Reflections of the postings

Well it's been a long, long, long time since I've been here. Rosalind told us to go to the blog to see the pictures of their trip to ATL. I am so like a child I have to be reminded that there's a blog where I can go and get updates on my children and grandchildren. It's Sunday morning and we have Stake Conference, two sessions and lucky for us (mom and dad) we have the later session 12-2 PM. We get to sleep in a little!!! Anyway, back to the blog, I went there this morning to see the ATL trip only to find other blog entries. WOW, what an update. Thanks for being so diligent in writing to the blog.

The trip to ATL looked like it was a fun trip, I really am glad that you were able to go and have such a fun family trip, I know your trip to Disney World will be even better. You can't buy memories - I am glad that you are making memories for your children.

The boys - well what can I say they are so cute. So fun to watch them try new things. We are so blessed with such beautiful grandchildren. I love to see how much they have grown.

Miss E is so serious....when they were home for Christmas, Maria and I noticed how much she looked like Mimi with her serious side.

Let me say how proud I am that each family has done so well in making these precious memories. I do hope you are recording them somewhere else for your children to read about in the future. These will help them with their own person history.

Life is so short we all saw that when our dear Mimi passed away....she was 83 but we felt she had been taken away long before she passed but even in her last years it was fun to be able to go to see her. She was for me a wonderful "mother" (in-law). She was there for me many times throughout my married life. With the passing of my own mother she became a tower of strength for me while I was finding my way as a married woman. She raised good children one of whom is my husband. This was very evident through the last 6 weeks that she lived.

It was good to see all of the family together in one place....sad isn't it that it takes the death of a loved one to gather everyone together, I wonder why that is? We find the time in death to come together but when we are busy with life we can't seem to find the time to come together. (Well our branch of the tree did come together for Christmas and that was fun.)

We were able to have Papa in our home for a week. It was good for us and for him too. He worked in our yard raking, raking and more raking. He rode the tractor. At one time I went outside to tell Opa that Papa was just sitting on the tractor. Opa was using the blower and not being able to see he hadn't noticed Papa wasn't riding the tractor he was just sitting. The mower had stopped. The engine would run but the gears wouldn't engage. So I helped them get that solved, but Opa said "I can keep up with my grand kids easier then keeping up with daddy". The problem is when Papa getting going on something he gets distracted and goes off and starts something else. Once when Opa told Papa where to use the mower in the front yard, he turned to do something else and when he turn back around Papa was gone, he'd gone to the back yard and was using the mower there. Dad had to go get him and get him back on track. It was fun having him here. And our yard is fully raked and looking good.

I am grateful to each of you for the example that you set for me, for your support of us. I love each of you and pray for you each day.

Thanks again for posting to the blog.

Love, OMA

It Ain't Easy Being Little

It's pretty clear that Ben is bigger than Alex. Not just in weight (6 lbs heavier) but also in clothing size (Ben wears a 2T/24 months and Alex wears 18 months clothes). Ben is also a few inches taller. It's never really been an issue, until recently. Ben has discovered he's tall enough to get things off of the counter in the kitchen. Which has caused us to keep a nice 6 inches of clear space at the edge of the counters. He's also discovered how cool it is to turn the lights off and on, and off and on, and off and on. UGH! Alex tried to copy him the other day and was very disappointed when he realized he was "too little." It reminded me of my tiny little college roomate DeAnn who used to say, "I'm too l'il." LOL! I was able to get some pics of the boys messing with the lights in the living room. It was quite funny.

Alex observes Ben in action.

Alex carefully studies Ben's technique and execution of light switch flipping.
Ben steps away to observe his student and Alex aims for his target.

Disappointed he turns to Ben and says, "Waaaaaaaaaah." Which in Twinspeak means, "I'm too l'il."

I've Been Shamed Into Posting

I received the following email from my friend Natalie:

"Okay all my fellow bloggers, YA'LL ARE SLACKIN'!!! I have been checking in on you for weeks and nothing new. I love the blogs, and I love to see pics of your families, so please, for me......update!!! : ) I did! Love ya!!!"

So here I am. POSTING! This one's for you Nat!

For Christmas (YES! We are STILL on Christmas. :) ) Creighton's Mom got the boys the cutest little rompers w/ turtlenecks. Of course the day got away from us and no one made it out of their PJs so I didn't get to snap any pics of them in the Christmas rompers. So one Sunday morning I dressed them up in them and took some pics of them. They were VERY cooperative and smiled and everything. I told them to hug for a pic which Ben was totally willing to do but Alex didn't want anything to do with it.

