Author Q&A.

I thought I would share a bit about my work with my readers today, and answer some questions and answers about my book series. Enjoy!

As of Monday, April 1st, these are the stats for the entire series: 

• 921,334 words
• 9,659 pages
• 18 books
• 1 editor
• 0 titles

My goal is to have one book ready to publish by October of this year. I am badly in need of some titles!

***These questions were taken from Author Quiz at Blogspot. You can view the blog by clicking on this link: http://authorquiz.blogspot.com/p/how-to-get-featured-on-author-quiz.html. I skipped several sections because they do not yet apply to me. Enjoy, and happy reading!***

 

Section 1:  Writing In General / About Yourself

1.     What is it you love most about writing? The escape. I can be in another place, anywhere I want to be. I can be who I want to be. Anything is possible.

2.    What's the best and worst thing about being an author? I’m technically not an author. I could be wrong, but I feel like author is a title given to a published writer. The best thing about being a writer…there are lots of things, really. I can’t just name one. The worst thing about being a writer is that it is a sedentary profession. You sit or lie around on your bum, in my case, for thirteen hours on a typical work day. If I could, I would write while working out on the exercise machines, while I’m lying in the tub, while I’m walking around the park or the mall, or while I’m cleaning.

3.    Are there any parts of being an author that you dislike? As I previously mentioned, I dislike the whole sedentary thing where you sit all day. I also dislike those few and far between moments where I get stuck on something and can’t move on.

4.   Is there anything about you or your writing that makes you unique from other authors? I’m not sure yet. A lot of people seem impressed by the fact that I’ve written eighteen books. I’ve been called a “marathon writer” by several people in the industry. *shrugs* I really don’t know.

5.    Tell us a bit about yourself and your work as an author. I actually wanted to be a writer since I was four going on five. I used to copy the junk mail advertisements when they came in the mail to practice writing. Then, I grew up and left the dream behind. In 2009, things were going terribly wrong in my life, and my husband’s life. My husband was unfairly sacked from his job, so he decided to go back to school. I was concerned about what we were going to do, and when I voiced these concerns, he felt like I was trying to take his dream away from him. We weren’t on the best terms for a while. To escape, I got online. I had characters that I had created and I wrote bits and pieces about them and shared their stories with my friend, Shelly. She told me I should put them into a book. I didn’t think much about it. Then, she started sharing my stories with her family and a few mutual friends, and they said the same thing, put them into a book. Since my friends really and truly believed in me and supported me, I decided perhaps I should listen to them. So I really started writing more and more, and put even further effort into the characters, andShelly offered input that changed the entire story. She was there when the story was in its infancy, really. Even now, I look back on my writing from three years ago and shake my head. Oh, and my husband finished school, graduated with honors, and we’re much better now. Anyway, to make an already incredibly long story short, I was tired of life and the way things were going, so I started writing as a way of escape, and it became something bigger than I could have ever imagined!

6.   If you had to sum up your book, (insert title), in three words, what would they be? I don’t know.

7.   What are you working on now and what projects and ideas do you have lined up next? I go all over the place, which isn’t difficult with eighteen books. One book is a sequel, two books are prequels, and the rest are the series. I switch back and forth, depending on where inspiration strikes. I can’t really say what projects exactly. I’m just telling a story…an incredibly long story.

8.    Do you ever feel yourself becoming quite emotional when writing a particularly intense scene and is there a specific passage in particular where this was the case? Yes. I do tend to become emotionally involved in my character’s lives. I feel their emotions like they are my own. For example, I was a mess when one of my characters tried to commit suicide. He thought he had lost his wife and his children because of his addiction to alcohol. This particular character grew up in a very dysfunctional home. His father was an alcoholic who abused his wife and children, and his mother was an enabler. He was the very middle of five children, and he was essentially raised by his oldest brother. When his father died, my character was so grief stricken that he dove into the addiction head first. This happened starting with the night he got the news of his father’s death. He said he was celebrating, but he realized despite everything, he was depressed that his father died. I can’t give away much more, but he and his wife separated, and he started drinking. One night, he drank so much that he experienced alcohol induced psychosis, and he hallucinated his father. That’s when he tried to commit suicide. Now, to properly write this part, I put myself in a dark place because I wanted to be in the room with him, experiencing it. I did research on the subject matter. I listened to music that he may have been listening to, and I imagined what would happen if I were in his shoes. I felt like this would enable me to write about his experiences, and I sobbed through the entire process, and it took days. The minute I stepped away from the keyboard, I immediately took a two day break, I watched some comedy, read some uplifting books, hung out with friends, and I basically did whatever I could to pull myself out of that dark place, and I was successful. 



Section 2:  The Creative Process

                                           

1.     Where did the inspiration for your first/latest* novel, (insert title), come from? I hated my life, and a friend told me that if I hated it so much that I should do something to change it. I started writing stories to escape from my life, not knowing that I was in fact changing it. My friends encouraged me to put the stories into a book. I would say that a combination of my hatred for the way life was going, and the encouragement of my friends are what inspired me.

2.    Why do you enjoy writing in your usual genre, or what is it about your usual genre that appeals to you most as a writer? I’m not sure what you would call it, but I call it realistic fiction, because it’s real places, real events, real scenarios, but fictional characters. I like writing about things I can really experience.

