Easter

Easter was a lot of fun at our house!  It was General Conference weekend, so instead of going to church like normal we got to stay at home and listen to our Church leaders speak via the internet.  I gotta say, that has got to be the best way to enjoy Conference- at home, on your couch, in your pajamas, eating food.  Awesome.  After our spirits had feasted, it was time to go over to Granny & Grampa's for an Easter Egg Hunt and dinner.  Of course, we had to get dolled up for it too.  I really loved the kids' outfits.

Here is Jilly beginning her hunt in the backyard.  The Easter Bunny did a great job and Jilly loved finding them all!

There were lots in the grass and flower beds all around.

Even up on the shed door handle!

When she had to go 'off-road' Jilly was very careful to not get dirty.

 The Easter Bunny tried to get really tricky at one point.

But Jilly found it anyway!

 

Look at how many she collected!  Her basket was overflowing!

We got a quick picture with her helpers, Mommy,

and Granny & Grampa.

Then we went inside to inspect her loot.  She got quite the haul!

They made such cool noises, as Auntie Juliet showed her how to shake them.

 

  Jason was too little to hunt for Easter Eggs, so he got a lot of cuddling instead.

We had to put Jilly's eggs away until after dinner, because all she wanted was the candy!  She comforted herself with the magnets from Granny's fridge.  She loved rolling them around and then was delighted when they stuck to the metal frame of the table!

After dinner, we sat down and took a nice family photo.  We don't get too many of them, the last one was from Jason's blessing, over 7 months ago!  So hooray!  

Our Easter was a wonderful day.  We had a good time as family, listening to the prophets and leaders, reflecting on Christ, the Atonement and Resurrection, and eating yummy food.  That's what it's all about, right?

Greg's Visit

Steve's brother Greg came to visit us during his Spring Break.  It was awesome!  We hadn't seen him in over 4 years!  That means he had never met our kiddos!  Scandalous, I tell you.  Anyway, he was here for an entire week and we had tons of fun.  We ate lots of good food, visited cool places and watched a TON of Lost.  Yep, we got Greggie hooked on it.  Excellent, another convert. ;-)  


We spent a lot of time lounging around the house.  The kids loved climbing on and playing with Uncle Greg, almost as much as he enjoyed it.  They loved having him.
 
Uncle Greg is really strong!

One day we took him out and about in Seattle.  He got to go on a scenic flight out of Lake Union and got some cool pictures.  This is the Aurora Bridge.


Husky Stadium.
Lake Sammamish.  If you look close, at the bottom of the picture, you'll see the Seattle Temple!
I-90 and Mercer Island.
I think this might be SR-520.
Qwest and Safeco Fields.
Big Pointy (as Steve calls it).



Touching down at Lake Union.

Greg, standing in front of the plane.


All of us!  (This is the only picture I think we took of all of us.)
After the plane ride, we went up to Voula's, a tasty restaurant at the very north end of Lake Union for brunch.  It's mostly a breakfast and lunch place, with a lot of Greek options.  Turns out they knew Greg was coming and planned their menu accordingly.

We drove Greg around UW campus, which was beautiful, but since it was raining, we didn't get out and walk around.  We headed home, but decided to detour to Edmonds and take him on a ferry ride.  We got there just a few minutes before the ferry left for Kingston, perfect timing!



Not so perfect was the fact that it was INSANELY WINDY.  Poor Jason hated the cold and wind, so we kept him inside the whole time, but we took some pictures of the rest of us out on the deck. 
Do you see how windy is?  Whitecaps all the way across. 


While we were halfway across, they made an announcement that Hood Canal Bridge was closed because the winds were like 50+ mph, and that there were branches down on the road right off the ferry.  Uh oh.  We thought maybe it wouldn't be too bad right in Kingston, so we could kill some time until the next ferry back.  We were wrong.  We got off and just walking down the pedestrian walkway was nuts.  It was so cold and windy, but we kept going.  As we walked into town, hoping to find a place to get out of the wind and maybe get Greg a coat or sweatshirt (neither he nor Steve had one), everything looked closed.  But I saw there were people inside.  I finally figured out, the power was out!  Yikes!  We looked at each other and decided to race back to the same ferry we'd just got off and head right back to Edmonds.  We booked it and just barely made it.  (Yay for Greg carrying Jilly so we could go faster.)
Ahhh, much better inside!

