Dear Vivvie,

You are now ONE-YEAR-OLD! I have no idea where that year went. It has been the fastest year of my life. Now I know what old people mean when they say, "Don't blink or you may miss something." I feel like I just had you, then I blinked, and now you are already one year old! And look how stinkin' cute you are...


You are still a tiny little thing. Here are your stats:

We threw you a grand party for your 1st birthday. We had all the family over. We ate dinner first, but I didn't take any pictures. Then we moved on to presents. You weren't sure what to think at first, but finally sort of got into ripping the wrapping paper...


After you got the wrapping paper off, you would pull the contents out of each box with this "super excited" expression on your face...


Everyone spoiled you mercilessly! After presents, we moved on to cake. Here's your 1st birthday cake. Don't get me started on it. It was supposed to be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than this, but the cake place messed up and didn't make the cake that you were supposed to have. They had to make this one last minute instead. Sigh... Oh well, it's still pretty cute. And, it probably tasted better than your original cake would have tasted because this one was made with butter cream frosting instead of fondant. Plus, I got 50% off because they screwed up. And, you know how I love a good sale...


We sang happy birthday & then let you tear into your cake. Your "tearing" consisted of you daintily dipping your finger into it...


And then tasting it. You weren't quite sure what to think at first. In fact, by the look on your face, everyone thought you hated it. Hmmm, maybe you aren't my daughter...


But, after a second taste...


You became a fan. Okay, so maybe it's possible that you could really be my daughter...






Happy 1st Birthday Vivvie Girl! I think I'll end your last letter in the same way I ended your first letter because it is exactly how I feel every single day. "I just want to tell you how much I love you already! I am so happy to have a daughter & to have that daughter be YOU! I always felt like I would have a daughter someday...and I am so glad that you are finally here!" Thanks for finally joining our family Viv. You really, truly have completed this family...our little Grand Finale, as we like to call you. We all adore you to pieces. Love, love, love you!!! --Mom

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day! I have mixed emotions about this day. On one hand, I'm pretty sure this holiday was born when Hallmark got together with all the florists & jewelers they could find and said, "Hey! I've got an idea!!" But, on the other hand, it's about the most wonderful thing in this world--LOVE--plus, there's candy involved...and who can complain about that?

This year, our Valentine's Day was pretty low key. Of course, the kids had to make a Valentine's box to take to school. In the past, we've always just wrapped a shoe box in Valentine's wrapping paper, stuck a few stickers on it, and called it good. I was fully prepared to do this again this year. But, Connor had other plans.

He came to me one day and said, "Ummm, Mom. Do you think we can do a COOL Valentine's box this year?"

I replied with, "Okay, what would make your Valentine's box cool? Do you want more stickers? Some ribbon? Different wrapping paper?"

"No," he answered. "That's not what I'm talking about. I mean a REALLY COOL box...like all the other kids have."

"And what makes the other kids' boxes so cool?" I asked.

"Well," he said. "They're not regular boxes. They make them into cool things...like monsters, or Legos...or even iPads! How cool is that? An iPad Valentine's box!"

"Oh no!" I thought. "I'm the uncool parent who sends their kid to school with a lame shoe box wrapped in Valentine's paper, when other parents are making boxes that look like iPads!! Because, let's be honest...nothing SCREAMS Valentines like an iPad! Who are these parents & why do they have so much extra time that they can sit around & think up ideas for unique Valentines boxes?"

After my silent rant was over, I remembered my best friend for situations like this...Mr. Google. That man has all the answers...all of them. So, I sat down & typed in "Cool Valentine Boxes." Voila! At my fingertips were millions of brilliant ideas! There were Dinosaur boxes, Dog Boxes, & even boxes made to look like a school bus. I thought to myself, "This is so awesome! How did people parent before the internet?" Then I thought, "Oh yeah, they probably just wrapped & decorated shoe boxes like another parent I know."

After looking through hundreds of ideas, Connor & Aiden decided they wanted to make boxes that looked like Pirate Ships. "Because nothing says Valentines like a pirate ship!" I could hear my own words coming back to bite me...


We got the idea from this website. The name of this blog is Last Minute Mel. On it, Mel promises to have lots of great ideas for various situations when you find yourself with very little time to do a project. Well, let me just say that Mel must work pretty quickly in those "last minutes," because it took us several hours! But, in the end, I thought they turned out pretty cute. Sorry this picture is a little blurry. My camera was on a weird setting...


Mel even had some great ideas on how to make a pirate ship a little more "Valentinesy." Like writing "Ahoy me HEARTies" on the sail, and adding "Surrender ye booty" toward the bottom near the slot where classmates could drop their Valentines. Here was Connor's sail that he decorated...

Bringing brothers together since 2010. At least something can. --Lindsay

Dear Vivvie,

You are now over 11-months-old! I can't stand how fast you are growing up. I wish I could freeze you the way you are right now because this stage is so much fun. You continue to be such a good-natured baby! You are happy & smiley most of the time. If you're not, it means you're hungry, tired, or your brothers are driving you insane. But, most the time, you look just like this...


Speaking of your brothers, they've come up with some fun, new nicknames for you recently. Aiden now calls you "Cutienne." And Cohen calls you Be-yun. It used to be Bibienne, but I guess that has become too tiresome, so he's completely taken out the middle syllable. I think you'll probably respond to anything at this point...

Several years ago, Mike & I were on a date at Applebee's. As we were waiting for our food, a father & his teenage son came in & sat down at the table next to us. Somehow, we started talking, and they told us that they were having a Father-Son night. The dad went on to explain that he & his wife took turns taking the kids out on "dates." Each kid got to go on one date a month with either their dad or their mom. Then, the following month, they would go out with the other parent. It was their own special one-on-one time with that parent. Mike & I thought that was such a great idea & we decided that when our kids were a little bit older, we would start doing that same thing.

Well, this year was the year. We even made it our New Years Resolution. Vivvie is obviously too young right now, but we decided that we would take turns taking the boys out on one-on-one dates once a month. To help us with this, we bought "The Pass of All Passes." For those of you who aren't familiar with this pass, it is a year-long pass to 11 different venues. We figured it would be a good way (and a cheap way) to take the kids out to do fun things.

For the first month, we decided to take the kids to a fun center that is only a few minutes away from our house. They have a rock climbing wall, laser tag, a glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course, an arcade, a playset, and (in the summertime) some little amusement park rides. Connor & Mike went out first. They did some rock climbing...

But, when it was Mike's turn to go up, Cohen decided he wanted to go as well...without a harness. Luckily, one of the employees saw him & got him down. Funny kid.

So, those were our "dates" for the month of January. Next month, we will switch what kids we take...I will take Connor & Cohen, and Mike will take Aiden. Connor already decided that he wants us to go play Laser Tag on our date next month. I haven't played Laser Tag in over a decade. I'm sure it will be an amusing site.

I hope that this is a resolution that we can actually keep up through the year and, hopefully, from here on out. It's amazing how much kids will open up to you when you are one-on-one & doing something fun together. I hope that it makes our relationships with our kids stronger, and that we have a blast in the process. I'm pretty sure this is the most fun I've ever had keeping a New Years Resolution. Hands down! --Lindsay