Happy Birthday, My baby!

This is my baby in December 2002. He has a worried look on his face. My mom has always said he looked like a worried old man. Ian is such a sweet boy. We found out later that the name Ian means "Gift from God." He definitely is. I cannot believe it has been 6 years. My, how time flies. He had an awesome "Indiana Jones" party today. It was a lot of fun. I will post pictures of the day later.

This is a picture of Ian today. He had begged and pleaded for a pet for months. He wanted a guinea pig, then a rat, then a rabbit, then back to a rat. However, I am not a pet person and wanted to get him a STUFFED pet. So, Ryan sensibly decided on a bird. Owen has a bird and Ian handles his a lot. This is a picture of Ian and his pet "Puffin."

Moving On

Well, I always knew I was a topical kind of person: when my topic ran out, the blogging stopped. Actually, there have been several things/times when I started a post and either changed my mind or had to go do something else. Here where just a few of the highlights I was going to share of what's been going on the past two weeks: 1 - Emily had a great birthday party. It was laid back, low key and a lot of fun. I think all of the kids (and parents) enjoyed themselves. At first, she was a little nervous that it would not feel like a "party." 2 -I had a great birthday as well. It was on a Sunday so it was a little busy because of all our commitments. Ryan, the kids and my dad went in together and got me a recliner. We had one my parents had given us the Christmas before Owen was born but it was broken and BLUE so it didn't make the "new house" cut. Emily and Ryan went to pick it out - they even took a couch pillow to match. They came home with a beige chair (my couch is an olive color). I took it back the next day and exchanged it for a burgundy colored chair. The lady saw me walk in the door and commented that "she thought I would be back." I hated it do it - I really wanted to keep the one they bought - I just couldn't do it. I tried, I really did. However, I was very careful to make sure I got the same chair - just a different color. I have to say that I have not been in it that much but the kids are definitely enjoying it. Ian is convinced we got it for the sole purpose of rocking him! :) Not at night, just for little spells here and there. 3- All of the kids activities are in full swing. Owen had his first football game Saturday before last. He played a great game and is loving it. Emily's Chemistry class and choir has started back. They are both preparing for their 2nd degree black belts in November, so there is a huge amount of training and preparation that goes into that as well as everything else we already have going on. It feels as though every moment of my day is so structured that one idle minute and it is all a wash. I am like the princess in bug's life: "There is a gap in the line - what are we going to do!? There is a GAP in MY line!" My life has become one big "gap" that is spinning at a break-neck pace. I am coming to the conclusion that due to my control-oriented nature (I am saving that for another post later) chaos is God's way of keeping me reigned in and totally dependent on Him.

Happy Birthday Emily - Part 15

This is Emily's 15th Birthday. We will be having her party later this weekend. We are going to Red Robin this afternoon for a birthday lunch. At this point in our lives, lunch was much easier to arrange. Ryan is going to take a lunch break and meet us there. This picture is of Emily this morning after we had gotten home from the DMV. She was so nervous I thought her head was going to explode. Luckily, the man started joking and asking her questions so she tempered down a bit. I made her drive around the Food Lion parking lot and then I let her drive home. It wasn't too bad. She is very cautious. There was one guy on a moped making me a little nervous but she did good. I think I was more concerned about what bite me in Ryan's car than her driving! :) Ryan took the truck this morning so that she could drive the car. I am not ready for her to drive the van yet. I want her to practice a little before hitting the open road.

On one hand, I cannot believe she is 15; on the other hand, she seems so much older. She is one of the most terrific people I know. She is kind, intelligent, sensitive, cautious, and beautiful on the inside and out. She is a great, loyal, caring friend, sister, and daughter. I have been so blessed in the fact that I was chosen to be her mother. I hope she has learned a fraction from me what I have learned from her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!

Happy Birthday Emily - Part 13 & 14

This is Emily's 13th birthday. Next to her fourth, this was my favorite. We decided to have an Emmy/Oscar party. Once again, I was ahead of my time. There was NOTHING with any hint of this theme. You can find it everywhere now! Anyway, we decided the girls would make a movie or talent of their choice. One of my biggest regrets in life is that the first 6 minutes of this priceless video got recorded over. We have never reused a video tape again. After the talent/movie show, we got dressed for the award ceremony. We had gone to the Goodwill and purchased several party dresses and some of the girls brought dresses from their closets. They "shopped" and picked out a dress. My mom and sister-in-law came to do hair and make-up, my dad did nails. (For those of you that do not know - my dad is/was a nail technician.) Then we rolled out the red carpet and Ryan "announced" each girl as they came down the stairs. Unfortunately, I don't think we took a group shot of all the girls when they were dressed up. We took an individual picture as they came down the stairs. After the awards (everyone shared their favorite memory with Emily) we had the party and danced the night away. At the end of the video, everyone wished Emily a Happy Birthday. It was great.

