My favorite 8 year old.....Happy Birthday Destiny

I apologize in advance for this long post with all my old pictures thrown in for good measure. I am feeling old this week. My sweet oldest daughter, Destiny, is now my sweet 8 year old! Yes, it's true, my "baby" is an 8 year old. I feel old. I feel like I am getting cheated. She is not old enough to be turning 8. There simply must be some mistake! I do not want her to be so grown up. Wouldn't it be great if we could keep them little a tad bit longer? So anyway, today I pay tribute to my sweet Destiny, my favorite 8 year old. Happy belated birthday sweetheart! When sissy is feeling better, the two of us are going to have us a "mommy and Destiny day!" This was taken when Destiny was just 2 days old. She was born February 19, 2001. She weighed 6 pounds and 8 ounces.

This was taken when she was 17 days old. The outfit she was wearing is special because my dad picked it out by himself. I have photos of all 3 of my girls wearing this outfit when they were each 17 days old.

This is another picture from when she was 17 days old. I really miss her being that tiny!

This is a photo from her 1st birthday. I actually have a 16x20 of this one hanging on my wall at home.

This was taken at Easter when Destiny was 14 months old. The dress she is wearing was made by my mother-in-law!

She was 18 months old in this. I think she looks like she's saluting!

This was taken on her 2nd birthday. She was such a sweet little toddler. I loved her solemn little smile at this age!

This one was when she was 2 years and 5 months old. We took her and new baby sister Paisley for Paisley's 17 day photo. She put this hat on all by herself.

She was 2 years and 8 months in this picture. I loved her in those colors!

This was her Christmas photo that year. She was 2 years and 10 months old. She looks so much older than that to me!

This is her 3rd birthday picture. She grows too quickly!

She was 3 and 1/2 in this one. I swear she was such a camera hog in those days. We must have taken 75 pictures that day. This was from when I still worked at Olan-mills portait studio.

Her 4th birthday. I was working at Sears Portrait Studio at this time. She was tired of pictures by the time we got this one. Who could blame her? I have WAY too many pictures!!!!

Here she is at 4 and 1/2 years old. Don't you think she is the prettiest thing ever?

oh my, this is from her Cinderella craze! She was Cinderella for Halloween.

This is when my baby girl left the nest to go to pre-school. I think I took it harder than she did!

She was almost 5 in this Christmas picture, She was really reading the book and i almost didn't get any more pics after this one because she didn't want to put the book away.

Here she is at Christmas again. I couldn't decide between 2 dresses that I really liked so she had 2 Christmas dresses that year. And, of course, I had to get pictures of both. I love her expression in this one.

This picture always makes me smile because she looks so happy in this.

This was on her 5th birthday. She was so crazy at 5. I can't believe that I made it through that age alive!
This was taken the day my baby graduated from kindergarten. I was so proud to see her get that diploma. You'd have thought she was graduating college!
This is on her 6th birthday. I love every freckle on her sweet little face! She looks just like her daddy in this picture.
This is from when she turned 7 years old. Our school picture day was on her birthday this year so I took my chances and let the school picture take the place of our annual birthday photo session. I think it turned out pretty good!

This is her Christmas picture from this past Christmas 2008. She was 7 years and 10 months in this one. My goodness, she's growing up too fast for me!
I will post one of her 8th year photos as soon as I am able to take some.

Unfortunately, with Delaney so sick, I haven't had a whole lot of time for my little birthday girl. I did spend her birthday with her though. I just didn't have my camera with me. Shame on me! I will try to update on Delaney's pneumonia later.