Grace Face is SIX!!

Grace Face is SIX!

She is no longer the little, chubby, Gracie Boo. Now she's a super smart, sarcastic, silly, sensitive, loving ball of fire, and we wouldn't have her any other way.

I feel like at six, Grace isn't a toddler or a little girl. She's a big girl, a young lady really, my best friend, and I can have real conversations with her now (that almost always end in laughter).  She's still silly and makes jokes about everything. She's so strong, and she's not afraid to stand up for herself or things she believes in, which I love about her!

At six-years-old, Grace is forty-seven inches tall and weighs almost fifty pounds. She is wearing size 6-7 in clothes and size 12-13 in shoes. Her hair is really long and still has the prettiest waves. As we've done each birthday since she was three, I had her answer twenty questions about her favorite things at the moment, and it was so much fun this time around to watch her think about the answers.

She basically thinks she's a teenager, and is really into make-up, accessories, purses, her "phone", nail polish, and anything pink. She loves to shop and wants everything to have sparkles on it. I recently got her a dress, and she called me upstairs before school (I leave their outfits out each night, so they can get dressed quickly in the mornings). I believe her exact words were, "mom, I do not like this dress. It's not cute at all, and I don't want to wear it.". I told her we could always save it for Charley, and she gladly took it off and picked out a different dress.

Gracie's current best friends include Char, Easton, and Peyton. She has a huge heart and counts everyone she knows as her best friend. This year, she had a boy in her Kindergarten class that she really liked, Levi. She wouldn't admit that she liked him, but she talked about him often, and he always helped her with her work in class. However, she is still adamant that she and Noah will get married when they grow up.

Grace's favorite things to do includes anything that she thinks will make her more grown up. She wants to swim without floaties (she'll be starting swim lessons in two weeks to get that down completely), she needs to practice her hand stands because, "I've just got to get better at them, mom.", she wants to do it herself when it comes to almost everything, and she loves to take care of Charley and tell her what to do.

This kid makes me so proud to be her mom every single day. She's becoming so independent, and although I love watching her grow, I don't like the fact that she doesn't need me as much. I still need her, and I believe I always will.

Here are some of the funny things she said over the last year. I really need to get better at writing these down, because I don't have nearly enough of her hilarious comments and questions:

Talking about Mommy being pregnant - "No, the baby gets to go everywhere with you! That's not fair that it gets to go to work with you every day and I don't."

"What is with these people?"

Mom - "It's ok, Toodles."

Grace - "What's he meowing at?"

Mom - "I don't know."

Grace - "I know, I know. You don't speak cat."

"Why am I so smart? How do I know that six comes after five? I guess I am ready for Kindergarten after all!"

Mom - "Grace, don't drink all of my water. That's the last one."

Grace - " It's ok. I'll tell Daddy to bring some more home. We'll still live. We won't have any water for a month, though."

"How come the school-aged kids are mean to the teacher? That's not very nice. That's not what I want to see. I'm going to be so healthy and strong when I grow up. I want to see that. I've never seen a kid that's health and strong AND listens good and is so nice ever in any of my life. Where are those kids?"

Mom - "Did you eat your snack today at school?"

Grace - "Yes. One girl asked if she can have one of my crackers."

Mom - "Did you share with her?"

Grace - "I would have. I saw when she asked me that she already had one in her mouth, so I said, 'You hafta ask me before you just take one of my crackers. You can't just be sneakin' up on my snacks!'."

Dad complaining about a loud guy in the restaurant we just left.

Grace - "Dad, we're supposed to fill people's buckets UP."

Mom - "How does that work? Like if I said, 'Grace, you're so beautiful!'?"

Grace - "Now that's how you fill a bucket up!"

"Gosh, why am I always correct?"

We're all sitting in silence watching a movie when Grace says out loud, "And I love you. In Jesus' name, amen."

Mom - "Say sorry to Char."

Grace with a big smile on her face - "Sorry, Char. I know it's not funny, I just like smiling."

"You can't lie or you'll get a big, heavy monkey on your back!"

"Have you ever heard of Justin Beaver? He's a singer!"

Getting her mouth numbed at the dentist, the dentist says, "I'm going to put some of this numbing jelly on your teeth." Grace replies, "I love jelly!". When her mouth was numb, she said, "I feel bubbles in my cheeks."

After it rained for an entire day - "I think maybe God has been crying  all day, because no one wants to be his friend this day."

At soccer:

Mom - "Gracie, kick the ball out of bounds when it gets close to the other goal."

Grace - "We're trying the best we can!"

Daddy tells Grace to be nice to Char, and she says, "Do you know what it's like to be a sister, Dad?".

Working on writing sentences, she always confuses lowercase 'b' and 'd'. She told me, "I have a vision of my name tag with the letters, and I can see that the 'b' looks like this  - and she drew the correct letter." (She must have gotten my photographic memory!)

Watching a movie on the TV:

Grace: "Ugh! I'm going to go watch my iPad."

Charley: "Yeah, this is annoying!"

Grace: "All these commercials!"

Charley crying in the car about nothing.

Dad: "Char is so sensitive."

Grace: "What is sensitive?"

Mom: "It means you get your feelings hurt easily."

Grace: "I'm not going to be a sensitive girl anymore. I'm just going to be strrrrronggg."

"Why did the sun go to school? To get a little brighter! Haha! That's a good one."

We just love this kiddo so much. She makes every day brighter. We couldn't be more proud of her for finishing Kindergarten and learning SO much in the process. She amazes us and teaches us things about life that we never would have learned otherwise while keeping us all laughing along the way. I love going through this journey of life with her, and every step makes me treasure her more and more.

Happy Sixth Birthday, Gracie!!