*LOOKING BACK*

"Happy anniversary Bella," Edward told me on August 13, 2106 as he handed me a velvet box, a diamond necklace!!!! I have finally gotten over my aversion to new gifts, as I had to if I was ever going to survive in my new, extremely generous family, but at the same time, I was thrilled, as was Edward, that I did.

Wow! I can't believe it has been one hundred years since I married my wonderful and perfect husband, Edward, and became Mrs. Isabella Marie Swan Cullen.

A lot has happened since that wonderful day. I have given birth to my beautiful daughter Renesmee, fought along side my family and friends against the Volturi, and met Nahuel, one of the very few ½ vampires in existence, like Renesmee.

Oh, I remember that day with the Volturi as if it was only yesterday. There we stood, my then new vampire family and wolf friends, awaiting the decision from the Volturi on whether or not they were going to kill us. Now, we did have surprises of our own up our sleeves, including my shield, mind reading, different types of illusions, Garrett, the "Earth Mover" as we called him, the wolves with their own abilities, and, our most powerful, as I thought then, Siobhan's ability to will her desires into becoming reality. Toward the end, we all had felt that we had lost the battle so we started saying our final goodbyes. That's when Edward heard them. Alice and Jasper were back with a few witnesses of their own, which, as it turned out, made the Volturi realize that there was no way they could win, so they coward under the pressure of keeping their reputation and left.

We see the Volturi as our family in some ways now, though distant, we do keep in touch, checking up on us to see how we are doing; sometimes we even go visit them. They love Renesmee, just like anyone else. I know for a fact that there is not one person unable to love her. Renesmee reached her permanent age of 19 in a very short period of time. Her beauty and grace captivated the hearts of everyone who ever came in contact with her. As she grew up, she was always very good at separating her vampire needs and human needs and desires. She was always the most connected emotionally with Jacob. It was so interesting seeing the development of their relationship. I don't think there would have been another living being in the world we trusted Renesmee more with than Jacob. They have been the best of friends from the beginning. When Renesmee reached adulthood, there was never any question who she wanted to spend eternity with. It was always Jacob. It was like they were made for each other. I never really understood the whole "imprinting" thing with Jacob's family until I watched it first hand with him and Renesmee. The interesting thing was she felt the same intense bond with Jacob as he felt for her. He was right when he told me the one person they imprint on in life, is their perfect match.

Since the Volturi left, we have become extremely close to Nahuel and his family. Nahuel and Renesmee are best friends, which is really good because they are both half and half beings just like Jacob and his pack. They spend so much time together that, if not for her love for Jacob, they could have been perfect for each other. I see them and think of what could have been, had we never known Jacob. I've even wondered if that's how Jacob sees me sometimes. What is would have been like if I would have taken him over Edward. But I know that he would rather have this huge family than if it had only been the two of us.

Jacob is still a wolf and so are his two extremely loyal pack members, Seth and Leah. They never did imprint on anyone because, as they will always tell you, they would rather live with friends and family and be, as Leah had once called it, the vampires guard dogs rather then be with only one other person and alone. They all prefer the pack, which is a lot to say for Leah. Jacob and Nessie married on June 18th, 2015 and they went to the recently restored Isle Esme for their honeymoon. They are the perfect couple. It's like they were made for each other, which they kind of were because of Jake imprinting on her when she was born. Renesmee and Jake both became teachers; Nessie as a high school English teacher and Jake as the principal. Jake quickly gains respect from any student he meets and even the students he doesn't meet. The students are mainly scared of Jacob because of his massive height and his piercing eyes. All the students knew somehow that something was more than "human" about him, but no one could ever figure out why he was so different. In any event, no student ever challenged his authority. For that matter, no student ever challenged any of the teachers, especially Renesmee, because they knew Jacob would know and he was very protective of his teachers and demanded respect for them.

The best part of becoming a vampire was the fact that I was able to stay with my wonderful family forever. We, my vampire family and I, spent countless time debating on whether or not we could tell my human family the truth. If we did we would have to change them as well and that was where the problems arose. We knew that we could change Charlie and Sue because Sue already knew everything and Charlie knew a lot already and was definitely strong enough. However, we did not know how Renee and Phil would take it. Would they be strong enough? Would they understand the rules, not just our rules, as the Cullen family, but all the vampire rules in general? Would they want to be left alone, even if they knew the truth? What if only one of them wanted to be changed? These were some of the many questions we struggled against in our decision. In the end, we weighed our family's safety with our new friends with the idea of having my human family transformed and added to our huge family. In the end, we decided that it would actually be best to change them because, according to Alice, there were more vampire/ human wars coming and we needed to protect them, which would be hard if they were still humans living in multiple parts of the world.

Charlie and Sue married on June 18th, 2007. Renee and Phil married on April 15th, 2008. Once they were all happily married we told them everything, including the date we were going to change them: September 14th, the day Charlie first learned about the Quiluete wolfs. They all took it way better than any of us could have hoped for. Then next problem we faced was who would be the one to change them. We knew Carlisle would have no problem so that wasn't the issue. The real issue was that I had talked myself into the idea of me changing them. Everyone agreed that I could do it but as their transformation date neared, I started getting worried. Carlisle promised me that he would be there with me, as well as Edward, and stop me if anything went wrong, but he had complete faith in me. Edward just reminded me of the many times he had to save me, how he had the same worries, but his love for me made it possible for him to stop. I knew that if I truly loved my human family, which I did, I would be able to stop. That's what I concentrated on that day when I not only changed one person, but all four without any problems at all. With that, our family has grown from just Carlisle to his family of seven to our family of over 23 vampires and wolfs.

