A Tradition Continues

We grew up playing family games at our house on Sundays.  We loved it.

After I graduated from college and had some awesome roommates, we always used to have friends over on Sunday evenings to play games.

Now I get to play games with my own little family on Sundays.  A couple weeks ago I pulled out our Candy Land game.  Tyler doesn't really get the whole concept of moving the gingerbread men around the board, but he loves turning over the cards.  Darrell had never played Candy Land before so after a (very) brief explanation he played with Tyler while the girls looked on.  (They got to hold a gingerbread guy and "play" on the Chutes and Ladders board, all while sitting up to the table just like big people do).






Afterwards we played "Ring Around the Rosies." (Tyler calls it "Ring Around the Horsies.")  The girls LOVED playing it and kept wanting to hold our hands to do it again.


The best part was dog-piling Darrell when he fell down.

A Video to Share

I came across this video on two different blogs in the past two days.  It's too beautiful not to share.  Here are the links to the 2 blogs.  The first is a blog by a young mother who lost her 18 month old daughter after she fell into a canal and later died.  She shares her story of grief, pain, hope and joy here.  The second is the blog of the mother who was burned in this video.  Check it out here.

Outside

The kids love, love, LOVE being outside.  I'm so grateful for our fenced in backyard.  The kids love to play in the sandbox, in the gravel under the playground set and in the dirt.  It is a kids' paradise out there.

(If you look closely in the picture of Megan by the slide, you can see a green tomato in her hand.  The girls love picking the tomatoes and carrying them around.  Megan says, "Ap-ple.  Ap-ple.")



























 














All three love swinging.  They totally luck out when Darrell pushes them because he stays right by the swings and keeps them going.  I, on the other hand, will give each a push and then go pull some weeds or groom the jungle of tomato plants we have.



Here they are helping Daddy with the lawn.









Helping with the harvest--apples and pumpkins












We've loved being out in the fall weather.  I don't know what we'll do when it gets cold.  (Boo!)

Little Stinkers or Just Stinkin' Cute?

Good news:  Unlike Tyler at this age, the girls have each other to play with and entertain.

Bad news:  Unlike Tyler at this age, the girls have each other to "steal" from and fight with.  (And yesterday there was hitting and biting involved...Heaven help me!)

Megan and Emily certainly keep me on my toes, but I love when they find me on my bum and throw themselves on me because they want me to hold and love them. 

Here are some pictures of the stinkin' cute stinkers:

Megan loves wearing her sandals and will bring them to me so I can put them on.


Emily sometimes likes to wear sandals, but lately she finds it entertaining to take them off every. single. time. we are in the van.  Here she took them off and chucked them out of the van door while I ran in to the house to get the diaper bag and purse.


Despite my best "temporary" efforts to keep the girls out of the drawers, Emily has learned that she can easily slide the chair away and help herself to the cooking utensils.


Our house always looks like a tornado has recently been through it.  On this day the girls overturned the kitchen and then proceeded to find the VHS tapes (that we never watch anyway, so I'm not sure why they're still on the shelf) and pulled the tapes out of their covers.


Emily decided it would be fun to climb on the blank shelf where the DVDs used to be (They HAVE been put away because the girls were getting too good at opening the cases and taking the DVDs out.)




Helpful Megan.  Here she is sweeping and combing Darrell's hair.






Poor Emily reacts very badly to any bug bites.  Here she woke up with a swollen eye.


I may have to ban another food from our lunch menu.  (In Emily's defense these pork and beans had been put in the freezer while we went to California.  It turns out thawed frozen pork and beans make a fun, pasty, tasty mess.)




One night Emily, Megan and Tyler were having the time of their lives running around wearing their hats.  I love that the 3 of them have each other to play with and laugh with.







Here is Emily with Tyler's hat on.  Notice that the front of her shirt is soaking wet.  Sometimes she takes sips from her sippy cup and then spits it out.  I'm not sure if this was the case or not on this particular day.


One thing's for sure--it's rarely boring at our house!

California

We were able to fly to California for Darrell's dad's funeral.  It was great to be with Darrell's family and to celebrate the life of a wonderful man.  I didn't get too many pictures, but here's a few.

I loved these 2 displays of photos from Wayne's life.



Darrell's mom with her sister and brother.  



Me and Darrell's grandma Nellie.


The girls with Grandma.


We did go to the park one morning and the kids had a blast.  It took all three of us to keep track of all three of them.











 The neighbor across the street let us borrow this sweet tricycle.  Darrell and I had fun riding it to and from the park.



 Here is my tribute to Wayne.  It was one of several read at his funeral.

W is for Wayne’s wonderful sense of humor.  Wayne always had a joke ready to tell.  He was also a big tease—a trait he passed down to his son Darrell and grandson Tyler.  (And if I’m not mistaken, his granddaughters Emily and Megan are starting to show signs of being teases as well.)

A is for the awesome husband, son, father and grandpa that Wayne was.  Wayne and Carol have been married for 51 years and I’m so grateful for the legacy of love he last left for us to emulate. 

Y is for y’all and for Wayne’s southern roots.  (Disclaimer:  Although I don’t really remember Wayne saying “y’all” very much, the letter y is a hard one to come up with a good descriptive word.  But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment on Wayne’s southern phrases.)   I have to admit that most of his southern sayings went over my head, but they always made sense once he explained them.

N is for being the nicest guy around.  Wayne’s such an easy-going and very likable guy.  I felt right at home from the first day I met Wayne. Both Wayne and Carol welcomed me and my family with open arms. 

E is for Easter.  That is the last holiday we shared together.  We always loved when Wayne and Carol came to Utah to visit us and to see the grandchildren each year.  Even though Wayne wasn’t feeling well this past April, he made the trip so we could celebrate the kids’ birthdays just a little bit early.  It is appropriate that we celebrated Easter together this year because it brings us hope that we will be with Wayne again.

Our lives will never be the same without Wayne, but they also will never be the same because of Wayne and his love and his life.  We love him so much and will miss him—until we see him again.

Grandpa and Emily (April 2011)

Labor Day

We made our annual trip to visit my parents for Labor Day.  We were able to attend the county fair and watch the cousins participate in 4-H type stuff.

Spectating Day 1








Nathaniel with his sheep


Spectating Day 2






Jonathan was a grand showman runner up and got to be judged showing a sheep, a horse, a pig and a cow.









Spectating Day 3  It was a cold morning.  I only got pictures of Daniel and Tyler having a grand time running up and down the bleachers in their coats.


Laura's normal horse was sick or injured so she had to borrow this horse that did NOT want to do what Laura wanted it to do.


Fun at Grandma's house.  We were thrilled that my brother Derek and his wife Tansy were able to be with us this weekend.  Derek is THE favorite uncle, especially on the trampoline.