3.    If you were to write a novel outside your usual genre, which genre would you like to experiment with and why? When I was a teenager, I wrote horror stories, and even those were not typically about the supernatural, they were written about real things, like my story, “The Bombing of _______ High School,” which was written after the high school I attended experienced a fortnight’s worth of bomb threats. My story was about what would really happen if the threats were not just threats. Instead of turning me into the principal, (which is what would happen if a teenager wrote something like that today) the librarian thought my story was well written and entertaining, so I shared other horror stories with her as well, like an untitled piece I wrote about a student who had been pushed too far. I may explore writing realistic horror. I’m playing around with the idea of composing a story about a huge fear of mine. I have so many that I could probably write a book of short horror stories just about my fears alone,

4.   When you first get the idea for a new story, do you find that the finished product tends to differ quite significantly from your original idea, or does the original idea remain more or less intact? The original idea remains, but with realistic fiction, that doesn’t seem difficult.

5.    What came first, the idea for your first book or the decision to write a book? The idea for my book.

6.   Would you expect yourself to be most creative as a writer shut off on a desert island or immersing yourself in a busy social life? Sadly, I crave solitude most of the time because I have my characters, but I try to have a good balance between solitude and having a social life. I can become inspired anywhere. I would love to have the opportunity to work with the ocean as my backdrop, then spend time with my friends, living it up, or spend hours writing in a huge modern cabin with large multistory windows, a stone fireplace with a roaring fire in it, and snow covered evergreens and mountains, then experience a day of skiing and snowboarding with my husband.

7.   Have you ever had an idea which was inspired by a real life incident, but which you ultimately decided not to include in your story because readers would think it was too farfetched? No. Many writers quote about truth in fiction. There are bits and pieces of my life woven throughout my book series that only family or my friends may catch as they read it. It could be something as simple as a favorite hat from my childhood, or an inside joke that only a friend would laugh loudly about, or something I learned from someone else, stuff like that.

                                                   

Section 3:  A Bit Of Fun...  Movies/TV/Other Media

1.     If your book, (insert title), was made into a movie who would you want to play the main character and why? I have a few ideas for characters, but I know three of the characters are going to be very difficult to find people to play them due to certain physical attributes that make them who they are.

2.    If you were to write a story featuring a fictional character from another author’s novel, who would you choose and why? I would probably write a sequel about one of Judy Blume’s characters, like Sheila, or Peter and Farley Drexel Hatcher (FUDGE), from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Superfudge, tell the story about where they are now.

3.    If you were to write a story featuring a fictional character from any movie of your choice, who would you choose and why? I really don’t have an answer.

4.   If you were to write a fictional story based on a real-life celebrity, who would you feature and why? Again, I’m not really sure who I would feature.

5.     Would your book, (insert title), work best as a movie adaptation or as a TV series? It could go either way, but it would probably be best as a television series due to the length. The movie, even if it was a trilogy, or five movies, like the Twilight series, there would still be stuff that would have to be left out.

6.   If your book, (insert title), was made into a movie, and you were asked for input into the soundtrack, are there any songs that would work especially well for any particular scenes? Definitely. I can’t list them all, but my characters have their own music playlists on two of my accounts. The suicide attempt of my character that I mentioned in a previous answer, there is a song I played that really set the mood as I wrote that piece. I’m not sure how the artist would feel about it if it was used in that manner.

7.   Is there a particular scene from your book, (insert title), which would translate well to canvas and provide a powerful inspiration for a dramatic or emotional piece of artwork? Yes. There’s a piece in my sequel series, yes it’s a series all by itself, where one of the main characters passes away. The character was born with an inherited illness and the character died young, but this particular person leaves behind a legacy for family and friends, and the character’s name lives on due to this legacy.

8.    If you could choose someone famous to record your book in audiobook format, who would you choose as the voice and why? This answer is an easy one…Patrick Warburton, because I love his character in Rules of Engagement. He can make toilet paper sound dramatic! *LOL*

Section 4:  Your Characters

1.     If you could invite one character from your novel(s) to a dinner party who would it be and why? One character? Really? My character, S. He is an oncologist who later becomes the chief of medicine of a certain fictitious hospital, and he has a HIGH IQ, he’s a hyperpolyglot, and he is very cultured. He has beautiful hands. He’s just beautiful inside and out. He would be extremely interesting to listen to, and to learn from.

2.    Are any of your characters based heavily on people you know or have met from real life and if so, would they regard it as a compliment or an insult to discover they were the inspiration for the character in question? My female character, L, is a lot like a combination of my friends Shelly and Allison. Both of those friends look like I picture L does. They’re both blond and they’re both intelligent and gorgeous, but they’re not stick figures, and neither is L. L is 5’10 though. L is intelligent, and she’s a pediatrician, but unlike Allison, L does not get the hang of motherhood for a while. Shelly also reminds me a little of my female character, G, who is a bit spoiled, gorgeous, and VERY into fashion. And a later character, K, looks and acts like Allison did in high school. My female character, D, I have no idea where she comes from because there really isn’t anyone in my life like her. My husband is a combination of my male characters, P and R. R has my husband’s birthday, and he’s quiet and somewhat introverted like my husband, but P loves the outdoors as much as my husband does, and he loves corny jokes, also something my husband inherited from his father, and children. P is a big kid with a goofy grin. My husband can be like that sometimes, too. A later character, J, looks like my friend, Danielle, with green eyes, I even gave J Danielle’s birthday. She has that gorgeous black hair and darker complexion. I hope my friends are not offended that some of my characters remind me of them, or they remind me of some of my characters. Some of the character modeling that happened was accidental.