We wanted to go to Anthony's Beach Cafe to get Greg some fish.  He had two things he just had to do in Seattle, get fish and go to the temple.  He'd gone to the temple the day after he got here, so fish was left.  Of course, the whole Edmonds waterfront was out of power too!  So I called my sister (a former server at Anthony's and wise in the ways of fish-since I don't eat it!) and she recommended Scott's near Aurora Village.  We went there and dude, it was yummy!!  Greg really enjoyed his meal, I think he got halibut.

The kids were so well behaved the whole day we were out and about, but they were ready to relax when we got home.  We got them in some jammies and they cuddled up with Greg.

Gotta love having uncles visit!  We had such a good time with Greg, especially after so long!  We can't wait to have more visitors (hint, hint)!

First Day of School!

Today was a milestone in our lives.  Jillian started school!  We finished all her evaluations and had her IEP meeting on March 25th.  She qualified for special ed services in Communication, Social and Gross Motor skills (I'll put up details another time).  They said the best route was preschool.  So she now attends preschool at a local elementary school, Monday-Thursday 1:00pm-3:30pm.  Her teacher is Miss Myrna and she's quite adorable.  Jilly will also get Occupational and Speech therapies in class. It is an exciting step for her (and us) and we think it will be the best thing for her.  She was quite excited this morning to go!

She really loves the Dora backpack she picked out at Target.

Such a big girl, walking down the stairs all by herself.

But even in the car, she refused to let go of her backpack.  She loves the thing soooo much.  On Saturday, she wore it for a chunk of the day, even telling Steve at one point that she was "going to work".  Hehehe

It was a full family event to take her for her first day.  Daddy walked her to class, while Mommy photographed and carried Jason.

Once we got inside, we hung up her coat and backpack in her cubby and she went to go play right away. 

It was time for us to go and there were no tears, from either her or me.  I was quite proud of us both.  It was a little weird for me to leave my tiny little 3 year old at a school I didn't know well. (She looked so little in the big room, especially with all the other elementary school kids around!)  But it was fine.  She is in good hands.

We went home, Jason had a nap and otherwise, we just relaxed.  It was kind of nice to not have a little girl coming along behind us, tearing everything apart. ;-)  Soon enough it was time to go get her.  I went to her classroom as they were finishing music time; it was Raffi, so I knew she was fitting in well.  ;-)  The report was that she had a good day.  There are only two other girls in the class, so they were thrilled to see Jilly.  :-)  She didn't want to sit still for very long, but when they needed to re-direct her, she went along with it happily.  ::sigh of relief::  I think she's going to do well!

Jilly did fine leaving school, until I had to buckle her car seat.  Then she got mad.  So I gave her her sunglasses on the way home.  As we walked into the house, she was still wearing them.

We went upstairs and got hugs and kisses from Daddy.

It was an interesting day for us!  It's going to be neat to watch her learn and grow in preschool. She is just going to thrive, I'm sure!  Soon, she'll take the bus to and from school, but right now we're driving her to make the transition easier (plus they didn't have it set up yet).  Our little Birdie is so grown up!

Cakes!

I've been developing a new talent, cake decorating. After Jillian's birthday, and making her Dora cake, I decided that I really enjoyed it and wanting to learn more. My mom has become my benefactor and has been buying me lots of amazing supplies.  I have done quite a few really neat cakes, and I am really loving it!  Here are some pictures of some of my creations.  

This cake was for my mom, to celebrate her new business.  She opened Integrative Medical Weight Management, her own clinic this October.  I made a cake with the logo of IMWM on it.  It's not that great, but it turned out better than it could have!  ;-)

These are the cupcakes I made for my step-dad Paul's birthday.  The chocolate cream cheese frosting was to die for.  Sooooooo yummy.  

This cake is probably the most amazing thing I have done.  It is a train cake for my friend Jenne's son Willem's 3rd Birthday.  I can't take sole credit for it.  Candace did a TON of work to help me put it all together and give me good ideas and pointers.  It was an awesome cake.  

After Willem's train cake, I had a ton of left over frosting and candy, so one Tuesday night during Lost, we decorated a bunch of cupcakes to use it up.  This one cracked me up the most- lobsters on the beach at the edge of the ocean. ;-)  

The one on the left, Bailey decorated, it's a bunch of dinosaurs at a watering hole.  On the right is mine, jet planes flying in the sky.  

