Happy Birthday To Katie

Today Katie turns 24 years old.  Time goes by way too fast.  I remember when she was a baby and wanted to wear her footed p.j.'s and use her own baby bottles to feed her baby dolls.....

and I will never forget when I put her in a ruffly blue dress and I took her to the blue bonnet patch because I wanted the PERFECT picture........

and she was trying to tell me that something was "getting" her, but I would not listen, because I wanted good pictures.....

and I was getting frustrated because she would not look at the camera for me......

and then she was crying and I probably said something like "Katie, I just need one good picture, look at the camera for mama"....

and she did look at the camera, she did try to hold back her tears and she did try to smile for me!  She had many fire ant bites that day and I will likely never forget how I hurt my Katie girl. 

So on to happier memories......Katie loved to go to Grandma S's house during the summers.  In 1994 she was a silly girl who always stayed up with the latest fashions.  At the time, it was cool to wear bike shorts with a pair of nylon shorts over them.  And grandma made her t-shirts with cut-out designs on them and Katie liked to tuck her shirts in.....

I would send her notes, letters and packages while she was with grandparents.  Our favorite book was I'll Love You Forever.  So I would frequently write the famous verse on the bottom of my notes or letters to her....

and then one day she wrote a postcard and repeated the words back to me in  her sweet eight year old handwriting.....

Happy birthday to Katie!  Wishing you a fun filled day.  I'll love you forever!  Love MOM