And to wrap things up...King Tut...

get it...to wrap things up! Ha ha ha ha! OK, seriously...we loved this exhibit! The Atlanta Civic Center had a King Tut exhibit. It has huge and really cool! Once again, Kate loved it and wanted to read every display...Clair liked it for about 30 - 45 minutes, and Bowen liked it for -30 minutes (yes, that is NEGATIVE thirty minutes). The only bummer...like the Terracotta Soldiers...you couldn't take photos in the exhibit. So, here are a few from the gift shop and from outside. Bowen in a King Tut head dress...$33...nope, we'll take the book for $4.99! Kate and Clair also wanted to try on the hat...Kate wanted to buy the hat, but her $8 budget wouldn't allow it! I don't think King Tut would appreciate this tissue box in his image! But I thought it was funny!And, one of the greatest treats of this trip was finding my favorite Tex-Mex restaurant in ATLANTA...Stephen made a legal U-turn to get us back to Taco Cabana for lunch. Yummy bean and cheese taco for me! :) Then we promptly saved the location on our GPS for future visits! :)

Our Twin Friends

The Binns are our friends from Georgia and are the perfect twin match for our family.

They have three kids....just like us...a daughter 7 years old (just like us), a daughter 5 years old (just like us), and a son 2 years old (just like us). We love them ALL! Patrice (the mom) is a great person! She is a good mom and she laughs at my jokes! William is too funny and is a great dad! The family is a great example to us and we LOVE being with them. Even though we don't get to see each other very often, when we spend time together it is like we were never apart! They are such great friends and our kids really love each other and get along wonderfully! It was a wonderful way to spend our Sunday evening in Georgia! Thanks for the yummy dinner and the great company!

We already miss you guys...and your little dogs too!

Day Two in ATL

Next was World of Coke!

They had all these really cool bottles decorated for different cultures.

Then we went into this cool room with all these classic coke signs and got to see other cool vintage stuff!

We meet the Coke Polar Bear!

Then we got to sample 62 Coke products from around the world...Kate and Clair were in "soda" heaven!



We needed some food to counter all the sugar we consumed in the form of soda...soooooo Stephen took us to this great little Brazilian place! Clair LOVED it and even tried chicken hearts and liked them! She ate three! Look at that full belly!

Soliders in ATL

So, this long weekend we packed up the van and took our little family on a trip to the big city of Atlanta... AKA - ATL! ATL is hosting several really cool exhibits...Terracotta Soldiers from China and a King Tut exhibit from Egypt! So, Saturday morning (Valentine's Day) we went to the Atlanta High Museum of Art to check out the clay warriors. (Kate and Clair with their best solider faces!)

After we saw the Terracotta Soldiers exhibit we checked out some of the art!


Then we washed our art experience down with some yummy and "healthy" food from The Varsity - an Atlanta institution! (Like Kate's onion ring bracelet?)

Then the next morning the girls "dug" out their own Terracotta Soldiers from the gift shop!

Missing Mimi and Thoughts on Cousins

I hate that the boys didn't really get to know Mimi. She was a wonderful woman who influenced my life more than she will ever know. We did go visit her a few times. Not enough though, that I thought they would have a lasting impression of her or even what her "name" was. I was sad that we didn't go more but life gets in the way, right? It was so sweet and tender at the funeral when he looked into the casket and said, "Mimi?."

One of the good things that came out of this whole ordeal was seeing family. Even though it was under sad circumstances, we were happy to see each other. Our family is full of love. We're not the kind that talk to each other a lot. I hadn't spoken to Callie in a long time before the funeral but when I did call her on the phone to talk about her flight arrangements, it was like we talked yesterday. That's just how we are. We are close, even when we're not. I love my family!

It was great to have Maria here. Elizabeth is such a serious baby but I got her to laugh a little. She was so easy going that you couldn't even tell when her little schedule was disrupted. (Unlike our highly scheduled little dudes!!!) Aunt Maria and E stayed in our playroom so the boys didn't get to spend as much time in there as they normally do. But Aunt Maria was really good about getting them out of their cribs in the morning and taking them into her room and letting them play.

I was able to snap a few pics of the boys and E while they were playing one day. Then on Tuesday, Mom and Dad stopped by on their way home. Rosalind and her kids were here, too. So we had almost all of the cousins together. We were only missing TJ. So I snapped some more pics. The boys love their cousins. I think because they are so good to take care of them (Kate and Clair) and/or close to their age (Bowen and TJ). So here are some of the pics I took. Hope you enjoy!

Everyone "visiting" in our living room.

Kate, Clair and Ben.

Ok, this pic is so funny I had to post it. Clair (much too big for this toy) is riding on one of the boys' push toys. Ben is pushing her. They did it a lot. It was so funny to me!

Elizabeth loves to crinkle the wipes bag. Such an inexpensive toy! Alex, of course, is trying to take it away from her. As he did w/ almost every toy she played with while she was here.

Ben posing w/ Elizabeth. Well, not so much with as near Elizabeth.