I have ever met. She can hardly stand still, bless her heart, but she is also the happiest, smiliest, funniest little thing I have ever met. This girl is full of joy and I know that joy comes straight from the Lord. She looks at the world and wants to take it all on...every part of it. She does not want to miss a thing!!! She keeps us going all the time and it is exhausting, but I wouldn't trade it. Carrie is also a smart little cookie. We are constantly blown away by the things she says and remembers. She loves doing floor puzzles now and can really do them all on her own. She will sit down and spend time with each piece figuring out on her own where it goes...she usually does not want any help. For a child who can hardly sit still, the girl can sit still and focus when she is learning. She LOVES to soak up anything you will teach her. I am blessed to say her favorite book right now is her Bible and she is just taking it all in. We have started memory verses and she is loving that. I told her we would do 1 a week, but she learns them in a day and begs for another. I am humbled by how much the Lord is working in her. I pray to Him every day that He is doing a mighty work in my girls and I really do see His work. But, let's be honest, she is 3...there are also times I do not see it and I pray harder :). Because, truth be told, Carrie is a tough one! She has a strong personality so we often are spending time keeping it in check. She is not really defiant or disobedient as much (she really is pretty good at following direction and understanding rules...PRETTY good I said :) ) but she is so full of energy that sometimes she does not think before she acts. She will grab things out of Hayes' hands if she wants it without thinking about it or push her back if she crawls too near a puzzle. So the main thing that we struggle with is just thinking about how to react before we react. She is just strong and determined and I can only pray that she will take these qualities and direct them towards good in the long run and that it will be a great thing for her. For now, it is just hard sometimes! But I think at the ages 2-3, there are just lots of things to work on with these little ones and all I can pray for is patience and that the Lord is in control and working in all of us!! But the good with Carrie FAR outweighs the bad. She is so much fun...ALWAYS dressing up and imagining. I do not think we have gone a day without dress up in several months. She truly is obsessed with princesses which makes for a good discipline tactic..."Princesses always use good manners" or "Princesses do not grab from others" etc, etc. She does love Hayes, just wants to play with her SO bad that sometimes it can end in tears from Hayes. But often, Hayes just smiles and laughs while Carrie is really silly with her. Carrie loves school and her teachers and looks forward to it all the time. On the Saturday morning of her birthday, she asked if she could see her teachers, haha. She also loves Sunday School. She really just loves anything social where she gets to be around kids. We try to plan lots of fun play dates bc she really loves to be out and about a lot of the time. Carrie loves really well if that makes any sense. She has such a deep love for her family and friends and always wants to be next to us, or in our laps or anywhere we are. Sometimes I want to tell her to go play in the play room or in her room so she can get better at playing by herself, but I realize I will miss this time of having her under my feet in just a few short years when she is too cool to be around mom all the time :). Carrie is also getting to be a better eater...I am thankful for this. She still won't eat just anything you put in front of her, but she is willing to try things and finds herself liking more and more. This makes it so much easier for me to cook dinner for all 4 of us instead of different things for us and the kids. Carrie also likes to be outside whenever she can. She loves to swing, she loves to explore and to "look for treasure." She and Hayes got a new water table from Mimi for their birthdays so she has loved doing that now. Whatever will get her outside, she enjoys doing...and usually is in full princess get up when she is out there! Basically, Carrie is just full of life and wide-eyed taking it all in. Graham and I feel so blessed that God lent her to us and that we get to experience this ride with her. She truly lights up our world and fills it with love and laughter and we just cannot even remember or imagine life without her in it. I could type all day, but am not going to because this run-on rambling paragraph is probably more than anyone wants to read already, but I always want her and us to have this to look back on because I don't want to forget any of it (welllll...maybe some of it ;) ).

Next up...birthday post!