5 years old......

Sept. 19th, 2004........

Aubrey Michele Katz came into this world weighing 7lbs, 6 oz., 20in. long and screaming her head off!!!!

And has brought such joy and love and amazement to our lives every day since.

On Saturday, Sept.19th, 2009 (this year at 38lbs, and 44" tall) we celebrated Aubrey's 5th birthday! She wanted a "doggie party" so we rounded up every dog decoration, craft, cake that we could find and made it happen! 2 hours and 25 crazy kids running around having a blast.......she loved it and we all had a great time. We were so busy though we didn't get too many pictures!! :( But I am going to try to get some from friends that were there and will post them as soon as I do.

Now onto the mushy, mommy stuff.........

So incredibly hard to believe that 5 years have already passed since we had our first baby girl. I will never, ever forget the day I found out I was pregnant with Aubrey......in our little apartment in NYC, completely and totally shocked!! And thrilled.......and I will also never forget the day our doctor told me that we were having a little girl. We were so excited.....a beautiful baby girl.

So now that baby girl is 5 years old going on 15 for sure!

She is fiercely independent, strong willed, determined, creative, loving, and hands down the best negotiator I have ever seen at such a young age. She is a tough one sometimes though and I find myself praying for patience all too often! But I love her for her strong spirit and I know it is going to serve her well as she journeys through life. Someone recently told me that "God does not give strong girls to weak women....." I love that. Let's hope I stay a strong woman to help guide this amazing little girl!

She loves to sing and dance and play with her animals. And by animals I mean the 50 stuffed animals and probably 50 more plastic animals (horses, dogs, cats, unicorns, whales, coyotes, you name it) that she rotates through every day. She can entertain herself for hours at a time just talking and creating stories and games with these animals. Every night when she goes to sleep she surrounds herself with about 10-15 animals (the selection changes daily except for a few favorites) and when she sneaks into our bed about 3am every morning she brings them alllll with her. So we usually wake up with a sweet little girl and about 10 various stuffed creatures in our bed every morning! It is precious.

As independent as she is though, she has moments where she wants nothing more than to snuggle and love on her mommy and daddy and baby sister. She tells us daily that she is never going to get married and never going to college.....she wants to stay with us forever!!! I am going to remind her of this when she calls to tell me she is on a plane to China or France or wherever that spirit takes her. I know better! But I can say for sure that if she did want to stay here forever I would love it! :)

I am so proud of Aubrey and I love her to a million little pieces. She is my big girl, but still my precious baby and always will be.

Happy 5th Birthday Aubrey!!! I know this year will bring many wonderful moments and smiles and times to treasure to all of us.........

We love you Aubrey!!