Happy Birthday Katie!!

14 years old!!!  I can still remember this like it was yesterday:

She sure is growing up.  Newest milestone is that KATIE READS!!!  As in picks up a book and can read it.  And she read a verse during family scripture reading the other day all by herself... including words like "thou".  Go Katie!!!  I believe in always setting the bar high and I do with Katie.  But honestly, I didn't think she would ever be able to read.  Way to go proving your mom wrong Katie!

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!!  Also thought I'd share a little blurb from my journal about Katie:

Katie has "magical powers".  We've known this since she was a baby.  My mom pointed this out to me when she was teeny tiny.  People would hold her and instantly be healed or comforted by her.  I had a couple people who would come over for a visit when she was a baby just to hold Katie and bask in her peace.  Yesterday I was having a particularly hard day.  When bedtime came, I was dreading the battle of getting the kids ready for bed.  I was particularly dreading Katie's bedtime battle.  She can be stubborn when she wants to be!  She sat stubbornly on the couch, going as slow as possible because she knew that would annoy me the most.  I sighed and tried to find the strength to fight the battle.  I wondered silently if I should just leave her sitting there on the couch and go to bed myself because I didn't have the fight in me that night.  Katie sensed this.  She always knows when someone needs her.  And she always knows just what they need.  So I sat there contemplating how I could persuade them all into bed and feeling very tired.  Katie knew I was at my limit.  She came over and wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. She pressed her cheek to mine and whispered, "I loooove you mom!"  She told me over and over that she loved me and  squeezed my neck tight and wouldn't let go.  The world stood still for a moment.  It seemed as though her spirit talked to mine, in a way that words can't communicate.  Hearts uniting, sharing, loving.  My heart was full, and so were my eyes...  full of tears.  My sweet Katie knows how to melt my heart.  As crazy as she drives me every morning with her stubbornness, moments like these help me remember the real Katie.  I like to think that we were friends in the pre-earth life.  And that maybe she chose me to be the one to take care of her physical body on earth since she knew she would have a hard time.  And maybe I chose her to take care of my spiritual body since I knew I would have a hard time.  I'm honored and truly blessed that she chose me to be her mom and that we both get to share this journey together.  I don't know if we really got to choose our families, but it seems right to me when I think that Katie and I chose each other. I love you my Katie Bear!