Day 8: EMILIE

Dear Emilie, our actress and musician. Em has such talent and bravery, I'm in awe of her. She sings beautifully, and she's willing to sing in public, as a soloist, in front of lots of people - that's a gift I do not have but am seriously jealous about. She works on plays and musicals, and she's just a total character. She's a ham for the camera, and as I've been going through my pictures of many years, I kept running into all these close-up selfies she's sneakily taken at different ages and they crack me up! Plus those freckles?!?! {insert heart eyes emoji}

When Emilie was almost 1 year old, I lived with Ben and Laura during my off-semester of college and I nannied for Em while Ben finished his last semester of law school in Iowa. I still think of those months as precious when I consider how much of her life I got to be a part of, even if she doesn't remember it at all. She learned to walk while I was there and we practiced stairs when we were feeling brave. We had breakfast dance parties to Green Day and Kelly Clarkson on VH1, where she learned how to bounce/squat dance. We fell asleep to Baby Einstein videos (I have never once made it through a whole video awake...). We dressed up in matching BYU t-shirts. I loved being an impact in her life and even if she can't remember any part of it, I will still claim 3 months' worth of influence on who she has become and is becoming. And I will be ready for all the Dallas sunset trampoline parties she wants until I can no longer do front flips anymore. And then I'll still gladly cheer her on from the grass.

xoxo Bug-bug!