Happy 30th Birthday Donna!

Today is Donna's 30th birthday! If you'd like, leave her a Happy Birthday message in the comment section below. To navigate this blog best, use the side bar to click on the individual links. Enjoy!

Donna we wish we could be there to celebrate this very special day with you. But instead we have created this blog for you to tell you how much we love you. May your day be filled with happiness. We love you Donna!

When I think of you...From Danny

When I think of you I think of memories. No matter what the occasion you always put a lot of thought and energy into making the experience memorable. Like, I will never forget the first time I met you at your parents pool, I called you Dolly. And you replied, with teen sarcasm, "I'm Donna." That was the start of all the good memories...thank you and Happy Birthday!

I love Donna because...from Dolly.

"Donna, are you really turning 30? Goodness, there are so many things to say about you I don't know where to begin. To sum it up, you just make everything better! You get how to live life to it's fullest and you're so much fun. You're the kind of sister every girl wishes she had. I love talking to you on the phone and coming to spend the weekend with you in Charlotte. You give so much of yourself to your family and others and many times I don't know how you have the energy to do it all. You are such a huge part of our life and such a special girl. Happy Birthday! I love you!"

Happy Birthday...From Dawn

"You know the saying, "she's the life of the party"...that's you DJ (Donna Janelle). You have always brought a good time, joy, happiness and excitement to our family. It has been a privilege to be your sister for the past 30 years. Your spiritual journey has brought out the beauty within you. Happy Birthday. I love you."

Happy Birthday...From Daddy

Happy Birthday, Donna! It is so unbelievable that you are 30. I still remember the evening you were born. To me, you'll always be that little girl in the blow up swimming pool in the picture by my bedroom chair.

ILYWAMHFAF.....Daddy

When I think of Donna...From Dayna

"When I think of Donna I think of all the nice cards and letters she always sends to others. I wish I could be like you Donna in the way you remember birthdays, anniversaries, and special occasions. You are so good about acknowledging other peoples milestones. I have tried to be more like you in this area but just am not. You are a very thoughtful person that way. You have been a wonderful sister. You always make me smile too. I can hear all of your silly sayings and see all your funny faces. You make me laugh. Keep on being the special person you are to all of us. I love you. Happy Birthday."

When I think of Auntie Donna...From Wyatt

"When I think of Auntie Donna.....I do (think of Auntie Donna!)."

When I think of Auntie Donna...From Janna

"When I think of Auntie Donna I smile because when you come to visit us you love to play with us. Happy Birthday. I love you."

When I think of Auntie Donna...From Juette

"When I think of Auntie Donna I think of my favorite aunt...no offense to the other auntie's but it's not your birthday! I think of you doing the "smack the baby" pool jump. Happy Birthday Aunt Donna. I love you."

When I think of Auntie Donna...From Grayson

"When I think of Auntie Donna I think of a fun, loving aunt who always wants the best for everybody and LOVES to make sugar cookies!!! Hope you have a good birthday!"

Donna, when I think of you...From Denise

Donna when I think of you I think of the Donna Reed show. Very fitting that you both have the name Donna. I love you for wanting life to be so romantic, so perfect so right, so traditional. Even in the way you dated, kissed and married only on man is so romantic. You are an exception to the saying, "We all dated at least one loser."

And, I love you because you are HILARIOUS which helps balance out the perfectly desired life---which in looking at the whole big picture of life, makes life...hmm...pretty perfect.

What I am trying to say is that I am so proud of you and the way you have chosen to live your life. You are such a great wife, P31 all the way! And you are a GREAT mother!

I am proud to be your sister. You make me smile and laugh. I'm not gonna lie to you folks, you take Donna, throw in Dolly, and Dayna, Dawn and I just sit back and laugh. Oh, the good memories we have. We are blessed...blessed to have you be the completer of our family!

Happy Birthday! I love you!

We love you Aunt Donna...From Michael and Jane

"We love you Aunt Donna because you send us hand-me-downs from Roy and Caroline!"

To Donna...From Momma

Our Dear, Sweet, Donna....the completer or our family.

You are also the starter of so many good things our family has done and continues to do.

You are the "tradition lover", and you have made sure some of our events have become traditions.

You also make sure these traditions never get forgotten or put on the shelf.

You are the spontaneous one.....the singer, dancer, and the one who makes us laugh.

