Happy 5th Birthday, My Sweet Little Sunshine!

Wow! I can't belive my baby is five years old already! As I wrote that sentence, tears sprang to my eyes.

Little Sunshine...you are just that! A ray of sunshine, a bright spot in my day...everyday. Always good for a gutt-laugh, a "Good morning", a sweet kiss on the lips, a little hand-holding, some snuggle time, butterfly kisses, and an "I love my momma", you are truly one of a kind.

You are such a character and such a delight. You make me laugh all the time. You make your siblings laugh, too! You're full of compliments and have the best manners in the family. You love your friends and you love to share. KitKat is your very best friend and I LOVE to listen to the two of you play. Bless your sweet heart, I love it when you play Tray and Gabriella. Of course you are always Troy. I love to hear your voice go deep when you say, "Gabriella". You make me giggle.

You wake up happy and are good to go. In fact, you are just always good to go. You are my little sidekick, especially lately since your older siblings are in school. I have LOVED having you to myself. And I'm pretty sure you like it, too! I've always considered you to be "a daddy's girl", but lately you seem to be becoming a mommy's girl! Lucky me!!

You're a little daredevil! You love to ride wrecklessly fast on your bike. In fact, you say that your bike is "hyper!" I asked you, "What does that mean?" You replied, "It likes to go fast!." And so do you. I love to see you give me a thumb's up (go faster!) when you are behind the sea-do on the Screamer. I said, "Sunshine, when you get older I'm afraid you are going to race the boys when you get a car." You said, "And I'm gonna win!"

You are not at all shy. You're very sociable and very well-mannered. I think your teachers are lucky to have you. I know I am!!

You make me so proud and so very very happy. You're awesome, little girl. Your little eyes twinkle when you tilt your head and smile your sweet smile. I love your smiles ...they're so sincere and warm.

Even your breath is sweet! I could eat you up. I tell you that all the time. You tell me you're gonna eat me up first!

You have the cutest "little" fanny. It's actually not little...baby got back! I love to pinch it!

As sweet as you are, you aren't afraid to make your argument. I have an extra refrigerator full of juice boxes that I give the older three kids each day in their lunchboxes. During the first week that they returned to school, you asked me every day for a juice box, I replied, "Those are just for the older kids to take in their lunchboxes." Finally, after about the fifth day in a row of hearing that response from me, you let me have it! "It's not fair that they get to have a juice box everyday and I NEVER get to have one!" And you know what...you were right! So now I give you one everyday and you just smile at me like I gave you a Polly Pocket!

And girlfriend...you can sing! You love music. You know just about every country song by heart. I love to hear you belt out some Sugarland. You asked me to put "Big Green Tractor" on my iPod. You're too cute.

And Sunshine, you have a heart the size of Texas. You cry real tears when one of your siblings gets hurt or gets in trouble. You cried with KitKAt the bight before school started because you knew she didn't want to ride that school bus. You tried hard to coax her. "Do it for me!", you told her.

I love you, love you, love you. You are "all that and a bag of chips!"

XO to you my precious little girl, my sweet Sunshine, the apple of my eye.