The life of a 3 1/2 year old

It's time to document some things that Kara is up to. Because she is so dang irresistable in a, "you're driving me crazy but are so cute at the same time" kind of way.

She is one animated little girl. I need to have the video camera rolling all the time so that I catch the hilarious look on her face as she is telling us something super important.

She is really shy around most other people and will barely speak a word. But if, and when, she's comfortable, watch out. SHE WILL TALK YOUR EAR OFF. At our house, the only time she stops talking is to eat.

She still loves to eat and still especially treats. The other day she fell asleep in the car and when I woke her up to get out of her carseat, she started muttering with her eyes half open, "suckers? suckers?"

She follows me around all day saying, "hey mom." And then she'll repeat it over and over until I say, "What Kara?" It doesn't matter if I'm looking straight into her eyes with my best body language saying I'm ready to listen, she'll still repeat, "hey mom" until I say "what." Then she usually responds with some crazy comment about Omie.

Omie is Kara's imaginary friend. She has been around for awhile now (I think more than a year), but as time goes on, Omie makes more and more appearances and gets more and more creative. Eventually, Omie became two people. One is Pink Omie and one is Blue Omie. Kara just told me yesterday that Pink Omie had pink hair and Blue Opmie has blue hair. Huh. So that's where they got their nicknames... Last I heard, one lives in Park City and the other in Bear Lake.

Kara is very scared of monsters in her bedroom. She gets put to bed and freaks if I turn off her room light and lamp. It usually takes 5-10 minutes before she lays out her blanket and pillow on the floor in her doorway. Sometime in the middle of the night, she usually ends up in our bed. There are some nights she gets brave and tells me all the monsters have left her bed and that she'll sleep there that night but eventually she changes her mind and she's in her doorway again.

The other night I was on the computer pretty late, and I looked over to see her wide awake laying on her stomach with her hands propped under her chin, staring at me. When I said "Hi- what are you doing awake?" she said, "Mom. Did you know that Omie's favorite ride is the roller coaster?"

Everyday, this little girl cracks us up. If she isn't talking about Omie, she talking about Jesus. And her favorite song in the whole world right now is Alison Krauss' "Down to the River to Pray." She LOVES it and will listen to it over and over. It's so cute to hear her sing, "Down in the river to pray. Studying about that good ol' way."

She's also been in dance class and is loving it. The other day she told me that her teacher got out some music and it said, "you got to move it, move it." She's always dropping to the floor during random times of the day so show me a new move she learned at dance class. She may be shy, but that doesn't stop her from doing the splits right in front of hundreds of people at Lagoon.

She is a very happy and generally, an easy going little girl and has been since she was a baby. Though her fourth year has brought on more sassiness, some back talk, a little but of lying (with a grin on her face as the dead give-away), lots of mess making, and mischief, it's also brought on more independence, more declarations of love, her soft and cuddly side, hilarious outtakes and a fun, bright, adorable big girl with a great imagination and the sweetest little personality that you could just gnaw on. We love 'er!