The one with her 50th birthday

Today would have been my mom's 50th birthday. She would have hated it :) Me and my sisters decided we wanted to do something to honor her. We decided that on her birthday we were going to plant an herb/plant/flower in her name. Whatever one reminded us of her. We invited any and all friends and family who wanted to participate. And if they didn't want to or couldn't plant something, just to share a memory/story of her. We had a lot of people participate and it is so amazing to see all the people who love and miss her. Some of the stories/memories were new to me so it was fun to read them. We are going to combine the posts and make a small book. Nothing big, just a little something to go back to and read a few things about her.

Man do I miss her!

I just recently did a post about my feelings about her, so I won't go into that again. But today turned out to be a good day. It was a great way to honor and remember such a wonderful woman.

I chose an aloe vera plant. Mainly because I needed something I could keep in my apt since I don't have a garden. I also wanted something I could use. She had a ton of these in our house growing up. One big one that I remember in the living room. Mine isn't quite as big as hers was, but i'll get there...one day :)

I couldn't get them both to smile at the same time. Heres one with Ellie saying "Hi"

 thumbs up :)

 attempted thumbs up, and Ellie actually smiling.

and me with the Aloe Vera plant 

Plus on top of it all, my sister Kristel had her baby today. She went into labor yesterday but was progressing really slowly. She ended up having her this morning around 12:30. What a great start of the day. Plus, they named her Dorothy, Dori for short :) what another great way to honor grandma Dori (She was "grandma Dori" because when Emma, my oldest niece was a baby she just randomly started calling her that. No one knows why. But when anyone tried to correct her, my mom would stop them. She loved that Emma came up with her "grandma name". So it stuck. She will always and forever be known as grandma Dori)

Look how cute this little girl is. I'm so sad I can't be there to celebrate with them. I'm sending my love, hugs and kisses via phone and internet. 

P.S. I made that beanie she's wearing :)