Grandma

We said goodbye to Brad's grandma this week. 

A genuine sweet heart of a woman. 

She cherished her family above any thing on this earth.

She was a wonderful Grandma. 

 With our little Califlower.

At the funeral Brad's uncles shared beautiful memories. 

I learned a thing or two about her. 

For one thing, during WWII she worked at the Air force base in the propeller shop . 

I later said to Brad, "Your Grandma was Rosie the Riveter - that.is.awesome."

His uncles shared a few things I loved (and I am so happy I thought to write it down)

His Uncle Jeff said, "My mother wasn't just surviving 6 children but thriving". 

As a young mom this hit me quite hard. 

I don't want to just survive I want to thrive as a mother. 

Something his Uncle Jody shared was her motto at Christmas time. 

"Christmas: a time to be grateful and a time to give"

I will be adopting this. 

Uncle Jody said when you went to visit her she always had a diet coke in her hand and another one for you.

This made me smile because my fondest memory I have of her was a visit 

while sipping on a diet coke. 

Every spring the family did a spring clean up at their house. Well, Grandma did not like throwing things away. This particular year I happened to be 3 days overdue with Broccoli. Obviously, I was useless but Uncle Jody gave me the job to distract Grandma so she wouldn't see what was being thrown away. So we spent the morning in her kitchen baking cookies, discussing babies, and sipping diet coke ( I was 3 days over due - I was in the mindset this child was NEVER going to come, please don't judge me).

It was a peaceful quiet day, a sweet memory. 

I am grateful for this magnificent woman, for welcoming me with open arms, loving my children, but mainly for the role she played in my husband's life.

For contributing to his soft side.

For loving him so deeply, that he never doubted her love. 

He is a better man, husband, father because of her.

And she will be missed.

January...

I can't believe January is half over! Seriously, the month I feel that drags has gone pretty fast.

 They said it was suppose to be the year of the "El Nino" so I figured we would just hunker down for the season, but we have had some pretty spectacular days this month. We are still taking plenty of walks and soaking up the cold sun rays. The sun is the sun in my book :) However, it really hasn't snowed much here which makes me a little nervous because last time winter was like this our state was on fire the entire summer.

But what we've been up to:

I painted my bathroom - I actually painted it in November, but I still have to finish the little things or in other words the no fun things, and well I have been taking my sweet time. This week though, this week I will finally complete it.

 My phone has been commandeered to take funny face pictures. It's okay because I love these two faces.

 Puddle splashing.

And we have a new cousin dog, let me introduce you to Berkeley. It's Uncle "Tris's" (seriously, i will be so sad when B can finally say his name correctly) dog, well actually it's his girlfriend's dog but he is claiming him. We got to have him for the weekend. He is a tri-colored Australian shepherd and an absolute nutty sweetheart, so obviously he fits right in.

 Oh, you know roller blading in the house.

 Lot's of dress up.

 "Huggies"

 She kind of likes the water.

Our neighbor got a cat, she was just a tiny bit ecstatic.

After hearing some whining from the little one I came into the room to find this scene.

I didn't give them those apples nor did I put Califlower in her high chair. 

So um yeah.

Halloween 2014

We had a great Halloween, especially since MeMe and Pop Pop came out for a visit.

 We had ourselves a little Pirate and her Mermaid friend. Unfortunately, the Mermaid wasn't in the mood for photos. 

 The one photo I could get of her costume.

I had this great idea to curl thin fine hair. After a lot of time, a can of hairspray and a whole lot of lollipops, this was the result. The next day I went out and bought one of those curling wands, where has that been my entire life?

Winter Picnic

We finally got winter here, so Brad put together a little winter picnic. 

We put on our snow clothes, packed some firewood, marshmallows and hot dogs and headed up the canyon. 

The girls were all smiles at first, but ready to go home near the end.

(Luckily we snapped the pictures in the beginning)

We did have fun. The fire kept us warm and we built a snow castle, and the marshmallows 

were a perfect winter treat.

Hawaii 2014

In October Brad had business at BYU- Hawaii on Oahu for a week, and we thought, how can we justify not going? 

We started in Honolulu where we did Pearl Harbor and Waikiki Beach.

 

 Then we headed up to BYU-Hawaii along the North Shore. It is every bit lovely. We loved it and we long to go back. In fact Broccoli asks on a daily basis, "Can we go to Ha-why?" 

(Yes, our children are well traveled for adults let alone toddlers - I didn't think we would have opportunities to travel once we had kids but I am so glad we do. It's one of my favorite things to do and I am glad I can share my love for it with them. I just fear they will take it for granted)

My favorite picture from the trip, and probably one of my favorites of all time.

We visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation and ate our heart out of Dole whip. 

This picture is for my mom.

At the resort we stayed, they had the original helicopter from Magnum P.I. but unfortunately no Tom Selleck, sorry Mom!

 

The beaches were our favorite, and so pristine. 

We enjoyed visiting all the surrounding beaches and bays. 

 

Because we were in paradise we thought some beautiful family photos were in order. 

The girls thought other wise. 

Our sad attempts at a picture.

 

we visited a military bunker. Yeah, there was a lot of military stuff. 

Brad's greatest highlight of the trip (and probably the year) was this hike:

Our little fish just swimming in the ocean.

 and then stopped to make some friends.

B gravitated toward 8 - 10 year old girls and they all happened to be from New Zealand. 

She would go up to them and say "tag your it" then swim away. The girls didn't know what to do so they would start playing along with her, then next thing you know they've been an hour of playing.

 But look at these views, seriously.

Some more photo moments.

 Swimming in the ocean.

Our attempt at a family photo. 

To say we loved it, is an understatement. 

The North Shore was beautiful. 

There are no chain restaurants, an abundance of fruit stands, beautiful beaches, plenty of sunshine, and a week with my people.

My soul was filled.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, 

"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air." 

I did Ralph, I did.