My Princess CowGirl Turns Eight :)

Good morning. It is gonna be a hot one today, and today is Lily's birthday, September 11th. It's also a day that we will remember what happened 18 years ago today. Wow, that's crazy to think it's been that long. Hey guys, you're getting used to me.

Hi.

Oh, so I'm going to pet them, love them, and then I see Justin's already got their thing open, their new paddock set up. I forced my love on all the ewes. Put the fence back up.

Good morning, birthday girl! It's your birthday! How old you gonna be?

8.

8! Big 8! Love the outfit. Want to do chores? Let me help you with your chores this morning.

Sure.

Okay, how about I'll help you with your chicken chores and you help me with the cow chores? Sound like a deal? Yeah. And Almanzo all the while sneaking into the food scraps. Here, here, Almanzo. There you go. There's a chicken bone. All right, Lily, I haven't done these in a while. You're gonna have to show me the ropes. Strong girl.

All right, when I— why I bring that up instead of bringing it down here, so I can put some grain in there and carry it up there and put it on the ground for the— for the construction. Okay, so I'm just gonna put this one in. Okay, and then I'm gonna put a little bit extra here. Okay, we're just scratching. Yeah, because then they'll be interacting with the stripy ones.

Penguin! She saw the food coming out. You like Penguin?

Yeah.

What makes you like her?

Probably really nice.

Where—

or should I put him down?

I can pat him right there. Oh, nice. Okay, I bet Donald will come eat it. Oh, they're all coming running. She's excited. I think it's because as soon as we eat breakfast— well, as soon as we milk, eat breakfast, we're going on our date. So this is bottoming out right here. The ground's uneven. I think it's gonna be easier to pull it than push it. Let's pull together, huh, Lily? This is stiff. Tall grass.

Keep going, you're about halfway.

Have at it. There she goes again. She's in a hurry this morning. 1. Oh, I like it! We got fresh flowers. You got your birthday crown on.

Actually, I got that for her.

You did? That was smart. She loves that. And the balloons, an 8 and a mermaid.

Mom, they got me a dinosaur one.

Okay. And this is your birthday request, Lily? Waffles?

Can you please get me a waffle?

Ooh, sausage and eggs?

So your due date was on September 9th. But I always went a couple days late. So I had a feeling you might be born on September 11th. And at 1:40 in the morning, I got woke up. Oh, and then I waited, and then a little bit later, oh, so then I woke up Papa. I said, Papa, I think I'm in labor. He said, okay, well, do something different. And I was laying in the bed, so he said, do something different and we'll see if you keep having labor pains. Because I had been having lots of labor pains before, but nothing ever happened. So I said— I got up and I started putting clothes away in the closet, folding clothes and putting them away and stuff. And I tell your papa when I was having another contraction, he said, well, they're 2 minutes apart. And I said, 10 minutes apart, because I was in the closet and he was in the bed. No, he said 2. And I said, well, we better call the midwife. So we called Kathy the midwife. We told her, she said, "Lay down, don't keep standing up," because she was afraid you were going to come real fast, so fast she wouldn't be able to get here. And she got here and I stayed laying down and I took a bath, going through the labor, and I was so tired because I'd been up since 1 o'clock in the morning, 1:40 in the morning. I was so tired and I just wanted to lay down, but I wanted to push standing up. So, but it was too much work to get from laying down to standing up to laying down. So they finally put me on my hands and my knees on the bed and I pushed and your head came out. And I pushed, nothing happened. And I told the midwife, I said, nothing's happening. And so she went and she fixed your shoulders, and you came sliding out, and you were so big.

How big? Like this big?

You—

well, I guess, but you were chubby.

Like this?

You had chubby cheeks. You already had a double chin. Like this big? And I said, goodness, she's big. And they weighed you, and you were over 9 pounds. You were 9 pounds 2 ounces. Wow, and that was kind of crazy because I only gained 21 pounds the whole pregnancy because it was hot that year. It was such a hot summer, it was like 95 degrees every day, and I would just sweat all the time. Then you were born, you're my little chubby. You had— and you had black hair. You had about that much black hair. Whoa.

But now I have blonde hair.

And now you have blonde hair.

And that long.

