Happy Birthday, Katie!

It's hard to believe, but my little sister is 16 years old today. It just seems like yesterday that I babysat for her while her mom and dad went out for a well-deserved dinner and she cried shortly after they left the house until they walked back in the door. At the time I thought that was one of the longest evenings of mylife. Looking back, it was hardly anything. Here she is at about 10 months old with a proud dad looking on. She has always liked to have her picture taken.

When she was little, she loved to watch Barney and sing. One of her favorite songs was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Her version of it was "Fruit fruit fruit for the home team." We would ask her how tall she was and she'd answer "free foot free." One of her favorite movies was "Fumberia" (Thumbelina for those that don't speak Katie-ese!). She's always been a good aunt, even though she's only six years older than G1. She would lay on the floor with him and read to him. This was in 1998, when Katie was seven and G1 was 8 months old.
She's had some big life changes in the past couple of years, but I know she's strong and she can survive it all with her head held high. She's become a beautiful young woman. And I'm starting to cry. Love you lots, Kaitlyn Anna! I just wished we lived closer so I could see you more often.
I also realized I don't have this year's school picture.....