12 candles for Sage!

There are a few birthday milestones that our kids look forward to. The first is when they turn eight and get to choose to be baptized. The next big one, especially for Sage was turning twelve, when she was finally old enough to go into Young Womens at church and hang with the older girls! It's really hard to believe our sweet baby girl is now a young woman. From shaving legs to using makeup for special school events, she is definitely growing up on us.

This year, she decided to have her birthday party at Aquatica. She was very excited to spend the day with her friends there and although the weather was a bit cooler by Florida standards, the girls all had a great time! Her circle of friends has grown quite a bit since last year when she had only been living in Florida for 5 months. She had a great combination of church and school friends who all seemed to have a great time together!

Here are a few shots from the day!







A couple days later was Sage's actual birthday. Here she is bright eyed at 6 am with breakfast in bed. It was an early morning since I had to be in a school in downtown Orlando by 7 assisting with a breakfast for low income parents but Sage was just happy I didn't neglect this favorite tradition of hers. After enjoying her dinner of choice, my chicken broccoli casserole, it was time for our small family celebration! She was excited to finally get her mini fujifilm polaroid styled camera and a new chandelier for her bedroom! We love you Sage.



And someone else sure loves Sage too. This sweet woman and her husband are Sage's Sunday school teachers. They definitely get the award for being the best ones yet. Sage loves there classes and how sweet is it that each time they travel whether it be a cruise or a trip to NYC among many other travels, that they send everyone in their class a postcard. They are so sweet. Here is Sage with the traditional birthday cookie that they make for each of their students on their birthday. You sure are loved Sage!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Love these kids so much! Can't even begin to imagine my life without them. Over the years though Mother's day has created many different emotions for me from sadness that I once felt for Jack and myself to sadness i feel for others who may never have the opportunity to have children who call them mom. Lately though my eyes have been opened up to another group of women who may struggle on this day, and that's the mothers of children who have taken their lives. Sadly this past school year the boys experienced the loss of a friend from swim team who had taken her life. And it seems that we can't go a week without hearing about suicide on the news whether it be that the statistics are showing the rate is going up or that another public figure has decided to end their life. So on Mother's Day this year I found myself thinking about this select group of women who may now find that a day they once cherished and celebrated may feel like a day they struggle with. These women are in my thoughts. I pray my kids never feel the despair that these children must be feeling and that when times get tough and they are brought to lows that seem hard to deal with, they always remember the people in their lives that love them and how a a temporary problem doesn't have to be delt with in such a permanent way. I feel so blessed to have these three call me mom and pray that they are always able to find happiness in their lives and love for themselves.



I neglected to capture a photo of the delicious breakfast Connor prepared for me but it will be cherished forever! Here is Sage with my favorite...angel food cake...

Sophmore year...check!

Heaven knows where the time has gone but the boys' sophomore year has come to a close. From early morning seminary to AP/honors courses to swim team and water polo they were quite the busy bees. I seriously don't know how kids these days do it. I would have either drowned or flunked out...Aside from a couple scary lockdowns during their first semester, Windermere High School was a great experience for them and we couldn't be more proud of all their hard work.

This is my favorite photo from the swim season! Seeing Connor on Ty's shoulders and those big smiles just warms my heart. Since this was Windermere High School's first year open there were no seniors at the school but that didn't stop this team from working hard and bringing a ton of spirit to every practice and meet!



Ty leading the team cheer and showing off for the camera...




Here are a few random shots from their water polo season!





It's always nice to have close friends come out to watch you play!



Water Polo Banquet!






Coach T!



So that's the wrap up! Another year in the books!

HaPpY AnNiVeRsArY to us!

From traveling the world for vacation to moving around the nation for work to creating an amazing family for purpose, life with Jack has been anything but boring! From stressful and painful to amazing and fulfilling, we've covered it all. But so glad to have this man by my side on the journey. It really is hard to believe we are at 24 years. Sadly though all I need to do is look at the photos from prior anniversaries and how quickly I'm reminded that yup, it's definitely been twenty four years, as there are probably twenty four more wrinkles now than there was at year one. In honor of our big day we enjoyed a nice dinner at one of Jack's favorite restaurants, Ocean Prime. Here's to many, many more celebratory dinners!

So what do senior citizens, foreigners, tourists, and illegals all have in common with Ty?

They are the reason we pay such high car insurance premiums here in Florida!!! Yes, Ty is a licensed driver now! After patiently having to wait a full year from the day he received his permit to get his license (Florida law), we arrived at the DMV to find out that I had signed Ty up for the wrong test and had to reschedule for a few days later. He was so mad!!! But a couple days later he was all smiles. He did it! Being that in Ohio most of our friends kids failed once if not twice the behind the wheel test I was kind of expecting the same here until we showed up at DMV and learned the test was less than five minutes long and basically if you didn't pass it you must have slept through it. Ty walked out the door to do the test and literally less than five minutes later he walked back in for what I thought was something he had forgotten. Nope, he was done with the driving test and had passed. So watch out world, this guy is now on the road!!! I'm sure I'll become more comfortable with the thought as time goes by but for now I just pray he lives to see his next birthday. While he is a good driver, I can't help but feel scared especially with all the traffic and accidents we see around here on a daily basis. We certainly aren't in Ohio where driving seemed much more low key. Connor has been less excited about driving and I'm sure I have a lot to do with that since it takes everything in me to not jump out of the passenger seat each time the boys are practicing but he's determined to get it by the end of summer after he gets in some more practice driving...with his dad...

Here's Ty after getting his permit...



And here's Ty a year later trying to contain all his excitement knowing he is actually able to drive on his own and on dates!!



Now he's just patiently waiting for his own car to drive...That story to be continued...

Time to put on those dancing shoes...

So now that the boys are sixteen, dating and proms are words that get tossed around a lot more around the Roddy household. So it came as no surprise that when the Orlando area Mormon Prom date had been set, Connor and Ty were anxious to ask a date.

It was an easy decision for Ty on who'd he ask. Here he is with his buddies pre PROM-posal before heading over to Nicole's...



Connor decided to ask his good friend Mia since he really had no one local he was interested in taking. Since she lived in Cincinnati, he was off the hook coming up with some creative promposal. I first reached out to Tanya to see if she'd be ok with Mia flying down and of course she was. I was so thrilled she was able to make it because we all knew they'd have a great time. She was only in town for two days but they were two fun packed days. Besides the dinner/dance, they managed to squeeze in some jet skiing, SeaWorld, Disney Springs and a movie!



Connor (Mia), Ty (Nicole) and Noah (Ansley) all went together and their buddy Michael joined for photos beforehand. I loved that although the three girls didn't don't each other at all before this day, they all quickly became friends and all had a great time together.

Mia and Ansley getting ready beforehand!



Note to self, don't offer to assist with attaching a boutonniere. It took everything in Connor not to get angry at me for breaking off the stem to his as I tried to put it on...








After prom activities... always happy to host these kids!!!



First Mormon Prom in the books!