3.    Are any of your characters based on yourself and if so to what degree, and do you find it easier or more difficult to write characters based on yourself? My characters each have different aspects of me here and there, but I am probably the most like my female character, T. She’s a lot stronger than me. She has quite a bit more of a backbone than I do, and she’s much meaner than I am. It is easy to write about her in certain aspects, like when she told her eventual husband, P, that the last thing she needed was another man, I actually said that to my eventual husband!

4.   Without being too specific and without revealing too much about the plot, have you ever killed off a character who you felt particularly attached to and if so was it an emotional experience writing the relevant scene? Oh yes. There was a secondary character that Shelly wanted dead. It was symbolic of something that had gone on in her life, and she wanted me to tell her story in so many words, and in my words because she knew someone would read it and relate to it, and perhaps it would change their view on life. This was all last minute, too. So I did this for her since she supported me from the beginning, and because I had actually written about this character’s life, as a main character when I first starting writing stories to escape, it was tough. We both cried, but I wouldn’t’ go back and change it.

5.    Have you ever written a supporting character, who took on a life of their own or turned out to be far more popular than expected and if so do you have plans to feature them as the lead character in a story of their own? Yes, he’s T, S’s best friend from Japan. I’m already thinking he’s going to get his own section now.

***There are some sections I have skipped because I’m not published yet***

Section 10:  Promotional Section / The Big Sell

1.     Why should people buy your book,(insert title)/books? I will have to have a friend answer this question because I really can’t. I know that’s perplexing.

2.    Who do you see as your target audience? I write a bit about people of all ages, so I would think it may appeal to a bit of everyone.

3.    Why would you recommend your book, (insert title)/books to other readers? To escape. That’s why I started writing was to escape from something.

4.   What would you say is your biggest strength as a writer? Persistence and focus. The fact that I could write for thirteen hours per day is a huge strength, at least I think so.

5.    What target audience would you recommend your book, (insert title)/books to? Probably teenagers and adults of all ages.

6.   What sort of audience will your book,(insert title)/books most appeal to? Adults of all ages.

7.   Of all your books, which would you say was the best starting point for a reader to be introduced to your work? From the beginning. It’s an ongoing story.

8.    Is there a TV series or movie which you think would appeal to a similar audience as your book, (insert title)? I’m not sure.

9.    Can you list a few other books which you feel would appeal to a similar audience as your own book, (insert title)? I’m not sure. My series is a bit about everything. You get a look at different career fields, such as medical, law, political, just to name a few. One of my characters is a stay at home mother of two, who also works from home. Another character gets a chance to work from home, which is convenient since he and his wife have four children, (two sets of twins), but he still has to be at his office to meet with people on an as needed basis, and his wife has a demanding career, so family often steps in to help when he can’t be there. So as you see, my book is not a medical drama, or a political drama, or a crime thriller, so I’m not sure how to answer this question.

Christmas Letters Part Two!

*All pictures are from weheartit.com.*

December 2013

Merry Christmas!



(The tree downstairs in our house.)



(Our living room tree.)



(Our living room tree, complete with presents!)



(The tree in Hannah and Katie's room.)



(The tree in Madeline and Gregory's room.)


Hello and Merry Christmas to you!

I hope everyone is having a great December surrounded by your loved ones this Christmas season! Things have been busy here in Casa de Tenenbaum! Of course, with four children, things never slow down, and December is our busiest month. We have two birthdays ten days apart for four children this month, plus Christmas is right in the middle of their birthdays.

Things have changed around here. All four children are walking now, which means I'm getting plenty of exercise chasing them. Maddy still prefers to crawl, though. At first, we thought something was wrong with her legs, but we figured out that she liked being carried around. Every time she would crawl, we would either pick her up and carry her, put her in her stroller, or pick her up and stand her on her feet. She loved the attention she was getting.

Twins, Hannah and Katherine are two now. (They are identical, by the way. We had them tested this year.) Both girls have exceeded most of their two year old peers in height. (Ryker's 6'5, and I'm 5'10, so I'm assuming our children will be on the taller side.) They're both such daddy's girls, too, although Hannah prefers me when she's sick or upset. Hannah's doing well. She wants to learn to read so badly. She loves reading, and she'll often bring me the dictionary and ask me to tell her the words and what they mean. Katie's doing fairly well. Despite being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes last year, she's as active as Hannah. She's gotten use to the routine of insulin and finger sticks and doctor visits. Sometimes, her glucose will bottom out, which is scary. She had a couple of seizures due to having too much insulin last year. She hasn't had any further seizures at this time, and we're hoping it doesn't happen again.

