Aurora's 4th Birthday!

Four years old! Seriously?!  Where does the time go?

I can't believe our little Aurora Nicole is growing up so fast!  She's a joy to be around and we love the charming girl she's growing up to be.  She certainly has her moments, don't get me wrong, but she's the light of our lives and keeps on amazing us with her spirit and her loving personality.

Aurora likes to go on "family dates" to eat dinner at a restaurant.  She doesn't care which one, she just likes "family dates". I love that she likes to be together as a family and that one of her favorite things is to go on dates with Mommy and Daddy. She's a cutie!

So, the night before her birthday we took her on a "family date".  We took her to the mall where they have these fun little animal things that you ride with only two rules--stay on the bottom floor and don't take them into any stores. She's been wanting to do it for a while and we thought this would be a great opportunity.  She loved it!  The 30 minute ride was a little long and both girls were ready to be done by our time was up, but they definitely enjoyed it!

Rori chose an elephant to ride on
(it drove fine but needed to be charged because it was definitely slower than Savannah's and my hippo)

Savy wanted to ride on a hippo

It was fun to race them all around the mall!  Once Aurora got the hang of it she got to drive one all by herself! :)

After our riding session we ate a yummy dinner at Wingers.  It was a fun family date, and perfect for our four year old's birthday!

Birthday morning, Aurora woke up to balloons all over her room, ribbons hung all over the house, and a pile of presents waiting for her from Mommy, Daddy, and Savannah.  We were aiming to have her open her presents that night when we had family and friends come celebrate with cake and ice cream, but she couldn't wait...go figure :)  We at least got her to help Daddy make her cake before she opened presents.




This one is a little fuzzy but I love her reaction.  She'd been asking for a cake like that for a while but she got a bonus pizza too! :)

Grandma and Grandpa had to leave out of town so they brought their gifts over the night before.  She got to open those in the morning too.

She got a food set for their new kitchen they got from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas

A new scooter--she was thrilled!

Playing with her new toys

Enjoying some iPod time after a bath and before getting ready for church. One of her favorite things to do :)

Daddy always gives the girls flowers on their birthday, and he gets flowers for me too :)  He's the best!!!

Our beautiful girl all ready for church.  Happy to be four!...

...but sad she's not five yet. Silly girl!

After church she helped Daddy decorate her cake and cupcakes and get ready for some company to come celebrate with us.  She was excited for people come be with her on her special day!  She wanted a princess cake this year.

And she got Hello Kitty cupcakes because she loves Hello Kitty so much too :)




After cake and ice cream she got to open some more gifts. Spoiled little thing! ;)

One of her favorites was a pillow-book from Uncle Ryan and Tammy

She got nail polish from her friend Alex and my friend's little girl, Charly, had fun painting Rori's nails with her new nail polish.

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us and for those of you who wanted to be there with us but couldn't make it.  Our little sweetheart had such a special day!

Aurora's 4 year stats:
Weight: 32 pounds 6 ounces (27%)
Length: 39.6 inches (46%)

At FOUR years:

-Aurora has quite the little personality on herself and she definitely keeps us on our toes.

-She's a smart little thing and surprises us with the things she remembers and comes up with sometimes.

-She can write her first and last name all by herself.
-She can also write words like Mommy and Daddy and can write about 3/4 of the letters in the alphabet and is learning to write many more things.
-She loves to draw pictures and is getting better and better at drawing people and things like flowers, hearts, the sun, etc.
-She can write all of the numbers 1-10
-She is always asking questions and loves learning new things
-She has a tender heart and can be quite emotional at times (I definitely thing it's a girl thing!)
-She REALLY wants a baby brother and prays for one almost every night.  She also prays for "this many babies" and will unfold her arms to hold up all ten fingers. I tell her she can have that many babies when she's a mommy :)
-She will randomly tell people we're having a baby brother, even though I'm not pregnant.  I keep telling her that I want one too and hopefully we'll get a baby brother someday.  She already calls him by the name we want to use if/when we get a baby boy.
-She's excited to start preschool in the fall and already says she has to do "homework" which usually consists of her drawing pictures and cutting them up.
-She loves primary and learning about Jesus.
-About a week before her fourth birthday she finally "got it" with potty training and has come leaps and bounds in just a short while--finally! :)
-She loves to tell stories and frequently tells us stories about her great-great-great grandfather and other "great" relatives.  It's pretty comical most of the time!
-She loves her baby sister and is always so proud of her.  She tells random strangers about all the new things her "baby" is learning.
-Whenever I ask what she wants for dinner she requests spaghetti and meatballs but usually doesn't eat the meatballs.
-Her favorite color is pink
-Her favorite movie is Big Hero 6
-Her favorite book is a book called "My Little Ducky"
-Her favorite song is "I love the mountains" but changed to the words I made up (I love Aurora, I love Nastassia Grace, I love Savannah, I love your Daddy too! I love to be with you when all the lights are low. Boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada, boom!)
-Her favorite thing to do is doing chores, so she says. Haha!  Really it's to play with Savannah :)

Happy birthday, Aurora Nicole!

We love you!