Your husband loves you....your children love you.....your sisters love you....Daddy and I love you.

Never change, Donna girl. You are so special to us, and to everyone who knows you.

Have a wonderful 30th birthday.

I love Aunt Donna...From Dan Dan

"I love Aunt Donna because she makes us cookies!"

A Day In The Life Of Donna R. Graham

Okay, here it is. My typical day in pictures. I think it's a little boring, but then again I never promised you all that my daily life was glamourous! Let me just say that this was a TEDIOUS task, but I did it for you--my blog fans. I didn't document everything. Some things need to remain private! A big thank you goes out to my sweet husband for being a good sport and helping me take some of these pictures!! So if you think I'm weird, stupid or totally crazy for doing this, stop reading. Otherwise, enjoy. Oh, yeah....there are A TON of pictures!!!

The cutest little alarm clock in the world: Roy Austin Graham, Jr! My day began at 6:36 AM when the little guy decided he was ready for breakfast.

The early bird catches the worm. I had my shower and now I'm making our bed. Yes, those are velcro curlers in my hair. It's a little trick my Mom taught me.

"Bye, sweetheart. I love you!" My hard working man leaving so he can go bring home the bacon. Go get 'em, Tiger.

The curlers are out, but I don't know why I even bothered. It is a cold, rainy day in Charlotte. To borrow a quote from Hillary Clinton, "when all else fails, put on a headband" (she said that on the Tyra Banks Show a few weeks back). I'm also starting my make-up routine.

"Good morning, Princess Caroline! Time for school!". Before I entered her room she was standing on her bed singing an Ariel song. When she saw the camera, she plopped down and covered her face.

Oatmeal: It's what's for breakfast (that was for you, Leland!). I'm also multi-tasking and making Caroline's lunch, which includes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into a duck shape, grapes and applesauce. Healthy and delicious.

Gotta make time to check my e-mail and some blogs while I eat my oatmeal. Are you bored yet?

On Fridays, Caroline goes to preschool. It's also Mommy and Roy Austin Day! Here we are getting ready to go into the school, but I think she's catching on to the whole blog thing and she's a little annoyed. After I dropped her off I used the church's nursing room to give Roy Austin his second meal of the day and I struck up a conversation with my good friend, Jessica.

Then we were off to run our first errand to South Park Mall and Norstrom's where I needed to exchange some workout pants Roy bought me.

My lower half (yikes!) in the fitting room trying on new pants for pilates class. Hmmm. Should I get them? I did! Thanks, Roy!

What a good sport. How cute is my shopping buddy?! He took a little catnap while we made some stops at Gymboree, Gap, Ann Taylor and to get some gift cards for birthday gifts for Uncle Leland and his cousin, Janna.

Here I am sorting through my coupons at a stop light. You know how much I love my coups!

Ahhh, Harris Teeter. One of my mother ships. I LOVE HARRIS TEETER and I love to go grocery shopping. I will say that I got my courage up and asked a stock boy to take our picture. He looked at me like I was INSANE, which slightly embarrassed me. The worse thing is, the picture didn't take and I asked him if he'd try again, to which I got a blank stare and a look as if to say, "are you kidding me?". The picture turned out awful and I quickly left the dairy aisle feeling really, really stupid.

So, I gave it a shot myself. May I add that it takes a lot of guts to take pictures of YOURSELF in the aisle of a grocery store. I looked many times to make sure nobody was coming!!

Yes, I am the loser who eats her lunch alone in her car in a shopping center parking lot. I have to say, though: Bravo, Harris Teeter! They make delicious soups available in the deli department. Today's choice was Maryland Crab Soup and Donna likey.

Okay. Once again, Caroline is thinking, "MOM! Put the camera away!!!". It's around 1:00 and we are picking Caroline up from school. Here she is with Miss Holly and the only other girl in her class, Maya.

Today's topic at school was "Doctors and Nurses Help Us". Meet Dr. Caroline.

Caroline is napping, Roy Austin has had feeding #3 and is napping. I am in my comfies because it is FREEZING today and I am unloading the groceries. Heads up:Harris Teeter has Green Giant frozen veggies buy one get 2 free this week!

Me and my quiet time. This one's for you, Bible Study girls!! I am sitting down with a warm cup of coffee, my Bible and my workbook of "Discerning the Voice of God" by Priscilla Shirer.

