Christine & Justin

For those of you reading, who don't know. I have a 12 year old little sister, and a 9 year old little brother. They are amazing kids. I think they are some of the coolest kids I have ever met. But I may be a bit biased, since they are related to me.

My mom got remarried to my step-dad, when I was about 15 or so. My little sister was born when I was 16 and my little brother was born when I was 20. I always make fun of my mom about that, because when she was 16, she had my older sister, and when she was 20, she had me. Funny coincidence. When Christine was born, I spent a TON of time with her. I carted her around everywhere, with me, with no shame. My friends thought she was the cutest thing ever, so they didn't mind when she would come with me to hang out. My mom had Justin after I moved out, and back to Vegas, so I didn't really know him as a baby. I didn't really get to know him until a few years later, when they moved out to Vegas too. After that, I became, "Mommy, I mean Sissy," and I was  ok with that. I took on a 3rd parent roll for them.

When Allan and I started dating, he knew that he was taking on that roll too. I mean, it was almost as if he was marrying a woman with 2 of her own kids, and he was going to be the step-dad. But he did amazing at it. He has told me since, that one of the big reasons why he married me, was because he already knew I'd be a good mom, because of Christine and Justin. I made a lot of their rules, and enforced them. I took care of some of their daycare pick-ups and dinner times and arrange for babysitters and all that.

After Allan and I were married, they spent a lot of nights at our house. Before we had kids, it was fun, but not as much fun as it is now. We would do stuff, but it wasn't as fun or important, I guess, as it is now. Now, they are one of our kids. We don't feel like we have 3 kids. We feel like we have 5 kids, and we like it that way. When we plan any major event, we consider them too. When we go on any vacations, Allan's first question is,  "Should we ask if Christine and Justin wanna come?". Allan, lately, has been really obsessed with pinball (another story), and he was so excited when the kids' came over, because he couldn't wait to take them to The Pinball Hall of Fame.

Christine is a fun girl. She is sweet. She has a good heart. She is gorgeous! She is a bit quirky, and I think that's why I like her so much. She has a weird, smart and funny sense of humor. She is super creative, writing her stories on her blog and drawing and things like that. She doesn't think she's a girly girl, but she is. She's the girl next door, girly girl. You know? The girl that all the other girls hate, because she doesn't even know she's hot, and even in her grubby clothes, the guys still drool over her. Yea..........that's her. She confides in me, and asks for my opinion and advise about a lot of personal things. I hope that never changes. That's my favorite part of our relationship. She's starting Young Womens, and I'm so proud of her. I think she's smart. and whitty, and funny. I love her.

Justin is a smarty pants, but his biggest claim to fame is that he's funny. He's  joker. He is super sensitive and kind of a mama's boy. He REALLY looks up to Allan, which I'm happy about. Allan really loves him, because Allan gets all of the latest computer games, and he and Justin just play for hours. He does Tae Kwon Do (sp?) and I think he's pretty good at it. He seems to really like it. Still fairly new, so anything's possible. HA! He LOVES movies. He loves to pretend about everything. When they come over, that's all he does, is make up some story in his head, and he has all of the kids playing a role. It's really cute. He loves my kids a lot. He especially loves Lucas, which is funny, because everyone says Lucas is his clone. I think he kind of is. He was diagnosed with ADD, and if he sticks to working hard, and doesn't get lazy, or make excuses, he'll excell, farther than he could've imagined. And if he doesn't, I'll kill him. I have high expectations for him.

I just wanted to tell them how much I love them and love having them as part of our family. I wanted to make sure they knew that they ARE part of our family, at this house, as well as their own. We love them very much and love the young people that they have become. We are so proud of them. We can hardly wait for the next time that we get to have them over. I love being able to teach Christine how to cook, and teaching her how to care for kids, and Allan loves showing Justin all of the new video games he just bought for him and Justin to play together. He was so stoked when he found out that Christine actually liked playing pinball. We love having them a part of our lives, and we are especially greatful that we are able to watch you grow up. I know that I am a better mom because of you both.

We love you!