Piper is 4 years old

She is 4!  How did this happen?  Time goes by so quickly.  Piper is such a sweet girl.  She is growing in confidence and independence.  Being the only girl, she is like you would expect:  all things girl and rough and tumble.  She loves to play the fighting games right along with her brothers but adores makeup, dresses, shoes, nail polish, etc.  She loves to color and you can find her coloring on any and every piece of paper she finds lying around the house regardless of whose paper it is.  Actually, some of the pictures I snapped of her show markers all over her arms and I didn't make her wash them because it is certainly a part of what makes Piper Piper.  She regularly comes in the house with bare feet that are all muddied from following her brothers all over the yard.  She loves to try and write her name.  She usually writes it with two P's next to each other and then an I and after the I a squiggle.  She has a harder time with the E and R.  That said, she regularly writes Eli's name on her artwork.  She currently loves to watch Sarah and Duck, Masha and the Bear, Octonauts, and anything Micky Mouse Club House.   Piper also loves to sing, play outside, and take baths.  She loves Eli and follows him around the house all day.  

For the most part, Piper is really easy going.  The only time I really have a hard time with her is during Sacrament and even then, it's usually at the end.  She likes to be giggly and antagonizes her brothers to no end.  She pokes them, takes their pencils, draws on their pictures, tries to climb on them and make them laugh.  When I try to get her to stop and do something quietly she becomes defiant and throws elbows and has been known to scratch me (thankfully that hasn't happened often).  She does not like to be restrained at all so if I try to get her to stop she gets really angry and I end up having to drag her out into the hallway.  Usually it is just a matter of getting her out of the pew and sitting quietly on a chair for a minute and then I can talk to her and tell her what I expect and when she is ready we go back.  It's frustrating to still be doing this with her at 4, but we are making less trips to the hallway (only one a week!) so I'm sure she will get better. 

She is not afraid to fight with her brothers and isn't very good at taking instruction from them at all.  It drives Will crazy when he is trying to watch her and she basically ignores him.  We are trying to teach her that she has to listen to them when them when they are in charge.  

Three funnies from Piper:  

In the van the other day she was singing loudly to a song on the radio when she stopped and said, "If I were a rock star I could sing as loud as I wanted.  Well, I guess I am a rock star."

She has been practicing her skipping lately.  The other day she was skipping into a store and turned to me and said, "Mom, I skip brilliant."  I said, "Do you know what brilliant means?"  She responded, "It means really, really good." 

When going outside with her brothers to inspect the "creek" made by the recent rainstorm her shoes and socks got soaked.  She ran inside in tears that her feet were wet and said, "It's like a horror movie!"  

The boys are pretty much enamored with her and love this cute stage that she is in.  They regularly tell me how much they love the funny things she says and the cute things she does.  

For her birthday, they all chipped in to get her a gift of little ponies.  She got a bike and helmet from me and Mike, some clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Richards, a makeup kit from our friend Laurie, some nail polish from one of her little friends.  She spent almost every moment she was home riding her bike.  

We took her to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and to play with some friends and then when we got home her Sunbeam teacher took her to a bakery called Scrumps to get mini strawberry cupcakes.  They also walked around the pond looking at all the ducks and her teacher gave her a necklace to keep.  

She requested pizza for dinner and chocolate chip cookies and a small ice cream cake for dessert.  After dinner Grandma and Grandpa Clark called to sing her happy birthday.   

She went to bed feeling very happy after a full day of fun.