Madeline and Gregory are one. They're doing great. They're both on the same level as most of their peers. Gregory is our little explorer/daredevil as I mentioned previously. I have a hard time keeping up with him, but he has to be constantly watched or he will climb things and try to jump off of them. Maddy is like Ryker in the sense that she's content to sit in one spot and look at one toy or one book. I always know where Maddy is because she's not as active or as adventurous as the others. She's also a Mommy's girl, so she loves to be in whatever room I'm in. Gregory doesn't prefer one of us to the other just yet. He's content to be with either of us when he's winding down at the end of the day.

Ryker's enjoying working from home for the Rinquist, Rupert, and Wallace Law Firm. Having him work at home is so much easier on all of us, especially since I am doing my residency at Wallace Memorial Hospital. (It's going very well! I love it!) We turned the spare bedroom downstairs into an office. He's home the majority of the time with the girls, which means not having to rely on a babysitter when my parents are working, and when his parents are out of the country visiting relatives, and when one of the kids is sick, which happens often when you have four of them, he doesn't have to miss work. He still goes into the office to meet with clients, and handles lots of cases in the courtroom, but having my family or his family watch them for two or three hours is much easier on everyone than eight to twelve hours. His secretary, Meg, still works from the office, so she keeps him informed on everything and faxes what he needs to the fax machine at the house. Sometimes the kids can be a distraction for him, but when they're really fussy, his mother will come and entertain them, or my mother will spend her lunch hour at our place to look after them long enough for Ryker to make phone calls and get some work done that the kids may have prevented him from doing.

My family is doing well. My parents celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary this year. My father's playing with the idea of retiring as chief of medicine of Wallace Memorial Hospital, but I doubt he will go through with it. He could if he wanted to, but I know what a workaholic he is. He would be bored to tears. My mother, who's an obstetrician for those who are just joining my Christmas card list, is now the head of the women's health division at Wallace Memorial Hospital. She's doing a great job. She still sees patients, just not as many as she did before taking over the women's health division. My brothers, fraternal twins, Achilles and Aidan, are in their junior year of college. They both made the Dean's list almost every semester. Achilles is a business major, and Aidan is psych major. I think Mom and Dad were a little disappointed that neither of them went to med school, but Achilles said, "You have Leah. Isn't that enough?" My little sisters, twins, Veronica and Victoria, started second grade this year. (My parents had no trouble conceiving me, but they had to use fertility drugs for the second and third pregnancies, resulting in two multiple births, which consisted of my siblings, Aidan and Achilles, and Veronica and Victoria. Veronica and Victoria look identical, but they have never been tested.)

Ryker's parents are doing okay. His father had a heart attack. He's doing much better now. It came as a complete surprise because his father isn't overweight, doesn't smoke, he keeps his cholesterol under control and walks everyday, rain or shine. The doctor said it was considered mild. Ryker said he would hate to see a severe one. His mother is doing well despite everything. Her husband's heart attack was a wake up call. She and Ryker are so much alike. They both prefer being at home more than anything, they're both great cooks, and they both like to lie around, reading books. Now, they are being more active. She and Ryker join his father when he goes for his daily walk. I think the heart attack was a wake up call for all of us, really.

My dearest friend, Daisy, is doing better. She is in her second year of remission. Her strength and energy are starting to return, and she's enjoying being able to do "mom things" with her two children. Her life is nowhere near normal still with doctor visits and testing every three months, but she and her husband, Steve, are thrilled for what little bit of normalcy they are experiencing.

That's about it for updates on our families. On with our year!

January: This month is usually our slow month, and this past January was no exception. We had tons of snow that month, which forced us to sit inside and do nothing, which is what we wanted to do in the first place. But it's difficult to do nothing when you have two sets of twins. We're usually saying "NO," and "STOP THAT," at some point to our two year old twins, Hannah and Katherine (Katie), or one year old twins, Madeline (Maddy) and Gregory. Most of those two phrases are reserved for Gregory, our little explorer/daredevil. (And I have no idea where he gets that from! Ryker and I are so not adventurous! The most adventurous thing we did was go to Rio for our honeymoon.) The most exciting thing that happened that month was that Gregory scared us half to death by climbing to the back of the couch in the living room, and falling right onto the hardwood floor. He busted his forehead, which looked scarier than it really was. We thought he broke his arm the way he fell on it, but it was just bruised. Ryker and I packed up all four of them and rushed to the hospital. I sobbed all the way there. I was worried that everyone would think I was a bad parent. But other than a few x-rays of his arm and a band aid, he was perfectly fine. Needless to say, we had carpeting installed at the end of the month.

February: February was definitely the worst month out of the year for us. The first week of the month, I got really sick with a stomach virus and ended up being hospitalized due to dehydration. I spent the night there on IV fluids. Several hours after I got home the next day, all four kids became sick. Then Ryker woke up in the middle of the night, sick. So we spent Valentine's Day at home. We had crackers and Sprite for dinner, and took turns taking care of four sick toddlers.

