6 years old

Elli turned 6 years old on January 26th and seems to be more mature by the day!  She is so helpful around the house and loves taking on more responsibility (i.e. packing lunch, helping make food, etc.).  Elli still takes charge and likes to be the boss of her brother, but that is something that I don't think will ever change!

(The last picture as a 5 year old)

Elli is pretty much out of the 'princess phase' these days.  She loves American Girl dolls…she has two named Joy and Grace.  She is also really into animals and stuffed animals.  Elli loves Bella and misses her when she isn't with us.  Elli is also really into crafts!

 Nana Lindvall picked up donuts on her birthday and brought them to the house for breakfast!

 Elli is doing great in Kindergarten and has adapted well to her new school.  She seems to be making friends with kids in her class and still frequently talks about her best friend, Kendyl, from her old school.  She enjoys school and is very excited to ride the bus next year (her school will be across the street from our house, but I'm already super nervous to have her ride the bus).  We go over site words each week and she is doing well with reading.  She's doing great with math…she can count and write her numbers to 100.

Elli still enjoys most sports with swimming, softball and gymnastics being her favorites.  She has always been great at hand-eye coordination and picks up pretty quickly with athletic things!  However, this girl has managed to have 2 big falls in the past year, knocking both of her front teeth.  Her front two teeth are both dead.  Although one tooth has lightened up, the other one is still pretty dark!  She's hoping that this tooth falls out quickly….poor girl!

One of my favorite things about this girl is that she gets so excited about everything and she can't ever contain her excitement.  It could be the smallest thing, and she gets so excited about it.  She is so much like Scott in so many ways!

Elli seems to be spending more time 'primping' in the bathroom these days.  If she finds out that we are going out to dinner, she will head to the bathroom, brushe her hair, put on lip gloss and spray perfume!  It's so funny, but also a little scary :)  She is always asking me to do different things to her hair before school, which I love because she used to hate getting her hair done!

Elli is growing up so quickly and even has her first loose tooth!  She is so, so sweet!!  We feel so blessed to be her parents!!