Our Newest Big Kid

We have a Christmas Eve birthday girl in our family and we love her so very much! Samantha turned 10 this year and having a two digit age makes her an official big girl in our household.  So that her big celebration doesn't get lost in the Christmas festivities we start partying at lunch on Christmas Eve. After a birthday lunch of shredded pork tacos (Sam's favorite meal) she opened her presents which we always make sure are NOT wrapped in Christmas paper. Lucky Samantha hits the present jackpot for two days straight every December!


Books from Abigail
Webkinz from her sisters. She still loves Webkinz, even though it's no longer 2009!

We took a little break after opening presents so Samantha could play with her new things and change her clothes for the third time that afternoon - I'm not sure what that was about but the usual rules don't apply for the birthday girl.  We had to get to the cake fairly quickly though because if we waited too long we wouldn't have any room for Christmas Eve dinner. Samantha requested yellow cake with chocolate frosting.


I wish I had a clear picture of this moment! Getting all the candles out in one breath is a major accomplishment, especially when you have so many candles on your cake. 
We are so blessed to have sweet Sammy in our family. Here's our list of things to know about Samantha:

  • Everybody loves Samantha. Seriously - kids, adults, animals, random strangers - everybody she meets likes her and wants to be around her.
  • Samantha is a perfectionist. This serves her well because it means that the things she does, she does well. But it can also be tricky because she is unbelievably hard on herself if she makes a mistake. We're working on that part...
  • She loves music. Dancing, singing, playing the piano, or the viola; she just has a connection with music that we all love seeing.
  • She's teeny tiny. Samantha is only three inches taller and five pounds heavier than eight-year-old Natalie. The two of them will often share clothes!
  • Samantha has the cutest ears. She's starting to grow into the them but you can maybe see in the pictures the sweet way they stick out.
  • Samantha is a smarty pants. She's great at math, science, reading and pretty much everything else she learns in school. She is meticulous and diligent about everything school and learning related.
  • She has the cutest smile and the same cleft in her chin as her dad.  She is a serious kid so we love it when we see her sweet smile.
  • Samantha is a rule follower and it kills her when others aren't following the rules. She just can't wrap her brain around it or comprehend why someone would not follow the rules.
  • Samantha is crafty. If it can be painted, glued, sewn, woven, drawn, or otherwise created, Samantha is game.
  • She is just such an all-around good kid. I can't think of a better way to explain it really, she just is such a good person; we can't imagine our family without Samantha!

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