And you would just lay in the bed with me. You would just look at me.

But my hair's not long now.

Yeah, it's much longer now.

Mmm.

Okay, you ready to go on our date?

Yeah.

Let's check your seatbelt. You got your outfit on? Got my outfit on. Changed my pants for you, honey. Let's go. We're there, Lily. The craft store. What do you want to get in here?

Fairy house.

We've searched the whole store, do not see it. Going again. Maybe it's on the outskirts. What's going on? We can't find them. Are you sure they're at the store?

At Hobby Lobby?

Yeah. Oh shoot, I'm at Michael's. Yeah, where's Hobby Lobby?

Hobby Lobby's just across the street.

Oh, okay. All right, that's my problem. Let's find a first tray, Lily. This is where it's supposed to be. Oh, we're getting close. Oh, that's even got handles. You like that? Yeah. Okay. All right, next up, fairy stuff, Lily. It's supposed to be on the other side. Is that it? Look! There it all is! Yay! There's a bunch of stuff. Okay, so let's focus. You want a fairy house? Let's find a fairy house first. Yep, those are your choices there. Alright, you like that one? The biggest one?

Can I have something else?

Do you want a smaller one? Then you'll have room for more stuff. Yeah.

A bear?

A bear? That doesn't go with it. So how about a smaller one like this? No? Yeah, that doesn't have a door that opens. You like the opening door? Yeah. I do too. I like that. Find you a chair. Oh, here's the moss.

There's stuff up there. Here's a chair.

There's a chair. You wanted a garden?

Yeah. If there isn't a garden, I'll get a tiny box.

Okay, we'll get you— I like your flexibility. You'd rather have a tiny bridge or maybe a tree with a swing. That's kind of garden-ish. Oh, what about this? This is like flower garden. Here's a more flower garden. Uh, chickens. Here's a pond. You want to go with the pond in your garden?

Yeah, and a bridge.

Okay, let's try it. That's it? Yeah. All right, let's see. I think you're gonna have room, right? I think you're gonna have plenty of room. Okay, yeah, you'll have plenty of room. Do we have enough here?

Yeah, but you know the fairy house what I got, it's just the same as what fairy house what I saw on the internet.

Oh, is it? Yeah, same one?

Yeah, well then I will hold the clean juice and go right home.

All right, you're an easy date, or you just want to get home and play with your fairy stuff, huh? We just placed our order at Clean Juice. Gonna be about 10 minutes. Let's go on a walk, shall we? Yeah. What kind did you get?

Pineapple, banana.

Cheers. I got chocolate. Okay, Lily, that was fun.

Yeah.

All right, you ready to go home? Yeah. Play with your fairy house?

Yeah.

Okay, let's go. Lily, looking good so far.

Thank you.

Let me see this, Lily.

Isn't this cool?

Mom, look, put it in her bottom part.

Do you like it, Lily?

Yeah.

Good.

Is this everything you hoped it would be? Yeah.

Lily, very happy you were born. Salami pizza, our sausage, Casey Ostrich peppers, Grandma, Big Daddy riling them up. Big Daddy, we'll let you— they're spending the night with you tonight, right? He's a Billy goat. This is a very notable cauliflower crust pizza. That's ridiculous.

You juice the cauliflower and take the pulp and make the crust with it. You mix it, I think, with coconut flour and cheese.

The miracle vegetable cauliflower. It actually tastes really good for being so healthy. How is it, everybody?

So good.

How do you guys like it? Have you ever had cauliflower pizza before?

No, but it's good.

Yeah, it passed the Mr. Brown test. He's shoving it in.

Oh my goodness.

And I have to sit next to him. Yeah, and take him home tonight too. All right, go for it, honey. Who's that from?

Josiah. See, she already knows what it is. It's a unicorn. It's a fairy.

Oh, is that going in your fairy?

Yeah, that's why I want my fairy. Play, play!

Who's that from?

Mama!

Yay!

Wow, it's so much.

Oh! Look at that.

He gave you his toy animals.

That was very nice.

Oh, thank you.

Oh! What is it? I think you're a crafty woman.

What is it?

That's from Jonah. That is painting with clay.

Oh!

That's from me.

What is that?