Every afternoon I enjoy some "Donna time" as I watch "The View", which I record each morning. I've got to support Elisabeth Hasselbeck because she's the lone ranger on that show. And Sheri Sheppard is HILARIOUS! She's a great addition.

It's also a chance for me to catch up on my "trash magazines" as Roy calls them. This issue of People is rivitting. Tori Spellins is pregnant--again--and her first child is only 11 months! She also sheds some light on those crazy 90210 days and leaving her first husband for her soul mate. Bless her heart.

Roy just called and told me to turn on the TV because a plane might crash. I am watching this scary story while continuing my reading of People. By the way, did you know that Jamie Lynn Spears (age 16) may be planning a summer wedding? Two wrongs don't make a right, sweet girl. Sheewww! The plane landed safely!!

It's 4:00 and time to start dinner. Since it's so cold and rainy out, I decided to make some yummy white chili tonight with some homemade cornbread. This is a Paula Deen crockpot recipe and it has a Mexican kick to it. It also got the approval of Mitchell Johnson, which is a miracle. If you want this delicious recipe, e-mail me. I realized I forgot one of the indgredients at HT, so we have to make another trip to the grocery store!!!!

I got the kids up a little early because I forgot that I had to go pick up the things I had at the consignment sale that didn't sell by 5:00! I sold half of my items. We went back to Harris Teeter where Caroline was allowed to be the mommy and push the cart since we only had to buy 2 things. She pitched a major fit at the checkout counter because "she wasn't ready to leave Harris Teeter". It was very embarrassing and uncalled for!

I don't know if you have a RedBox in the grocery stores where you live, but they're great! You rent the latest and greatest movies for $1.00 a night! I picked up "No Reservations" while I was at Harris Teeter. I was going to get a picture of the kids by the RedBox but there were too many people and I chickend out!

We're home and we beat the 5:00 crazy Charlotte traffic! Here is Maggie, our chihuahua, sniffing for the perfect place to go potty.

Hmmmm....what kid of mail did we get today? Let's see...I got my jeans that I ordered off Ebay, I got my makeup from Christy (thanks for the fast shipping, by the way, Christy!!), two letters from Southern Living and XM Radio telling me they want me back and most exciting of all, Roy Austin's official birth certificate!

Here I am making the delicious cornbread we'll have along with our chili tonight. This is a scrumptious recipe from my sister, Denise's, kitchen. Once again, if you want the recipe, you know the drill.

Bath time! I LOVE clean kids:) Roy Austin loves to kick in the bath. I bathed him and then put him down for his dinner nap.

Here is his big sister who also loves to take baths. I have to make her get out. While she was splashing around, I put the kids' laundry away that I did yesterday.

Caroline fresh out of the bath and in nice, clean pajamas. She is feeding Texas, who is amazingly still alive.

We did a little playing in the playroom while we waited for Daddy to come home from work.

The cornbread is done. YUM! By the way, Mrs. Christmas...This is the dish you gave us for our wedding and I use it all the time!

Daddy's home! Daddy's home!

Just a casual dinner at the Graham home. Actually, I told Roy to act nonchalant in this picture but I believe he was telling me that this was getting a little ridiculous!

Wow! He even helps with the dishes?! I'm not going to lie to you, ladies. He is a gem, but he only helps once in a while:) After we cleaned the kitchen, I took a shower while he played with the kids. Then I fed Roy Austin his fifth and last meal of the day.


Family Devotions/prayer time. What a nice way to end the day. Caroline tries to hold RoyBoy's hand while we pray and she tries her hardest to get him to close his eyes!

The kids are asleep and we are now watching "No Reservations". Our review: Stupid! Very slow and very predictable. Come on Catherine Zeta-Jones. Aren't you an Oscar winner?

11:09 PM. Time for bed and time for the end of this crazy, long post! Good night!

So you may be having some questions. Like, "Do you ever clean your house?" or "Do you ever work out?" "You only check your e-mail/blogs ONCE a day?". Here's the scoop:

A) my house happened to be clean already.

B) Friday is not my work out day because we are gone for most of it. I do, however, work out!

C) I check my e-mail and blogs 3-4 times daily. I just didn't want to bore you with the same picture over and over again.

So, if you are going to do a blog post like this, I would recommend blogging and uploading the pictures as you go! This was a doozy.

(This was copied from Donna's blog, dated Saturday, February 23, 2008.)