Still alive...with pics, I hope!

Yeah, this year has not exactly been fun. lol Oh well, what can ya do, except pray it doesn't repeat next year! :-) Congrats on your new addition! :-)

beautiful family!!!

Can I ask you a question, DH and I are expecting a baby girl!!!!  We LOVE the name Aurora but people are giving us hell about it saying it's too hard to say, it's ugly yada yada.  Do you find people have a hard time saying your daughters name?  Did people give you a hard time about her name?  Any insight would be appreciated! 

Thanks!!
Karen

Thanks, Karen. :-) Well, we had Ari picked out as our daughter's name until I think the day before my induction. I was scanning the book of names ONE last time and when I looked at Roman's name it said brother to "Aurora". I had VERY briefly considered that name when I came upon it originally but decided I liked Ari better. But after I saw the book saying it was the sister name to my son's name, I changed it! :-) She goes by Aurora (a-rora is how we tell Roman to pronounce it) on all formal papers and at school, but I'd say we call her Rory about 75% of the time at home, and sometimes Rora. We do call her Aurora though so she knows her "full" name...and of course now that she is almost 2 and VERY sassy, she gets the Aurora Marie thing quite a bit. I think it is a beautiful name, and we wanted unique names that were pretty and strong, without being so weird people wouldn't know how to say them or the kid wouldn't know how to spell them. :-) My parents AND Billy's parents all HATED Roman with a passion, but they grew to love it. I mean there wasn't a day that went by they didn't ***** about his name until he was born and then they never said a word again. :-) I say use it. Plus, afterwards, one of my students mentioned that it is also Sleeping Beauty's name (Princess Aurora)...bought the movie and sure enough, it is...bonus! :-)

Hey sistah!! I like the darker do! I've let mine go natural too. My hair was already falling out in droves, then I had a BAD perm, fell out and broke off what was left. Couldn't bear to think what putting more color in it would do. I'd be bald!! LOL

Go****'s hard to believe I held that sweet little girl when she was nuttin but a turnip. Roman is still cute as always. Isn't weird that our kiddos will be 4 next year and Noah will be starting Pre-K. That just seems TOO weird! He's still the baby of the family!! LOL Not for long! He he!!

I hope things start turning around for you. Are you and Billy not together anymore? I'm sure there's a story there........you'll have to PM me. It's good to see you. I hope you have a good Christmas despite everything. HUGE HUGS!!!

We are off and on. He went to rehab in CA for a month, then went to Detroit for almost 3 weeks to live with his brother and we are having some issues regarding his problem. It's completely bi-polar. One day I am hopeful things will work out and the next I want to kick his ass out. It's very difficult. 

I know--the thought of Roman turning 4 is completely ASTOUNDING to me!! Rory will be 2 in January. She is BY FAR WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more work that Roman ever was. She is definately our high maintenance child. Roman is very independant, but Rory wants to be held or paid attention to 24/7....and I mean 24. She still wakes up in the night and will NOT be consoled unless she is sleeping in the crook of my arm in my bed. As cute as that is, I haven't had a good night's sleep in over 2 years, which isn't helping my stressful living condition with Billy. *sigh* Hopefully after she has her hernia surgery she will not wake up as much as I suspect she is in discomfort and just wants to be held because she is hurting, which is really upsetting. Just this past week she busted out the ABC song and counted to 10---first time, totally random! It was hilarious! :-) She tries to put my curlers in her hair and wants her toes painted like Mama...how cute. :-)