Julia is 4!

Sweet, sweet Jules!  Gosh, we love you so much!  When I say that she is so sweet, I am not just saying that-she has such a kind and loving personality and sweet, sweet demeanor.  She is always so pleasant to be around, loves helping others and brings so much joy to our home.  She has a silly side to her as well and loves to make others laugh.  This is a big year for her as she has started preschool and we can't wait to see all of the amazing things that her 4th year will bring!

Here are a few fun tidbits about Julia as she turns 4:

-She checked out super healthy at her well check appointment one September 20th.  She weighed 35 pounds (25-50th percentile, which I actually thought was really strange because I often look at her and think she is a little chunky...just still that toddler chunk that hasn't burned off yet, but I guess that's not the case.). And she is 40 inches tall which is the 50-75th percentile.  

-She is our most precise and organized of the kids.  She likes her shoes lined up, I often find her organizing her toys and is particular about what she wears and how her hair is done.

-She LOVES, Loves, loves to dance and perform.  She is often found singing and dancing around the house and doesn't bat an eyelash when I ask to record her.  

-She loves her kitty and seems to always be asking someone, "Where is kitty?"  Maybe my statement above about her being organized and precise isn't always true since I swear the majority of the time she can't find Kitty who supposedly is the most important thing in the world to her.  ha.

-She is very predictable (not sure if that is the best word to describe this) but for example almost every.single.time that she throws something away she'll ask, "Is it the back trash (recycling) or is it the front trash?"  She also always wants to know what we are doing that day and often the day after and the day after that.  

-She is still going to speech twice a week at the elementary school and just finished up summer sessions privately through Sharp.  We have seen a lot of improvements with her articulation and think that going to preschool will continue to help her.  The best thing about her and speech is that she never gives me any trouble about practicing-she almost seems to enjoy it which makes it so much easier on everyone!  

-She still sleeps one the bottom bunk and wears a pull up to bed; although I think we're getting close to not wearing it.  We talked about it a few times this summer and said maybe once she turns 4 she'll try, so we'll see.  

It was such a special treat to celebrate her birthday with her class on only the 2nd day of school!!  That definitely made going back so much more exciting.  She was so proud and happy to be celbratintn her birthday at school!  

 Her table early in the morning one her birthday!

 We half joke around/half are serious about Julia always getting the "shaft" and living up to the middle child (especially with her being the middle girl) syndrome.  We make it a point to try not to let that happen but for example her birthday fell on a Saturday which meant Rich had a trainginn run with his group and then nElla and Joseph had soccer games and then we had friend's birthday party that afternoon, and, oh the Westwood Club campout was that night!  But, she took it all in stride and we made it as special for her as possible.  We had a big breakfast with her and then opened gifts after breakfast as soon as Rich came home.  We were then off to soccer for the majority of the afternoon nankin then I took her and Ella to Isabella's birthday party (which Julia did want to go to) and then following the party we were going to stop by the campout but the girls were exhausted so I took the girls home and put them to bed.  I think she was just wiped out from her first two days of school plus the excitement of her birthday so she was asleep by 6:45!  She did say repeatedly that "My birthday wasn't that much fun because of soccer," but we reminded her that her party was going to be the following day and we'd have a lot more fun then, too.

 Hanging out at the soccer fields on her birthday.

 Isabella's party was at Color Me Mine which was a neat experience for the girls since they had never been there and they both enjoyed it. Julia was by far the youngest guest there so I hung with her but she loved it and was so grateful that Isabella included her!

 Being silly with my big 4 year old!

 The following day we had all of the family over to celebrate have a party for both her and Charlotte but I figured I'd include these cute pictures of Jules here!  She was so excited about the nerf gun from the Ozecks along with the other awesome gifts (a day at Pump it up with Nani and Poppa, a unicorn gymnastics leotard from the Zicklers and a unicorn purse and nnecklace from Aunt Hollie and Uncle Bubba-so fun!!).

Jules, we love you so much.  You have such a sparkle in your eye all of the time and your smile not only lights up the room but is contagious.  Keep shining bright and we are so excited to watch you grow this year!  We love you!