Once all had been changed, we decided that it would be safer to move away from Forks where everyone knew Charlie, Sue, Renee, and Phil and would notice the change. Not safer fromus, as the vegetarian vampires, but safer for us, from having too much speculation about our family that just seemed to keep growing. We moved, first, to live with our extended family, the Denali's. We only stayed five years as opposed to the almost ten years in Forks because after a while we realized how hard it was to not impact the wild life with the twenty vampires and three wolfs. We then moved on the London. Carlisle loved seeing his home from the 1640's and how it looked in 2018. We enjoyed London so much that we stayed there for fifteen years. After that, we ended up in Anchorage Alaska, which is where we are now. That was definitely Emmett's favorite place, mostly because of the available food choice, his favorite being the all mighty polar bear. Since he never got over the bear almost ending his life, this was his revenge! While there I went to college with Renesmee, Edward, and Jasper.

Emmett is the best big brother anyone can have. He still have our almost weekly arm wrestling matches but he has never won, except when I want to make him mad and let him win, which is often. Now that we added four more vampires into our family, Emmett will occasionally get beaten by one of them, though they don't fight with him like I do. It is still extremely fun to watch him lose because he basically throws a fit and shouts "rematch" every time.

Jasper, though he gift is as powerful as ever, rarely uses it on any of us if he can help it. It does come in handy at his new job though. Jazz is a surgeon just like Carlisle. He used to be the one we had to keep away from all blood, but now he has the immunity to it just like almost our whole family now. He will use his gift to calm down the patient before the surgery, and after. He is now considered the world's best surgeon, next to Carlisle of course.

Alice is still into fashion, now more than ever. She loves designing her own clothes instead of buying them now. She has even opened up a business where she sells her one of a kind masterpieces; she calls it 'Psychic Fashions by Alice'. The name means that Alice designs only outfits that she knows will be successful in the future. Rosalie helps run the business and design the clothes as well.

Rosalie not only helps Psychic Fashions by Alice, but has become the best aunt to Nessie. As surprising as it was to me, Rose and I have become so close as family that we are now each others best friends. We do almost everything together, including taking care of Nessie. Rose had also befriended Jacob, which was something that not even Alice saw coming.

Carlisle has certainly been busy ever since Jazz wanted to become a doctor. He decided to teach Jazz everything he knew, which was over 400 years of information on all things medical and more. Carlisle has also been working nights at the local college here in Alaska. Carlisle is considered the world's best surgeon as well as the world's best scientist; he has discovered the cure for almost every type of cancer known to man, vampires and wolfs, in the past 100 years. Carlisle has had to change his name a few times after he had "retired or passed away" so that his name was not the discoverer of everything and so that he could still remain with all his titles of best doctor and scientist after all these years. His favorite name being Stregoni Benefici, the Italian vampire said to be on the side of goodness, and a mortal enemy of all evil vampires. He could last about 10 years in one hospital before moving to a new one, but could keep his name for around 30 to 40 years before he would have to retire to a new name. He would sometimes put one of our names on it so that it wasn't always him with the hundreds of awards.

Esme has also started her own business. She is a contractor as well as an interior designer. That way the house or building will be perfect inside and out. Esme has become even more compassionate, loving, and caring over the past 100 years, if that was even possible. Esme has become an excellent cook, as well as Edward, since Jacob, Seth, and Leah eat like food is going out of style, ha ha. Nessie, though she still prefers blood, even eats human food sometimes so there needed to be some great cooks in this house, and there are. We can all cook but no one can out cook Edward and Esme, especially when they cook together.

Oh my Edward. How could I have possibly survived with out him? I used to wonder what would have happened to me if Edward hadn't lived in Forks and Tyler had hit me with his van. Or if James and his coven showed up to Forks, followed my scent, and I really did become the meal. Or my worst fear, if I had been alone with Jazz when I got the paper cut and became my new brother's meal. Edward and I spend most of our time just being together. We love to climb to the highest of trees and just sit and talk while overlooking the vast beauty of the snow covered mountains. We are the best of friends and the romance is awesome! I remember when I was human and how much I wanted Edward physically and how hard it must have been to control himself. Luckily, one of us had enough self control. It certainly wasn't me. But now, there is nothing we have to hold back. We can love each other endlessly without fear of hurting the other. It's truly magical.

Edward has saved my life countless times, but it is when I saved him that we are both thankful for. I remember, as a human, having to travel with Alice to Italy to save him. Had it not been for the fact that we both almost died, that would have been an amazing memory for both of us. It truly was like Edward and I were made for each other. We have had so many wonderful adventures and its still quite hard to grasp the concept that I get to stay with him forever and have many more adventures. We love spending time with our family, as we always have, and we especially love it when Renesmee tells us stories about the kids she teaches. The best stories are, though some what mean, is when a new school year starts and they meet her, with her marveling beauty and the fact that she looks like she is their same age, which is true, and the students reaction of Jake the first time, if she is around. I have pushed my shield away almost permanently now. I never release it unless I have a huge secret for him, like an anniversary or birthday surprise. He sees in my mind 24/7 now, which he loves and to my surprise, I'm glad he can.

Renee, Phil, Charlie, Sue have all take to the vampire life miraculously well. They each had a few slip ups during the newborn years, as was always expected, but after those first few years, none. The hardest thing for any of them was adjusting to the fact that they were now parents of nine with one grandchild. Renee and Esme became just like sisters, as well as Charlie, Carlisle, and Phil became like brothers. I don't think I could have asked for a more wonderful and perfect family.

"I know Bella, we have such a wonderful family and I could have not asked for anything more because you have given me everything I've ever wanted. I love you so, so much Bella" Edward said. I am so glad that I let him read my mind now. "So am I, Bella. So am I." Edward!!!! "Sorry,"

"Its fine. I love you, Edward, more than my own life. Happy 100th anniversary!"