Happy Birthday Dani!!

Today my little Dani turns 21 years old!! Happy Birthday!

This is her at 18 months old. Ready to go to nursery, only she never went. She was happy to go to Sunbeams a year and a half later but she would have nothing to do with nursery, ever.

So, 21 random memories of Dani growing up.

1. Dani cried a lot as a baby. We have pictures of her crying at every major function. Here is Dani screaming at Halloween. Here is Dani with her cousins under the Christmas tree, crying. Here is Dani crying in the backyard. I still loved her, fiercely, deeply, passionately, more than I could have imagined. I loved to put bows in her hair. Before she really had any hair I would take elmers school glue (water soluble) and put a little ribbon bow on her head with the glue (it washed out) every day. When she got bigger we'd drive to Santa Barbara from time to time to their street fair just to buy these cute bows for her head. I loved to hold her and sing to her and read to her. Even then she liked to listen to stories. She learned to walk when she was 8 months old and started talking at 10 months. She was a talker :) At about one year old she stopped crying, thanks goodness and was pretty much a happy girl after that.

2. When Dani was 1 I started watching her cousins while their mom taught school . Brittan was just 6 weeks older than her and Becky was almost 4. Every where we went people thought that Dani and Brittan were twins. We walked to the library every week and went to the park often. Dani loved to watch Sing Along videos and to have the cousins and Andrea over to play. For her second Christmas, when Dani was 16 months old she got a baby doll. She was so excited and happy to get that doll that she refused to open any other presents and just played with that. It was soo cute.

3. Dani went to Disneyland for the first time when she was 2 and half. It was a great trip. By that time she had seen and LOVED the Little Mermaid and we were familiar with all things Disney. We went with some friends and made the first of many happy Disneyland visits. Dani had a wonderful doll that was a signing Mermaid about this same time, maybe a little later. It sang all the time. So did she. We had a noisy house :) The Little Mermaid was the first movie Dani saw in a movie theater.

4. Just a couple months before Dani turned 3 we went to Hawaii. It was so fun. She loved going with her dad into the jungle to pick fruit and loved the beach and playing with her friends. Our good friends were going to BYU-H and we went to visit them. We had also just gone to the temple to be sealed so it was a celebratory trip as well.

5. Dani took ballet lessons when she was 3. They had a Christmas recital that was sooo cute.

6. When S was born Dani came to the hospital with Grandma Natalie and Anna and V to meet her. She was so excited and wanted to hold her, mostly she wanted to eat my yummy hospital lunch :)

7. On the first day of Kindergarten Dani wore hot pink tights and a cute little dress. We stuck S in the stroller and walked down to the school where she had the nicest teacher ever, Mrs.Brady. I volunteered in her class once a week until J was born later that year and I was always so proud to see how smart and well behaved she was.

8. Dani loved to camp. We went often when she was small. One year all the kids got bags of marbles and they spent hours playing with them at the campsite. She was always happy out doors.

9. In 2nd grade Dani was in a Lion King play at school. In third grade she started soccer. She always liked to keep busy and try different things. I think in HS she ended up taking one year of a ton of stuff because everything sounded like fun and she'd give it a try :) Some of the lessons she's taken are: dance, piano, violin, soccer, gymnastics, swimming, fencing, and a few others. In third grade she started coloring her hair...it took many years for us to figure out what her natural color was after that.

10. Dani always liked hanging out with my younger sisters and their friends. She was always really good at sitting quietly and being cute so they didn't mind her hanging out with them. I'm sure she learned a lot of good stuff that way.

11. We lived with my parents for awhile and D shared a room with her sisters. My two littlest sisters would often sneak in there too and all five little girls would sleep together. I think they had a lot of fun playing and laughing together. They sometimes laughed too much. I remember one time they got in trouble from Papa for laughing during the prayer. I wasn't home and when I got home she very indigently told me what happened, then she was very surprised to find that I was on Papa's side. If he was mad you can bet they deserved it!

12. Dani was in GATE in California and they had the neatest program for the gifted kids. One year they studied Egyptians and then took a field trip, by airplane, to Northern Ca to a museum . They were gone for several days and she had so much fun.

13. Poor Dani got whooping cough when she was 11. She was sick for months and sounded like a seal. I felt so bad for her. When she was a baby she had febrile seizures. Other than those two things and a bout of chicken pox when she was small she was never sickly and always on the go!

14. When we moved to Texas Dani was nervous about going to middle school and meeting new people, however I was not nervous for her. She was always the friendliest kid and sure enough she soon had friends and liked it here. The first good friend she made when we moved was Amanda Davis. They were friends for all of middle school.

15. Dani was 11 when Beloved and I got married. It was a huge adjustment for her, probably the biggest. She remembered her dad and living with him. Also she was used to being the "big girl" and my helper. She was far from thrilled but she was always a good daughter and eventually came to like DH. Especially now that's she is grown and married. That's a hard thing and I am grateful that she did as well as she did and was willing to open her heart.

16. Dani ran cross country for awhile. Because she liked the shoes. She's always liked fashion.

17. Dani's first job was at Washington Mutual as a high school intern. She stayed there for two years, mostly I think because she loved working with Rachel, although I don't think she loved the job that much. It was a good job. She's always been a good worker. She was not always a good chore doer however and her room was nicknamed "the abyss" by some of her friends, but she was a good mopper (a skill that served her well at Jamba Juice)

18. As a teen Dani was a lot of fun. She had some good friends, Meridith and Allie and Nazli and Megan and Amanda and others. She shared her sweet 16 with her best friend Meridith who turned 17. We had a swim party and Robin rented the girls a jumpy house. Everyone slept over and we had pizza and movies and games. She loved to go to football games and baseball games at the high school and to dances. She loved to hang out and have fun. She went to EFY several times which was awesome. It was always so fun for me when she came home and would tell about her outings.

19. Her first date was with a boy named Daniel and her first boyfriend was a boy named Spencer. Her first car was named Sasha and she still drives her, although she is some what worse for wear. She graduated from HS when she was 17 and moved to Provo shortly after turning 18.

20. In December 2006 Dani married her eternal Sweetheart in the Mt Timpanogos Temple. It was an awesome day! She and Greg are so cute together and I am so happy to see them living their lives and making good choices and planning for a wonderful future.

21. This summer we got to spend a week together in FL, which was sooo oo fun. Dani cut every one's hair and we spent lots of time laying on the beach. and in a couple months she's coming to visit again!! Yeah! And cut hair again :)

I could write much more but will stop here. A few memories through the years. If you have any Dani memories you'd like to share leave a comment :)

Happy Birthday Sweetie, Love you!