Happy Birthday Ellie!

Early this morning, at 12:28am, Ellie officially turned 9!!!! It has been an exciting birthday month for her! What a fun day it was....I think she enjoyed every part of it, from the minute she woke up, to being prayed for at school, to walking home from school, to having Grammie and Grampy here visiting, to receiving fun big girl gifts and having great family time this evening.

Above are some random family pictures...Ellie waking up this morning (sneak peak of the new house for most of you!); the 6 Glynns all in red (new tradition Jayna started, where we "match" the birthday person!); Ava and Colin playing the piano, Colin smiling and the 3 girls hugging.

Ellie said "How did you pick RED for us to wear mom?" My answer: "It was easy....YOU had to wear uniform colors, as did Jayna...so we all just went with uniform red!"
What fun it was to have dinner in our dining room! I kept telling the girls "A dining room is for special meals"....and until this afternoon, it was cluttered with junk/boxes. I cleaned it out, moved the rainforest table cloth to the dining room table and we had our 1st "special" meal in our new house. Homemade meatballs and meatball sandwiches! And Colin...do you think he enjoys spaghetti?! It WAS bath night for him, needless to say!

THE CAKE! The cake fairy came through....whew! Ellie picked "rainforest" as her theme for her birthday this year and it was a fun theme!


And showering her with gifts....she was very excited to get the sock monkey she had spied at Target long ago, she was thrilled to have a "big girl" chair for her new room, she loved ALL the cards that Jayna and her friends made for her, and she is SO excited to have a waterproof watch and her own digital camera. Thanks much Grammie and Grampy and Grandma and Grandpa--you have 1 beaming grandchild tonight! (And check out the top right picture, 2nd from the right--that is how Ava "monitored" the gift opening--she could not stay seated!)

What a fun 9 years it has been. We got a good laugh this morning as I retold my "issues" 9 years ago. I didn't want to be induced, yet the dr's office refused to send me home on November 16th. The nurse tried to make it better by saying "You have said you don't want a baby born on an odd numbered day--you'll have your baby tonight!" How funny that 3 of the 4 kiddos have odd numbered birthdays and both Ellie and Jayna were born JUST after midnight into the next (odd numbered) day!

Tonight, we ended our special day with Ellie reading the note that I wrote to her. I started something years ago that has become so special in our family. Each year on each child's birthday, I write them a personal note--telling them what has changed in their life over the last year, how we are proud of them, how God has worked in their lives etc. The girls cherish these notes (as do we!) and it's usually the perfect ending to such a happy birthday. We LOVE birthdays around here! Happy Birthday Month, Ellie!!!!