Happy Birthday Samantha!!!

Last weekend was a Birthday Weekend for Samantha! My baby girl turned five years old. It seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital. When she was a baby it seemed to me that time was going too slow and I would wonder when she would start to grow up. Now the time goes by so much more quickly - if you blink for one second, the moment is gone. I informed her that there weren't going to be any more birthdays and that she was always going to stay five years old. Her response was, "Mom - I have to grow up. But I'll always be your little girl."

We started the weekend off by having a friend birthday party. We had lots of fun playing with balloons, going on a treasure hunt, and making necklaces. This is Samantha with her very best friend Nora.

The little girls were so cute and the weather was perfect to spend time outside. Mom was pretty tired afterwards, but the party was a big success and there were lots of smiles!
The other special occasion for the weekend was being at my niece's baptism. Tracie flew into town and Todd and Suzann and their kids made the trek from Utah as well. Because Kennidy's baptism fell on Samantha's birthday we had a big family dinner to celebrate both of the girls. The baptism was very special and it was so nice to spend time with family. The girls always have a fabulous time playing with their cousins and feeling very spoiled by aunts and uncles and gramma and grampa. Of course I couldn't resist taking a picture of my precious little niece Lillie.

Here is Aunt Tracie with Camryn.

Unfortunately I was having too much fun visiting with my siblings and my parents that I really neglected to take very many pictures. My sister's house was filled to the brim with lots of little children - it was kind of an organized chaos and I wasn't thinking about the camera too much. But I did manage to get the birthday cake moments. Here are the girls of honor - Sam and Kennidy. (Samantha has black makeup under her eyes because all of the "older" girls were playing dress up with the makeup).

Here they are blowing out their birthday candles.

It was such a great weekend! We love you very much Samantha! Happy 5th birthday!