Playing in the snow

Wednesday, December 3, 2013

Kay was really excited to play outside in the snow after school.  Unfortunately I was super busy trying to get things finished up with the costumes for the school play so I didn't have much time to get them suited up and take them out to play.  Kay was really cute though and took it upon herself to find all the snow gear for herself and MJ and helped MJ get hers on!  (I think MJ's boots were still in storage at this point so she went out in her tennis shoes.)

First Snow of the Season!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Putting up the Christmas Tree!

Monday, December 2, 2013

DH left for Guatemala on Sunday, December 1st, so unfortunately he wasn't around to help put the tree up this year.  Here are a few pictures of the process - I think M&M took all of the pictures for me:

Can you find the section of the tree that MJ decorated?

School Musical

Thursday, November 21, 2013

The kids' elementary school decided to do a school musical this year and was given a grant to put on the production, "Yes, Virginia The Musical".  They sent home information about the different parts and tryouts and Kitty really expressed interest in trying out for it.  She tried out for one of the lead roles and wasn't given that part but was given a smaller part which she was happy about.  They ended up doing 2 entire casts which ended up being a nightmare...  Kitty was given the part of Whiskers - the cat of one of the leads (ironic, huh?).

The play ended up being a huge time commitment and I helped out as much as I could.  I volunteered to help out with the music at practices and I even volunteered to help make some costumes.  I ended up being given the assignment of making the dresses for one of the lead girl parts - which meant 2 dresses - one for each of the casts - and they were completely different sizes.

The day after we returned from Dad N's funeral, the cast was invited to sing at the window unveiling for the Macy's store in downtown Salt Lake.  DH and I took Kitty down there for it and it was an absolute zoo...  Here are a few pictures from it:

Kitty with some of the other cast members.

These huge ornaments are all made completely out of candy.

The passing of Dad N

I think one of the reasons that I have been neglecting blogging lately (in addition to our move) is that DH's father passed away on November 11, 2013 - just 9 days after DH's sister's wedding - and this has been a hard thing for me to want to blog about.  Those last few weeks of his life were a very tough time period for all of us in the family.  When we saw him for the wedding, we had no idea that he would go as quickly as he did.  I think we all believe that he was holding onto life as hard as he could so that he could be there for that special day and then once that passed he finally felt free to let go.  We "saw" him alive for the last time through Facetime the day before he passed away and he did not look good at all.  We knew immediately when we saw him that he was not going to be with us much longer.  We tried to get a plane ticket for DH to fly out there to be with his mom and sister at this time but then Dad N ended up passing away in the early afternoon on Monday and it was too late.  DH flew out that next day to be with his mom and siblings and I started making preparations to drive up there with the kids that weekend.

Amazingly all of us siblings and spouses and all the grandkids were able to make it for the funeral - even DH's brother's family that were living overseas were all able to be there.  In each of our cases, the brothers were able to get there early to be there for their mom and to spend time together and then those of us wives came separately with all of our kids in tow.  For me and Nae it meant driving the kids there on our own (6 1/2 hours for Nae and 12 1/2 hours for me), and for Cher it meant flying halfway around the world with her 3 kids in tow!

We had some good times remembering Dad N and looking through pictures and some of the things that he loved.  It was a beautiful funeral service where each of the 4 children spoke, the grandkids sang a primary song (with M&M playing the piano for it) and DH's sister sang a solo as well.

Dad N was a good man with fierce loyalties and a tenderness to him that most people did not see.  Yes he had his faults as well, but so do we all.  He fiercely loved his family and was very proud of each and every one.  I think that at times he would look in amazement at his kids and grandkids and the great posterity that he ended up with and wonder what he did to deserve it.  He was/is such a huge, dominant part of the family that it was kind of surreal being in the home and not having him there.  We all kept expecting him to walk into the room or drive into the garage.  He will be greatly missed!

Both of these pictures were taken at the cemetery following the graveside ceremony.

** Once I get access to DH's pictures I will post some more pictures of our trip and the funeral.

Getting ready for Christmas

Friday, November 29, 2013

We had some mild weather right around Thanksgiving this year which gave us a good opportunity to put up our Christmas lights.

Kay and Luke climbing our tree out front.

Happy M&M (aren't teenagers great?!?)

DH on the roof - he hates doing this each year, but I'm grateful that he does it!

Kid talk

Here are a few conversations that took place last year in 2013 when I started looking for a new house for us.  DH didn't want the news going out yet that we were looking for homes and would possibly be moving, so I didn't post these at that time.

We are having some stucco fixed on our house where some water has been leaking behind the stucco. We have also been looking into possibly moving to a bigger house. So when Kay saw the worker tearing off the stucco from the side of the house she asked, "Is he making a bigger house?"

I took MJ and Kay with me to look at a couple of houses one day and one of them was a big house but it only had four bedrooms. When we were leaving the house Kay said to me that she really liked it. I mentioned that it wouldn't really work for us with only four bedrooms and after thinking about it for a minute or two she said, "I know Mom! Why don't we just go to the store and buy another bedroom?" (If only it were that simple!) Then in another house, there was no furniture in the place and when she saw the master bedroom and how big it was she said, "Mom! We could all sleep in here together!"  Then when she saw the size of the master closet she said, "Oooo, this could be my room!"

Blog note

**Note - I have been getting way behind in my posts - both on this blog and on my lemonade blog.  For those that don't know, we recently moved and I will blame that for my lack of blogging lately.  I will try my very hardest to get everything up-to-date before the holiday season is upon us!  My lemonade blog will be the easiest of the two so I will start there.  And please know that we are all doing well and are as busy as ever!

Kid talk

Today at church, they sang to MJ in Primary for her birthday this week.  They gave her a little bag with a bookmark and a KitKat candy bar.  After Primary, MJ came and showed me what they gave her and she said, "And I get to be a year older too!"

After church one of the Primary leaders came and told me that MJ didn't want to go up to the front to be sung to (or she wasn't sure what they wanted her to do), so Kay ran over to her and took her up to stand with her in the front of the Primary room.  They were going to sing "You've Had a Birthday" and they sometimes change the words to it and let the kids choose some adjectives to fill in the line, "one year older and wiser too".  MJ apparently wasn't picking any words so Kay stood in front of her and looked her in the face for a few seconds and then said, "I think she will be more wonderful and cuter this year."

Kid talk

We were talking about professions and what the kids might like to be when they grow up. I mentioned that one of my sisters always said she wanted to be a veterinarian when she was growing up. Blondie then said, "I thought veterinarians were people that don't eat meat..."