Jessica

Today is Jessica's birthday. 21 years old. I now have 2 children considered legal adults by the law. When did that happen?

I am afraid that for so long Jess got the short end of the stick. The second child. The only girl (for a long, long time anyway) in a sea of boys and noise and messes. The one that always had to help mom, babysit, take care of, pick up, hold, watch, clean or just be there because the boys had something to do, somewhere to be. But in the last couple of years she has found her wings and become her own person and I am not looking forward to the day that she leaves and I have to figure out how to do my life without her there everyday.

Happy Birthday Sweetie! I love you. And I don't always want to walk fast ;)

In her room with Sambo?

She and her friends go out and find great places to do photo shoots. I cried when I saw this one. I thought of her as a grown up. I saw this as our heavenly parents sending her their spirit children to raise.

This is my sweet grandson, Hunter. Jess took this picture the day his parents went to the temple for the first time.

Jess and I, Jacob and Ethan playing in the water at Imperial Beach in San Diego last fall

Isn't she a beauty?

Jessica and Michelle

Here she is helping me make the trees for the gingerbead project that I wanted to make. The deadline for entering a contest was nearing and I was running out of time to finish. She stepped in and worked hard while I was not home, so that I could enter the contest.

Imperial Beach again. It was cold and stormy that day.

Carving pumpkins. I always find the biggest pumpkin I can and we make elaborate designs and carvings. It takes hours, but we have fun. Notice all the specialized tools for carving and cutting?

How did I get such a beautiful- inside and out- daughter?

Happy birthday!!!

She took most of the photos on this blog- check out more on her blog or here or here (this last one is a facebook page, but I think you can get to it, as it is on my page)

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Indeed.