Little Girl Buys Ring and Asks Dad's Girlfriend to Marry Him — Then He Pops the Question!

A 6-year-old Alabama girl had a special surprise planned for her father’s girlfriend on Christmas Day — and so did he!

Linlee, of Brent, bought a toy ring from school earlier this month with plans to ask her father’s longtime girlfriend, Madison Wallace, to marry him. Little did she know, her father, Matthew Murphy, had a ring of his own.

“She came home showing the ring and saying, ‘I’m gonna ask Madison to marry daddy!’ ” Murphy, 25, tells PEOPLE. “But Linlee didn’t know that I had bought a ring and was going to ask Madison to marry me.”

On Christmas Day, an excited Linlee bounced over to Madison and presented her with the gift, asking her to “marry daddy.”

“I thought I was opening up a simple gift, but I saw the ring and heard her ask and I was thinking, ‘This isn’t real,’ ” Wallace, 22, tells PEOPLE. “I just thought Matthew wasn’t ready to move forward in our relationship. I thought it was a joke on both me and Matthew.”

“I couldn’t believe it! It made me so happy! The smile he had on his face, I could tell he wanted this just as much as I did!” Wallace tells PEOPLE. “I couldn’t believe he was going to be mine forever.“