37

Today is my brother, Brandon's 37th birthday. We miss him everyday but even more on days like today. I love this picture of him, he has an awesome smile!


We try to celebrate him each year on this day and tonight was quite the celebration.

We all went to my parents house for the party! We sang Happy Birthday and my mom (who just had her 3rd knee replacement 5 days ago) blew out the candles.



We Skyped with Devin & Karissa on one laptop and Sara and her family on another laptop and we had Griffin on the phone so we could all celebrate "together".


My grandparents are in town to help my mom, so we were lucky to have them here for this special day too.


My dad wrote a song for B and sang and played it for us tonight. It was awesome! Looko how talented my old man is: writing a song, playing the song on guitar and harmonica, and singing the song!


37 Years (for Brandon)

37 years since your birth
you filled our lives from the first
Momma, daddy held you tight
believing you would always be in sight

you grew tall and became a man
not knowing what was in the plan
your a father now - a beautiful girl
her eyes so bright and full of thrill

Cour plus years have come and gone
since you left us all behind
with tears in our eyes we said good-bye
hoep you're smiling down while we still cry

You lived your life with hoy of heart
trying to know your personal part
you took on life like the great boxer's bout
in the end your flame burned out

Longint to see you in another place
we miss you know and think of you often
Remember alwasy and never forgotten

Four plus years have come and gone
since you left us all behind
with tears in our eyes we said good-bye
hope you're smiling down while we still cry

written 19 Feb. 2010
by Gary J Delozier
Copyright
Keep the Peace Music

A cute memory

The other day at work I was showing my friends some old pictures of the kiddos and came across this cute video of the boys. They must be about 4 or 5 in this picture and they are playing in their sandbox. Notice how they are in their own little world with just each other. They use to play and play and even if 10 other people or were in the room they seemed to notice no one but each other. They still do it sometimes but not as often. Now it is usually when playing legos or video games. I love you Cole and Noah!

Family Time

Yesterday was President's Day and so the kiddos were out of school for the day. I only had to work 6 hours in the morning so we decided to spend the rest of the day as a family. It has been WAY too long since the 6 of us have gotten to spend time together doing something fun! It was a much needed fun family day! We went and saw the new movie "The Lightning Thief" and loved it! Cole has been reading the books and telling Noah all about them. They have been SO excited for this movie to come out. I decided to read the book this weekend before seeing the movie. I didn't quite finish. I took it with us to the theater and read until previews started and still had 7 pages left to finish after the movie. We enjoyed both the book and the movie even though they were quite different. Jenna had to cover her eyes and hold on tight to Daddy a few times but no nightmares lastnight so all is well.
After the movie we went to dinner at our favorite restaurant, The Olive Garden! As always good food! The kids were so well behaved and we had lots of laughs!
I love my husband and my kiddos and miss all the time we use to have to spend with each other. I know I am doing the right thing going to school and all, but it's so hard to make enough time for everyone and everything. I cannot wait until December when I am done! I just keep telling myself it will be worth it.

A Fun Birthday!

My dad's birthday is February 1 and Rylee's is February 2 along with my niece, Kaienta. So on Sunday we got together with my family to celebrate all the birthdays. Since Kaienta is far away in Spain we made videos for her. My dad wrote her a birthday song and he played the guitar while the kids all sang it for her. I think it meant a lot to the kids and Kaienta.
We all miss her so much.

Here's my dad blowing out the candles on his cake.

Here is Rylee enjoying her birthday cake.

For the actual day Rylee planned the menus:
German pancakes and orange julius for breakfast, tacos for dinner, and scones for dessert.

Here she is enjoying her breakfast.

Last week we ordered new glasses for her and they came in today.
She was so excited and they look so good on her.

We had the Martin side of the family over tonight to celebrate. She got lots of fun gifts and I am not sure which she liked more: the money, the ipod nano, or these mismatched socks. For those of you who don't know, Rylee never wears matching socks. She says it's bad luck. My sister-in-law found a little store in the Sacramento airport today with lots of products from a company called Little Miss Matched. She got Rylee this pack of 3 socks, each one was different.
Rylee loved them!!!

She said she had an amazing birthday and I am so glad! She deserves it!

My Baby is 13!

Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday my water broke and we were heading to the hospital and about 12 hours later our lives were changed forever.

Here are some pictures of Rylee at about 4 months old.

Here she is a few months ago. She has grown from a cute little chubby baby with big brown eyes to a beautiful, incredible, amazing young women with the same big brown eyes.

She is still the same fun loving, easy going girl! Love you Ry!