Thinking of Brie today

Eagerly Awaiting

Oh Mommy, Mommy, can't you see

I am waiting here in eternity

I watch you love me, I see your face

It's o.k., I feel your heart's warm embrace.

And like soft fluttering of angel wings,

I will speak to you of heavenly things.

Of course together we will be,

You and me, our whole family.

But until that day so priceless and sweet,

I'll keep praying, "Help her know please!"

I too, am eagerly awaiting.

I love this poem that Kristi wrote me on Brie's 1st birthday, along with a cross stitch she made of a little girl looking out the window...waiting. It is precious to me and always will be.

We celebrated Brie's birthday yesterday since we are having company coming in town today. Ash was pretty sad, and she hurried off to our room to be alone. I came in and found Dave and Ash looking at pictures of Brie on the computer. We all looked at them together, and I fell in love with this picture all over again. I love it. So many memories.

We had our "angel" cake as usual. I can't remember if we always use candles, but this year we did. We each had one candle (I think Nate added one after the fact) and that added up to 5 candles for her 5 years. I was sad while we ate our cake, but couldn't help but smile BIG in my heart as I looked across the table at this darling boy who has brought so much happiness to his mama's aching heart.

I loved reminiscing at what a thoughtful girl Ashlyn was as a mature little 4 year old at the time. I loved that she gave her special doll to Brie. I loved thinking about how calm Sadie was (which was and is a rare thing) when we had the open casket at the funeral. It was high on my list of tender mercies to see such an energetic girl acting so sweet and still as she said good-bye to her little sister.

Oh, how we love and miss our little girl!

Happy Birthday Ashlyn...and a few other pictures

Nate was playing at a friend's house. He was so happy there getting to play pretend farmers on a real bed of hay bales, tractors, and endless land to run around on. He is one happy boy outside. Today it was so nice outside that we decided to have lunch on a blanket in the front yard. When it was time for dinner, Nate grabbed some plates and said "Eat dinner outside?" I think we'll be outside a lot this spring/summer.

I was gone when Dave and the kids found 12 deer roaming around our yard. We will often times get 3 or 4, but this was a good group of them!

This was a fun science/art project. Did you know...that the flour on the outside of the pasta dissolves and turns into gluten when heated? And the GLUten is a natural glue. So after cooking the pasta, we tossed it in a bowl with different food coloring, then went to work decorating our plates. The pasta sticks because of the gluten and when it dries, the pasta is stuck to the plate. We had so much fun with this and have bigger plans for pasta shapes and more colors next time!

Just a few pictures from Ashlyn's birthday party. She found these Harry Potter coloring pages online, printed them, cut them out, and then let her friends choose a picture to color and they made their own bags. I thought they turned out really cute. Great idea, Ash!

The birthday girl. I still can't believe she is 9.

Lots of Harry Potter kids!

Just had to write it down

Sadie came home from school today, and it was just the two of us. Nate was still asleep, and Ash was at her writing club after school. I love when it is just the two of us. She told me all about her day at school. I don't think it will be half as funny from my writing, and without her voice and facial expressions. Here goes:

Here's how Sadie said it:

Today Hannah wanted me to play with her at recess. She asked me if I wanted to do something. I couldn't understand what she asked me to do, but I said yes anyway. She wanted to teach me how to slide down rocks. I didn't really want to do that. Hannah and Mikaya started talking for a minute, and I noticed that they were talking. So I ran away.

Later while asking Sadie more about it, I asked her if she ran fast. She said she ran so fast.

I can't stop laughing about this. Every time I think about it, I laugh so hard. Just picturing Sadie not wanting to do what the girls were doing, watching for a moment to get away and then running like lightning across the playground to freedom.

I can picture it so well.

Dorito Bouquet

Dave knows that flowers are one of my favorite things. He also knows that I think it's a waste of money to spend the extra money for flowers on V-day when the prices are all higher. He also knew that his boring wife suggested to be frugal on V-day and not buy gifts. This presented Dave with a dilemma.

So when we sat down to our V-day dinner that he made me last night, he brought out this beautiful bouquet of Dorito roses.

Next to flowers, Doritos are high on my favorites list. I love to eat healthy food...except when I am presented with Doritos. All health consciousness leaves me and I could devour a bag in no time.

Dave spent an hour and a half hot-gluing Doritos, one by one, to chopsticks. He had to wait til each one was completely dried before starting the next chip. Good thing there were chips left in the bag because these flowers weren't quite so edible after all of the glue was put on.

Is there something I can do to make these last forever? It makes me smile every time I walk by and see them.

A lot of women like diamonds and jewelry and fancy restaurants. Not me. I am quite content with a bag of Doritos for a gift. I have really classy taste-buds, I know.

Nate's favorite book

A 5 minute video of Nate...for Grandparents and friends that think watching Nate for 5 minutes is actually really exciting (like his parents and siblings do). I could sit and watch him all day and be fully entertained.

A few random things in this movie of Nate:

Nate loves"reading" this book. I love how he has to check to see the animal on the next page before saying it.

And the second part of the video...I was just going to video my cute little boy, and then Dave brought in the snake.

When we were in CA, we watched The Sound of Music with my family. It's a Christmas tradition for us. My Grandma Colleen took my dad to the theatre to see it when it first came out years ago. Ever since, Nate has loved the music. We have the CD and that's all he wants to listen to.

At the end, Nate is singing the song he composed about making pancakes with Grandpa John.

Snowy Days

We had a good snow storm last week. For us, a good snow storm is about 3 inches of snow. We had lots of fun with the snow. We did a lot of sledding at the nearby junior high (with a good hill), we sledded at the little tiny hill on the side of our yard, and Dave and the girls made the igloo in our backyard.

Nate wore Ashlyn's underwear all day. Dave was so happy to come home to his son dressed like this.

The difference between girls and boys. The girls play "house". Nate plays "I'm a snake in cage. Feed me a rat!" Then he went around giving me Legos to pretend they were rats and wanted me to dangle it in front of his mouth.

Our California Trip

Just a few snapshots from our trip. So many more were taken but here are just a few of our fun times.

This picture just made me laugh...guns on each side, while sleeping on the pillow case Ashlyn made for her bed.

I just love this picture.

With Grandma Walton

With Great Grandma Bowen

All of the Walton cousins

It meant so much to have the cousins come by and see Brie's sweet spot.

Popcorn and M&M buddies. The yellow bowl in between them is full of the popcorn.

Enjoying a beautiful California day. Ashlyn made a fun picnic.

Good thing Nate brought his gun.

Cora and Nate having so much fun together...Cora was a sick patient.

We made mom a birthday dinner - Scott and Dave made tonz of crepes! It was a delicious dinner! I wore that apron when I was little.

Nate and Grandpa John reading stories.

On the carousel at Disneyland!

Christmas Eve with Grandma Fishbein