Happy 20th birthday!

20 years ago, my life changed once again.  I was already a mother but there were now 2 of you.  You entered the world making sure we knew you were there.  You showed yourself to be a different person than your sister from the start.  You kept us on our toes with your health from being hospitalized at 8 weeks, having a bad burn at age 2, multiple chest and bronchial infections leading to an asthma diagnosis, and stitches in your chin.  You have shown the talents God has given you from art to writing to swimming to music.  You are a lover of animals and a giving heart to all.

I have had the pleasure to know you as a daughter.  I have watched God grow you and work in your heart so I am thankful to also call you sister.  I pray as you start to spread your wings and fly that I might call you friend.  These 20 years have flown and I'm not sure how we got here but I wouldn't change anything in them.

I love you and look forward to seeing what God has in store for you in the next 20 years!  Happy 20th birthday, Victoria!!

Surprise of a Lifetime, Part 2

Twins!  I think it started sinking in and now it was time to start thinking of how we were going to go from 2 to 4 girls all under age 4.  We started having monthly ultrasounds so it was fun to see them getting bigger.  The babies were pretty much next to each other when we first saw them but by the next appointment, Baby B had moved down and Baby A was tucked up on the left side.  They pretty much stayed there for the rest of the pregnancy.  Thankfully, I never was put on bed rest but I definitely slowed way down in the last trimester.  I got so large that I couldn’t get to our dryer so hubby or sweet friends from church had to help me with the laundry.

Before we found out it was twins, we had begun discussing another girl name and were leaning towards Abigail.  After we found out we had to come up with 2 names, we had to figure out first if we were going to rhyme them, have them start with the same first letter or just do totally separate.  Since we already had one name, we decided to do both of them as Biblical names.  Hannah was chosen to go with it.

My biggest concern was the possibility of having a c-section and as I got close to the end, it was determined that would be the safest delivery due to Baby B being breech.  There was too much possibility of the cords tangling to deliver naturally.  I made it to 37 weeks, which is like 40 weeks for multiples, so the doctor and I were ready to have these babies arrive.  Since my first 2 girls were born on the 14^th of the month, we thought it would be great to have the twins on that date also.  Unfortunately, that was Valentine’s day and it fell on a Saturday so we couldn’t do a scheduled c-section so we scheduled for the following Monday, February 16^th and I prayed labor would start earlier.  That didn’t happen so at 12:25 p.m., February 16, 1998, Baby B was pulled out first to be labeled Baby A and given the name Hannah.  A minute later, her sister came out and was named Abigail.  We decided the order of the names because Abigail means “father rejoices” and for us that was because she was the last one or so we thought but that is another blog post.  2 healthy babies crying their lungs out was a beautiful sound.

It is hard to believe all this took place 18 years ago because many times it seems like yesterday.  God has allowed these 2 scrawny babies to grow into beautiful young ladies both inside and out and gave me the grace to be their mother.  I look forward to seeing what God has in store for them and maybe He will even allow me to be a grandmother to twins because that would be the cherry on top!

Happy 18th birthday, girls!!  I love you!

Birthdays and a New Year

So after Christmas, we really hit the ground running.  For three days, we were involved in the setting up and happening of a wedding for the daughter of close friends.  It was a wonderful time (and probably good experience as my girls are quickly approaching the age where wedded bliss could take place) but definitely busy.  I don't have any pictures to share as I was too busy with the wedding to take any.

The day after the wedding, the twins and I jumped in the car and took a drive to SC.  A close friend of theirs through speech and debate was turning 16 and invited them to her Mystery Dinner party.  The family graciously opened their home to us and even had a warm dinner of soup and potatoes waiting for us when we finally arrived.  The girls had a blast helping prepare for the party and then solving the mystery at the party.

 

No, we don't need another cat!

 Madame Mauve and Professor Plum

Lady Lavender    

The birthday girl in orange as Senorita Naranja

 The victim was found!

After our short but enjoyable stay, we traveled back home on New Years Eve.  We got home just in time for the bonfire party that was being held at our house.  Our oldest, Kemie, invited friends from her college and singles group of friends so we had about 15-20 young adults here.  We played Mafia, enjoyed the bonfire, danced and played card games.  The last ones left about 1:15 a.m. with one girl spending the night.  What a joy it was having all those young people around.

Now that the new year was rung in, it was time to think about speech and debate because we had to leave for the first tournament on the 6th in, you guessed it, SC.  I think I am getting to know that state quite well!  The rest of that week was quite a flourish of activity and on top of it, we had a pastor candidate come in town to see and get to know our church and area.  Since Mike is on the pastor search committee, we attended dinner with them Saturday evening which was a great delight.

