I was terrified. No lie. I was super young to be becoming a mom. But when I saw her little jelly bean body, fluttering in black and white, on the screen in front of me. My heart stopped. I was going to have a baby.

She was born October 25th 2011. Jaylee James. I thought I would call her JJ for short. But instead, we call her Jay.

As a baby, she slept through the night and was so calm and sweet. When she was one, Elmo was the man and our house was covered in those fuzzy red guys. When she was two, she discovered she had eyebrows and watched Despicable Me religiously. When she was three, she said she wanted to be a taco for Halloween. When she was four, she became the best big sister ever. When she was five, she decided she wanted to be an astronaut, and a singer, probably simultaneously. Now at six, she insists on doing addition and subtraction during car rides, sings and dances her way though any situation and loves excitement.

JayLee, I wish I would have started these blogs so much sooner. But because I didn’t, I have a lot of making up to do. You are so smart, special, funny and creative. I love how you never tire of hearing my fun facts, and take so much effort to memorize them so that you can tell others. I didn’t know it was possible to love another person so much until you came into my world. You mean so much to our family and we couldn’t imagine our lives without the light you bring into it!