My amazing daughter. Four years on this earth. She is pure happiness and love, that Ember. She is so smart, so funny, so clever, so creative, so loving, so kind, so loyal, so compassionate, so giving, and just basically the epitome of perfection. Ember’s only flaws are that she is a picky eater and she doesn’t like to sleep. Practically ever. haha
Ember loves puzzles, she loves games, she loves toys (all toys!), she loves her siblings, she loves her parents, she loves writing letters and words and coloring pictures, she loves being read to and reading to others, she loves pizza and salad, she loves cookies and nutella, she loves cereal and waffles, she loves apples and grapes and carrots, she loves playing outside, she loves going on adventures and exploring, she is brave and wants to do everything herself, she’s independent, she is a touch shy sometimes but mostly social, she is forgiving and accepting, she points her finger in the air when she’s telling you something, she taps a finger to her chin when she’s thinking, she loves to dance and has a bunch of favorite songs, she plays with her hair when she dances, she can buckle herself into her carseat- has been able to forever- but can’t unbuckle, she can get herself fully dress and 99.99% of the time picks out her own outfits- from her head (and hair bows) to her feet, she likes to bring toys on errands but throws them on the ground as we drive, she still takes her shoes off in the car as we drive places, she stopped breastfeeding a week after her birthday!, she likes Sofia the First- Doc McStuffins- Dora- Paw Patrol- and pretty much all of the shows geared to her age group, she loves when I make up stories to tell her and she really loves when I tell her stories from our family’s past- whether or not she’s in the stories doesn’t matter but she does like those ones in particular, she comes up with creative names for all her babies and stuffed animals really quickly, she pronounces vanilla ‘navilla’ and nutella ‘mutella’ and cold ‘toad,’ she loves to pretend she’s a baby animal- bunny and kitty are her favorites, she gets scared really easily- if a person in her family is pretending to be scary she will stop and tell them firmly, “Guess what! I love you! I love you. I love you!” thinking it will soften them up, she is obsessed with picking Everett up or- because he’s heavy for her- dragging him around by his feet! She loves coloring on herself, she still likes to be held a lot, she still loves the color purple but now also likes pink and if you ask her she’ll tell you she likes ALL the colors- but if she gets to choose something by color it’s always purple, she loves to help and very much thinks of herself as an adult in her capabilities, she is confident and capable and responsible. She is just so much fun to raise! I love this little girl with my whole heart!
I went the easy route this year and bought one of those wall display things from Amazon. They’re super cheap and make it look like you did a lot when really you did almost nothing! haha
Ember LOVED this setup. She gasped when she saw it and couldn’t stop smiling! 
We were waiting for Allan to finish something or to get home (I can’t remember now) so we just snapped a few dozen pictures while waiting! 
I just let her go with her own poses. She’s so funny! 
And then Allan came in and we were ready to start the birthday celebration!! 
She had so much fun showing that she was four all day. 
I decided to film her opening her presents and I’m glad I did because she was so precious. I’ll try to upload that (but probably never will, knowing me!) because she was SOOOO adorable. 
She was genuinely happy about each thing ♥ 
The week before her birthday I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. She said chocolate with purple frosting. Then I showed her some ideas on google images… she spotted a cake covered in candy and instantly knew THAT’S what she wanted. I was pretty okay with that considering a bunch of candy on a cake is the easiest thing to do! haha 
It looked crazy and like a big bunch of candy and she loved it so very much! She just sat there staring at it and smiling and then looking at it from different angles and pointing out the different parts. 
Happy Birthday to Ember, Happy Birthday to youuuuu! 
Things haven’t changed since her very first birthday where she didn’t want to eat her cake… she still doesn’t love cake. She likes a lot of sweets but cake isn’t one! She picked off and ate the candy and took some “bites” of frosting and then was done! 
The last photo I have is later in the evening I took this to set the exposure before recording her singing happy birthday to my mom, whose birthday is two days after Ember’s! (we have 5 family birthdays in five days at the end of September!)