Gracie Jo is 7!!!

She looked so cute in her new dress and headband from Aunt Heidi! It matched perfectly with her Mickey and Minnie Mouse decorations too! Thank you everyone for making her day so fun with gifts, cards, and phone calls!

The kids always beg to have friend parties, and I've never wanted to do them because someone always gets left out. I'd decided that birthdays were going to be just for family with us, but I gave in this year and let Gracie invite friends. She passed out invitations to her class and was so excited, but as is typical with our family, we got sick. Lindsey and Cooper both got horrible stomach bugs that lasted four or five days, so I didn't feel right risking spreading the sickness to everyone at our house for the party. We had to cancel it. When I first told Gracie she was sad and cried a little, but we told her she could have friends another day, and now she would get two parties. After that she was fine with the cancellation and didn't seem upset about it anymore.

When she got home from school and saw the decorations in the kitchen, she smiled and whispered, "WOW!" She hurried into the kitchen for a better look at everything, and I heard her quietly say, "I love it!" with her little eyes all lit up and a grin on her face. It made me feel so good about my efforts. She's such a good, sweet, beautiful girl!

Cooper wasn't thrilled that I made him get in the picture . . .

Grace and her pup . . .

I found the directions for these adorable cupcakes online and they were so simple to make. I was so proud of how they turned out! Gracie prefers vanilla to chocolate, so I made white AND brown ones, and I found the edible bows at Walmart.

Arranging the candles . . .

She asked for a picnic in the living room, so that's what we did!

The kids were pretending they were on an airplane to Idaho. Livi kept saying, "Idaho, Idaho!"

She was so sweet making sure to read each and every card!

I love the tradition of getting your own scriptures when you turn 8 and get baptized, but a family here in our ward gets theirs when they turn 7 so that they can prepare to get baptized. We really liked that idea so Gracie got her own set of scriptures and a cute scripture bag. The timing was perfect too because we got an email from Deseret Book for 20% off as a New Year's gift/promotion.

Here she is the next day, reading her scriptures. She has been so good already about reading them each day! What a sweet girl, and a good example to her parents and siblings. We love our Grace so much and are so proud of the wonderful young lady she is becoming! It was fun watching family videos of her birth and first birthday together. Watching home videos on birthdays is starting to become one of our little family traditions.

Love you Gracie Jo!