Emani's Birthday Party

Evie and I went to our friend Emani's 2 year birthday party this past weekend. It was a total BLAST!! Here are some pics for your enjoyment. Videos to follow in separate posts =)

Evie's Birthday Presents!

Evie got a microphone to sing in, a cash register, a picnic set with basket, and two dresses for her birthday. She is wearing one of the dresses in these pics. She had a wonderful birthday. She went to the park and a jumping place with her Daddy and then she had dinner with me and her Grammy and Gramper and opened presents with us too. All in all she had a great 2nd birthday =)

Happy 2 year Birthday Evelyn!!!

Two years ago today you came into our side of this world. I wanted you so much! I could not wait to meet you and hold you in my arms. And you made your entrance into our world so easily. My birth with you was everything I could have hoped for and more. Having you at home with your Dad and my parents and Heather and Christine was exactly what I wanted and needed. There was more love in that house that day then I have ever felt before. You bring so much love and light into my life and into everyone's life you encounter. You could light up the state of Georgia with your smile and your laugh. You are truly a gift to me and your Dad. He and I may not have succeeded at marriage but we definitely succeeded at making and raising the smartest, sweetest, funniest, and silliest child ever. And you are the greatest gift that your grandparents and great grandparents have ever received. Your Grammy and Gramper love you more than anything in this world, anything. They tell me all the time how much they love you and how incredible you are to them. Your Nana never fails to mention how amazing you are when she calls me. Your Mimi and Grandpop feel the same way too. And your Gigi and George and Great Grandma Evelyn and Oma love you to pieces too! And your Uncles Paul and Stan and Aunts Karen and Vanessa all love you tons as well! You won't know for many many more years how amazing your existence is to us and what an amazing and wonderful impact you have had on all of us but that is okay. For now just know that when I rock you and bathe you and kiss you and chase you and tickle you I am in heaven. And the same goes for your Dad I am sure and your Grandparents and your Aunts and Uncles. We all love you so much!!

Happy Birthday Evie! =)

The Royal Treatment

Birthdays and Thanksgiving

The month of November is a big one for our family. There are 4 birthdays in the immediate family plus Thanksgiving. Gramper's birthday was November 1st. And this week is Grammy's birthday and my birthday and TwinBro's birthday and Thanksgiving. Yeah, it's gonna be a busy week.

Ben ordered my gift for me already. It's actually my birthday and x-mas gift. He and my parents got me a laptop computer. I am really excited! I have never had a laptop and in hopes that I will be back in school in the Spring, I wanted to get a laptop to take with me back and forth. It's a Dell Inspirion 1501, nothing super fancy but just fine for me. I love birthdays!

Thanksgiving will be a new experience this year. We are going camping. Grammy and Gramper rented 3 campsites. Auntie V, BigBro, DocRom, Gigi and George, and the three of us will be there. This will be Evelyn's first camping trip so we are hoping she will love it as much we do. I think she'll have a blast! TwinBro was supposed to come but due to things out of his control he won't be able to make it, it's a bummer but we'll see him soon I hope.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

7 - the Ketchup Edition

1. Ben skipped work today to finish reading the new Harry Potter. He was up til 5AM reading and now is back in the book. I let him read it first because he is a faster reader. I made him swear not to tell me anything. He slipped once already, hopefully, that is all the slips he will have.




2. Evelyn got a lot of wonderful, thoughtful, and fun gifts for her birthday! Grandpop and Mimi sent presents to Ben and I in traditional Jewish style, instead of gifts for Evie. We got little bottles of our favorite alcohol and water balloons and some fun tabloids. We love it all! Evie's GiGi (my Grandma) got Evie a beautiful new dress and shoes, as well as a new super cut bathing suit and coverup. Uncle Paul and Aunt Karen came to visit Evie for her bday and Karen's brother got Evie a very kickass shirt which I will post a pic of soon. Evie got a nice card from her Oma and Opa (Ben's grandparents). She also got a nice card from my awesome friend Angie! Our friend Heather got Evie some awesome books. And our other friend Melissa got Evie a very cute outfit (pictures to come). Evie's Aunt Vanessa also sent her a very sweet card. I think that is everything. I am gonna post pics of her loot later, but suffice it to say that Evie is a very well liked lady. =) Thank you everyone for your kind words and thoughtfulness!


I made a chocolate "dirt" cake for the party.




Here's Ben with the outfit we got from Melissa.


Thanks Melissa and Emani and Jerome!


Here's our gifts from Grandpop and Mimi, thank you!!


Thanks Steve and Anne and Nora (Karen's Brother's Family)

The shirt reads "ABCD: For Those About to Read, We Salute You!"


3. The days before and on Evie's birthday I was kind of a wreck emotionally. I was really caught off guard by my emotional reaction to Evelyn's birthday. I am not upset that she isn't a baby anymore, I loved her as a baby of course, but I don't miss the baby phase at all! I was just hit by what a major year this was for me and Ben and our life together. We had a lot of really amazing and sad stuff happen this year. And our lives pretty much turned upside down at least 3 times. We had Evie which turned us upside down. Then we found out Ben had to go to Africa for 6 months. Then Evie and I moved to the farm with my parents. Two out of three of those things were really great and wonderful changes. So the days around Evie's bday were pretty emotional for me, I was crying a lot and just feeling really raw. It was really weird. I feel a lot better now.

4. Mamma Tomato, Daddy Tomato and Baby Tomato are walking down the street. Baby Tomato is walking really slow. Daddy Tomato repeatedly tells Baby Tomato to speed up. Finally Daddy Tomato walks back and squishes Baby Tomato and says "Ketchup!"

5. Training is going really well for the Triathlon. I am really proud of myself for not giving up. It has been really hard! I am pretty sure the only reason I haven't given up is because I don't want to disappoint my Dad. He is a GREAT motivator for me. I do love the feeling I get at the end of a run/bike ride/swim, I feel really proud and healthy. But I hate the feeling I have at 6AM when I wake up and I know I have to bike 5 miles and swim 400 meters. But I keep doing it, and I am getting stronger and more confident that I can do the race.

6. Ben is having a really hard time not talking about HP. I might have to kill him. ;)

7. Ben and Evie and I had our pictures taken yesterday by a professional photographer. She came to the farm and took pics for about an hour. The proofs are great! I don't think she really caught the essence of who we are as a family but she did make us look really fancy and pretty. Even the goats and the dog look fancy! I'll put up pics soon.

Thanks Grammy and Gramper!

Evie's present from Grammy and Gramper! Whoo Hoo!

Our Friend's Birthday Party

Here's Emani's Mom and I last year with our girls.



Here's us with our girls when they were 1 month old. Now they are a year old!!

Happy Birthday Evelyn!!!

Here you are at 11:03 PM July 20, 2006.



Here is you and Daddy when you were 2 days old.



Here's you and me when you were 2 days old.



Here's you when you were 4 days old.



We thought we couldn't love you more than we did those first few days. You've proved us wrong everyday since then. We love you more every minute and we are the luckiest people in the world because we get to be your parents. Happy first birthday Evie-lou!