Happy 9th Birthday Marley!!!

It seemed like when Price and Sydney were little I was always pushing them to be bigger and do things that bigger kids were doing. When Marley came along I started to realize how quickly their little lives were going by and would always tell Marley to stay little for me. She didn't do it. ;(

Marley is a sassy little girl. She has always been her own person and has never done something just to make someone else think she is cool. She decides herself. From a very young age I could tell her favorite color was orange (like less than 1 year old.) I think she just chose it because most other people wouldn't pick orange. The fact that she likes to be original has been so obvious her entire life. I love Marley's personality, it brings so much dimension to our family. Thanks Mar!!

On my side of the family all five of the us had a baby within 6 months of each other. So here are the five 1 year olds. Marley is the oldest of the "Fab Five" as my mom likes to call them. We actually got to add another girl this age when Taylor married Teri and we got Gracie (a "Sensational Six".)

So soon we will have 6 nine year olds.

Rob has an identical twin brother, named Reed. Well Reed's wife and I were both due to have these two little girls on Halloween of 1999 (a bit freaky if you think about it too much.)

Hailey was born two weeks early and Marley was born 5 days late.

Marley wanted to paint the porch with us but we said she was too little.

I just want to squeeze those little arms!

Marley spent at least three years of her life not looking at the camera when I took her picture. I thought it was because she couldn't stay focused that long. But, one day when she let her guard down she said, "Mom when you are going to take my picture I look at the camera and then when you say three I look somewhere else. She was just playing games with me. Here are just four of the many pictures without Marley looking at the camera.

Here is one final funny story about Mar. She could talk when she was still really little. One day my friend, who was her nursery leader, at church, came to me concerned. She asked if Marley knew how to say anything when I told her that Marley could talk really well she was surprised and said that Marley didn't ever say anything in nursery

When I asked Marley if she ever talked during nursery she said, "No I just sit there like this (and she pushed her lips tightly together.)"

I love you, Marley! Happy Birthday!!