Beautiful

After Olivia's Birthday Bash, this is what I saw outside. It wasn't even an intense storm. Just some clouds and rain, but it was so beautiful! I usually only see rainbows in part and not very clear. This one was so clear I could see the entire semi circle, all the colors and I was expecting skittles to start pouring down on me. But it was so breathtaking that I had to thank God for all the blessings in my life.

Birthday Fun

Alex made her this wonderful chocolate cake. 

To Olivia,

I can't believe it's already been 1 year since you entered this world. After 9 months of wondering what you'd look like, me or daddy; Would you have red hair or blonde; Would you be real quiet like James or real loud like Ryan; Would you let me sleep for 5 hours at a time or would you need to sleep in my arms for the first month or so.

After you were born, we could tell your personality would be a bit like both of your brothers.  Your labor was longer than James' but shorter than Ryan's.  You weighed 7lb 11 oz, 21" long and had red hair like Ryan and big blue eyes!  I will always remember the first time I saw each of my little ones.  Somehow you knew I was your mom because you looked straight at me when I spoke to you.  Unlike the boys, you have always wanted to be touching me.  You're so content to be held by me or sit in my lap or climb over my legs.  I'm sorry to say, that it looks like you inherited a gap in your front teeth, just like me.  Hopefully you won't be as self conscious as I was and just remember that it will be fixed when you're old enough to get braces. 

The first time I saw you, you reminded me of your daddy.  But people now say you look like me, except for the red hair. 

You are content to watch and play with your brothers. Nobody can get you laughing like those two.  You look up to James and enjoy playing with Ryan.  They both think you're great and still call you 'Baby'. You're pretty quiet, except when you want some food or somebody takes your toy away. 

You are so smitten with your daddy and Pop Pop that it makes me want to cry every time you reach for them.  Happy tears! 

We look forward to the woman you're going to be and we pray that we will not mess you up too bad. Happy first Birthday and I love you!

Dear Mom,

Dear Mom,

Today for your 32nd birthday, we will celebrate with style!  We won't tell you No! when you ask us to go take a nap or clean up our toys.  We will happily and with a cheerful heart, pick up our toys when we're finished playing without hitting each other.  When we wrestle, we will not kick or bite or make someone cry.  When we go for a walk we won't stand up in the stroller or complain about my leg or foot or stomach hurting.  We won't yell or constantly talk while we are in the car. We'll give you a few minutes to think about your wonderful kids instead of constantly whining or crying or yelling.  We won't pee or poop in our diaper today so you won't have to change diapers on your birthday. 

We are so grateful that you bore all 3 of us and are forever indebted to you. 

We love you,

James, Ryan and Alex.

Grand Plans!

This was my attempt at growing some herbs from seeds.  They were doing alright except for the spearment, which didn't want to sprout.  But then we left suddenly for a week long trip and the poor little sprouts were not loved at all.  So, I'll be buying some already grown plants this year.....

Out of Sorts

Things have been pretty crazy lately, here in the South.  Alex and I are preparing to move back to our old house and you wouldn't know it by looking at my house.  That's to say that packing is not something we do well.  But anyways, we received a call a few weeks ago that Alex's Grandmother passed away so we were figuring out the best way to get up to Nantucket. Fly up? Leave the kids? Drive???  It's quite a long drive.  It's technically 18 hours, but with traffic it ends up being 2 days on the road.  Because we didn't want to spend $2500 on plane tickets, we opted for the drive.  This is a drive we've done many times and you think we'd be better at it.  Our plan...drive as far as we can and then stop overnight. 

Well, all of us besides Alex were sick when we made the trek. All with various sorts of a sinus gunk that had everybody hacking away in the back of the car.  Needless to say, good attitudes were not that apparent.  However, what can you expect of a 4 year old, 2 and 11 month old.  While Alex got to enjoy the task of driving, I was the car entertainer.  Quite hard to do when you're coughing yourself and have half a voice. 

But we made it up in time for the ferry and were at the house by dinner.  We had great weather and although the circumstances made it tough to enjoy Nantucket, we were grateful for the relatives we saw and the time away from home.

This is a picture of Alex's cousin, Jodie, with James and Olivia. 

The Twilight Holdgate Saga

As you readers know, Alex and I have read through the The Twilight Saga Collection series and have become official aficionados (sp?) on that.  We didn't start off  that way, but we've gradually grown towards it.  We were never huge Harry Potter fans or any other series for that matter.  Here's how it started: I needed a book to read! So my mother in law gave me a mindless read, Twilight.  I really enjoyed it and then I rented the movie for me and Alex to watch.  And although were weren't terribly impressed with the movie, Alex was willing to see the 2nd movie, New Moon. Since then, my dear husband has read and reread the entire series and we have intelligent conversations about it.  Team Edward vs. Team Jacob.  Character development, were the right actors picked for the roles in the movie? You know, stuff like that. 

Our impressions:
*I'm not 100% committed to the actors who portray Bella, Edward and Jacob
*The Volturi were cast well
*If the producers continue to have Bella's character grow as it does in the books, the actor could be great.
*We feel like the relationship between Bella and Edward in the movie was not developed as well as the book. A lot was left out.

Yes, I do see the humor in this series. 

*Vampires who only kill animals are good vampires - their souls may not be damned to hell
*Humans can find really pale people with orange eyes very attractive, even though they're freezing cold
*It is better to be a vampire than to die as a human

In light of that, Alex and I really enjoyed reading all four books.  We did go see New Moon in the theaters and thought it was better than the first movie. We are really excited to see the 3rd and 4th movie because the books were so good. 

New Moon came out on DVD last week and yes, I bought i for my dear husband. That might be the first DVD I've purchased since we got married.....