Growing up too Fast

I can't believe that my tiny little Tay is actually 8!! It seemed weird when she turned 5, but 8 has been really difficult! A few days ago she was holding Reese, and it completely shocked me that she is old enough to hold a baby by herself. Then the night before her birthday, I ran to Walmart to pick up a few last minute things, and I got all choked up in the Birthday aisle. I swear I was just holding this tiny little ball on my chest just a few months ago!

For her big day, I got up at 4 so that I could wrap her presents and decorate. (Reese actually got me up at 4, but that's a whole other blog)! I made her some chocolate chip Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast. (DJ has the BEST pancake recipe from his mission). She opened up her presents and was shocked to find that we had gotten her a pink digital camera! She was so excited. She immediately started taking pictures of EVERYTHING!! We also got her High School Musical 2, a cute set of photo albums, and a set of Tinkerbell necklaces. We had to tell her to cut back a little bit on the picture taking. I think that she had already taken about a dozen pictures within the first hour! Tay is off track, so after Ginny got home from school we went to Cafe Rio for lunch. We then went to the mall to find her some new snow boots. After leaving the mall, we went down to Thanksgiving Point to experience the drive through lights. We were going to attempt Temple Square, but I didn't want to drag poor Reese out in the cold. The lights were actually pretty cute, especially since we had a $2 off coupon. It was also FM 100 night, so we got a free Christmas cd, and Ginny spun a wheel to win a free water bottle. She was very disapointed when she discovered that it did not have any water in it. (I guess we now have 2 white elephant gifts)! When we were done there, we had plans to meet our good friends at the Olive Garden for dinner. Unfortunately, the wait was over an hour, so went across the street to Johnny Carrino's. Lucky for us, I had a coupon for a free appetizer, so we got some yummy calamari. (I love coupons)! All in all, we had a really fun day. My Taylor has grown up to be such an amazing girl. I am so proud of what a good girl she is. I know that I won't have to worry about her too much in the years to come. She has always been so responsible, and has such a kind and loving heart. She is so much like her Dad... what a lucky girl! I guess now I have her 12th birthday looming ahead ... YIKES!!!