The Pumpkin Patch

Do you know how hard it is to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time?  Very hard.  We went to the pumpkin patch a few days ago and here is the best photo I could get of all three.  :)  Calvin was in pumpkin heaven. 

Mia's 6th Birthday Party

Ok, so these pictures are a little late coming, but here are some of the photos from Mia's 6th birthday party.  She loved every bit of it and had such a fun time!

A horse made out of cupcakes.  

A very cute cowgirl and pumpkin boy. 

A bounce house for jumping...that was a big hit with the kids.  

 And what would a party be without...balloons!

Happy 6th Birthday Mia!

Dearest SweetPea!

Oh my how time flies!  Just six short years ago we were blessed with the most adorable bundle of pink joy.  At 5 pounds 4 ounces, you let us know that you were here with a robust cry.  I can still hear that cry today and the smile it brought to my face when the doctor said, "it's a girl!"  Your daddy and I were so happy and so excited to have you in our family!

Since then, you've grown like a weed...you are now 43 inches tall and a mere 31 pounds.  Thankfully you keep growing taller, but no matter how many cookies we feed you, your weight just doesn't want to budge.  But, you are a healthy 31 pounds and we are grateful for that.

This year you started Kindergarten!  You  love school.  In fact, most days when you come home, you play teacher.  It is one of your favorite activities.  My favorite part is watching you read stories to Calvin, you hold the book in front of you facing outward (like a teacher would) and read the story to him...or make up a story that you feel it should be.

This year you gained all of your speech sounds and you graduated out of private speech therapy!  That is a miracle and we thank God for it.  You still get other therapies, but they are slowly lessening as you continue to make improvements in all areas.

This year you gained another brother and decided that you wanted to be the Mama.  Sometimes you tell us that Calvin is your baby and you are the Mama as you try to get him to do things that he doesn't want to do.  Calvin is your best friend.  From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, the two of you can be found playing silly games together.

We love you so much and are so blessed!  Praising God for you!

Love,
Always and Forever,
Mama, Daddy, Calvin & Asher

Remembering

Our children have three grandparents that are alive.  We are so blessed to have Nana & Grampapa and Grandma Cheri live so close to us.  Sadly, our children never had the chance to meet their Grandpa Dan because he past away from brain cancer in 2001...six years to the day before our daughter Mia was born.  In a strange way, I treasure that Mia was born on the same day that my dad passed away.  I can't truly explain it, but it makes her birthday more special to me and hopefully, someday, to her.

What was my dad like?  He was well liked by everyone.  He had a very gentle way about him and was very easy going.  He loved to laugh and be silly, sometimes to the point of embarrassment for his children.  Our friends thought it was funny.  He had a great sense of humor.

He was also very smart.  He was a mechanical engineer and meticulous.  Oh my goodness, his handwriting was so neat and everything had a place...all of his tools were super organized.  I see a lot of my father in Calvin.  The way that Calvin really looks and analyzes things, he tries to figure out how they work.

Oh how my dad loved music.  There was always some type of music playing at home and I love how he loved all types of music, it wasn't just one genre.  He is the person who introduced me to Simon & Garfunkel, my very first CD.

My dad started having these really bad headaches that wouldn't go away in the fall of 1999.  I was finishing up my first semester of grad school when my mom called and said that my dad had an MRI and they found a brain tumor.  He was sent to UCSF and all of us kids went up there for his surgery.  When it was done, the doctor came down and told us it was really bad news, the type of tumor my dad had was a stage 4 glioblastoma, the worst of the worst.  They gave us 6 months.

He ended up living a year and a half, almost 2, and was considered a long term survivor.  I got the call on Thursday at school that it was time to come home.  So, I drove up to Sonora, where my parents were living at the time.  I had already been up there a few weeks before and had already said everything I needed to say.  At this point, my dad had been on hospice for awhile and wasn't coherent.  The following day, Friday, we were taking turns sitting by my dad and just talking to him, holding his hand.  My mom and two of my brothers went down to the funeral home to discuss arrangements and my other brother and I were at home with my dad.  And then it happened, we watched him take his last breath and he was gone.

One of his favorite songs was Shout To The Lord, so we turned on the cd player and played that song while crying.  We called my mom and she said they had just finished picking out his coffin, it was like he knew that all the details were finished and it was time.  To this day, I cry when that song is played because it brings back a flood of emotions.

I miss my dad.  I miss that my kids won't grow up with their Grandpa.  He was just such a wonderful, loving, kind person.  The best of the best, I was blessed to have him as my dad.

Yet, I know that my dad is in heaven.  And I rejoice because I know I will see him again.  After my dad passed away, my perspective on things changed, I realized how short and temporary our life here is and that the important things aren't what we have at all.  All this stuff is going to disappear someday anyway.  What is important are your relationships...first and foremost, with God and secondly with the people He surrounds you with.  

Just so grateful for the time I got with my dad.  

Eight Months!

I say it every time, but I can't believe we've reached another month milestone.  In some ways it seems like it is going so quickly and yet in other ways so slow. 

Asher has embraced all types of foods.  He now happily eats table foods as long as they are soft, like sweet potatoe fries and bananas.  He loves crackers of all types...we are slowly moving away from pureed baby foods to whatever foods we are eating.  It feels like this is happening so much faster than the other babies. 

Asher is also furniture surfing these days.  He even attempted to step towards me the other day...I'm sure that walking will be in his near future.

He has a huge case of separation anxiety these days...it seems like I can not even put the kid down for a moment before he starts fussing again.  It is rather exhausting.  We continue to battle with sleep...he got three teeth a few weeks ago and I sense another one coming in, the joys of teething. 

It was so hard to get a picture from a quick moving object, but this is what we got for eight months.  :)