Family, my most important thing.

Recently I was asked to consult with someone on wedding cake prices, yeah I'm super excited and the lovely lady that I'll be talking to in about a week asked if I could bring pictures of my previous work.  Of course I can, I document all of my baking adventures but while I was going through my pictures on my computer I also found a treasure trove of pictures of my family that I didn't even know were on my hard drive.  These new found gems are the inspiration for today's post, Family.

Family is probably the most important thing in the world to me.  When I was 15 my dad passed away in a boating accident and as family oriented as I was before, the loss of my father increased my appreciation for my family ten fold.  Another turning point in my life so far was moving away to college.  Here in State College I am 150 miles away from home, sometimes it's nice but sometimes I miss them more than I could ever describe.  I've mentioned before that I have a huge family well now you can meet them all.

This is, as the kids like to call her, Nan George.

Above you can see my beautiful mother.  This woman gave life to me 22 years ago and I couldn't be more thankful.  Mother's Day is coming up so I'm sure we'll talk about her in more depth then but I love my mom and I hope to be a great mom and human being like her one day.

Dad

That's the best picture I could find of my dad on my sister's Facebook page.  I don't have very many pictures up here because A. I didn't want to lose them and B. sometimes I'm lazy and I didn't want to dig them out.  But that's my dad, John Bodnar, on a beach with my sister.  My dad was integral into shaping the person I am today.  I have a great work ethic thanks to both of my parents but I blame my love of Oreos and cartoons on my dad.  There's not a day that goes by where I don't think about him.  I miss him very much as you can imagine.  One day when I get all of my photos together I'll make a post all about him.

This Character

Edward George is another important man in my life.  He's my step-dad and he never fails to make me laugh. I wasn't always crazy about him becoming a part of my life but 5 years later I've decided I think I'll keep him.    He makes my mom happy and he helps put a roof over our heads but mostly he makes us laugh and you always need a person like that in your life.  I love him dearly.

My Little Sister

My sister, Mercedes, she's 19 but she probably thinks she's 25.  I love her to death and we haven't quite gotten to the point in our lives where we've realized how important it is to have a sister (boys are more important) but I'm sure we're almost there.  I haven't always liked her, from age 5-16 we weren't the greatest friends but now we get along pretty well plus we're stuck with each other. 

My Littlest Sister

Julia Jean, I knew she wouldn't appreciate it if I used an unflattering picture of her, I think this one is pretty decent.  Julia is 13 and a drama queen she's just now getting to the point in life where she's not totally annoying.  She dances and cheers and in my opinion she's great at both.  Of course I love her as well and she's turning out to be a beautiful young lady.

My mini Me

This is Elton, I like to call him my mini me.  Obviously he's not an EXACT replica, he's a boy, but he reminds me a lot of myself.  He's super smart, he's tried almost every sport possible and he wants to go to Penn State.  Now I didn't KNOW that I wanted to go to Penn State but the fact that he wants to go to the same school that I'm going to tickles me to death.  I love this little guy and he's growing up to be quite the little gentleman, he even has a girlfriend!

The Baby

This is Evan the baby of the family and even though he'll be 5 in August we still call him Baby and I probably always will.  When my mom got pregnant with him I was angry, there was no need for another kid in our already gigantic family.  He came anyways and I was there in the delivery room and I love him so much.  He's another one that I miss a lot when I'm not home for awhile but as soon as I get there and we play 10 million games of memory match I start to not miss him as much.  He's going to Kindergarten in the fall and in my opinion he's growing up too fast.

I also have two step-siblings, Jake and Jenna.  I can't find any good pictures of them on my computer though.  They are however in the family portrait on my About Me page.  They've been a part of my family for 5 years but  I still don't know them too well probably because Jenna lives with her mom and Jake isn't around very often.  All in all they're pretty good kids and I love them too.

My extended family includes Kyle and his parents and his brother.  When I'm home I spend just as much time with them as I do at my house.  In the past 3 years I've definitely come to be able to call them family.

I also, just like everyone else, have grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins but that would make for one very long post.  As if this one isn't long enough already.

Happy Thursday!