Katie's 19th

Last Thursday was Katie's birthday!

Katie was our 8th grandchild and 3rd granddaughter.

She is a very important part of this very large family

and of course a very important part of this very beautiful family.

I wrote about Katie for her birthday last year in this post and clicking on this link will take you to links to all her previous posts showing lots of pictures and telling lots about how Katie has changed 'through the years'.  So I'll just post a few pictures here

and talk about what's been going on in her life during the previous year.  First of all, shortly after her birthday last year the holidays arrived which meant a trip to Gulf Shores with her large, extended family and where this famous and traditional jump shot was taken.

After doing well in school and earning several scholarships, she graduated in June.

In the spring, she coached a recreational volleyball team (the Spiking Swordfish) ages 4-6 grade and found it to be the most amazing, rewarding experience ever! 

And she spent the summer working as a swim instructor at a local swim club

and preparing for college.  She chose Pitt and in August we took a family picture before both she and David were off to school - one in Pittsburgh, one Huntingdon, both in Pennsylvania.

 She's doing well in college and likes it so far.  Although unlike high school she gets to sleep in most days, the classes are much harder.  She's taking general first year classes like Chemistry and Biology but also some really neat classes that she loves like Developmental Psychology and a digital media class where for her final project she'll be creating a website to display her digital media projects and I'm looking forward to seeing that!  She's also tried out for and made it on to a travel/club volleyball team where she excels. 

We should have seen that coming though along with lots of other characteristics since she was little.  For example, obviously she would play volleyball,

be a great cook,

do all her projects carefully and with great concentration,

be strong,

and loving to her parents and her siblings

and just be an all-around rockstar!

So obviously some things just don't change

But there's so much more to tell about this wonderful girl.  She's so smart and not just in studies but in common sense.  She's logical and sensible and always practical.

 But more important than all that, she's sweet, kind, generous, thoughtful, helpful, and hard-working.  And if all that seems too good to be true, it's not!  She is all of these things and more and the best granddaughter anybody could ask for.  We could not be more proud of her and we're hoping her birthday was the awesome day that she truly deserved and that the coming year is her best year yet!