Teagan's Birthday!

Today was Teagan's birthday and as of 4:28pm (Georgia time) she is now 9 years old!

She was 8lb 2 oz, 21" long, and almost 2 weeks late! She had a headful of dark black hair and her eyes already looked like they were going to be blue. These are pictures of her at her first Easter egg hunt when she was almost 3 weeks old. She had already started losing her hair, so she looks like she is almost bald compared to when she was first born. She was such a beautiful baby! Her daddy loved to make silly noises at her so she would concentrate hard looking at him and would make silly faces. She was an easy going kid from day one and slept through the night from her first night home! (Thanks, Tig!) She loved to think about things and concentrate about the wonders and mysteries of the world ~ we used to call her our "deep thinker". Not much has changed in the last nine years except she isn't so quiet anymore, she is quite the chatterbox now, but is still a deep thinker and loves to study anything and everything she can.
I usually wake the kids up by singing "Happy Birthday" to them (my singing could pull the dead out their deepest sleep!) but this year she woke up while I was making her birthday breakfast and she helped me with it. (No doubt to avoid being wrenched out of a sound sleep by a drowning dog singing!) We made triple berry muffins in some cute, footed silicon muffin cups Granny sent to her, bacon, pineapple juice, and scrambled eggs and rice. All yummie foods that she loves :-) And, as is a birthday tradition, she got to say all the prayers all day, and make any decisions that came up (which movie to watch, where to sit at the table, etc). She was a little upset that since her birthday fell on a Saturday (our deep house cleaning day) she had to do chores on her special day, but there was no avoiding that. She tried getting out of them, but no such luck! I did switch our chores around and she and I worked together on all the chores we did so we could play 20 questions, I Spy and other time passing games. So, I think that helped her a little!
Another birthday tradition is that the birthday person gets to chose whatever they want for their birthday dinner, and this year was the first in 5 years that she asked for something different. In the past it has always been a dinner of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. But this year she asked for what I usually make for my own birthday meal ~ manicotti, garlic bread, and a salad...mm mm mm! Man, do I love manicotti! So, I went ahead and made 2 pans of it so I could freeze one for a couple of weeks until my birthday is here and we will have it again then! Thanks Tig for the early birthday gift to me ;-) She also wanted to eat by candle light, so we did that as well, and we had Root Beer and Sunny D to drink ~ two treats that we rarely get. Afterwards we opened presents and had a pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. To end the night we watched Second Hand Lions and then went to bed. So, all in all, I think she had a good birthday - she worked, she played, ate great food, and spent time with the family... that is a day well filled!
Garrett had bought her a couple of doll outfits from the dollar store that she had been eyeballing and she was thrilled to get them! So we dressed her baby in a new outfit before she went to bed and she made sure her doll's new dress matched the one she was going to wear to church! Owen gave her a purple shower radio with some bath salts and soaps and such (actually, he just liked the size of the box and wanted to give her a big gift so he switched the drawing book he really did pick out for her with a gift her daddy and I were giving her!) Then the boys wrapped the gifts themselves with butcher paper and decorated them with stickers and markers. They were both very excited for Teagan to open their gifts and it was so nice to see them excited for the thrill of someone else. The three of them spent the day being very loving, with very few disputes and a whole lot of self-sacrifice and sugary compliments. At their ages, when they are working really hard at being nice to each other, I feel like I am watching a realy bad soap opera with cheesy actors! But I know they are trying really hard to be nice and keep a loving spirit in our home, so I just sit back and enjoy it (and laugh on the inside!).
She also got a cozy purple bath robe from us and two pairs of shorts and 2 shirts. Her cousin Shai made her 2 pair of beatiful earrings (which I have already asked her permission to borrow the blue set on occasions because I liked them so much!). Naomi sent her a key chain lip gloss set that she already put on her church bag; Zeke and Mahalie drew her some awesome cards, and Aunt Jen sent her some paint pens and a horse calendar she is already filling up with her busy plans! I am going to try to post a video of Teagan opening her presents from her cousins in Georgia for them to see, but we will see if I am technilogically advanced enough to figure that one out! (no promises about it, though!) Maybe I can convince my techno-hubby to do it for me and show me how! And BAM, see how amazing I am, even without my hubby! (Just in case anyone was questioning my arrogance in that last sentence, question no more, that was Scottie! I really did have to get him to help me load the clip on and he was the mastermind behind being able to put a title on it all that stuff! Left on my own, there would have been no fancy things and probably no clip! ~K~)
(SORRY, THE CLIP HAS BEEN DELETED PER SCOTT'S REQUEST!)