It's GREAT to be 8!

Eight long years ago from right now....I was asleep.  But it had been the best day.  It was the day I became a mother, and I have found more joy and purpose in that calling than I ever thought possible.  It is true that I was born to be a mother.  It is all I ever wanted to be.  I'm off topic.

This morning at 7:52 AM my Halle Rayanne turned 8.  We woke her up by singing to her.  We got her dressed and sent her off to school.  And this is when the real fun began.  I made her a cake.  It looked like this:

It was tasty.  She chose Strawberry cake with Strawberry frosting.  Can't go wrong there.

We checked her out of school early to make a trip to the mall.  She had butterflies the whole way.  She began asking to get her ears pierced about three years ago.  I decided that eight was perfect because she would know that it was going to hurt and she was old enough to take care of her ears.  Today was the day.  Here she is before.

I kissed those sweet innocent ears goodbye and stood back while they punched metal decoration through them.  I may have had a tear.  Halle did not.  She was brave.  Her eyes got a little wide, but she did great.  Her ears are already back to their normal color and they stopped hurting before we even got home.

Here is her snazzy after shot.

After all of that nervous energy, we needed some nourishment.  So we went next door to Costco.  Mmmmm.

Then it was home to get ready to party. We made cute little tin boxes, rag flip flops and had glitter toes.  I did the glitter toes and I can say that all of those 16 little feet weren't at all gross.  I had a fear they might be.  Here are some fabulous pictures of our party.

We turned on the Taylor Swift CD and at one point all the girls sang along.  Tori and I were laughing really hard.  I didn't expect Halle to love music and sing along at 8, but she's all about it.

After the party, we went to dinner at Halle's favorite restaurant with her Grandparents.

It was a wonderful day and here are the top 8 reasons why I love her.

8.  She is helpful and obedient
7.  She is kind and loving
6.  She almost always chooses the right
5.  I can talk her into anything.  Didn't really appreciate that until I had Jack.
4.  The way she sings, she has a really nice voice.
3.  The way the cuddles in and still likes to sit on my lap.
2.  Her beautiful eyes and skin
1.  Her laugh and sense of humor.

I left my camera in Ogden, so I borrowed one.  Obviously I was not good at working it, as all my pics area  bit blurry.  BUT they are better than nothing, right?