Two Posts in One Day...But For Good Reason

I know this is rare, but I'm just now learning how to upload pics to my loaner computer, and I didn't want to do this post without a picture. Just wouldn't be the same. Trust me.

First, and most importantly, I want to celebrate the birth of Jessie Claire. She was born May 17th of 2004, and is shockingly five years old. Have no idea where that time went.

Now if you know Emma and Aubrie, we could switch their baby pictures around, and no one, and I mean no one would be the wiser. Even Aubrie has convinced herself that pictures of Emma are her. Anyway, Jessie Claire has been her own individual since day one. While Emma's and Aubrie's hair was/is curly, Jessie's is stick straight. She was a hefty 9 lbs. at birth (w/nothing but Stadol, I might add) and is now a petite flower of a little girl.

She is a thinker, organizer and has one of the most tender hearts I have seen. She is so needed in our rough and tumble family, and makes me want to be more tender, too. She is our resident gymnast and is still torn between that and dance, and since we only have time, energy and wherewithal for one activity per kiddo, she must pick. It will be interesting to see which way things go. She also will be officially added to our little home school this fall although we've been easing her into things throughout the year.

I cannot fail to add that while she is, for the most part, a delicate flower of a child, she is also a Williams and has no problem in standing up for herself when she's just plain had enough. She actually used to get pretty physical ...okay, she was a biter. The upside was that she would only bite Emma (that sounds bad, doesn't it?). From my selfish perspective it at least saved me some embarrassment! The only exceptions to that were Reece Gibson and a kid at the YMCA. You didn't mess with Jessie's toys. Gladly, we've left that behind, but the tenacious attitude lingers. I hope we're the kind of parents that can help shape that attitude into perseverance and never-let-go faith.

Happy Belated Birthday, Jessie Claire!!



One last thing, if this post, you remember my encounter with the scorpion and my hope that he would NOT invite his friends to our house. Well, no such luck. Just discovered another live one in the girls' room as I'm putting them down for nap. 15 minutes ago. Ughhh! Going to have to find out how to get rid of these things. These pictures are of the first DEAD scorpion we found (also in the bathroom). I am so glad to say that the other two aren't quite as hefty as this one, but that only slightly eases my freaked-out-ed-ness.