Our Little Princess Turns 4!!

Our sweet little princess Lexie is now 4 years old! I can hardly believe how fast the last few years have gone, and my baby girl is now growing up into a sweet little girl. She was so excited about her birthday this year and had such a fun day! She chose waffles for her birthday breakfast, then we baked her cake and got ready for the day. At noon we headed out for some birthday lunch. I love this picture...she is all ready to go with her baby and baby's diaper bag.

 We headed to Wendy's for some yummy kids meals (Lexie loves their cheeseburgers and frosty's of course).

 The kids enjoying their lunch.

 Next we had to run a few errands. While I grabbed some groceries, the kids went to the park with Daddy to swing and slide. It was a hot day so they didn't stay long, but Lexie loves to play at the park! We also stopped at the SUU Bookstore for Lexie to choose some balloons, but I forgot to take pictures of that. The kids love getting balloons!

 Here is the beautiful birthday girl in her birthday outfit!

Lexie wanted a princess cake with a crown but I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do it, but I got a few ideas from a cake decorating book and just made it up as I went along. I was pretty happy with the finished product. Here is front and back of the cake. 

 Lexie liked the cake which was the most important thing!

 For her party we had a lot of family come over for pizza, presents, and cake...the 3 keys to a great birthday in our house! After eating some pizza (no pictures of that either), she opened her presents and was excited about all of them.

Then of course the traditional lighting of the candles and the "Happy Birthday" song (I usually get a video of that, but again the pregnant slacker mom missed that this year). She was beaming and so full of excitement the entire day!

  And of course she couldn't wait to dig in to her chocolate cake with pink frosting that she requested. I always know the day is a big success when the birthday girl is happy and the Mom is completely exhausted at the end of the day.

Hard to believe this little girl is now already 4 years old and getting ready to head to preschool. She has grown up so much in the past year both physically and in every other way.
Her current 4-year-old stats are:

Height: 3 ft 6 in (90%)

Weight: 37 lbs (66%)

Lexie is very tall for her age, but also skinny. She wears size 5/6 clothes for length, but they don't always fit around very good. People always think she is older than she is, and I've had several people ask if she is starting Kindergarten this year. But the funniest thing happened when we went swimming this summer at the aquatic center. We told them the ages of our kids (3 and under get in free) but the wristband lady took Lexie aside and asked how old she was (thinking we were lying about her age). Lexie just told her she was 3 and we went on our way, but it was kind of crazy. She is getting really close to reading and can spell lots of small words. She can write the names of our family: Dad, Mom, Lexie & Hoyt and is getting good at writing almost all of her letters. She loves to color and draw pictures, and I'm glad she got Bryan's artistic ability because her drawings are really good. Lexie loves to sing songs, and after some difficulties with our ward split and other primary issues, she is finally starting to love her Sunbeam class. She has already given the 8th Article of Faith in primary (perfectly memorized), and she gave her first talk and did a fantastic job! She is looking forward to the primary program next month so she can talk in the big microphone. Every night her favorite thing is reading stories together from The Friend. She has also learned she can pray for whatever she needs, and recently when she had a bad nightmare the next night she prayed to have good dreams and she did! Lexie is such a friendly girl and everywhere we go if she sees other kids she talks to them and always says "That's my new friend" so I'm sure she's going to do great in school and make lots of new friends. She loves animals, especially dogs and is still really into "Clifford the Big Red Dog". She likes to pretend to be a dog, and now Hoyt likes it too so there are times I feel like I have 2 dogs instead of kids. I have really enjoyed the past 4 years watching Lexie grow into a fun, sweet little girl and it will be fun to see her continue to grow in coming years.
We love you so much Lexie, our little princess!!!