The following Friday night, the 23rd, Ryker's parents offered to take the children for the evening so Ryker could take me out for a late Valentine's Day dinner. We had wonderful time eating French food and talking. We finished off dinner with coffee and dessert at an intimate coffee house down the street from the restaurant. I was tired, so Ryker stopped by the house, took me in, and left to pick up the kids from his mom and dad's. He called me ten minutes later. I answered the phone, just expecting him to tell me he was on his way home. I said, "Are you on your way?" He said, "Leah, my dad's having a heart attack." He was very frantic. I was shocked. He said they were waiting for the ambulance. Since my parents live right across from the hospital, I called them on three way to explain what happened and see if Ryker could drop the kids off with them. They were totally fine with it. I told Ryker to call me when the ambulance arrived, and I would meet them in my car at the hospital. Ryker's father spent the last six days of February in the hospital, and that was only a mild heart attack.

Daisy's 26th birthday happened two days after the heart attack. I left Ryker long enough to help Gabrielle and Tallullah with the surprise we had already planned, then went straight back to Ryker's side at the hospital. Daisy understood completely. She's such a sweetheart. After all she's been through, she spent the rest of the week making meals for us and the kids, and sending them to the hospital with Steve.

March: March was like a lion this year, snowstorms, thunderstorms, flooding, but nicer weather arrived more toward the end of the month. Ryker's dad spent the majority of the month going to doctor's appointments and rehabilitation. We kept our schedules free aside from work in case his parents needed us.

March 2nd, our friend, Paul, celebrated his 27th birthday. He and Peter, whose birthday is March 31st, usually celebrate together. (They're like brothers.) Ryker, along with Peter and Steve, took him out to eat at his favorite BBQ place. They embarrassed him by having the servers sing to him for his birthday. Then, the guys went to a boxing match.

Daisy's daughter, Ashtyn, celebrated her second birthday on the eleventh. Ryker and I took our brood over to help her celebrate. Ashtyn loves other children, and she enjoyed having the girls and Gregory there. She was introducing them to her big brother, Declan, and he laughed and said he had already met them. He was trying to teach them French. (He is very smart.) Hannah paid close attention. Katie busied herself with her hat, which she put in her mouth. Maddy fell asleep. Gregory walked around, exploring Steve and Daisy's house. Declan gave up on giving a French lesson and took Gregory throughout the house, with Ryker watching them, showing him the downstairs.

March 31st, Peter and his twin sister, Kate, celebrated their 27th birthday. They went out to dinner, but the guys got together the following weekend to give him the gifts from all of us.

April: Due to all of the crazy weather, April was when things began budding and growing, which meant allergy season had arrived. Hannah and Katie inherited Ryker's allergies, so the three of them sniffled, sneezed, and coughed their way through the month. Maddy, Gregory, and I were fine. (Maddy and Gregory take after me and my side of the family, but Hannah and Katie are Ryker through and through.) I decided now was the time to start potty training, since Gregory and Maddy had shown an interest. Hannah and Katie were mostly potty trained by Thanksgiving last year, and I am happy to report that they are doing very well. They were wearing pull ups to bed, but after a few months of neither of them wetting the pull up, I tried a few nights of them wearing "big girl panties" and they have been successful for the most part since. But Gregory and Maddy were not interested in the potty when I Ryker and I trained Hannah and Katie. Now, they are. We bought two more potty chairs because Gregory said he wasn't using a "girl's potty". And I couldn't blame him. Hannah and Katie's potties had cute little pink bears on them. So far, Gregory is getting the hang of it. Maddy seems bored and somewhat disinterested. She will go and sit on her potty when Gregory goes, but she hasn't figured out that you're supposed to put your pee and um...other things in it, to put it politely.

Tallullah's 26th birthday was the 26th. Tallullah is very adventurous, so we took her to this new extreme sports place. It's a huge building with rock climbing walls, and zip lines, stunt driving, and obstacle courses, stuff that was right up her alley. The guys thought it sounded awesome, so they came with us. It was more fun than I expected it to be. I didn't do all of the extreme things. I did climb the little rock wall, as did Daisy and Gabrielle. The guys, except for Ryker, had fun on the zip lines. Ryker climbed the second highest rock wall, while Paul and Tallullah scaled the largest one. They also had a paint ball field, so we formed teams, girls against guys. Us girls actually won! It was so much fun.

May: This month consisted of Zephra and Zane's birthdays. (Their birthdays are a day apart, so Tallullah does one party for both of them.) The kids all had the best time!

May 29th was our third wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend before, the 24th through the 26th, in Los Angeles to celebrate, while my parents were nice enough to watch all four children. (We're still giving Ryker's parents a break after everything his father has been through.)

June: This is probably one of the busier months. We usually go on vacation, but this year, we decided to stay home. Ryker felt apprehensive about leaving his parents. His parents didn't even go out of the country this year to visit their extended families in Israel and Cambodia. (Ryker's mother is half Cambodian, and his father was born in Israel. Ryker has four half sisters in Israel from David's previous marriage. He has his grandfather and aunt in Cambodia. We've been to Phnom Penh and the surrounding area a few times, but we have yet to go to Tel Aviv because his half sisters have been great about coming to visit us. We plan to go with David and Monica next year.) So we stayed home and lounged around in our private beach backyard. Ryker took Hannah and Katie into the ocean this year. They had a blast!

