Jer's 50th Birthday Party!

The weather was beautiful. Perfect for after-dinner cigars on the deck.
The centerpiece...beautiful work Amanda. All it took was 11 dozen roses! Baby Berk couldn't wait to eat!
Appetizers!
The place settings
My husband took birthday cake to a whole new level. Nice work Thomas!
Two Beauties: Laura & Andrea
Me, Thomas & Berk
Michelle, Curtis, Jim and Jer
Sherry, Matthew and Tracie
The ever-amazing Amanda and Andrea
The master of ceremonies turning the water into wine!
Kickin' it up a notch-a champagne and raspberry toast
The master chef, Big V, working feverishly in the kitchen!
One of our favorite couples
Dinner by candlelight
Uncle Jer with his favorite girl (after Sterling, of course) Chris & Jer sharing a moment
Sisters!
Curtis & Michelle
Brent & Jen

On September 20, 2006 Jerry turned 50!! For those of you who don't know, Jer is Thomas' boss and one of our very best friends. He literally has become a member of the family since he has moved in with us until construction on his new home on Lake Sawyer is completed. Anyway, Jer is a bit sensitive about his age, but we wanted to do something for him since it was such a big milestone. He insisted we throw an "end of summer dinner party" rather than a birthday party. We agreed to call it that in order to ease his discomfort about turning 50, but really, it was a birthday party with some of his close friends, business partners & associates (about 20 people in all).

The day couldn't have started out more beautiful. The sun was shining, the sky was clear. We were thankful since we had planned on having all the men smoke cigars out on the deck after dinner.

Amanda, who works in Thomas' office was a huge help to me. Jer let me have her all day Thursday and Friday to get the house ready, the table set and all the last minute decorations purchased and put up. She created the rose centerpiece and did a fabulous job. We kept having to run to the store to buy more roses. It ended up taking 11 dozen. It looked so amazing. Very nice work, Amanda! You're hired!!

We hired Verl to cater the dinner. He made a delicious dinner of garlic caesar salad, flat iron steak, asparagus and chicken fettucini alfredo with sundried tomatoes. It was absolutely mouthwatering.

Everyone had both red and white wine to go along with their meal and Chris made a presentation about each wine and the region it is from. He did a wonderful job considering he had just returned home that morning from an exhausting week on the road. He makes speaking in front of people seem so effortless! Oh, if I only had that kind of personality!

We had a sinful chocolate cake with fresh raspberries for dessert. It was so rich and delicious most people couldn't finish!

All in all it was a fabulous party and everyone had a fantastic time.

6 month pics

Here are Berkeley's 6 month pictures! Please bear with me for putting so many pictures up. I'm just a first time mom who loves pictures of her baby. I know I'm not the only one who is guilty of that :) I have so much catching up to do as the last year of our lives has been full of fun and exciting changes!

3 Month Pics Cont'd.

Big Blues!

Every girl must have a pretty pair of shoes!

This is hard work!

Time for the thumb and a nap!

Berkeley did much better during this session than she did at the 3 week session, thank goodness. As you can see, all that posing really did her in and she was exhausted when it was finally over. Thankfully we were able to get some cute 3 month pictures!

Some favorite 3 Month Pics

Heaven on Earth
Cute little profile

What a poser
One of my very favorites!

Our Newest Addition

Here she is...our newest and best addition to the family! Berkeley Sinclaire was born on November 2, 2005 at 10:55 am. She weighed 5lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long. She is still a tiny little peanut...at her 9 month check up she only weighed 15 lbs 3 oz. She may be tiny, but she is quite the spitfire. It is so fascinating to me how their little personalities shine through from the moment they enter the world. Berkeley seems to want everything on her own terms and that is obvious just from her birth. She decided to join the family 4 weeks early. My water broke at 9:55 pm watching "The Office" on November 1st. I thought I had laughed so hard I peed my pants, but I remembered a friend telling me that she thought she had peed her pants, but her water had broken and the same thing happened to me. I didn't think it could possibly be the real thing since I had another month to prepare, but Berkeley thought otherwise. We waited until about 2:15 am to go to the hospital and I was dilated to a 3. I waited until I was between 4-5 centimeters before I got that heavenly epidural. All I have to say is God Bless the doctor who invented that!!! My labor really wasn't that long for a first time mom...only 13 hours. I remember telling my sister when it was over that it is totally 'doable'. I'm sure I would have felt differently had I not had the epidural. Anyway, back to Berkeley's "little" personality. So she decided to come a month early, but when it was time to push the nurse told me it looked like I would only have to push for 20 minutes or so. I thought "No problem, this is a breeze." Well, an hour later she still wasn't coming out and I was exhausted from pushing. I didn't think I could do it, but I was completely determined not to have a c-section. I had told my doctor I didn't want an epsiotomy either, but she just wasn't coming out. My doctor tried using the suction 3 times with no luck and apparantly the rule is they are only supposed to try the suction 3 times and if that doesn't work they use the tongs as a last resort. She ended up calling the "tong specialist" in and he ended up cutting me all the way and using the suction one more time with success! I was so happy not to have had a c-section I didn't even care that my 'undercarriage' was sore for the next couple months. Anyway, I just think it is amusing that Berkeley wanted to come into the world so early and then at the last minute changed her mind and refused to come out. I have a feeling she is going to keep us on our toes for the next 20 years or so!
These are some pictures we had taken when she was 3 weeks old. Looking back on them makes me laugh because we were so exhausted and so clueless, especially when it came to newborns. Thomas had just bought a beautiful new white shirt and within the first 10 minutes of our session she had peed and pooped on him and then to top it all off threw up all over him. I was almost in tears because it was not going as I had planned and everyone who knows me knows how I like to plan and be prepared. Little did I know that virtually nothing goes as planned when you have a newborn baby. Anyway, we muddled through it and managed to get a few great pictures.