Pumpkin Grin

Heidi has just recently lost two more teeth. She now has a total of six teeth that she has lost. I had to take and document this great move into adulthood. (hahaha) Her new nickname is now Jack-O-Lantern.

Birthday Weekend

I am lucky enough to almost share my birthday with Heidi. My birthday is March 20th and her birthday is March 23rd. We are 30 years apart. The thing I think is really funny is that I am exactly 30 years apart from my mom. So, my mom's birthday is March 2nd, it kinda cool!! Heidi is lucky to also share her birthday with Eric's mom, Jeannine. On Sunday we had a big birthday party for Heidi, Jeannine and me. It was fun. Of course, it was mostly about Heidi. She still gets really, really excited about her birthday. She turned seven, which is so hard for me to believe. It went by quickly!! (now you can figure out how old I am and how old my mom is)

Heidi opening presents

My brother and sister being silly!

The three birthday girls blowing out their candles. Heidi, Trina and Jeannine.

The birthday cake. Heidi wanted butterflies and a purple cake. That I can do.

Alex and his YOUNGER cousin Robbie. How adorable are those boys!!!!!!

Heidi, Amy, Kendrick and Johnny playing with Heidi's new Barbie. It was funny, Johnny said it was okay that he was playing with Barbie's because he was playing with the Ken doll.

Heidi got a new scooter for her birthday from mom and dad.

This picture was just too cute not to post.

A great video

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.


I found this video on a blog that I like to read. I was very impressed with this young girl and her calmness and how articulate she is. I wish I could express myself like this. I just wanted to share because I really liked her answers. ENJOY!

Where do you eat your olives?

This is where Alex and Kelly eat theirs apparently.

Fighting

This subject has been on my mind for the last two months. Why the last two months you ask? Well, my kids have been sick the last two months on and off, which in turn means they are stuck at home, grouchy, with nothing else to do but FIGHT!! Man, it stinks!! All I have been hearing lately is "You are the meanest sister ever!!" or "I am never going to play with you again, I HATE YOU!". My favorite is little miss Kelly, "Hiee, mean or Amy mean!" Well I have been thinking about how my parents survived this when I was young and it brought back some fond memories.....(play harp music here)

Kelly just got done telling Heidi, "Hate you, Hiee" Notice the mean looks on each face.

I was told by my mother on numerous occasions that I just adored my older sister Stacey when I was young, but she hated me. She was very jealous when I arrived on the scene. She was at the point of being the only child. So, she used to feed me soap, mud (that I remember her doing), spitting on me, and locking me in the closet and walk away. Then it slowly progressed into the teenage years and it got worse. We were physical about our fighting at this point, pushing, shoving, kicking, sitting onto of each other so you could not move, spitting your face. I have an actual scar from one of our fights. I like to show it to Stacey just to remind her of what she did. Of course the yelling and name calling continued, it just got more creative. We also put our aggression onto our only brother Kenny (poor guy). We would gang up against him and make him suffer, double time. He would tease my younger sister Merideth, whose only defense was to scream at the top her lungs, it was annoying. So we would defend Merideth. Some how Merideth was always the good kid and we never really fought with her, just Kenny. The thing I remember the most out of all of this is my mother singing "There is Beauty All Around, When there's love at home". We would just stop fighting to make her stop. It really was annoying, but affective. (HMMM, I may to have use this one and annoy my kids)

This is the scar my sister gave me on my arm.

The good part about all of the fighting and yelling and making life miserable for each other as often as we could, we actually became friends. It did take quite awhile for this to happen, mostly we had to move away from each other and grow up. But, it did happen. My sister Stacey and I are now really good friends. We still don't agree on much, but we can look past it all and call each other up on numerous occasions and just chat. It is really nice. I even like my brother now, especially since he remarried a wonderful girl (I did like him before that, it was just hard to be around her). As for my wonderful baby sister, she is a heaven send for me right now and helps out with my kids so much. I just wish I could find her, her mister right (Anyone have someone for her, she is amazing).

See, they can play nicely together.

So, in the end, or the morale of the blog, is that I just hope that my kids fighting will just last through their kid years. I really hope that they will be good friends when they are older and enjoy the majority of their years on this earth as good friends. I have a friend that I have just recently made contact with that is not talking to her sister or brother anymore. It made me sad to hear that. That relationship will follow with you into the eternities, and the misery will not end here, but continue. I just hope that will not kill my kids for all the fighting they do right now, because it will build their relationship, that I am sure of. My main wish here with all the fighting is that in the end they love each other, as an eternal family should. I am glad that my siblings and I have reached that point, because I could not imagine going through the eternities without them.