Darren LeBlanc

Click on the picture to check out the photo gallery from Olivia’s 2 yr birthday. Thanks to Ann for being a great photographer and taking all of these.

There were a few others from this party that I took in this gallery.

For a while now, Olivia will respond to an I love you with “I Yove You”. That is of course nice in and of itself. Then recently, she will break out with that line out of no where…with no prompting. Well, tonight we hit a new level. I was tucking her into her new big girl (well…big little kid) bed and I said, “I love you Liv”. Without batting an eye she responded “I yove you more”. Not sure where she heard that one. That was it though…uncontrollable smiling inevitably followed.

I was reading part of the book of Luke today and I wanted to share a verse:

Luke 14
25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Most scholars would agree that Jesus is speaking figuratively here, suggesting a priority of relationships. I would tend to agree because certainly the rest of the Bible supports loving your family, not hating them. But the strength with which this comparison is made certainly raises concern. It makes me think: Is there a clear delineation between 1st and 2nd priority in our lives? Is it obvious that we love God more than our family? And what does that even look like? How do you actually “love” God more than your family?

I see this from a different angle today than I did when Misty was alive and healthy…but what about Olivia? Do I love God more than Olivia? Hmm…not sure. Food for thought for today I guess (or tomorrow…its 3am and I need to get to sleep).

I signed the certificate for incorporation application tonight for Hope Resource Group. (Hope Resource Group is the official company making all the Anthem of Hope stuff)

Whoo Hoo!

Also, I found this link online:
http://www.mymusiccd.com/christian_cds.htm

My mom got Olivia the first CD on that page there and she just absolutely loved it. I think it was last year for Christmas that we got it, but we listened to it everyday for like 6 months. The songs are customized with your name in the lyrics. It’s a great baby gift.

It has been a slightly rough few days, but not because of Christmas. I know everyone expects the holidays to be hard for someone that recently lost a loved one, and I do totally understand that idea…but that hasn’t been the case for me. Christmas was a good day and no harder than any other since losing Misty. For me, the hardest part of this season has been Olivia’s birthday present: her new room.

Olivia turns 2 today and I decided it was time to redo her room. She had a cute room before, but as she is getting older, it was becoming less functional. I spent some
time planning a new room for her that will provide space for her to play, read and learn, rather than just sleep and get changed. I spent a bunch of nights up late, sketching out where new furniture was going to go and what the room was going to look like – and buying stuff online. This was the hard part. If Misty were here, this past week would have been potentially the highlight of our married lives. She loved Olivia more than anything and doing something big like this for her would have just made the year.

Nevertheless, the room is done and today we had a party for my little lady. Unfortunately, I cannot find my wide angle lens for anything. It would have let me get a nice shot of the whole room from one of the corners. Instead I just have a few shots that show you little areas I wanted you to see specifically.

Oh and before I get into pictures, I would be remiss to not mention my Extreme Toddler Room Makeover team. Kelsey gets the prize for spending 2 entire days  (like 12 hours each) with me painting and the such. Colleen gets a kudos for helping me create the color scheme and overall design. Genevieve, Taylor and Kyleigh were the first rate production crew you wish you knew. My dad was the hero with the hammer and drill and mother-in-law with the sowing machine. Seriously, this was just a reminder that I’m really blessed to have such great people in my (and Olivia’s) life.

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Basically, everything is changed in the room. We went from a crib to a toddler bed, replaced or painted all the furniture and went with a brown and pink color scheme. The strange pink thing hanging from the ceiling is “daddy’s chair”. I wanted to have a bean bag chair to sit next to her when she is on her new pink comfy chair. There was no good place on the ground, so I hung it.

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I wanted to show you this because it’s my favorite part of the room. The first two angel figures (from left to right) were from Misty’s collection and the second two are more recent. The meanings of each form a timeline of Misty’s life and death: Love, Courage, Remember, Shining Star. It’s a artistic way of representing Misty’s life and legacy for Olivia.

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Olivia now has her own little play room, with a dining table (with tea and toast set) and her own bookshelf and toy chest (on the left – out of the picture). She loves being able to get her books off the top shelf with the little step stool. If you can’t tell, this furniture is really small…it’s pretty cute.

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And I’m far from being one to create a “shrine” for someone…but I thought it was good for Olivia to have a couple pictures of her and mommy. These are called standouts and they are glossy prints mounted by the lab onto a 1.5 inch foam-board. 

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That’s all for now (till I find my wide angle lens and can take a good picture of this room – I’m so annoyed about this. I lose everything). You can see the rest of the pictures HERE. I am home from work this week, but my focus is on Anthem of Hope, Olivia, and cleaning. So, I might not be around the blog much this week. But, I’ll be back. Thanks for reading…really.

UPDATE:
Sunrise, thanks for your concern. Apparently a couple people are also fretting because my inbox has a few messages to the same extent. The bean bag is attached to a hook that is rated at 65lbs, so unless you are planning on hanging from it with olivia…I don’t think its coming down :)

(note: smilie face means I’m joking around…not being jerky)

Also, to the person who emailed me “from a monthers perspective”. I’m am olivia’s “mother now…and I do have that perspective much more than you’d think. The bag weighs like 1 lb…I’m not too worried about it. Thanks for your  concern though!

Oh yeah…and the wall outlets have plugs in them…they are just clear and you can’t see them :)

I had it in my head that I was going to record an acoustic version of a traditional christmas carol for you all tonight….but since its 2:49am and I’m just finishing everything else I had to do, I don’t think we are getting to recording a song.

Anyway, I’m not feeling particularly articulate tonight. I’m just worn out overall and falling asleep here. I want to say Merry Christmas to all of you though. I really am so appreciative of the love and support many of you have shown me and my family. You are paramount to God’s continued encouragement and peace in my life. Thank you.

Before i go, I wanted to leave a couple images. Here are a couple from our 4yr anniversary (june 2007).

And one more. This is one of my favorite images ever. Misty was a great mom. I do miss her a ton.

Ok, so that’s it for now. I really hope you all have wonderful days today.

This year Olivia was much more of a help than she was last year. She loves “helpin”. 

The blue fish on the bottom there is Rainbow Fish. He is the character from the story we used to read every night at bath time.

Olivia the pig is a favorite character of ours. Unfortunately, the real Olivia broke the arm of miss pig last year. This year, with a fresh coat of crazy glue the pig is flying high (at least high enough that she can’t be reached by two year old hands)

Misty used to have cute teacher stuff all around. Mostly gifts people would get her. She was a great teacher…and yes, even people that weren’t married to her thought that :)

Misty and my first Christmas married was 2003…this was our ornament. It’s on the tree this year.

When I was a kid I went to “Camp Lebanon” each summer with my best friend Scott Parker. It was a summer camp up in north NJ. Courtney Girdwood was actually there with us as well. Anyway, I’m not sure why we thought it was cool, but we used to do this camp song called “Going on a Bear Hunt”.  Well, I was in a book store out here in Sierra Vista, AZ and I found my beloved corny camp song as a childrens book. This of course will go into Olivia’s growing book collection.

Olivia,
Here is your VIDEO for today. Love you.

Dear Olivia,

I had to go up in a tiny little plane today for work. I have a little video for you HERE.

Love you,
Daddy

This is the second day in a row I’ve worked more than 20 hours in the day. I’m exhausted. Nothing today except a video for my girl:

Video

Olivia,
I made you a video today. HERE it is. I hope your day was great. I love you.

Daddy