Family gatherings

Why is it when families get together, the women find a way to chat around the food, the men chat around the tv, and the children get more wild and run all over the house. I swear, my daughter seems to think when we are at a family member's house, she doesn't think I see everything she does. At least she knows (or at least I think she does) right from wrong. I know that will change in her upcoming years but for now I can be proud. As for Matthew, he is starting to come into his own and he loves to show off. It may take a few minutes for him to warm up but then he becomes the life of the crowd. And he really wants to be a big kid and do what the big kids do. Oh well.
At least we got to visit with family and especially my niece Rebecca and her hubby Justin. They just came in from Oklahoma where he was stationed. Now in a couple weeks, Justin will be heading to Korea while Rebecca stays here growing bigger and bigger. We just found out a week ago she is expecting. So that makes Brian and me great uncle and great aunt. I am too young to have great in front of a title. haha.
It is pretty fun to be part of a big family though. Many people to turn to for advice, comfort, and just plan chat time.
Blessings to all until next post.

Texas Goodbyes

What a trip. We just returned from Texas visiting families and seeing my Grandmother, Mere-Mere. A month ago Mere-Mere was given less than 3 months to live due to cancer. Sort of a shocker to the family. My grandmother is a strong woman and has lived by herself for the past 14 years while being a diabetic. She is still a very strong woman. She has made it a month since she was given her timeline (which only Heavenly Father really knows when her time is up) and she is still doing things on her own.

We were able to take a week and go down to see her. She was so happy to see us and really enjoyed her time with us. Matthew and Kimberly warmed up to everyone, but especially Mere-Mere. Matthew was playing ball with Mere-Mere the first night we were there. He also could say Mere-Mere and night night which were perfect for Mere-Mere to hear.

My mom has been there since Mere-Mere was given her timeline to take care of her. What a blessing my mother has been to my grandmother. A few years ago my mom decided to take classes and become a CNA. She worked in a nursing home for a couple years until she was physically unable to do it anymore. All her knowledge has come in handy while taking care of my grandmother. Watching my mom made me so proud of her. She is a strong woman. My mom would be CNA Pam while taking care of my grandmother but would be daughter Pam when she would talk personally to her mom. It was sweet to watch. Unfortunately, my mom is taking on a lot of stress and pressure with all this. Every night after she gets my grandmother to bed, she second guesses everything she did for the day, hoping she did enough. I feel so bad for her. Hopefully she will take some advice and talk to the hospice people about all her thoughts on taking care of my grandmother. One bright note for my mom was seeing her grandbabies. She really enjoyed us there.

The last night we were there was the hardest. Knowing that was more than likely the last time I was going to talk and see my grandmother on Earth was very hard to deal with. Just looking around the house and remembering all the memories I had there ... a lot to deal with. I was trying to be strong when telling my grandmother good bye but I still broke down. I love my Mere-Mere more than words can express. She has always been an amazing woman and someone to look up to. I just hope we have enough memories to tell the kids when they get older about their Mere-Mere. Not very many people get to know their great grandparents.

While we were in the big city of Killeen, we did do a couple other things. We got to go to a duck pond and feed the ducks. Between Matthew's eating the bread and feeding the ducks, Kimmy never stopping in her feeding; those ducks and fish were full when we left.

We also made it to visit the gravesites of my grandfather Jon-Jon and my cousin Troy. One main thing I wanted to do was get a picture of Matthew behind Troy's headstone because Matthew was named Matthew Troy after my cousin.

All in all it was a productive trip but one of the saddest. At least the weather was mostly warm and the kids were able to go outside to play. They enjoyed the fact they could go outside, wear shorts, and had to have sunscreen on. They were sure hoping it was good weather back home so they could continue their outside time. Lucky for them, it has been beautiful since we got home.

God be with you Mere-Mere till we meet again!

Blessings to all until next time.

Baby Animal Day

Every year Logan has a baby animal day out at the American Heritage place. It is a lot of fun for the kids to see baby animals and get to see, pet, and even purchase baby animals. There is a lot to do at baby animal days like food, treasure hunts, candy cannons, rodeos, easter bunny, crafts, food, etc. Brian's favorite part was the spiders, snakes, scorpions, and turtles. The kids had a blast even though it was a bit muddy. Enjoy the slide show of the baby animal day pictures.

Matthew and the tutu

Kimberly came out the other night with Matthew in her dance tutu. He thought he was pretty cute. So Brian took this video of him dancing. Kimberly, of course, is showing off as well.

Dance Recital Day

Now for the next big thing that happened in our little lives. Kimberly had her dance recital. She was super excited for it and you could tell she was a little more mature this year. She wanted to do good and she wasn't really nervous. Here are a few pictures (especially for you mom):

This was Kimberly pre-recital. This is the only time I can get her to do the curlers.

Matthew's excited for Kimmy's big day too. haha

All ready for the recital with hair done and makeup on.

Not the best quality of photo but I couldn't resist this one. Matthew was waiting (not so) patiently for his sissy to come out and dance.



I had to show this photo... Kimberly is in the dead middle in the front out of all these girls. The funny thing is that this is only half of the girls in her dance company.

That's Kimmy in the middle. She is doing her Twinkle Twinkle Little Star dance. The tutu is her absolute favorite.
After the show, her instructor gave all the girls a medal, a rose, and a certificate. Kimmy got the Good Technique award. Very proud of her.

This is Kimmy's two instructors. Marianne is on the left and she was her teacher this year and Vicki is on the right and she was her teacher last year. Kimberly really loves both of these ladies.

Here is Kimmy at home after it was all over with. She scored on flowers this year from daddy and mommy and matthew, grampie and grammie, and her rose from her teacher. She really loves flowers so she was so excited.


I had to show these. The picture on the left is the recital program. That little girl is Beth and she is in Kimmy's class. The picture on the right is one of Kimberly's pictures that they took a month ago. Pretty cute considering she was pretty sick that day.

All in all, Kimberly did really well. I am so proud of her. She smiled most of the time on stage. She didn't wave to us this year. She said she couldn't see us. haha. We did video the dancing (don't worry mom, we will bring it) and we ordered the DVD. Kimberly loves dancing and I think she will do this most of her childhood years. Thank you Marianne for a wonderful year of dancing at Memories in Motion Dance Company.

Now we get to slow life down for a week. I can't wait. Preschool is over at my house (today was my last day of teaching) and dance is done until August/September. I have one week were we don't have a lot of stuff. It will be nice for a little downtime... for all of us.

Blessings to all until my next posting. :-)