Happy Birthday Cayenne!

Ten years ago Cayenne took her first breath on this earth, and with it she inhaled (and vaporized) life as I knew it. There was now a fellow human being who would call me Mama (be still my beating heart!!), whose pure existence has attached consequences to everything I do. Raising our daughters to be confident, courageous and caring adults is the underlying current of our daily lives and I'll never underestimate the importance of that responsibility. Not that they won't have things to complain about when they're older - Acacia's already told us what those things are! - but the goal is to give them the tools they'll need to figure out life for themselves when they're on their own. Things surely did change when Cayenne was born, but what a treat this chapter of life has been!

Ten years old. The girls are already halfway to "on their own" and there's so much more groundwork to lay in the next ten years. This is why I'm struggling with the timing of everything happening right now: In order to help pay medical bills and lost income, I'm getting my real estate license and have begun working with an agent recently (which is why I haven't written in a while; it's been hectic around here). When school starts I won't be missing out on time with them and will be contributing to the family coffers and that's a good thing, but right now I'm missing precious moments with them.
(Welcome to the real world, Kim!!)

The flip side of that coin is having Michel and Ilona here, and the girls are racking up some quality Grandparent time. That makes my heart so happy! On June 24th we celebrated Cayenne's birthday at their home just up the valley where they cooked up Cayenne's favourite meal: Pork Tenderloin and Brussels Sprouts. Absolutely delicious.

We'd also planned to have a birthday party with her friends, but Cayenne decided she wasn't in the "partying mood" and she'd rather have a Mom n' Daughter date (how cool is that?) so I'm trying to come up with something special enough for my big girl.

(drum roll...) Here it is folks! The first photo on the blog of Nick's new eye. He has an appointment this Friday in ABQ to see if this is as good as it gets, or if they can have the prosthesis track better. So maybe this is the in between photo. We'll see. In the meantime, the ocularist told Nick that if he tilts his head down, his eye will photograph better... but I think it looks kind of comical (in an endearing way, of course):

He's so gorgeous, doesn't matter what direction he looks in. (Nice cheeks, Acacia!)