bountifulplate

I am incredibly blessed to have two siblings, my brother who is  2 1/2 years younger than me and my sister who is about 7 years younger than me. I'm the big, bossy, older sister!! My brother's nickname for me FOREVER has been Lucy Van Pelt (yes, like the Peanuts character).   That's okay, I call him Linus!!  I have a great relationship with both of my siblings. My "baby" brother came to visit us back in December.  Since we live ten hours away from each other we don't get to see his family as much as I would like.  My brother got married before I did and had children before I did.  He married his high school "sweetheart."  He has two amazing daughters and I have become really close to them in the past year.  My brother already has a daughter in college.  When he came to visit us,  I picked his brain about all of the preparations for college that he went through with his older daughter.  He gave me a boatload of advice and I have tuck...

When I met my hubby almost 21 years ago, he brought a very special "gift" to our relationship, my stepson.  I met him for the first time when he was right around 7 years old (the age my little man is now).  I knew that he and I would get along well when we both thought something was absolutely hilarious at the zoo during one of our very first outings together. He was in our wedding when I married his father.  I hear more negative things said about stepchildren than positive and that kind of  bugs me!  A relationship of that type takes time, communication, patience and lots of love.  When he was younger,  he and I would play endless board games together.  I'm the one who taught him how to ride his bike. Now that he has gotten older,  the topics of conversation are different, but one thing I have always told him is that I support him 100% in anything that he does.  I make sure that I always have his "back."   I think I can count on on...