Our Virginia Girl

So today is Anya's 10th birthday!!  Each birthday we retell the girls their birth story.  I started telling her last night before bed that when she woke up this morning I would have already gone to Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg.  I also told her that she, like her sisters, was overdue.  And so by this day I was extremely ready for her to be born - 9 days late is a long time when you are pregnant.  Her time of birth is 11:40 a.m. and weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz.

She has a unique story in that she was born while we lived in Roselawn residence hall on the EMU campus and then lived in two more dorms after that - Northlawn & Elmwood.  Most kids can't say that they lived on a college campus until they are students there.

Anya has been an active child all of her life - she was riding her bicycle (with training wheels down the sidewalk to take Kate to preschool) at two and then by four she had learned to ride her bike at Grandpa Helmuth's house.  A whole new world opened up to her when we moved to our farmette on Singers Glen Rd.  She played outside, rode her bike up and down the lane, helped with chores and soon was mixing milk to feed to her calf that she was raising.

Some highlights of recent years:
* Finding her inside the calf pen reading to Buddy, her calf
* Watching her patiently have the newborn kids get use to her and then watch them come running when she got home from school and call for them
* Asking her dad once while we were butchering a turkey and he was gutting, "can little girls stick their hands in there too?"
* Watching her friendship grow with cousin/neighbor, Ginny and riding her bike through the field over to their house to play
* Having her take a liking to an EMU basketball player, MJ, and wanting to stay after a game until she came out of the lockerroom to say good game
* Her taking pride in the fact that she grew two inches in three months over this summer - she keeps trying to see how much more till she's taller than me :) she's currently 4'11 1/2"

All to say, we're excited to celebrate with her today.  We're excited to see what this new year will bring.  She continues to grow and mature in to a wonderful, fun young lady.