June 27th was Ryker's 26th birthday. I asked him what he wanted, and he said he would like to grill out and have our friends over to hang out on the beach. I didn't want him to have to cook on his birthday, but he's very talented at cooking, and he loves it. I'm very surprised he didn't ditch law school to go to culinary school. (I've gained fifteen pounds since we got married! Even after losing all the baby weight from both pregnancies, I still wasn't able to lose those fifteen extra pounds!) I didn't let him make his own cake, though. I made a beach themed cake with Daisy's help, and left it over at her and Steve's place. They brought it with them when they arrived. Daisy, Gabrielle, Tallullah, and I lounged in our swimsuits on the beach. (I used to wear a bikini, but since I've had four kids in two pregnancies, I wouldn't dare now. Daisy, Gabrielle, and Tallullah still look awesome in their bikinis. Yes, I'm a bit jealous, but I love them anyway!) The guys surfed, all except for Paul, who entertained all of the kids by taking them on a seashell hunt, and enlisting their help to build several sandcastles. He even built one for Gregory, so he could stomp it and act like he was terrorizing a huge city. Paul is great with children. (I'm sure if it were up to him, he and Tallullah would have six by now!) Paul and Tallullah's daughter, Zephra, and Steve and Daisy's son, Declan, who are the oldest of out the children, helped Paul out tremendously. My parents and Ryker's parents came later. They stayed for dinner, which consisted of steaks, baked potatoes, and a large veggie filled salad with homemade croutons, real bacon bits, and several homemade dressing choices.

July: We had everyone over for fourth of July. Once again, Ryker grilled out, this time it was just hamburgers and hot dogs though. Then, he helped my father set off fireworks on the beach. All of the children were captivated. After the fireworks were over, Katie toddled over to me, hugged me, and informed me that she had the best day ever. That's something I would have expected from Hannah. Hannah's like me, she will chat you up the whole day if she knows you will listen to her, she loves to be snuggled and cuddled, and she will say what she's feeling at any given moment. Katie's independent, and she NEVER says what she's feeling, so it was a very pleasant surprise.

July 21st was Gabrielle and Peter's youngest son's birthday. Phoenix turned two that day. Gabrielle and Peter hosted a party for him at their home, Black Manor. It was a good day for Phoenix, but he ended up spending the night at Wallace Memorial due to a scare where he wasn't breathing well, but he's fine now.

I had to take some time off in July because Ryker was handling a HUGE case, and he had to be in court for almost three weeks straight. My parents were out of town, and Ryker's parents helped as much as possible, but I still wasn't comfortable laying it all on them.

In August, I reluctantly let Hannah and Katie go to daycare. Since they're just three months away from their third birthday, now is a critical time for them to develop social skills that are detrimental to their mental growth and development. It's a great daycare center, and the staff does not just watch the children, they introduce the basics of preschool, letters, numbers, colors, and memory exercises. They even teach sign language! I didn't think Maddy and Gregory would benefit from it just yet. The older girls being in daycare helped Ryker out tremendously. He was able to get more work accomplished. His parents were starting to miss the kids, so they would come over and entertain Maddy and Gregory. They even started picking the girls up from daycare so Ryker wouldn't have to stop what he was doing. We sat his parents down and asked if they were sure they were ready to take on the kids again, and his father told us to stop fussing over him and let him enjoy his grandchildren. So we did.

Steve's birthday was August 25th. The guys took him to Vegas. Steve had not been away from home other than work since Daisy got sick, so the guys thought it would do him some good to go on a weekend trip to Vegas. I think Ryker was concerned that they would end up having a "Hangover" experience there. Peter admitted that he was going to live it up. Steve was worried about being away from Daisy. Paul couldn't wait to see the lights. They had an experience for sure. Peter got plastered and hit the casino. He lost fifty thousand dollars, which Steve not only won back for him, but doubled it, and almost got himself in trouble. They were asked to leave the casino. Thankfully, Steve was able to get Peter out of there before he lost more money and challenged several people to a fight. (Peter thinks he's ten feet tall and bulletproof as it is, and it's worse when he's inebriated!) Paul and Ryker played a few slot machines, got bored, and decided to go check out some of the luxury hotels and five star restaurants that Vegas had to offer. The trip home was fun, and I say that with the utmost sarcasm. Peter was severely hungover. The flight was turbulent, so Ryker was motion sick. (He does not travel well.) Paul was disappointed because Vegas wasn't anything he thought it would be, and Steve couldn't wait to get home. Of course, they all laugh about it now. They still tell Steve that he should forget about the whole oncology career and become a professional gambler.

September: Gabrielle and Peter's son, Logan, turned three on the fourth. We took our four children over to celebrate with him. Logan was very happy to have them over. He got a brand new car that he can drive around in, and he took all of the kids for a ride. Maddy surprised us by wanting to be the first one to go for a spin. Like I said, she's usually very content to sit in one spot and do one thing all day. I think Logan was shocked, too, because he said, "Are you sure?" And she said she was. (My children constantly surprise me. They're great. Two sets of twins can be quite the handful, but I wouldn't trade any of them.)

September 10th was my birthday. When I came home from work that day, Ryker had a hot bubble bath, complete with rose petals floating on top of the water, waiting for me, along with the book I had wanted, and a glass of non alcoholic white wine. Ryker saw to it that I got in and got settled, then he took the kids outside while I laid in the tub and read my book. He had my mother take the kids for a few hours while he prepared steak and lobster tail with baked potatoes and salad. We had dinner on the deck overlooking our beach backyard. We ate and watched the sunset.

