To My Natalie on Her Ninth Birthday

Sweet Natalie.  You are becoming quite the beautiful young lady!  It seems like just yesterday you were baptized and now you are nine!

You are so intelligent.  Every report card we receive, your teacher boasts that you're "top of the class!"  You excel in all subjects at school, but especially in spelling, writing and literature.  You love to read, use your imagination and could play LEGOs all day!  You also love watching Doctor Who with your dad and siblings.

You've had a tough school year because of a mean, grumpy teacher, but after many pep talks, you're making it through with lessons learned that we need to make the best of hard situations.  You've come out stronger!

Your love breakfast foods...especially mom's homemade waffles.

You are shy and reserved, so the move this past year was a little rough on you.  You made some really sweet friends, though, especially in the church and are loving our new home.  You still have some great friends in Albuquerque-Jovie and Joslynn-that you play with every week on early out day.

You love to be outside, especially now that we have lots of land.  You are in your element when you're hiking and looking for animal life outdoors.  You like to catch lizards and observe the beautiful world around you.

You have a natural gift for playing the piano.  Once you decided that you wanted to learn and excel at it, about a year ago, you took off and improved by leaps and bounds.  You can now sight read any song in the Primary Children's Song Book and basically play perfectly any other new song I throw at you.  Nothing seems too hard for you!  You enjoy sitting at the piano and playing through your piano books.  I rarely have to remind you to practice.  I joke that you are pretty much self-taught.  I gave you the basics to get you started and then you ran with it, full speed ahead.  You started learning the violin this past year and struggle to practice that because you want to be really good at it really fast like you were at the piano.  It's teaching you lessons on persistence and how to conquer challenges.


You look forward to activity days twice a month and love the fact that your mom is your leader.

You are a light and a joy in our home and your brothers and sister adore and look up to you.

Your Mom and Dad love you so much and feel so blessed to be your parents.  Watching you grow up is so bittersweet.  We know that all too soon you'll be dating and then leaving our home to go off to college.  Time flies! But you've assured us that you're going to move next door with your future family.  :)

I'm so glad you came along and made me a mom for the first time.

Love,

Mom