Is that for clay?

Hey Rebecca, look at this one.

It's a cooking set kind of thing. What are you getting?

Oh! Writing.

She gets all kinds of crafty stuff, doesn't she? I gave you that.

Last is Grandma. Nanny. It's it! Lego set I wanted.

Oh, yay!

Grandma got her the Lego set she wanted.

Hey Gideon, it's time to bless the birthday person.

Not first me.

Yeah, you gotta go first. Youngest to oldest. We don't want you stealing anybody else's ideas. Say something nice about Lily.

Yeah. Um, she's a good runner. It's fun to eat. Birthday.

She's a good runner. And it's fun to have her birthday.

And it's fun to have her birthday.

Okay.

She's a good little sister. She's nice to me. A good little sister and does everything I ask her to do.

Is that true?

Kinda.

You are very creative and imaginative, and you use that creativity to make beautiful decorations and things around the house. You also have been doing good with your chickens in the front yard, taking good care of them. You You are an amazing sleeper, and I appreciate that as your mother.

You have an amazing determination. Doesn't seem like you need anybody else to decide what you're gonna do. You know what you want, and you know what you don't want. That's good.

Very persistent.

Yeah, and you're kind of a homebody too, so we hope that you're gonna be around with us for a very long time.

I hope I am too.

Aww. And you can come to us anytime with a problem and we'll try to help and listen.

So she's a good helper, and I thought about the— how good she takes care of the chickens. But when we come to my house and do crafts, she loves to paint, and she helps Gideon when he needs a little help with his house too.

Lily, you have a good appetite, and you are a fast runner. Your brother's—

she is fast runner.

Can't believe it. You're right there with them. And I think that, uh, you love life, and, uh, you enjoy going up to the lake. You especially like that. And I think you like to have fun.

She also has a funky sense of style.

Yeah.

Which I appreciate deeply. And she is all girl.

Has no doubt about it.

She's all girl, but yet she will also get dirty and muddy too.

Yep.

Like, look at these fingernails.

She's got dirt underneath her fingernails and she's been barefoot all day.

She never wears shoes.

Look at this cake Rebecca made.

She's doing it right.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

Get out of the way, please.

Happy birthday, dear Natalie. Happy birthday to you.

I'm Lily.

Smile.

Lily, how are your cats this morning? Good. You've already let them out. You got them some fresh food.

Yeah.

What else do you do for the cats?

And clean around their cage.

Uh-huh.

And pick up their poop.

And pick up their poop. And what else do you do?

And check their water. And fill up their feed.

You do a good job. You do a good job with the cats. Hmm? You like doing the cats? Which one's your favorite?

This one.

Royal? Why is Royal your favorite?

He's cute.

What birthday cake did you choose, Ellie?

Butterfly with chocolate inside and vanilla outside. Vanilla outside. With candy on top.

Ooh! How old are you? 7. 7? Don't grow anymore, okay? I'm gonna grow this much.

Soon.

No, I don't want you to be 8. Put that down.

I know.

You just stay 7.

No, I want to be 8, not 7.

Is there a reason why you want to keep getting older?

Because I want to eat chocolate whenever I want.

That's hilarious.

The thing about being a kid is you don't have to worry about anything and you still do get chocolate. Like, me and Papa have a lot more to worry about than you do. We just make it look easy, right?

What do you have to worry about, Lily? Me?

Falling off the cliff? Happy birthday to you.

Go to the top, honey. You can do it. You can do it, Lily. 2 more, honey.

2 more.

Just 1 more. Just one more. Look at the top. Look at the top.

Don't look down.

Come on, look at the top. You can do it. One more. You don't want to do it? Okay. Woo! How is that, my friend?

Felt good.

Is pizza any better now that you're 6?

It's like heavy.

Yeah? Oh, so pretty, you rock star. Dang. I'm a rock star. Come here, Miss Thing. Good morning.

Good morning.

How's my princess mermaid? Good. Good. I like the outfits you chose this morning.

Hey, and it's my birthday.

I know. How old are you? 5. Woo! What do you want to do on your birthday?

Dona Day!

You ready to ride this? Yeah. Happy birthday to you. Oh! Blow it out quick before it falls apart. Good job.