Mom's birthday/my anniversary/Angel-takes-photos weekend!

My wonderful Mom's birthday is on Sunday. She'll be (cough, cough, ahem!) years old, but she doesn't look a day over 40.

To surprise her, my Nana (her mom), and her two sisters Fern and Valerie drove down from Boston today!

Aunt Fern is on the far left, my Mom's in the middle. Auntie Val is on the far right and my Nana is in the middle. The other two dudes are two of my Mom's brothers. (Uncle Mike didn't make this reunion.)

With all that family in town, we knew we needed to do something fab. So we're having a party this weekend!

I'll be busy, busy, busy (what else is new?) cooking for the party, dealing with the kiddos and basically being hostess-with-the-mostest, because my Dad has made me Chief Party Planner.

But I am so excited because my girl Angel C. is coming to take photos of the party, and some portraits of the Jackson girls (that's my mom and her sisters and Nana)! The photo shoot is my gift to my Mom and to Nana, whose birthday is on the 10th.

I get to see my family! And hang out with Angel! And get some kick-ass photos!! (You can see some of Angel's beautiful portraits at asc-images.com.)

And...tomorrow is me and Lester's 6th anniversary! 

AND...Nana and my Aunties brought LOBSTAH! (Gotta say it the Boston way!)

So this is going to be a great weekend! Can't wait!

An anniversary story

Once upon a time, this little girl:

 Met and fell in love with this little boy:

They were just a little bit older than those photos suggest when they met, which is why they were able to go out on a first date to a restaurant that sold amazing sangria. Two pitchers of amazing sangria later, a lot of this happened:

Then, a year and a half later, -- on this very day in 2007 -- this happened:

Two and half years after that, THIS happened:

 And not quite two years later, THIS happened:

And now, the little girl and the little boy have achy backs and slightly-paunchy bellies and the beginnings of bags under their eyes from lack of sleep.

But they are the happiest they have ever been, and thank God every single day for bringing them together.  It's busy; it's noisy. The house is messy and the bank accounts are lean. But this has been, hands down, the most fun and fulfilling five years of their lives.

Happy Anniversary to my friend and partner-in-fun, Lester "LDiddy" Davis.

May we continue to live happily ever after!

I'm a terrible wife!

In my list of important things that happened in my unforeseen-blogging-hiatus, I forgot to add one very, very important thing:

On Oct. 5, Lester and I celebrated 4 blissful years of marriage!!

To celebrate, we took the day off together (folks with young children have to have their dates during the day!) and went to the Baltimore Museum of Art, where we had lunch at Gertrude's, which was deeeeelish!

Apple/pear tart with homemade ice cream. Yum! Yum! And yummmmm!


We also found out -- earlier that morning -- the sex of our newest baby, and so we spent a lot of time at lunch talking about how much has changed in our lives since we first met, started dating and got married.

Here are just a few things that have changed:

• We both left journalism for new, related careers. We're both happy we did.
• We live in the same state! We spent a year long-distance dating when Lester worked at a Florida newspaper and I was at The Sun.
• We own two houses. And neither of them is worth the money we owe on them. Yipppeee!
• Apparently, we like surprises: We went through an emotional year of trying to get pregnant and ended up with twins! Surprise! Then, because we had such a hard time getting pregnant with Cary and Dean, we were shocked in June to find out that we were pregnant again! Surprise!
• We have no disposable income.
• We attend church hardly ever, which is a real concern, but one I hope gets better when our children don't require mid-morning naps.
• We both weigh a little more than we did. Ahem.

And here are a few things that have NOT changed since we started dating, a year and a half before we tied the knot:

• We still order Chinese food just about once-a-week.
• We still are amazed (and very often amused) at how dysfunctional our families can be.
• We still love to watch movies and good TV shows together (whenever we can stay awake that long).
• Lester still cracks jokes that only he thinks are funny and then cracks himself up laughing at them, which then makes me laugh, which then makes him think I thought the original non-funny joke was funny. Which, sadly, perpetuates the joke-telling. (I think Dean has inherited this trait.)
• Lester still is annoyed by the fact that I can never manage to hang my clothes up after I wear them.
• We still have never had a knock-down, drag-out, name-calling, lamp-throwing fight. (I'm very proud of this fact).
• We still enjoy each other's company above just about anyone else's.
• Despite having 2.5 children and very demanding jobs, we still find time for one another and strive to make the other one feel just as important and cherished as we did when we were childless and carefree!
• We still try to remember to put God first in our lives, and to teach our boys to do the same. (Consider: Cary and Dean know to say "Amen!" after we say grace before dinner. And we say goodnight prayers with them every night before bed).
• Marrying Lester is still the best decision I made, aside from deciding to follow God.
• We are still actually, and truly, in love.
• We are even more committed to this marriage and this family than ever before.

And so I say to folks who think that having kids kills the love and romance in a marriage: Psssshaw! Only if you let it.

Happy 4 years, sweetie!