Marin, 5 years and 5 months

I can't believe how big my kids are getting, it is absolutely blowing me away!  I wanted to capture some pictures of a few of Marin's favorite things at this time in her life, just so I'll never forget.

Marin's crayons.  She is so creative and loves to color and draw.  She makes the sweetest pictures for all of us and it's kind of little kid art that makes your heart melt.

 Marin likes to set up a little pretend world for her 'squinkies' (just teeny, tiny play animals), and she decorates their castle/house.  It makes me smile because I remember doing exactly the same things when I was little....except, I used a Q-tip (funny, I know).  And that world was 100% alive to me 25 years ago, as it is for her, and I love that her imagination is alive and well.

 Jewelry.  Marin loves jewelry, and it's so sweet to see her put it on to complete an outfit. 

 Kitties.  My girl *love* her kitties.  The white one is a kitty Kristoffer and I picked up for her two years ago at Lagoon, and she has taken it to bed with her every night.  The little one came with her Veterinarian kit for Christmas, and she cares for it so sweetly.

 We've been getting into reading chapter books, and for Christmas, Grandma gave Marin the very first installment in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, Little House in the Big Woods.  We plowed right through it in about two weeks, she LOVED it!

 Her clothes, they make me happy to see all the things she loves to wear.

 If I could pick a pattern to describe Marin, it would be this, pink with white polka dots.  So sweet, so simple, so classic and innocent.

 Purses, does Marin ever loves to fill her purses with *everything* she can find.  It's so cute to peek in there and see what she's stuffed away and what she treasures.

 Marin loves to serve food from her play kitchen, and takes a lot of time to prepare and make things look nice for us.

 And this is Marin's Dream-light.  She wanted one for so long and two Christmases ago, Santa brought her one.  It's a girly, pink unicorn, totally her style, and it makes me smile.

We love our sweet girl!