Happy Birthday "Little Valentine:

Today is a very special day in our home...not only is it Valentine's Day, but we get to celebrate our "little valentine's" birthday. Karissa was born on Valentine's Day 7 years ago in Charleston, South Carolina. I can still hear Dr. McDonald in his very southern accent announce "she's perfect". Up until that point I thought she would probably be a boy....boy was I surprised. I had purchased quite a few boy clothes and two days after I came home from the hospital, my mom and I made a trip to the store and exchanged them for girl stuff. We were so happy to have another little girl!! Towards the end of my pregnancy, things became quite challenging. I fell and shattered my elbow when I was almost 8 months pregnant and had to have surgery. I had physical therapy up until the day before she was born. So there was some concern about having surgery while I was pregnant but there was no way around it. Thankfully, Karissa was fine and my arm healed nicely.

Karissa is in 1st grade this year and doing quite well. She is also taking piano lessons, singing classes, learning to play the bells (which she is totally enjoying) and swimming classes. The girls keep me quite busy but that is the way I like it. Today we are having a birthday party so there will be pictures later from her party.