This is Emily's 14th Birthday. We decided to have a mystery party. I decided against purchasing pre-who-dun-it type scenario cards. By mid-night the evening before the party, I was wishing that I had. We had asked the girls to come dressed as a profession. It was not quite like I wanted it to be; but, I tried. The girls were great sports and I think they had a great time anyway!

Happy Birthday Emily - Part 10, 11, & 12

This is Emily's 10th Birthday. She was in a crazy horse phase. So, since she was hitting the double digits, we decided to do something "big." We went horseback riding. And when I say we, I mean we. It was the last time I have been on a horse. Mine was crazy and took off down the creek (with me still on its back) and the little guide girl saying "Don't scream - it scares the horse!" Scare the horse, yeah right! We still laugh about that memory quite often.

This was Emily's 11th birthday. We had a doggie theme. They groomed their dogs, created dog bowls and got their nails done. The nails had nothing to do with dogs - it just became a tradition. I think nails have been done at every birthday since.

This is Emily's 12th Birthday party. We had an Asian theme. We went to see Sky High. A friend was doing a school project with a "Flat Zoie" that is why there is a paper doll in the picture.

Happy Birthday Emily - Part 7, 8, & 9

This is Emily's 7th birthday. This would be the beginning of a LONG line of slumber parties! In fact, I think she has had at least a few friends stay over every birthday since then. We made and decorated pillow cases, had a fashion show, and stayed up VERY late! It was a lot of fun.

This is Emily's 8th birthday. She had a fishing/camp out party. I don't exactly remember how this one came to be except for the fact that she wanted a tent for her birthday. Mr. Elton volunteered (sort of) to take the girls (and Owen & Andrew) fishing. They went to the pond that was behind the church. It is more like a marsh now than a pond. Anyway, you can see all the fish they caught. After fishing, they came back to our house cooked out on the grill (no, not the fish!), swam in the pool and camped in the tent outside. Luckily, the weather held out and it didn't rain.

This is Emily's 9th birthday. We had just gone ice skating. That was before there was a factory. Mr. Richard (Leigh & Andrew's dad) and Emily's grandma came to the rink too. This was our first experience ice skating. Although we had a great time, we learned it is very cold and sometimes wet!

Happy Birthday Emily - Part 6

This was Emily's 6th Birthday. We had a pirate party. I don't know if I was still feeling guilty over the Chuck-E-Cheese party last year or was still intimidated by the fact that my homeschooler was going to be "unsocial"; whatever it was, we had invited EVERYONE she knew. Anyway, we had decided on a pirate theme because she loved hunting for "treasure." So I had it all planned out, we would walk the plank, make eye patches and hook hands, and of course, we would hunt for treasure. I think we had about 16 kids coming. We had a huge backyard, it was going to be great. Well, another problem with being born in September is the fact that it is hurricane weather. The evening before, we had gone to my mom's for a family birthday gathering (nearly 1/2 my extended and personal family has a birthday in September). Now, my grandfather has been a fisherman and crabber on the NC coast for most of my life. He had come to his winter house for the weekend to celebrate birthdays. So, Saturday afternoon when they were calling for an evacuation of the coast, he decides he needs to GO there to properly secure his equipment, house, boat, etc. Now, my grandfather is a very intelligent man. However, for some reason he had/has zero trust and/or faith in weather men and refused to evacuate unless HE thought necessary. By this time, my grandfather was already in his early 70s and Hurricane Dennis was already there. So my uncle (who is two years older than myself - his frontal lobe is not quite as developed as it should be), his brother-in-law (who is Hispanic and at the time knew VERY little English) and Ryan volunteered to go tie everything down. So, they left the party and drove the 2 hr drive into the storm. If you didn't turn onto the driveway for my grandparent's house - you would run into the ocean. The guys parked the truck a ways down the road and walked the rest of the way. The water by the house was already chest high. They got into the house, put valuables (or what was left) in the attic, tied down tanks, etc. Then they decided they had better get back to the truck. The water had already come up to the grill. If Ryan was not a praying man, he became one that night. The truck was minutes from being washed away. It took them nearly 1 hour to get just a few miles to a friend's house more inland. Now, all this time I was at my mother's house waiting for updates. The last time we had heard from them was that the water was already chest high at the house. It was the longest night of my life. Fairly early Sunday morning, the storm was over there and moving toward us (just rain). So they went back to the house and some of the water had receded. Relieved, I went home to prepare for a pirate birthday party in the rain, with 16 kids! Ryan pulled in our driveway about 20 minutes before the party was to begin smelling of gas. I don't know why I remember that but I do. I can still smell it. Anyway, we improvised. We made patches and hooks in the living room, we walked the plank in the kitchen, we had a treasure hunt in the garage. In a moment of desperation, I filled a swimming pool with packing peanuts and put treasures in it. Overall, I think the party was a success despite the horrible rainy weather outside. There were many times after that where someone needed to go back down to the coast - it was never again Ryan. We have gone afterwards to help with the clean-up efforts, but never during. There are some things just not worth losing.

