My sweet girl turns 12!!!!

Yesterday, Katie (my sweet girl) turned 12. I can't believe it!

I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. Greg almost missed her birth because he was downstairs in the hospital cafeteria in search of a hamburger. Grandma was right outside the door. And she was the smallest baby I'd ever seen. She only weighed 5 lbs 6 oz at birth, and lost an entire pound when we took her home. I've never been so TERRIFIED of something so small before. Anyway, Katie has grown into a wonderful young woman. I am so proud of her. Here's why:

1-She is very smart. Her grades are important to her and she works hard.
2-She is very self-motivated. I'll never forget when Kate decided to make a New Years Resolution to have no missing assignment for the rest of the school year. AND SHE DID IT!!! She now has a goal to get straight A's and is only short by 2 B+'s! WAY TO GO KATIE!!!!
3-She has a very strong sense of right and wrong. A lot of things are black and white for Katie. Either it's right or it's not. Period.
4-She is VERY out spoken about her sense of right and wrong. If your doing something that she thinks is wrong, she'll either tell you or she'll stay away from you. That simple.
5-She has an AMAZING sense of humor. Once a kid was teasing her about her height (she's very tall and slim) apparently this kid that was teasing her was very, very short. She called him a Leprechaun! I know this isn't very P.C. but it's HILARIOUS!!! She does this kind of thing all the time, just says stuff that's off the wall and funny.
6-She loves animals. I wouldn't be surprised if someday Katie decided to join Greenpeace or something. She loves animals, and cares about how they're treated. She's not a vegetarian although, I wouldn't be surprised if she turned into one.
7-She has the MOST BIZARRE eating habits of anyone I know. As a small child, she would eat almost anything, until she turn about 4 and then EVERYTHING changed. For the last 8 years Katie has been sustained by: Mac and Cheese (the good kind, not the off-brand), PB&J, Spaghetti-O's, spaghetti (we're really getting sick of spaghetti), the occasional piece of meat, and chicken nuggets from Wendy's. She also won't eat a potato in ANY FORM! She refuses to eat french fries even when I offered to pay her 20 bucks! There have been times like Christmas and Thanksgiving that she's sweet-talked Grandma or her Papa into making her Mac and Cheese so she could have something to eat.
8-If your mean to her, she'll just stay away from you. Unless your her sister or brother. Her attitude is: Fine, if your not going to be nice to me, I'll just go somewhere that people are nice to me. This is trait that she gets from her father, if I had this attitude it would have saved me so much heartache and tears.
9-She has gotten a very distinct sense of fashion. I think we've reached the point that I can't buy anything for her to wear unless she's there. Her new favorite place to shop is Aeropostale. She looks like a walking ad for the place.
10-Her favorite color is green. She even made me make green frosting for her birthday cake.
11-She is very aware of her heritage. She's named after my Grandma Kate, and Katie loves her with all her heart. She feels the same way about all of her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brother, sister and her parents.
12-She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her friends. If your a friend of Katie, then your her friend for LIFE!!!
13-She seeks out friends.
14-If she feels like someone isn't being treated the way they should, she'll tell you AND do something about it!

and finally:

15-KATE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! I've told her a couple of times, if the Brain Surgeon thing doesn't work out for her she could always be a Super Model. She just rolls her eyes and says "whatever", but I'm serious! I think she's going to give the boys in the ward and school a real run for their money!


There are so many more things that I could say about my sweet girl, I could go on forever!


I LOVE YOU!!!