My oldest... she just makes me laugh!

Aubrey Claire... what can I say about this six year old girl of mine. She is really becoming her own little person more and more. She is my very sensitive girl. She has crazy emotions already, at six, it makes me a bit fearful for whats to come. She has a hard time controlling her emotions, no matter the emotion. We tend to butt heads over this little fact pretty often!  But she is so great at being a friend, being a big sister, being a helper. She loves to be around people and friends, even though she still is a bit shy.   She is not very independent (which I always assumed the oldest would be), and often fights with Adalyn if Adalyn decides she doesn't want to play with her anymore. You know those out of control emotions I mentioned earlier, yep those come into play a lot during those times! She is learning more and more, the older she gets, what it means to be brave, to be confident, and to really strive hard to accomplish goals she is working towards.

Her reading has just taken off like crazy in the last month. She really seemed to struggle there for a bit but she finally realized the more she practiced the better she would get. A few weeks ago she kept picking book off the shelf in the playroom and started reading the first few sentences, but was completely surprising herself. She kept telling me "I just read that!". It really gave her confidence in herself and since then she has realized she can read. In our curriculum we have a Bible Reader that we just began, but we only read two or three pages a week. Well she carries it around with her all the time and I always find her reading it. She has just breezed through the first 20 pages, without me asking her at all to read it. The other day she came and told me a few things she had read about King Solomon. Kind of made me a tab proud of her!

A few months ago, back in the fall, she learned to ride her bike without training wheels. It took her a long time to convince herself to try it. She was so scared, but once she finally decided (with Daddy pushing her along) that she would be brave and try, she took off within a few minutes. Seriously the girl never fell or anything. It took her no time at all and now it is her absolute favorite thing to do. Jeff told her once she learned he would take her out on a special date and buy her a new bike (everyone has been out growing bikes over here). So that's just what she did. She picked out a super bright colorful bike, and now when she has any spare time she runs outside to ride her bike. Every weekend she begs Jeff to take her on a bike ride. She got the hang of it quickly and really taught herself what you can accomplish when you decide to push fear aside and choose to be brave. A pretty good lesson!

Soon after she learned to ride. Off for a family walk/bike ride to the park. 
 
 Her brand new bikes. It looks so big! All this growing up makes me teary. Did you notice the missing front teeth. See... too much growing up.

 
 And they are off on their first (with her new bike) Daddy daughter bike ride! How cute is that.

Now the other thing that makes me crack is the child's love of dressing up. It has always been a passion of hers, since she was just a tiny girl. But it never gets old watching her come up with new ensembles. It keeps Jeff and I giggling constantly. So here are a few or her recent ones. These days I have to sneak pictures of her dressed up, she won't pose anymore. 

This one I love. It was right before we started school. One of our family rules is that we makes our beds, brush our teeth and get dressed before we begin our school lessons for the day. I came upstairs to make sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to and found Aubrey like this, brushing her teeth. Oh my!

This one is a completely different day, but she came down for school like this. I had to snap a picture while she was working. I have no idea how she was able to do her work with her sunglasses on but it didn't seem to phase her.

And another day, playing outside. The swinging cracked me up. In a tutu, necklaces and a helmet. She will love these pictures one day, I'm sure of it!

I love this sweet girl of mine. She is precious, she's eager to learn, and I love cuddling up with her and listening to all the sweet things she has to tell me. I'm beyond grateful that God gave me this little girl to love, nurture and teach her about His never ending love for her.