Happy Birthday Emily - Part 3, 4 & 5

This is Emily on her 3rd birthday. She had an Esmeralda party. At the time, we had never seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame, nor has since then, it become one of our favorites. However, for whatever reason, Emily was taken with the Esmeralda dress at the Disney Store. Emily and I were great window shoppers and the Disney store was one of our favorite places to go. I don't know if it was the jingle in the sash or the colors but it was all Emily would talk about. Well, Ryan and I decided we would splurge and get her the dress. Wouldn't you know that the store was out of her size. And, that was before you could jump on the Internet and order one. So the store said they could order one and it would be shipped directly to our house. I was thrilled. I had never spent so much on a dress, much less a costume dress, and it was going to be shipped to my house BEFORE her birthday, the sales lady assured me. Thirty minutes BEFORE her party was to begin, a friendly lady from the Disney store called to let me know that my order had arrived. We lived in Fletcher and the Disney Store was in Asheville - 30 minutes away. Needless to say, I was livid. We had the party, I had already bought Emily a little Esmeralda dress from Wal-Mart (just in case the Disney store fell through). When the party was over, Emily came into the house, laid on the floor and said she was sleepy. We checked her head, only to find a temperature of 102. So, a sick child, no present from her parents, no fancy Esmeralda dress. The day was a wash.

This is Emily the next day, feeling much better after a few doses of Motrin and a trip to the mall for her dress. It was not a pretty sight at the Disney store. Let's just say, we got five dollars off the price of the dress. It was years before I ever ordered anything from there again. Emily, however, was thrilled and I even let her wear her dress to school (daycare) the next day. For any of you that know me, that was QUITE a stretch! :) The crazy thing is, we are studying the Muslim culture in school and Alexa came down to lunch today wearing this dress. This is her idea of what Muslim women must wear. I guess I got my $25 worth out of this costume.

This is Emily's 4th birthday. This is the party where my love affair with birthdays began. It was by far, my most inspired party. At the time, Emily loved Blue's Clues. It had just begun to come on tv and the market was not crazy like it is now with Blue's Clues EVERYTHING. So, I improvised. My friend Tracey helped me orchestrate the games. We called it Emily's clues. Her cake had her two hands in pink icing on the top. We would play "Emily's Clues" to decide what to do. We had the clues for Duck, Duck, Goose, pin the tail on the donkey, have cake, and open presents. It was ALOT of fun. Ryan said I should sell my idea. Months later, you could buy it in blue's clues form along with a Blue cake pan for $19.99 at Kmart.

These are her friends that came to the party. Poor Taylor, (the only boy) was subject to all of Emily's parties - they were great buds. I have to say, Emily endured her turn at the Tonka party he had. The baby crunched beside Emily is Owen. Our neighbor, Hope, insisted he had to be in the picture.

