I will start with Al. My husband {my Rickey Ricardo} is the most amazing man on earth; he due to no fault of his own spent a year and a half looking for work all the while enjoying being a stay at home daddy after he lost his job of 8 years due to the economy. This year in May he found a job! Not just any job the lucky man found a job that he loves and they value his hard work, his opinion and his extreme work ethic.
{To my man, I love you, appreciate you, respect you, and am the luckiest woman in the world to have you as my life long partner. I love being your Lucy although; sometimes we are more like Gomez & Morticia from the Adams Family. You are my forever love.}
Our beautiful daughter Maddy chose to go to a different high school than all of her other friends because she felt it would benefit her future career and college education. This year she has grown up so much. She has maintained excellent grades in this her first year of {big kid} high school. She has maintained her extra curricular activities with her piano and voice lessons; as well she has taken on a new interest and is now on a swim team. She has developed such good communication skills, and we as a family unit have been blessed with the ability to talk about {ALL} subjects not matter how big or small, no matter how easy or difficult.
{ To Maddy, you are gifted through and through, your heart is beautiful and I love that you love yourself enough to do what is best for you. I also love that although you will be 15 soon, you trust your dad and I to talk about your life {the behind the scenes version} and the challenges that you face. You, our sweetness are the best daughter we could have ever hoped for.}
Our Michael Turned 4 this year. He started the year with only 1 word, “Owie”. Now he can say, Owie, No, Yes, Hair, Toe, Arm, MOM, DAD, Hand, Rope, Coke, Pop, Ice, Eyes, Nose, Wet, Light, Car, It Hurts.. I am sure I am missing a couple as it seems lately these days they just pop up out of no where. They are fighting to get out and they do{ like little word burps}. He is in his second year of preschool and he loves it {especially circle time they do yoga} He loves to come home and show us his new stretches. He has also become quite the performer, constantly going around the house singing songs {not all words known} and he usually ends each song with big, arms up in the air finish {like tahdah}.
He loves arts and crafts {and I love receiving them}.
{To Michael, you my son have achieved so much this year, I love that more and more we are gaining the ability to talk to you and have you talk back to us. Hearing you say Mom is the best gift you could have given me this year as I have waited 4 years to hear it. That my son is huge and something that the doctors said would probably not ever happen. You are going to grow a lot this year I know you are. I can’t wait to see where you will be this time next year}
We have also gained new family this year, Clifton, Carrie, Blaec, Baylee, Cj, Liam, and Reagan. We love them so much and the love they have for us and Michael is not a mystery. We have truly been blessed to have them in our lives.