Ten Years…

June 26, 2004

 

 

2005

 

 

2006

 

 

2007

 

 

2008

 

 

2009

 

 

2010

 

 

2011

 

 

2012

 

 

2013

 

 

2014

 

June 26, 2014

 

 

Dear Hubs,

 

It has been ten years full of love.  There have been trials, especially this tenth year with Catelin’s surgery and MJ’s diabetes, but there is no one I would rather have by my side – to pick me up when I’m down, to give me hope when I feel hopeless, and to remind me that I am loved unconditionally.  The trials have only made our love grow stronger and our faith more resilient.  One of the best pieces of advice we received before getting married was “don’t keep score – remember you are on the same team.”  Team Eco has grown over the past few years and the love, the foundation has thrived with it. 

 

Thank you for taking a leap of faith that late summer day all those years ago… when you came over to 184 Triumph to tell me your feelings.  I saw that look in your eyes- the look you still give me every day but now it is more sure, more wise – the look of true love.  Thank you for ten amazing years.  Thank you for being an incredible father.  Thank you for always being by my side.  Thank you for your unwavering support.  Thank you for believing in me.   And thank you…thank you for loving me.

 

Love,

Jules

 

 

Happy Father’s Day

We had a great time celebrating Steve on Father’s Day.  He spent the morning playing golf with a couple of friends and then we met at the Eco’s house for some fun at the pool.  The kids made their own cards for him – it was cute to watch them coloring and writing so intently! 




MJ, Ty and Catelin helped Steve open his presents… pictures for his DAD frame which we have done yearly since 2012 (see pics below- I can’t believe how much they have grown!), a canvas of his favorite picture of them, and a watch.  

Steve’s favorite presents were these videos I took of the kids doing their Father’s Day “interviews:"

Catelin had just woken up and didn’t really want to answer all of my questions.  She was also wondering why the boys weren’t awake yet- that’s why she says at the end “Why’s Ty night night?”

Just to be clear….Steve is 6’2” and I think he does more at work than just "get money" - ha!  But he is good at boxing Russians!  (MJ still thinks his dad is just like Rocky).

Even though Ty is 3 now, he still has this sweet “baby” voice- man I just can’t get enough of it.  Doesn’t this video just melt your heart?!

Happy Father’s Day to our dads who have given us so much love, guidance, and support over the years.  And to Steve – you are one incredible daddy.  We love you so much.

CL’s 2 Year Stats and End of the School Year Fun

We had Catelin’s 2 year check up and she is doing great.  She remains a big - VERY big -girl…

Weight: 36 lbs (>>99%);  Height: 38.75”  (>>99%).  But she is still my baby! 



The kids got out of school a couple of weeks ago – it has actually been really nice not to have to stick to a schedule for a little while.

Ty’s last day class was May 16th.  They had a fun end of the year party which included bubbles and popsicles!



MJ’s pre-K class had a lot of fun activities the last week of school.  First, he had field day…it brought back so many memories!!!  I volunteered for it so I got a lot of good videos and pictures.  Here are some of my favorites…

The next day they went on a field trip to the Children’s Museum and I was one of the chaperones.  They had a BLAST!





May 21st was MJ’s final day of Pre-K.  I can’t believe he will be in Kindergarten next year!  They had an adorable “move up” ceremony where the teachers talked about their favorite memories of each child during the school year.  It was a tear-filled morning.





MJ’s slide including the following:
When I grow up I want to be an…ASTRONAUT
What the teachers love most about MJ is…HOW SWEET HE IS TO HIS FRIENDS AND HIS LOVE OF ANIMALS.


The class headed over to the park after the ceremony and had so much fun together (even though Ty kept photo-bombing all of the pictures!)





The kids have been enjoying lots of pool/park/zoo time…here are a few pictures.





And did I mention that we have a lawyer in the family now?!?!  Eddie graduated from Georgia State Law School on May 16th.  We are beyond proud of you, Uncle Eddie!!  His next stop is NYU to get his LLM (Master of Law). 



The kids got a hold of Eddie’s drum set up at my parent’s house while we were celebrating – I’m so glad these things are not in our house!

Catelin is TWO!

I can’t believe our baby girl is TWO!  We celebrated this past weekend by having a small party at Colleen and John’s house.  We had a family discussion about what the theme should be- options included Frozen (she LOVES the music) and Hello Kitty (she also loves “meow-meows”)..and then Ty – in a very matter-of-fact tone says, “No- it has to be Minnie.  Minnie is her FAVORITE!”  And Minnie it was….

When Catelin came down the stairs and saw all of her Minnie decorations she was over the moon.  It was so adorable.  She ran around screaming “Minnie!  More Minnie!”  She loved the signs, the balloons, plates, napkins, etc.  She was hugging everything that had Minnie on it. 



We put her in her Minnie Mouse bathing suit so she could play with her brothers, cousins, and a few close friends in the pool.  She prefers to sit on the steps and play rather than get in at this point, but she still loved it.





We had burgers and hot dogs and of course a Minnie cake!  Catelin, as you can probably tell, does love her food, but she is not big on sweets.  She loved the Minnie cake topper though!  She was a little overwhelmed when everyone starting singing Happy Birthday (she is not used to being in the spotlight since she has two older brothers!) so she spent most of the song in mommy’s arms.  I didn’t mind

And of course MJ and Ty blew out the candles…




Then it was time to open presents.  The hard thing about this age is that they want to play with every single thing that they open right away, so we tried our best to keep it moving along (without having too many melt downs).  She did insist that we put on her new Frozen night gown, though!



And then we brought out her gift from us- the Frozen castle!  Her eyes lit up when she saw it and she ran as fast as possible to get over to play with it. 









After that we tried to get a family picture..you know how this usually goes (I chose the best one!).



Happy birthday to our little princess.  Your second year of life has been a challenging one –two hospitalizations and a major surgery with an incredible recovery.  You truly are a miracle and we thank God for you every day.  We love you “little miss!”