Gratitude #10 & 11

{Hope sporting her new birthday dance outift}

Today we are grateful for none other than LITTLE MISS HOPERS!!!! After all it was six years ago to the day that she entered our lives. Little did we know the joy and laughter that she would bring into our home. She if full of spunk, a leader , and has the ability to make friends in any place or situation. Hope can always put a smile on your face!

Ironically, people say that Hope is a lot like my sister ADREE. And she is yesterday's missing gratitude entry. I am grateful to have a sister. I am grateful for my relationship with her. Rarely does a day go by that I don't talk to her. We are almost opposite in every single way and provide a good balance for one another. Not sure what I would do without her. A few little known facts about my sister.... 1) She used to always ask to borrow my clothes when we were younger. Being the nice big sis that I was I oblidged. For a small fee of course. For every article of clothing she borrowed she owed me a 10-20 minute back tickle. Win/Win situation right? 2) Although we are five years apart in age there was a 3-4 year period when I was first married and she was in high school where people ALWAYS asked us if we were twins. I never knew if I should be flattered that I looked young or if she just looked a lot older than she was. 3) My sister could not wait to leave Logan, live in a big city, marry a football player and work in a major salon. She married a cowboy, moved to a small country town called Neola, and occasionaly does hair out of her house. And she couldn't be happier. And I'm happy for her.

{Me, my mom and my sister}

Anywhooo. Back to Hopers and her birthday celebration. We started off the morning with her breakfast request of oatmeal, hot chocolate and toast. Our little family is headed to Classic Skating tomorrow night for her real celebration but we wanted to make today special as well. So the girls and I headed to the mall for a visit to Santa, lunch at the pretzel shop, a ride on the carousel and then the ultimate suprise. She has been asking to get her ears pierced for quite some time so Troy called her while we were at the mall and let her in on our little secret. We were really there to get her ears pierced. She was just a tad bit excited...
She had nerves of steele and never showed any signs of reluctance. After it was done I came to the conclusion it was because she had no idea it was going to hurt! She had a huge smile on her face as they started to squeeze and then it froze into a slight grimace while tears welled up in her eyes. It was hilarious! She SO wanted to be happy but you could tell she was in pain. So funny.

So, Happy Birthday Hopers (and Adree yesterday)! We love you both!