Saturday, April 20, 2013

Cooper's First Angel's Game

Baseball season has begun and we've already made our first trip down to the Angel's Stadium to watch a game.  Sadie and Wyatt are all about going to baseball games.  In fact, Sadie has asked quite a few times over the past few months if we could go.  So we were excited when once again Brandon was able to get some tickets from work to go to a game.  This was obviously Cooper's first time and he was not quite as excited as the others as you can see from the pictures.  He's usually such an easy happy guy, but apparently taking him to a game,  past his bedtime, and only 1 day after being stuck in the car for 6 hours on a road trip is where he puts his foot down.  Poor little guy!
 I've pretty much given up on getting a picture with every one looking.
"I don't know what you're smiling about Daddy, I want to go home!"

Friday, April 19, 2013

Saying Goodbye...

This past week we said goodbye to my Grandma and if you are like me goodbyes are always hard, even when you know that you are going to see that person again in just a few weeks or months.  I've been like this since I can remember.  I think I cried every time I left home to head back to college, even though I enjoyed college, and I still cry most of the time when I leave my family up in Oregon to come home, even though I'm happy to be home in my own bed and with my kids back in their own routines.  This said when the moments come that I have to say goodbye for this lifetime it's so terribly hard, as I'm sure it is for everyone. 

I've found that each goodbye is different and for me there was special blessing in the time I had to say goodbye to my Grandma.  In the past when I have said goodbye to ones I've loved it has been at the very end of their life and in situations where they have been unable to talk with me about what was ahead.  I knew what they believed and so could remind myself in those last moments of the promise of eternal life and being finally free from sadness and suffering to praise the Lord Jesus Christ for all of eternity, but this good bye was unique in that my Grandma was able to speak these truths to me herself.  I went into my last time with her desiring to offer her comfort and yet walked away feeling like she had done just that for me, and as a result I think have a new understanding of what a gift our faith is.  It was so profound to me to be able to see someone in the last days of their life so confidently waiting to walk from this life to the next, all the while, helping those of us who were about to be left behind to do the same. 

I will never forget the confidence with which she answered my timid question, "Are you ready?" There was no hesitation in her rely "yes."  What a precious gift it was to me to get to experience the peaceful confidence of a saint about to go home, excited to be reunited with the many who had gone before her, and most of all to finally meet her Savior.  I don't know if I've ever meet a braver or stronger woman.  She battled cancer 3 times, lived a life with many inconveniences because of the scars it left, and she spent the last months of her life with seemingly no bitterness at it's return. 

She was the same Grandma I've always loved up until the end.  In fact, she reminded me even on our very last visit to make sure we brought something healthy for Grandpa to eat and spent the first part of our time together asking questions about little things I'd told her in previous conversations.  Don't know why I was so surprised she had remembered. :) Anyway, I'm so thankful for her life, her testimony, and her love for my Grandpa and each of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 

On April 16th Grandma went home to be with the Lord. Grandma, you will be missed here but we look forward to seeing you again with a new and healthy body.

 
 

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Jump Street

We had a chance to spend the weekend with Amy, Brian, and Payton earlier this month and while we were there we went to an indoor trampoline park called Jump Street.  The kids had so much fun and so did we.  It was hillarious watching them play!
 
 Payton and Cooper

Monday, April 15, 2013

Mess!!!

Wyatt is all about making BIG messes these days.  One has only to take their eye off of him for about 5 minutes and undoubtedly every toy he owns will have been piled into the middle of the play room, or his bedroom, or onto my bed, or wherever he has deemed it appropriate to make his "mesh".  The problem is Mommy has had a hard time getting mad because he's so stinkin' cute when he proudly and very excitedly exclaims "MESH!!! MESH!!!"as I come into the room.   Well actually the cuteness is beginning to wear off and so has the fun of it now that he is learning that he has to help with the clean-up of his "meshes."


 
 
And now to make things even more interesting around here we've started making messes not only with our toys, but also with things that don't belong to us such as lotion, and toothpaste, and hair gel.  I guess Mommy's going to be keeping a much closer eye on her little squirt.

 

Friday, April 12, 2013

Spring Break

Technically I don't think I get a Spring Break anymore, but this year we got to enjoy Auntie Kendy's Spring break with her.  She drove down to California with some college friends and then we got to spend a few days with her, which was so much fun!
 
DAY 1:  On her first day here we went to the arboretum in Santa Anita.  We'd never been there before and the kids loved it.  We fed the ducks, had a picnic lunch, and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day!


 

 

 
Wyatt really got into throwing the bread to the ducks
 
 
 
 
 

DAY 2: On our 2nd day together we went to the Brackett Field Airport in LaVerne.  We picked up donuts and coffee on the way and got to see quite a few small planes and helicopters take off and land.  Then after naps we went to the splash pad.  It was a bit cold for the water but Auntie Kendy braved it with the kiddos.
 





DAY 3: On Saturday we went to the pancake breakfast and egg hunt at our church.
 Sadie and her friend Amelia


So sweet
but deep down such a little chimp!
 
 DAY 4: On Sunday we went to church and then out to Seal Beach for lunch before Auntie Kendy had to head home.

 
 
 
 
 
Auntie Kendy wasn't feeling great when she left, but little did we know that 2 hours down the road in Santa Barbara she would be stopping to have her appendix removed.  Poor Kendy!