Just Grateful

Grateful for little Gooses...

And all her Goosey Friends.

Grateful for all my friends...

Especially my best friends.

I hope she's grateful for a mom and a dad that love her so much.

Life is good ya'll!

Lucille

Stunning, isn't she? This is my beautiful Grandma. Today at 8:15 she passed on. Her name was Lucille and she was really a lady. It may seem a little awkward that I am blogging about her passing so soon, but she's been "in between" for a long time now. Years ago her kids sold her house and my amazing Aunt Elaine took her in. From then she would often rotate between my aunts and my mom homes, until that became too much and she settled with Elaine. My mom is so amazing for giving so much of herself, her time, and all her energy to help take care of her. At any time I would never know if my mom was at home in Idaho or in Utah taking care of my Grandma.

My memories of my grandma are sweet and innocent. When I was young I would often look forward to sleep overs at her house. That's where I first saw "It's A Wonderful Life" and had my first bread with butter and honey. Her back yard was huge with a big hill and a million places to hide when we played "sardines." She was a hard worker who kept a fruitful garden and always had beautiful roses. In the summers the kids would pick honey suckles and suck them bone dry. My parents lived with her for the first few years of their marriage and it was with her I collected my first memories of life. And there was no better place to do so.

I love my Grandma, she's the only one I ever knew. But I'm not shedding one tear, if not for joy, because about 3 years ago I got the opportunity to say goodbye. She'd had dementia for a while so she often called me by other names and never knew what to actually say to me when I talked to her. But this time we really talked, about nothing really, just about something on TV. And then as I left for bed she said "goodbye" and said my name. I knew then, that she was really saying goodbye to me. She knew who I was, she told me she loved me, and said goodbye. I started to cry, but she just smiled. I think she was glad to just speak her heart and be understood. I know she is so happy right now. So many people she has missed for so long- she gets to be with them now. What a great idea. Getting to be with those you have missed. I love this Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Plan of Salvation that lets me know with surety where she is. Any other thought or question of "what could be" after death can't even penetrate my mind because I know in my heart it's true, and I'm glad she did to.

Love you Grandma.

"Dance Party" & "Ode to the Dude"

She does this a lot. I think that makes me officially a "crappy mom."
And so close? Really Marie? Do you have your Daddy's eyesight?

But sometimes I have good ideas. Like when Brett left for Scout Camp we had a DANCE PARTY!!!
Gucci eat your heart out. This is a "Marie Original" design.

Did she dance on the table? Yes. Did she love it?

What do you think?

But reading always out-trumps dancing. Reading really trumps everything for her. Watching TV, eating, Me, ...really none compare to the joy of reading. Somewhere Lavar Burton is shedding a tear of joy.

Had a great weekend with Marie. Brett is out of town for "Trial Advocacy Training" now though. Wow. Sounds like a snoozer. But Marie and I will keep it rocking while he's away. P.S. The house is amazingly clean. I guess we know who the messy one is...
I think I have a huge crush on this guy.

hmmm... just maybe?

OK. I do. I love this guy. And I'm so lucky to have him. I'm such a huge mess of a person and he always just keeps me together. He keeps our lives running smooth and occasionally comes home with flowers.

He looks good in a suit. Anything really. He even makes my sweaty pregnant lady bangs look good. (That picture was from a while ago, I'm not prego, I just needed to clarify why i look drunk.... as opposed to the person in the back ground who really is, at least, getting drunk).
But I cannot WAIT for him to grow out his hair. How I wished we had a better camera the summer we got married! Check out those locks. Samson couldn't compete with that. Would that make the military Delilah? Possibly, but possibly just a bad analogy. ... alright I'm rambling here... time to turn in and dream of Brett's hair all shaggy!

The Princess and the Frog

We finally built up the nerve. The last time we took Marie to the movie theater was when she was about 7-months old. She was not interested in sitting still, she was not interested in being quiet, she was not interesting in being courteous in any way, and most surprisingly, she was not interested in Will Smith's quest to donate a bunch of his organs for transplants. Rachel and I took turns walking around the hallway with her. She liked that much more.

Yesterday we decided to try out luck again. This time with Princess and the Frog. It was playing at the base theater, which is pretty enormous. So we discussed our strategy of sitting way in the back where nobody could hear Marie's commotion. When we pulled up we saw two million little kids running around. We were put at ease, realizing she couldn't be any louder or worse than these other kids.

We got in the theater and decided to try our luck with the second row. Marie wanted her own seat, so she sat in between us. And was mesmerized for the entire show. I don't think she blinked. She would bob her head and swing her arms throughout every song. Only once did she make a loud "ooo" sound and that was when some bird was trying to eat a bug, so I couldn't blame her. She was so good that I feel asleep through half of it. I woke up and suddenly the frogs were in love. Weird. Then the movie was over and Marie got up and danced to the credits.

Merry Christmas!

YAY! Santa came early just for Marie! We'll be at Grandpa Millburns for Christmas morning, so Marie's big ticket items needed to be unloaded before then.

Here she is with her new best friend. Watching her put the frog in her chair is so awesome. Being a parent and having no Santa is actually very rewarding- I would have never guessed.

Here she is on the Christmas Eve we slapped together. I have no idea how I did all the shopping, cleaning, went to a baptism, a birthday party, made a salad for a funeral and worked out all in the same day. I figure that will never happen again so it's blog worthy. Efficiency was my Christmas gift.

Now that you are officially asleep, I will report our first Christmas eve as a family:

We read from the pop-up Christmas Story and sang Christmas music that Grandma Cathy spoiled us with. That was another thing, I had no idea what to do on Christmas eve with a one-year old but we just happened to have the book and music, and bam there's your Christmas eve.

Brett and i made it to bed, blinked, and then dragged ourselves out of bed to make crepes before Marie awoke. Here is the recipe if your feeling saucy, it's the best I've ever tried:

Crepes

3eggs

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. water

3 T butter melted

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Blend all ingredients in a blender. We use a small 6'' cast iron pan to make ours, but I'm sure you could make it in any size skillet.

If you're me you will use bananas, nutella, and whipped cream. If your brett you'll use butter and syrup. If your Marie you'll skip the crepes and guzzle the syrup from the bottle.

And to top it all off we actually made it to church on time. I know. Slap me, I must have been dreaming...

We'll see if I can't type a few keystrokes here. Over Thanksgiving we decided to take advantage a few things and slip down to San Diego. We had an awesome time. It started off a little sad, with Rachel smashing her water bottle. It was her faithful companion for almost a week.

We got through that tragedy together, and nothing else got smashed the rest of the trip. Marie likes to push everything, from shopping carts to moms...
And then we made it to Sea World...

And Marie was still able to push things...

But she wasn't sure about this Shamu character...

And then Marie dressed in a bee outfit and looked in the mirror...

And it was a happy Thanksgiving for everyone.