Lauren Joy Hopkins!

Our newest family member Lauren Joy Hopkins was born at 8:10 AM on Monday, July 27, 2009 at Centennial Hills Hospital in Las Vegas. She weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 21 inches. She is growing quickly and by her one week check-up had gained a pound!

Larissa is doing well too and is slowly recovering from the c-section delivery and is working hard to establish a routine so that thier sleeping periods will be longer.

Mark is a great father and is quick to help with burping, diapers, cuddling, or any of the million things that need to be done - especially since Larissa can't do many things for several weeks.

Kaitlyn (7), Tyler (5), and Trevor (2) are excited and love thier new baby sister a lot!

I have been blessed to spend time with them during the last two weeks. The big kids stayed with Papa Scott and I in Henderson while Larissa, Mark and Lauren were in the hospital. Then the kids and I hurried to Overton to welcome them on Thursday afternoon, July 30th. I left Overton on Friday morning to pack for our trip to Denver and returned to Overton on Tuesday, August 4th and stayed until Friday evening August 7th.

What a blessing and miracle babies are - so fragile, innocent, yet strong and determined, filled with hope for the future, and beauty that touches my soul... just thinking of the journey Lauren has made makes me very grateful!

Almost 50!

Our daughters gave me a wonderful party in January, just a few days before my Birthday. This photo was taken by a neighbor in an impromtu photo session when Larissa and Melinda decided the party invitation needed a current picture on it!

My maiden voyage into blogging!

My brain is full of memories and I have boxes of memorabilia. But I only have a few photos in albums or displayed in frames. We have tons of pictures held captive in our computer too. I have always wanted to journal and scrapbook. I am a bit of a perfectionist and even more of a procrastinator. So my goal is to be better about sharing my pictures and my feelings about the special people in my life, the joy they bring to me and the experiences we have along the way. It seems like a daunting task to journal or scrapbook 50 years of life... So I will start with the recent past and hopefully that will inspire and motivate me!