Happy Birthday to my sweet girl....

I cannot believe Kennedy turns five years old today. The past five years have flown by so fast. I wish I could slow down time because I feel like I just can't get enough of her at this age. She's going to kindergarten in THREE weeks!! So in honor of my sweet daughter's 5th birthday, here are FIVE amazing things about her. (How will I ever be able to narrow it down to five?!???!)

1. I love the way she LOVES.

Kennedy has such a huge heart.. full of love. She loves to snuggle, hug and kiss. And it's non-stop. She loves to show people how much she loves them. And even when I have to punish her for something, she still tells me how much she loves me. Through her tears, she looks at me with the saddest face and says, "Mommy... I love you." I just know she's waiting to hear me say that I still love her, even though she's in trouble. At night when saying her prayers, sometimes she prays for our neighbors Mr. Phil and Mrs. Maria. Most nights, she prays for Mr. Eric and Mrs. Amber. This girl has so much love to give... and I love that.

2. I love that she could have fun in a cardboard box.

Seriously, my sweet girl has fun anywhere, anytime. She loves to laugh and have a good time... all the time. She's goofy, makes silly faces, and laughs so hard at the smallest things. If I take her with me to run errands and she doesn't have any toys or art supplies, she has fun anyway - because she'll just sing. Which brings me to number three....

3. I love that she loves music.

She loves having the radio on in the car. She is always singing to herself in the bathroom. She likes Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, any High School Musical song, Taylor Swift, and absolutely any song she can dance to. She often performs concerts for us on the fireplace, equipped with a costume, microphone and her guitar.

4. I love her imagination.

Kennedy is very much into pretending now. Seeing her imagination at work is fascinating. This morning when I was putting her hair in a ponytail, she wanted to pretend that we were at the hair salon and she was getting her hair done by a new stylist. So I introduced myself and got to work on her hair. She asked that it be put into a neat ponytail with matching hairbow. Yesterday, she wanted to pretend that I was Mrs. Divine (a character in her Fancy Nancy book) and that I would be playing Mrs. Divine at her birthday party. Lately she's also been pretending that she's a puppy and I give her treats as she crawls in the kitchen. She definitely enjoys pretending with her dolls. They "drive to Shreveport" in the Barbie convertible.

5. I love that she never meets a stranger.

When I took her to a doctor appointment yesterday, the receptionist said hello to her and thus the conversation began. Kennedy told the nice lady her name and that she was going to be five years old today. She told her about her birthday party and that she's getting ready to go to kindergarten. Now, she didn't rattle off all this information without questions being asked. She isn't one of those annoying kids who needs an "off switch." But she just politely answered the questions and said "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am." She's super friendly and I hope it continues.

So on this day, I am celebrating my daughter, my angel, my princess Kennedy. I thank God for her everyday and feel so wonderfully blessed to have such an amazing little girl as my daughter. I love her more than I could ever tell her... and I look forward to loving her more and more everyday.