Happy Birthday Brianna!

Brianna's birthday blog is late, no fault of my own.  The 2 of us were at girls camp for her birthday July 22nd.  We had a wonderful, spiritual time up there.  We were able to do some bonding.  Brianna and I had a rocky start when she was born.  She was unfortunate to arrive during the time my husband and I were having all our problems and were seriously contemplating divorce.  I think all the stress I was going through transferred to her.  She was born at Cottonwood hospital and weighed an even 7 pounds and was 19 inches long.  I wanted to name her Celestia but lost the argument in the hospital with Troy and his mom.  I was so frustrated I said, "FINE!".  Her name is now Brianna Celeste, at least I got a portion of what I wanted.  Brianna has the distinguished honor of bearing the female version of my brothers name, Brian.  He is the one who blessed her when he returned from his mission.  Brianna spent a lot of time crying in the middle of the night and the only way to get her to stop was to do the Priesthood bounce.  Ugh!!!!!!  Talk about hard on the arms.  As soon as you stopped she would start crying.  I spent hours doing this at night.  One Sunday morning Brianna was crying and I happened to turn on the t.v. to drown her out and I put on the Tabernacle Choirs Music and The Spoken Word.  Miracle of all miracles she instantly quieted.  Talk about music soothing the savage beast!!!  I feel bad that most of my memories of Brianna are more negative.  I spent many nights and days praying that I would like her.  Now she is such a joy in my life, always willing to help and love me.  She has brought me breakfast in bed, made her dad buy me an ice-cream cake for my birthday, and numerous other things.  She reminds me a lot of me when I was her age(12).  I passed the family Christmas Nativity director on to her.  She is the one to get all the cousins together and make costumes and practice for the play.  I wouldn't trust anyone else to do it.  Her creativity amazes me.  She's smart, loves to read, loves to camp, four wheel and hike.  She has a great love of animals and sleeps with both our dogs.  She does a wonderful job of helping watch Vance when I need a break.  I know Brianna had a rocky start but it will be a wonderful journey a long the way.  Thank you Brianna for being you and Happy Birthday!