When the boys' 5th birthday came around, we invited my sisters family over for a barbecue, at Kenny's request. They were growing up so quickly, it shocked me. I couldn't believe how big they already were. Its surprising how quickly the years go by. However, I was happy that I wasn't going to be having anymore children. 5 children is more than enough to keep me busy for quite sometime. I was in my mid forties when the boys were born, and now that they're 5 years old, I'm pushing 50 while Courtney is in her late 30's. God, I feel old.



Paige is now 17. She's our little musician. She's most skilled in her piano playing, but she also plays guitar, bass, and is trying to convince her father and I to buy her a drum set. We wont. Not ever. If she wants to play her keyboard at 1:30 in the morning, she can turn it down, drums on the other hand...oh, I just shudder at the thought. She's the most creative in our family. All the girls in the family, including my mother, did ballet as children, however Paige was the best in her class by far, and got a special statue for her achievements in the class. She does music club after school and is the best in her group at everything musical. She's a real virtuoso and loves everything that has even anything remotely to do with music.

Her other interests include going after guys her father doesn't like. First, there was Jayden Ratcliff. "Jay", as she called him, was a junior when she was a freshman, and he wasn't the best kid to be around. He was rude, loud, and rather obnoxious, and if I may speak bluntly, kind of a dick. So, because he was the first boy she introduced to us, Kenny now assumes that she goes after the same kind of guy, and that's part of the reason why he's so against Jordan Crowley, even though, from what I've seen of him, he's a nice kid.



Julia is 15, and she's our writer/future journalist. She adores writing, much like Courtney. She especially loves writing factual articles on whatever is assigned to her. She's also the bookworm of our family, and like me, you could say she's a bit of a loner. She is very friendly once she gets to know people and is a real sweetie. You could say that she's a girly girl, but also a bit of a nerd. She's not too interested in boys, but she does keep talking about this one guy, Nickolas Rapp. He's in the newspaper club with her and she thinks that he's "quite amazing".

She's shy in school and she's always the first one to finish her homework and help her younger brothers with theirs. Her voice, like she is, is very soft and sweet, and I can see her being quite an excellent mother someday. However, she doesn't want to be stuck at home, and she insists that she's going to become a journalist, and eventually, be the star of the evening news.



Natalie is much like me in the sense that she loves art, and she loves to paint. She also adores taking photographs and is quite good at it. She'll spend hours painting after she does her homework, and sometimes, we'll even paint something together, which can be a rather awesome experience. She's very much a free spirit and while she say's that she "really likes" Cliff, she's not in an exclusive relationship with him, and "doesn't really plan on it", either.

She tells me that she wants to travel, and go see the world before she's "too old to enjoy it", and I love the fire she has. She's very passionate and very much an intense personality. Most people find her to be over the top and loud, but it's that very thing about her that makes me smile. She knows what she wants and how to get it.



Teaching the girls to drive was the most terrifying experience I have ever encountered in my entire life. There was a lot of yelling, break-stomping and mini heart attacks. Julia was the easiest to teach to drive, then came Paige, and Natalie...Nat was quite the pain to teach, as she kept insisting that I had no idea what I was doing. Not that I "ever did anyway", according to her.



Mostly, the boys were very...well, they were boys, and Kenny was more than happy to run around outside with them, push them on the swings, or throw a ball around with them. As a pro athlete, he didn't tire out until after the boys did, which was always a good thing, as by the end of playtime with their dad, they were worn out.

Scott was a little more...intense. His personality was the most like his older sister, Natalie's. Chase, on the other hand was very outgoing, funny, and very active, but he wasn't as in your face as his slightly older brother.



After the school dance in late spring, everyone displayed their dance pictures in their room. Julia, being the lover of pink that she was, wore an all pink dress, the same color as her carpet. I tried to get her to wear another color, but she insisted on the pink.



Natalie went with Cliff, and they were just plain adorable in their picture. She kept insisting that she was "just keeping him around for now", but you could see when they were together, you could see how into each other they really were.



And when Paige went to prom with Jordan and won prom queen, I was beyond happy to have my oldest daughter win, like I had when I was her age.

All in all, as I watched my daughters grow, I was more and more torn as to who I was going to pass the legacy on to. Each one of the girls would be amazing as mothers and at upholding the legacy, and as time went on, the choice just got harder and harder.



I was now, thankfully, a much, much better cook than I was before. Now that I was at level 8 in my cooking skill, as well as level 7 in gardening, the meals I was making were continuing to get better and better, and I think my mother would be beyond proud of how good of a cook I'm becoming.

However, now that I was gardening, cooking, cleaning, yelling at my children to clean their rooms and do their homework, calling the repair man every time something broke, doing all the laundry and attempting to spend some time with my husband and children, I hardly ever had any time to paint anymore. That made me a little sad. I loved painting, it was the way that I dealt with things, or just the way I relaxed. Now, however, I never had the time.



After Kenny would come home from work, the kids would have just finished eating dinner, and were normally burning off some steam by playing a game or doing a fun activity together. Most of the time, it was hopscotch. Everyone loved to play hopscotch.

Often times, on Friday nights, whoever wasn't out on a date or catching up on late homework was playing hopscotch in the play area off the living room.



A few months before her 18th birthday, Paige came up to me while I was in the garden and asked me something that was quite unexpected.

"Mom?" She asked.

"Yes, Paige?"

"Um...I was wondering if it'd be okay if I got a horse."

"A horse? Why do you want a horse?" I questioned, very confused.

"One of my best friends, Sara West has one, and he's so beautiful, and well, I just really want one. We have the land, the yard already has a fence a horse can't jump, all we need is the stall and another small fence to protect the plants." She mumbled.

"Where are you going to get the money to buy a horse?"

"Oh, I'm not gonna buy one, mom. I'm going to adopt one. Plus, I've been saving up money from my job at the grocery store, I already have my car...please?"

"I'll think about it sweetie," I smiled, now knowing exactly what to get her for her birthday.

"So, I'm guessing that means that you need to talk to dad about it?" She asked.

"Yup, now, hurry up and get ready for work, silly."

She smiled and skipped back into the house, and I just laughed a little, smiling widely at her.