annesley is five

Nov 26, 2012

Five!!!

Miss Annesley is a big five year old. She has been counting down to her birthday for months. Fisher and Kez’s are so close together that it feels like an eternity to her to have to wait all the way through October AND November for hers to roll around.

Getting her birthday haircut from her Aunt Mikelle

This girlie brings us so much joy. SO MUCH. She radiates joy everywhere she goes…along with singing, twirling, laughing, and telling stories full of nonsense. Let’s just say she has a rich imagination.

Annesley has adopted all the elderly people in our ward. She gives them giant hugs every week and spends most of her time at church going from lap to lap.

This year, thanks to two leap years in her short life, her birthday is on the same day of the week as it was the first time around. I always love synchronized birthdays because I feel like I can completely relive each moment of their births on the same day as when they actually happened. I remember going to church on the day of her birth and telling my friend, Bonnie, “I am here to worship my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and NOT to talk about my pregnancy. Spread the word!”

I remember coming home from church and working on Christmas presents and being grumpy, grumpy, grumpy that I had not had my baby yet and that my doula was leaving the next day.

I remember waking up at 3:30 a.m. to a contraction. A real contraction! I remember being shocked out of my gourd and thrilled to pieces and calling my mom, my midwife, and my doula, and telling them to come. I remember puking and pooping and snotting all at the same time and feeling like my body had been taken over by a force completely out of my control. I remember moaning through seemingly endless contractions, eating homemade popsicles the children held in front of me, and Blythe doing everything she could to nurture me. I remember pushing her out and being completely full of joy. I remember her spirit reassuring me that everything would be okay…and me believing her.

And now she is five. She loves life, people, pretending, and everything in between. Annesley is all about the process of doing things. She does not care about results in any way, just the process is important. She lives in the moment with zest and smiles and throw-back-her-head-laughter.

It is so hard for me to list her favorite books or things to do because it is basically everything. She loves everything. She especially loves headstands and singing and making food for us in her play kitchen and rubbing my back and giving her papa foot massages and doing math with me. She loves jumping and wiggling and rubbing anyone who is near her. She rubs and rubs and rubs…up and down their arms, their legs, all over their face. Keziah has even started charging her nickels and dimes to rub and Annesley pays the fees! Her current favorite songs are “I Am A Child of God”, “God Bless The U.S.A.”, and “The Hope of America.” She loves to play with Fisher and the two of them explore outside for many hours most days of the week. They love finding bugs and leaves and dirt and rocks and anything else they can find. She is super strong and excels at gymnastics. In the headstand contest last week she stayed up for fifty-five seconds and came in second in her class.

Her birthday celebration began on Friday when Grandma Dorothy took her to Big Jud’s for a shake and fries. She has been begging to go to Big Jud’s since her maiden trip back in July.

This morning we were up a little before 6:00 a.m. (which is REALLY early for our house!) to hide and open her presents.

She got a pizza making set that I found months ago for $10!

An awesome set of chalkboard letters and numbers from an adorable etsy seller that wrapped them up all fancy for her. She has been writing on them all morning long and loves them to pieces.

Her birthday book is The Kiss Box. It is a darling story about a mama and her child making kiss boxes to store kisses in so when they are separated they can open their boxes and remember how much they are loved. Annesley is painting her kiss box a bright yellow later today because it is her favorite color and her wooden heart inside she will paint red because it is my favorite color.

After she opened her presents she and I went back to bed for a little bit of snuggling while I worked on Jessica’s auction. She rubbed my back and was quickly sound asleep. Then she woke up to french toast with strawberries made by big sister Blythe and got right to work writing on her new chalkboard letters.

I am so grateful for this girlie. Her spirit is joy embodied. She radiates it and it spreads to everyone around her. We are so, so blessed to have her in our family. Just thinking about her conception and birth makes me well up with tears. God gave her to us and she is a shining testimony of His miracles and His great love for us.