The Titanically Terrific Twelve Year Old ... TIMOTHY!

And, at last, today ends they holiday-palooza that we call "April" ... well, almost, my birthday is next week but, seriously, I promise you, my birthday is the last thing on anyone's mind at my house right now.  

Today was my sweet Timmy's twelfth birthday!  My sweet, darling, lovey Timmy.  I don't know what it is about Timmy but he's just a charmer.  He's just jam packed with charm.  Big blue eyes, blond hair with cowlicks in all the right places and a sweet tenderness that appears at all the right times.  

For his birthday this year he wanted to go to a Fossil and Mineral Show in Denver.  Mike, my Dad and I took him last Saturday followed by lunch at Biker Joe's Gourmet Dogs.  We had a wonderful time.  

Tim, Mike and Grandpa 

Today, on his REAL birthday, we went out to lunch and shopped around at a few 2nd hand stores then had dinner and cake at home.

Eli, Tim and our neighbor, Priest

 I hid dinosaur bones in-between the layers of cake

It made for a fun surprise when we cut into the cake.

Like the rising of the sun ...

... comes the rising of ANOTHER birthday.  Lest we get too complacent in our holiday enjoyment, this week we will embrace each holiday for precisely 24 hours before moving on to the next.

Today is our Josiah's TWENTIETH birthday!  TWENTY!  Old people always say, "Oh, coming on twenty years ago ..." and now here I am.  Coming on twenty years ago this morning our first born arrived.  He came out with his tiny hands folded as if he instinctively knew to pray for what was to come ... nine siblings.

Joe was born an old soul.  He's a thinker, a dreamer and a philosopher.  When he was 5, I found him awake in his room reading an atlas under his covers late at night.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Well, my Sunday School teacher asked if I am going to kindergarten next year and I'm trying to figure out where that is." Ha!

God knew exactly what he was doing by giving us Josiah first.  Joe takes his role seriously.  When a younger child is hurting or sad,  Joe hurts and is sad.  He checks on everyone before he goes to bed at night.  A few nights ago he woke me up at midnight and said, "Where's Luke?!" in a panicky voice.  Luke was sleeping over at a friend's house but I'm pretty sure Joe thought I'd left him somewhere.  My feelings weren't hurt ... it could happen.  The point being he was concerned and, even though he did tease Luke the next day by asking, "So, did you and Caleb braid each others hair at the sleep-over?",  he loves his brothers and sisters.

We'll be taking Joe and his girlfriend out to lunch for his birthday followed by a movie.  Joe is easy to please.  Happy Birthday, Joe!

See, brotherly love.

Michaela and Joe

Seven short years ago today ...

... Miss Elizabeth Helen Stephens was born!  Happy Birthday to dear Busy Lizzy!  Our sweet, precious Lizzy was definitely my most difficult delivery arriving after me being at 10 centimeters for FOUR hours via c-section followed by my hemorrhaging BUT none of this fazed our Lizzy.  She came into this world in a  whirl-wind of activity and it has never stopped.  She could speak in sentences by the time she was one and is still talking ... even in her sleep.  She was the first to get stitches, the first to cut her own hair (THREE times), the first to climb to the top of the bookshelves and anything else she could climb!  She is Lizzy and we adore her!

Right after she was born ... she's my little lambie. 

Lizzy at one.  We went to Estes for Christmas and when we got home she lined up all of her baby dolls and changed all of their diapers, fed them bottles and tucked them in bed.  A few days away and she had a lot of mothering to catch up on!

Lizzy and Kitten.

Lizzy's 5th Birthday with Kermit.  This Kermie got caught in the back door and in one big gust floated away as Lizzy cried, "My Keeerrrrrrmiiiiie!"  He was replaced.  

Today is all about Lizzy.  We will serve her breakfast in bed and cater to her every whim.  I am surprising her by taking her to see the  new Muppet movie all alone, followed by lunch out and a Sofia the First Tea Party with her little friends.  Pictures to follow ...

Disappointment, Excitement, Accomplishment ...

On the eve of our much anticipated trip to San Diego for Chess Nationals our dear Luke has come down with a terrible cold and strep throat.  Because this trip is just days before the musical, in which Luke is the lead as The Music Man, he really couldn't afford to miss even one more day rehearsal and this sickness will be stealing at least two days ... so with MUCH disappointment he's decided not to go so.  Poor Luke.  Poor me.  Poor Tim.  We will miss our Luke.

But, with great excitement, Tim and I are still planning to go.  Mike told Tim that if he could get his rating to 1500 on Chess.com's Tactics Trainer he could go to Nationals and Tim, being zealous like his brother Luke, got his rating up to 1506.  Quite an accomplishment. So, here we go.

Pray for Luke as he recovers.  Pray for me as I travel with Tim, which seems scarier than traveling with Tim and Luke.  Pray for Mike has he juggles our multitude while I'm away.  Pray the rest of us don't get strep!

I have two great recipes to share but think I might save them to blog while I'm in San Diego.  I have lots to do before I can turn my back on this "ocean" and head to the real ocean.