Alli is 7!!

My dear Alli, today is your 7th birthday! I can not believe you are already 7 years old! You are getting to be such a grown up girl.  You are so thoughtful and have such a good, kind heart! I am so thankful to be your mom! You are such a thinker.  You think about things deeper than I expect many times.  You really "get" things-and want to understand.  You ask gospel questions often and it helps me examine what I know and believe as I find what I hope are good ways to explain to you.  I hope you know I will always be here for you.  I will answer any question you ask as honestly as I can.  You  are such a good, strong girl and you have such a strong spirit.  I know you feel the spirit and you want to do what is right and make good choices-choices Heavenly Father would want you to make.  You think of others-Reyna being one example I love recently.  You love your sister and your brother so fiercely and you would do anything to protect and help them.  You 3 definitely fight often ;) and the mood can change quickly, but overall you are so loving with each other! At your dance recital last night you helped Ilene and took such great care of her while she waited for her dance.  I am so glad you 2 will always have each other! I would give so much to have a sister like you 2! You are such good friends-you usually prefer each other over others except your very favorite school friends.  You work hard in school and you have great ideas! You are a strong writer and do really well thinking of different ways to solve math problems.  You are becoming such a great reader and have really good reading comprehension.  I am proud of how brave you are becoming and how willing you are to push yourself even when you are scared if it is something important to you.  Tonight we went to get your ears pierced and you were excited and only a little scared until we got there.  Once we got to the piercing shop you were more nervous and a little excited when you saw the tiny post they would use. As the piercer got everything prepped you got pretty scared and didn't want to do it.  I knew you had wanted to do this for a long time and while I would be fine with waiting (since it is your decision after all ;), I knew you could do it and that often times you get more nervous than you need to for things ;).  You decided you could be brave and do it! You sat up on Dad's lap and I took some pictures of you putting on your brave face and your silly face and your excited face.  Then they did the first ear...and it hurt ;(.  It bled a little and you didn't want to do the next one . You even said maybe we should not have come.  Maybe we should have waited until next year.  Dad and I talked to you for a few minutes and you decided you wanted to be brave and just finish it.  So you squeezed both of my hands so tight and sat so still on dad's lap while they did your second ear.  Right after it was done you cried some more, but this time it was because you had done it! I was so proud of you-not that I cared whether your ears are pierced or not-because even though you were scared you decided you were going to push through.  You were so proud of your self and you said "I did it??" and you surprised yourself with how brave and strong you are!! You are braver than you know and stronger than you can even imagine!!! I hope you remember this always-that sometimes things that are important to us will be hard.  They may hurt and be scary, but if it is something important to us and something that we know is a good choice you can do it! I am so grateful to be your mom and I love you so much honey!! You are such a joy and I can not imagine our family without you being in it! I am so excited to watch what you do with your life! You have so much love and passion and determination.  You have loved your school fundraiser this past week and have done a killer job selling donuts and pizza cards.  You were so motivated and so excited.  You are a hard worker when something is important to you ;).  Love you so much my Alli-girl, Alli Balli I am so excited for your pirate party this weekend!