On the fourteenth, the girls kidnapped me and took me to the tea room, where they had an intimate tea party in my honor. They gave me some very nice gifts. We talked, laughed, and had a great time. When I got home, I was surprised to see my mother, Ryker's mother, Hannah, Katie, and Maddy, seated at the dining room table, where they held a tea party for me! Ryker, my father, and his father, took Gregory to the Barkely Academy high school football game. Gregory had the best time! He went on and on about it when they got home! He kept saying, "Ball, Mommy, ball, football, kick, fans." He was beyond thrilled. My little boy had his first guys night out!

October: Gabrielle turned 26th on the first. She was out of town on her actual birthday, but the girls and I took her to the spa for a day of pampering when she returned home.

Halloween is at the end of the month. Ryker and I are not extremely big on Halloween, but Hannah and Katie became interested because their daycare was having a Halloween party. So I took them out shopping for a costume. I was concerned about what they would want to choose, but I was pleasantly surprised. Hannah wanted to be a butterfly. Katie announced that she would also like to be a butterfly, but not the same one as her sister. I managed to find two different colored butterfly costumes. Hannah was a Monarch butterfly, and Katie's butterfly costume had a blue and purple design in the wings. When Maddy and Gregory saw the girls costumes, they wanted in on it as well, so I took them shopping. Maddy wanted to be a flower. That was easy enough. I found a sunflower costume. And Gregory decided that if his sister was going to be a flower, he was going to be a honey bee.

On Halloween night, we took them to our regular church, where they were having a safe trick or treat. (Ryker's mother is Catholic, his father is Jewish, and we are Christians, so we go to three different churches. So when I saw our regular church, I mean the non-denominational Christian church.) They also had a costume judging contest. All of the kids got something for dressing up, but Maddy and Gregory won first place in the costume contest! Gregory toddled over and accepted their certificates and their trophy and thanked everyone. He didn't understand that he had to give the trophy back so their names could be engraved on it. We convinced Maddy to go up and have her picture taken with her twin brother.She reluctantly agreed. She walked over. Gregory held one side of the trophy, and she held the other. The church photographer took several pictures. Then Maddy leaned over and kissed Gregory's cheek. They ended up using that picture on the front page of the church bulletin the following Sunday. Gregory was so excited! He exclaimed, "It's us!"

November: This is our month of planning for the holidays and for our children's birthdays. At this point, I've figured out what themes the children want for their parties. Hannah and Katie's party is the easiest to plan. Hannah likes pink and Katie likes purple. So I incorporate both of their favorite colors into the decorations. I get both pink and purple streamers, plates, party favors, wrapping paper for their gifts, and etc. This year, they're fine with a pink and purple party again. Maddy and Gregory's party is a different story. As they get older, I wonder how I am going to plan a party for them. Right now, they coordinate everything, like they did with their costumes. Gregory is sweet enough to let Maddy decide first, then he chooses something that goes with what she wants. I sat them down and asked them what they wanted for their birthday party theme. Maddy looked thoughtful, and she said, "A Christmas Birthday!" Gregory agreed. (Last year, Maddy wanted a red theme, and Gregory wanted a blue theme.) So I asked them if they were sure, and they nodded. I didn't think it would go over well because Christmas is just three days after their birthday, then Hannah and Katie's birthday is on New Year's Eve (which means that I will have four two year old children for ten days in December, but do I have a reality show on TLC, no). I talked to Ryker, and while his mother and my mother watched the kids together, we went shopping for the birthday parties.

While we were out, Ryker went ahead and purchased the groceries for Thanksgiving dinner, which was held at our house this year. We usually have two Thanksgiving dinners. We eat dinner with one set of parents on Wednesday, and the other on Thanksgiving Day. This year, we decided to combine them all on Thanksgiving Day. Our dining room table seats ten. Our kitchen table seats six. So we decided to bring our kitchen table into the dining room, put it in the corner, and let my little sisters sit there with our four children. Hannah and Katie can sit in their booster seats, while Maddy and Gregory are in their highchairs.

Thanksgiving Day went well for the most part. Katie was extremely crabby, and at times inconsolable. She wanted Ryker, but he was busy cooking dinner. I just wasn't good enough for her. At dinner, she threw such a horrible fit that Ryker gave up and put her in his lap so she would give our ears some peace. He was able to get her calmed down and fed. I feel like such a bad parent for saying this, but when she fell asleep in his lap, I wanted to break into the Hallelujah chorus! I don't think she felt very well, but I don't know. I never really figured out why she was so upset.

I skipped Black Friday shopping this year, instead sending money with my mother. My mom and Ryker's mom did their shopping together. It's become a tradition for them.



(Ryker's Mom and Dad's tree in their living room, and the beginnings of other decorations.)


Once Ryker's mother returned from Black Friday shopping, Ryker, the children, and I, went over to help them decorate their home for Christmas. Ryker made white bean chicken chili for lunch, his dad brought the tree up from the basement, and his mother and I unwrapped ornaments. We let the children hang the shatterproof ornaments, and they were all eager to help this year. (Last year, Maddy and Gregory were too young, and Katie, who didn't quite understand the concept, kept putting ornaments in her mouth.)




