Sweet 16!

I know every parent says this, but I truly cannot believe that my little baby girl is 16 already; life is just slipping past far too quickly… Her birthday balloons—one for every year—are taking us a bit longer each year to blow up to sneak into her room late at night for her to wake up to, and each year I’m amazed that it’s already her birthday. It seems at once like she was born yesterday and that it was another lifetime ago that she was our tiny baby.

I couldn’t be more proud of the sweet, fun-loving, smart, strong, brave, confident woman she is becoming, and I feel so honored and blessed that she’s mine!

15 was a year of huge milestones, perhaps the biggest of which were getting her learner’s permit and starting on her college tours. I think it’s all a bit overwhelmingly real now for us how quickly she will be starting out on her own! But I am so confident in her ability to achieve all she sets out to achieve…

And just because it’s funny, I had to show how wonderfully Emily did the very first time she drove a car! (In her defense, we are making her learn on a manual transmission!)

Happy birthday to my sweet girl!!!!