Sunday was my 46th birthday so in the midst of the all the packing and getting ready, we found a little time to celebrate.  I chose Japanese for lunch and greatly enjoyed all the yummy food.  Victoria and Kemie bought a variety of cheesecake for dessert so that was enjoyed later in the evening.  Victoria did make sure to pick up "magic" candles but I did get them all blown out for a second!  I am thankful for another year the Lord has granted me and look forward to whatever He has as His plan for me in this next.

A 19 year old in the house!

December 14th is a day of celebration in our house.  That was the day we became parents with the birth of our first daughter, Kemie.  We actually began a day early with the midnight premiere of The Hobbit, Desolation of Smaug.  Victoria dressed up as an elf but we were disappointed that they didn't do trivia and a costume contest like last year.  Of course, we didn't go to the 3D at the Imax either so I guess that was why.

 

 After we finally woke up the next morning and had a very late breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs and biscuits along with apples and peanut butter dip, we gave Kemie gifts.  I think she was still tired !

The first gift from 3 of her sisters was appropriate both in being a pillow and with the mustaches!

 

There was also a pair of mustache glasses.  Very cute!  The lovely scarf she has on was a gift from her grandmother who recently learned to crochet.

 

Next she opened her gift from Mike and I.  I had originally ordered a Hobbit Cookbook but didn't realize it was a preorder and isn't going to be printed until sometime next year.  I cancelled the order and am suppose to get a refund but they said they would still send me a copy of the book so we will see.  Anyway, I scrambled for another gift and thankfully, she had recently mentioned she would like a pair of noise reducing headphones.

I think she liked them!

The last gift was from her little sister who asked if she could give part of her Christmas gift to her as a birthday present.  What she had wrote on the outside of the bag didn't earn her brownie points with her other sisters.

Are you detecting a theme with her gifts?  These are stands to hold her phone or iPod.  They also have magnets.

We then made our way to downtown St. Augustine for dinner and a scavenger hunt.  We broke off into 2 teams and looked for the following items.

1.    Green/white Candy Cane

2.    Santa Claus

3.    Mrs. Claus

4.    Baby Jesus

5.    Purple light

6.    Gold Wrapped gift

7.    Jingle bell

8.    Christmas bell

9.    multi colored christmas wreath

10. Elf

11. Santa hat

12. Reindeer

13. Train around the tree

14. Snow

15. Snowman (different place than snow is found)

16. Angel

17. Camel

18. moustache (extra points for different shapes or unusualness)

19. nutcracker

20. blue stocking

21. gingerbread house

22. decorated Christmas cookie

23. cardinal

24. fireplace (extra point for fire going)

25. connected Mary & Joseph

 No real winner although the other team said they had found about 22 of the items.  We found about 19 of them.  Here are 2 of my team's favorites.

We finished with dinner at The Floridian which was somewhere new to us.  The food was good but it was a little chilly as we were sitting outside.  They had heaters which did help.  I had the N Waffles with BBQ chicken and really enjoyed it.  We also ordered the Cheese Board which had some wonderful local cheeses on it.  The cheese was definitely aged well!  I won't post the picture I took there because my mother is already not happy that I posted it on Facebook.  I blame my old eyes for not being able to see that she wasn't smiling!  All in all it was a great celebration of my oldest turning nineteen. 

Pumpkins, 50th birthday and Camping

Halloween...is not one of our favorite times of the year.  We have never really participated in it and usually find other activities to do that evening.  That being said we have let our girls dress up in costumes at times and done activities such as pumpkin carving.  This year, they all asked to get pumpkins and carve them so after Daddy said yes, we headed to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin.  I just came to get pictures!

Kemie carved her pumpkin that evening as she was going to a carving/birthday party.  I was not able to get a picture of hers because it had turned black before I was able to.  Here it is lit though:

Can you guess what she carved?  A hint for you - there are dots between the carvings.  They just don't show up well in the picture.

The rest of the girls and Daddy carved their pumpkins yesterday.  They came out quite well!

 

G's

Hannah's

Abigail's

 Victoria's

Daddy's

Here they are all lit up!  Can you guess what they all are?

I also mentioned a 50th birthday.  Hubby's brother celebrated the beginning of his 5th decade of life this past Thursday.  His wife planned a surprise party for him so we, being 5 of us, headed down to the Tampa area to help celebrate.  The older girls were not able to go due to work and other activities.  It was sad not having them with us but on the bright side, we got to camp dog free!!

It was also a family reunion as dh's aunt and uncle also celebrated a birthday on the same day.  The uncle was not able to be there but both of his mom's sisters were there.  Below is the birthday boy with wife and MIL sharing a letter she had put together for him.  I wasn't able to get a picture of the birthday girl.

We took our camper and enjoyed a short but delightful camping trip.  We stayed at Hillsborough River State Park which is a campground we have enjoyed a few times before.  It was very quiet the first night but became quite busy the 2nd night.  We found time to take a hike Saturday morning before we left.

The girls even found a rock climbing wall!