(Ryker's Mom and Dad's spiral staircase.)


I did the lighted garland on the stairway! I was so proud of myself! Maddy sat at the bottom of the spiral staircase and watched as I carefully hung the garland.

After lunch, Ryker and his father tackled the task of putting the trees together, then the eight of us decorated them. Hannah and Katie wanted Ryker to lift them up so they could hang the ornaments higher. And of course, Maddy and Gregory wanted to do that as well. (It's the whole, "Monkey see, Monkey do" law that often occurs when you have more than one child.) My precious little Maddy wanted to give the tree a hug once we were finished. Obviously, that was impossible.



(Decorations in Ryker's Mom and Dad's family room. They even got a stocking for me!)


Ryker's father helped Hannah and Katie hang the stockings. (The kids don't have stockings. Ryker's mother got them those pets that you can hide stuff in, and that serves as their stocking. They don't know that yet, but I know they're going to be so excited!) 

Ryker's parents insisted we stay for dinner. Of course, they have all of the things required for our four children. They have two booster seats and two high chairs, bibs, sippy cups, the whole nine yards. We used to just bring Hannah and Katie's things over, but when we found out I was having another set of twins , Ryker's mom and dad started buying things to keep at their place for the four grandchildren. We sat down to dinner around six-thirty. And as a treat to round out the evening, Ryker's mother made cookies. She enlisted the help of Hannah and Katie, who were thrilled. Maddy wanted to watch, so I took her into the kitchen. She was so well behaved. She watched quietly as her big sisters helped roll out the cookie dough. Hannah got to use the cookie cutter, but Katie was apprehensive about it. It was a good day.




(My Mom and Dad's sitting room tree.)

December: We decorated our house for Christmas on December first.

The following weekend, Ryker and I packed up the kids and went to help my parents decorate their house. Even though my mother usually has Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner catered, (everyone brings a side dish or two, and she still makes a lot of side dishes, but it's more convenient to have the caterer prepare the turkey or the ham for our large family for the holidays) she would rather us get together and decorate for the holidays instead of hiring a decorator. She always does something elegant and fancy for the sitting room, since that's the first room everyone will see when they come into the house. She decided to go with a predominantly silver theme this year. Last year, she did gold and cream, which looked awesome. And she always gets a real tree for the sitting room, too. Dad, Aidan, and Achilles go out, cut down the tree, and haul it back to the house because that's how much they love my mother. Ryker always puts the star on top. He's the tallest, so it just works out that way. It smells heavenly, especially when Mom puts cloves and cinnamon sticks among pine the branches.



(My Mom and Dad's family room tree.)


My parents let us decorate the family room. Since I don't live there anymore, Ryker and I simply help rather than tell them what should be done. Veronica, Victoria, and I, put this tiny tree together ourselves. We hung the personalized stockings (which were not hung when the picture was taken). Mine goes in the middle, Veronica and Victoria's stockings go on either side of mine, and then Achilles and Aidan's stockings go on each end.

We had dinner with my parents and siblings, which consisted of Chinese takeout. Mom and Dad had put in a full day at the hospital, and they just wanted something we could grab and eat.




(Ryker and I made cookies. We decided to let Hannah and Katie help, since they did such a good job helping Grandma Tenenbaum.)

Friday, after we put Maddy and Gregory to bed, Ryker and I decided to let Hannah and Katie stay up for an extra hour to help us make cookies. I washed their little dimpled hands, feeling a bit sad because I knew they would be turning three two weeks from now. And I sat them at the table, put their little personalized aprons on them, and rolled out the dough. (I found their little aprons online.) I gave them each a cookie cutter, and Ryker showed them how to use it. This time, Katie participated.

I iced the cookies, and Ryker showed the girls how to put sprinkles and colored sugar on top of them. Hannah did very well. Katie completely covered one cookie with sugar, so we had to take the shaker away. She wasn't happy. After the cookies were done baking and cooled, we let them each have half of a cookie. This satisfied them. They both went to bed without argument a half hour later.



(The cookies Ryker and I made!)

After we put the girls to bed, Ryker and I made cookies. They turned out beautifully.

Christmas is less than two weeks away. Maddy and Gregory will turn two in just three days. Hannah and Katie will turn three on New Year's Eve. It's a bittersweet moment. They're growing up, much to my chagrin. I admit, I had a difficult time when they arrived three years ago. I didn't think I would ever get the hang of motherhood (part of it was post partum depression, which I did not have the Maddy and Gregory, oddly enough), but I've found my groove. It's stressful at times, but I could not imagine my life without my four beautiful children. And believe it or not, I miss the baby stage at times. I don't miss the diapers and the spit up, but I miss cuddling them, and the bond that comes with breast feeding. I remember how excited Ryker and I were to see them take their first steps and hear their first words. I think the worst part of parenthood now is watching them grow up because it goes by so fast. It really does. I'm afraid I'll blink and miss a few years. The one thing I'm not going to miss; POTTY TRAINING!

And on that note, I will close!

I hope your year was full of surprises, good memories, and lots of precious time with your loved ones!

Merry Christmas, From Our Home to Yours,

Ryker, Leah, Hannah, Katherine, Madeline, and Gregory