Erica’s 14th

Dateline: February 12, 2014. The Midwest is locked in something the weather people are calling a “Polar Vortex.”

The days are short. The nights are bitter. The icicles are long.

Cabin Fever is setting in. People are considering drastic measures to survive.

They try to come up with new ways to stay warm.

But it may be too late; morale starts to drop and sinister ideas are formed. Is this the end?!

But what’s this? A birthday! A visit from Grandma and Grandpa! Gifts and good food! We’re saved! Hooray!

We feasted on a dinner of seafood and a chocolate birthday pie. And we laughed and toasted and celebrated another year with our child #3, Erica Danielle.

One of Grandma and Grandpa’s gift was a 14th-birthday doll figurine 

It wouldn’t be a birthday without books, and Erica got several, including the Sherlock Holmes mystery she’s looking at here.

It also wouldn’t be a birthday for Erica without a Reese’s heart!

And now, for a trip down Memory Lane. This was taken when Erica was about 3.

Here are a couple pictures of Erica from some vacations: Virginia Beach in 2003 and Pigeon Forge in 2004

Erica and cousin Kate when they were about 4. They’ve always been so close.

This was taken on Erica’s 8th birthday; I was about 6 months pregnant with Grant. :-)

This has always been one of my favorites. It was taken on the 4th of July when Erica was 6.

  

Erica holding Whiskers (I think).

From her 11th birthday:

I love these taken in 2010 with baby Trent, just before Erica turned 11.

 

Another favorite from last Fourth of July:

Happy 14th Birthday, Erica!!!