Happy Birthday, Carlee!

My cousin Carlee is celebrating the 2nd anniversary of her 29th birthday today! She's one of my FAVORITE people in this world and has blessed my life in so many ways!

Our dad's are less than two years apart, and raised us across the street from one another. Our mom's raised us in the village mentality and if they couldn't find us in our own houses, they knew we were across the street!

Carlee always agreed to play Barbies at my house and in return let her babysitter tell me about the birds and the bees. She and her siblings always taught me good mischief, too. ; )

We danced together from childhood (as you can tell from our leotards in the photo), but also loved playing gymnastics in my front yard or on the swing set. When the movie "Nadia" came out on TV, we watched it over and over again and pretended to be the main girls doing our floor routines over and over again. Thankfully, neither of us pretended to drink the bleach like Nadia did!

This weekend, Car and I are celebrating yet another birthday together. It wouldn't be the same if we didn't! And to celebrate our love of all things dance, we're having a So You Think You Can Dance theme party...primarily because we love to dance and dress up in costumes. She may be a wife and mother, and I may be an old broad, but there's still the joyful little girl inside each of us who wishes she could dance around the front yard all day long!

Carlee, I love you like a sister and hope today is your perfect day! Happy birthday!!!