Life with Gabrielle as a 5 Year Old

I like to give updates at where the kids are at when the kids have a b-day, and I haven't done one yet, so here is our Gabrielle at five years old:

Gabe is a great mixture of sugar and spice. She is sweet and polite when she needs to be, but she lets you know what she thinks and doesn't get stepped on. She can be feisty IF she needs to be. I LOVE this about her. I hope she always honestly speaks her mind and stands up for herself. She is sometimes shy, but kinda uses it to her advantage. She'll tell me that she was shy when they did this, or when something happened. I'll ask her why she was shy, and she'll tell me cause she wanted to be, not cause she was afraid. She is friendly and always looks for a random friend to recruit to play with her when we go somewhere like a park. She likes to be a leader when she plays with others, following isn't her favorite.

She is SOOO very helpful, and loves to help. She is the best big sister. Just like a little miniature Mommy. She loves to boss, and direct, and help her brothers. When you ask her what she wants to be when she gets older she'll tell you a Mommy/Doctor or Mommy/Vet. She just wants to be a mom so she can take care of kids by herself. She wants to help others when they are sick too. She is Milo's favorite thing. She takes the time to play with him, and he loves her for it. She always jumps in to help watch him or play with him while I do something. She also loves to play with Ollie and invent new games for them to do. Ollie wants to be just like her. She's kinda his hero, so he's her little shadow. Some days she loves this and others she's not so sure. 

If you have ever read the love language book, quality time is undoubtedly how Gabe feels loved. You just have to spend a few minutes playing the game she chose, and she's in heaven and feels so great. This is sometimes hard, cause she can be very persistent about having to constantly play, but she does it cause she needs it. I figure we should enjoy it while she wants to spend time with us, cause she'll get to a point where she won't want to spend time with us as much and it'll be sad. So we play with her so she knows we love her and so we can have some fun spending time with her. She shows her love through giving you things. Gabe loves to color and draw and create. She is constantly trying to make people things or give them things so they know that she loves them. She'll bring me a rock or pinecone or a flower she found somewhere and wanted so bad to give it to me. She has made a collection for me on my nightstand. She gets offended if you aren't in love with somethig she makes or gives you. 

She is acting so much older all of a sudden. We now can say or do things that can be embarrassing for her in front of others. :) When did we get to the point where we can't act as silly, cause it'll make her feel silly? She'll kinda whisper, "Mom don't..." Ha! Ok gotcha. She understands when you're talking about her and about what. It's hard to talk in code now. She's too smart. 

She is always willing to try new things. Whether it's a new class like dance or swimming, or new foods, or going somewhere new. She's really easy going about it. She can sometimes get a little nervous, but she's always up for it.

She loves to learn. She has constantly been reading nonstop since her school got out. She has these beginner reading book sets that she is just cruising through. She begs to read a book to me now. Crazy. She is getting really good at her sight words and recognizing things she already knows.  It's so fun for us all.

She is such a good girl when it comes to setting an example as to what we should be doing. She'll make sure prayers are said and scriptures are read just like we are supposed to. She loves learning about the gospel and her church classes. She loves FHE and cries if we don't have it. It is a nice wonderful thing.

She is all girl. She always has been a girlie girl and probably always will be. If we are only going to have one girl, we wouldn't have it any other way. She is all about sparkles and shine, and adds the drama to go with it. :) We love experiencing this with her. Some days it's hard to guess how to handle things, but we work it out. The only opposing argument to this is her love of catching bugs. She would bring them home in cups and containers for me from preschool. Ha! She goes outside often to catch bugs. She won't go near spiders or bees though. 

She remembers EVERYTHING. She makes sure you carry out anything you said or promised. Kinda tricky sometimes. Ha! She also has made us try to be better parents, cause she now remembers when you said something feisty or yelled at her and made her feel bad. It makes us want to have her remember the good things about us, not the bad. She also is now old enough to understand when something isn't fair, or someone got more or something.

She loves to tease and joke around. She just loves to laugh and be silly. She is into telling "jokes" she's made up and trying to find funny things. She also can tell when you are teasing without you having to say you are. It's a fun age.

She never stops talking. She wants to tell stories and talk about her day, and ask questions. She's quiet the chatterbox. We have to tell her to stop talking so she can finish doing things. She kinda a slow poke. She takes her time doing everything. She has earned nicknames like slow poke and gets told she moves like a snail or molasses. She just smiles.  She stresses when you tell her to do something quickly, cause she doesn't think she can. So we avoid those words if we can help it. She's a messy girl. She just tosses things everywhere. Not her best quality, but we still love her non the less.

She is the best girl in this family. We love everything about her. Watching her grow up still throws us off. We can't remember how we got to some of these milestones so fast. I'm sure we'll always feel that way. She's kinda our Guinea pig, poor thing. We get to test out so much with her. I'm glad she's so happy to do so many things. Makes transitions easier for everyone. We love this sweet thing.

Her are some recent Gabe tidbits:

*G: Wanna hear a joke?
M: What?
G:  What instrument flies?
M: I don't know...
G: Nothing! HAHA!

*I couldn't find my phone and she remembered when Nana was here and they prayed for help so she recommended that we pray about it.

*She does not like the color gray cause it's a boy color and not a fun one according to her. She doesn't like wearing clothes that have it on it and asked me not to buy her gray ones.

*Daddy: Gabe do you love your mom?
G:Yep, even more than a mouse.
Not sure what that implies, but I'll take it. 

*M: Gabe don't grow up I want you to stay little and love me forever.
G: Mom, I'll still love you when I'm old and a mommy and your a grandma.  You're almost a grandma, you're getting old.
M: I better not almost be a grandma, I'm not that old yet.
G: Daddy is old. He already looks like a grandpa. :0)

*Daddy: Gabe when you are rich you can buy all the toys you want.
G: Daddy when you're rich you can buy all the mountain dew you want.

*G: Mom I was trying to catch a grasshopper and I accidentally pulled his leg off. (Tears) Do we have any little bitty band aids for bugs?

*When I'm a mommy is my name still going to be Gabe?