This is Emily's 5th Birthday. The craze at the time was Arthur. (A couple of months after this, she got a dog which she named Arthur Read.) We just had a small gathering at my moms and we took her to Chuck-E-Cheese. We had just moved to Youngsville a few weeks before and since the school thing hadn't worked out too well, we hadn't met many people. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures at Chuck-E-Cheese. I was still under the impression that GOOD mothers bake birthday cakes and have parties at home. Ha, have I learned MY lesson! :)

Beauty

This past weekend, we went to the beach. We have been going to this same beach house for a couple of years now. We usually go a couple of times a summer, sometimes for a week, sometimes for just a weekend. However, we hadn't found the time to go yet this summer. We decided on the spur of the moment to go. The house is not right on the beach. It is behind the row of houses right on the beach and across a side street. We can see, hear, and smell the beach from the deck. Anyway, when we got there, we unloaded the car and the kids where begging to "see" the ocean. We walked across the street and up the stairs to reach the ocean. When you get to the landing the picture above is what you see. Alexa, was standing beside me and she says "Wow, the ocean." I say, "Alexa, we have been here a million times, you've seen the ocean before." Taking my hand, she says, "Yes, mommy, but I forget how big and how beautiful it is every time."

I was instantly reminded of child-like faith and making sure I try to see each new day, each new situation, each part of creation as it what created to be: beautiful.

Here are a few more fun pictures. We had a great time.

This is Alexa and Ian playing in the sand. The water was very rough on Saturday morning. They were frustrated that I would not let them go out very far - even though they were "partners" and would look out for one another. I love that they are great playmates.

This is Owen and Emily. The sun was so bright, I was having a hard time seeing what I was actually taking a picture of! We had gone and gotten boogie boards. They had just ridden in a wave.

Ryan had gotten some paddle ball rackets when we went into town. He and Owen were having some fierce paddle ball competitions. You would think they were in the Olympics. The funny thing was I just had to laugh at Ryan's concerns that Owen is "too competitive." That is SO the pot calling the kettle black!!!

This is a picture of Ian and Ryan taken minutes apart. Ian still enjoying and basking in the sun - even though we had been on the beach for two solid straight days. We have never been on the beach so long consecutively, ever. Unfortunately, this is Ryan being held hostage against his will. Unlike the rest of us, Ryan burns just walking to the mailbox. By this time in the weekend, he was ready to go back to the house! :) We had just as much fun at the house too, we played go fish, Banana grams, apples to apples, jr, and uno attack. It was a great time. I love my family and all their quirks too!

Happy Birthday Emily - Part 2

This is Emily on the day of her second birthday. She was so impressed, she dressed herself. Aren't you impressed by her fashion sense!? I love the mismatched Barney socks and of course, the one glass in the sunglasses. She was about to go lay down for a nap.

We had recently gone to the circus. This is a picture of Ryan getting ready to wake Emily up so we could give her her birthday present early because we were going to a friend's house for dinner. Poor Emily, she was such a sweet guinea pig. She just rolled over and laughed when she saw him and said "you funny daddy" and rolled back over until he whispered "there are presents" you didn't have to tell her twice.

This kitchen center is what we got her for her 2nd birthday. We were SO excited. This is the first thing we had bought (for Emily or otherwise) that was over $100. The funny thing about looking back at this picture is that I (actually Ryan at my request) just put this kitchen center up in the attic because Alexa and Ian were tired of playing with it. We still have all the parts. I guess that was a good $100 investment.

This is her talking on the phone. One of the kids in her daycare had a birthday the day after and we were going to their house to have a birthday celebration for the girls. It was a Lion King theme; that is why she has on her Lion King suit.

This is a picture of her 2nd birthday party. It was just family. My mom made her the carousel cake.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Emily. She loved Snow White. Ryan was out of town taking the CPA exam. I was terrified to stay in our house alone, especially during Halloween. I don't know why Halloween made a difference, but it did. Anyway, my dad took pity on us, took vacation time and came and stayed with us until Ryan got back. Dad and I took Emily to the Fall festival at our church. It's a good thing the wicked stepmother didn't ask the mirror who the fairest in the land was this night. :)

This is Emily's Christmas dress when she was two. I should have actually switched these two pictures because she is older in this picture than the one below. Alexa wore this dress for Christmas up until 2 years ago. My mom made it.

This is Emily's two year old picture. I must have had a thing for hats. She used to carry this little dog around. It is actually one of the first presents Ryan gave me when we were dating. I did not intend for the dog to be in the picture. However, when we got to the place to have her picture made, she freaked out when they changed the background behind her. So, we compromised and let her take her picture with the dog. After that experience, we always left the room when they were changing the backdrop or we picked one and stuck with it.