It is Stephanie’s birthday today. She is our unplanned child – at least by Mr. C! I snuck her into the family and after that he had a vasectomy. Stephanie was supposed to be born on March 10th. When she finally decided to make her entrance, it was quite a struggle as she was in a posterior position and back in those days they did not know until it is too late. She was my biggest baby and after the initial struggle, the easiest to care for.

Here she is at her baptism:

As a baby she smiled often and as you can see loved sketty (spaghetti) and loved lounging in the sun at an early age.

Those who follow her blog know she loves aprons; she began this obsession at an early age:

Stephanie was the child that many people did not know we had. It was a family joke. When we moved to California, the neighbors thought we had only two children, Mark and Lisa, because they were always outside in the middle of everything. Steph spent her days in her room or the backyard playing and reading. She usually had one or two very good friends, but was not the gregarious, outgoing type like her siblings.

In Junior High, she was the preppy queen and an authority. When she started high school, she was shorter than me – maybe 5′ 3″. She was always very thin and we thought she would just stay petite and tiny. Well, now she is almost 6 foot tall – a statuesque blond who still turns heads when she walks in to a room.

Despite her shyness, around the family Steph was a cut up and would have us in stitches all the time. She has a quick wit and is brilliant. ( I am her mother and I can say that!!) Her are some photos of her in some of her sillier poses:

She started college at UCLA and eventually graduated from UC Santa Cruz. Here she is on graduation day with her best friends:

When we moved to North Carolina in 1994, she came with us. That is a good thing because she met Jack there. We had a beautiful wedding in a small chapel on the Intercoastal Waterway with a fabulous reception in a tent in our backyard. Here are Steph and Jack floating in to their new life together:

Now she is the best Mom in the world, choosing to live a simpler life so that she can be at home with M & M. Here is a family pic taken in the desert a couple of years ago when we were at a family wedding.

Stephanie has made many friends with her beautifully crafted blog – Little Birds – and more recently she has started an on line shop where she sells handcrafted softies that sell out as soon as she posts them. Here is her latest creation: Little Chick in a Party Hat. Everything she does is done exquisitely and beautifully. She has a sense of style that I would love to take as my own.

I am especially happy to be here in Portland so that I can throw a family dinner party for my Steph tonight, and I will make her favorite decadent coconut pound cake – with some help from M & M!! Happy Birthday sweet Stephanie!! And for a much more detailed description of Stephanie, check out Lisa’s blog.