Happy 10th Birthday, Baby Girl!

She's a ray of sunshine when I'm having a cloudy, "Eeyore" sort of day. That's the best way to describe her. Just pure, unfiltered sunshine. She glows when she's happy. Her smile is so bright that often times everyone else around her smiles, too.

Some days she's sad. Some days it's rainy and the sunshine can't get through. On rainy days she puts up her umbrella, splashes in the puddles, and the smile comes out again.

Nothing can stop her. Her drive, her ambition. But yet, at times she can be quite lazy. She gets tired of things quickly, but she always needs to be busy. Her hands need to be doing something, or her mind needs to be learning something.

She has her Great-Grandma's patience and faith in God, her Grandma's artistic ability and love of books, her Mom's eyes and dramatic tendencies. She adores her brothers and will do anything for them. She thinks the world of her daddy and loves the fact that he *chose* to be her daddy.

On her own she has learned how to be a leader. She is outgoing and puts 100% into all her friendships. She has learned how to forgive and forget. She is a joiner, joining every activity that is placed in front of her.

At school she's friendly, supportive, attentive, a leader, a librarian, a journalist, a gifted student, a teacher's pet, and a member of the student council.

At home she's loud, joyful, sweet, loving, compassionate, argumentative, not afraid to stand up for herself, independent, dependent, loves her pets, loves her TV, loves her books, and often times she can be very frustrating.

She gets disappointed easily, and she cries when she's hurt. She gets over things quickly and will easily make a compromise.

She still loves to curl up and read a book with me, and she absolutely loves to read to her brothers.

She enjoys every season of the year. In summer she can easily play at the beach all day long. In the fall she loves raking and playing in the leaves. In the winter she likes to sled and build snowmen until her fingers and toes are numb. In spring she loves to fly kites and take long walks on the nature trails.

I could go on describing her all day long. All the wonderful, and not so wonderful, qualities about her. Who better to know than her mother?

This morning when Louisa walked out of her room, she seemed taller than I had ever seen her before. Did she really grow last night? Or is there that big of a difference between being 9 and 10? I knew she was getting tall, but not *that* tall!After she left for school I wrapped her presents, made meatballs and put them in the crock pot for her meatball sub dinner that she chose tonight, and now I'm about to go make the red velvet cake she picked out.

It's a strange feeling knowing that my baby girl is so big. A little sad, too. I don't want her to grow so fast. Soon she'll grow into a young woman. But, I *am* excited to see what she will be like. Louisa is such a beautiful presence in our house. Being the only girl, she knows how special she is. She may have moved on from Princesses and Ponies to High School Musical and Hannah Montana, but that doesn't stop her from being my sweet little girl. I'm very proud of all that she's accomplished so far.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!