This was just using up some frosting and experiment a little with different looks.

Again, using up some frosting.  I used my turntable for the first time and dang!  It makes it so much easier!

Pink swirly cupcakes I made for a friend who just had a baby girl.  They turned out rather pretty I think.

BUGS!!  My mom bought me this pan and it has been so much fun!  These bugs look fantastic and now that I've got the hang out them, they're pretty easy too.

A co-worker of mine retired this week and I told her I would make her a going away cake.  The frosting was pinker in real life (it looks orangey here).

Edible glitter on the rose. Ooooh!

I asked Candace to help me with my shells, I just can't seem to get them right.  I was using up the leftover frosting from the good-bye cake, and just threw both colors in the bag.  The result?  Watermelon looking shells, green on the outside and pink on the inside.  Super cool. ;-)

There you have it!  I have been having so much fun learning new things and getting to show off my new skills.  This latest hobby may not be good for my waistline, but it's oh-so-tasty!  

Today

Man, it's been too long since I have blogged. I have pictures to share and stories to tell, but alas, today is not the day for it. Soon, I promise.

Today has been a hard day for me. February 16th is the anniversary of my dad's death. It has now been 7 years since I last got to hug him or talk to him. And it's hitting me. Most years, I notice the date and go "Man, this sucks. Oh well," and move on with my day. But this year, it's been very present in my thoughts all day. :-(

I think the hardest part of my grief is for my children. My dad was made to be a grandfather. He had so much fun with little kids. Babies instinctively loved him. They would relax, snuggle and sleep for hours on his chest. I remember one time when my twin cousins were super little, I think like 2 months old, they came to visit. All of us went out for something, including their parents, but we left the babies at home with my dad. (In hindsight, I'm impressed- being left alone with newborn TWINS?! Duuuuude.) When we got home, Dad was in his recliner, with both boys snoozing on him. A-dor-able.

But my kids don't get to experience that. I don't get to see him make Jilly giggle or cuddle with Jason while watching sports. He lived in the same ward that we live in now, and he would go to Church with us, if he was still around. But instead of getting to see Grandpa all the time, they get to visit his grave and see a headstone. Instead of getting hugs and wrestling with him, they get to hear stories secondhand. It makes me really sad, because I just KNOW that they all would have been the bestest of buddies.

I have only been to my dad's grave a couple of times since his funeral. I just didn't see the point in going. He's not there, not in any real sense. That may be where his body was laid to rest, but his spirit is off on important errands. Today I just knew that I needed to go. It was pouring rain and by the time I got around to finally dragging us all out the door it was getting dark. We got there and had to wander for awhile until I found his spot. We only spent a few minutes there, but I'm glad we did.



I don't know how I'm going to tell my kids enough about their Grandpa Brad. I probably can't. But, I will tell them as much as I can. I will tell them how much my dad loved to watch sports. I will tell them how he rooted for college teams (1. BYU, 2. UW, 3. USC, 4. UCLA, 5. The rest of the Pac-10). I will tell them that he used to do theater tech as a high school and college kid. I will tell them that he loved to wrestle with me and my sister and always let us cuddle with him. I will them how many hours he spent patiently sitting on the couch, while I was perched on the top behind him, sprinkling my plastic salt and pepper shaker toys into his hair and combing it all around. I will tell them about Saturday afternoons when I was little, when he would spend a couple hours doing all the ironing while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I will tell them about Sunday nights when I was a teenager, watching Alias with him, how I would make sure I was home from whatever fun events that might be going on. I will tell them about his crazy cats, and how Tiger only liked him. I will tell them that he called me Laimee, and loved to tease me (on second thought, maybe I'll forget the whole Laimee thing.) I will tell Jilly about how when she was a baby, she would stare at a wall or a doorway, purposely avoiding me, and giggle and talk, as if she saw someone there. I will tell her it was her Grandpa Brad, making silly faces and telling her jokes. I will tell Jason about how he has beautiful deep brown eyes just like his Grandpa.

I will tell them how much I love my dad and how much he loves me. I will tell them how much he loves them too. I will tell them that they knew him before they came to our home and they will get to see him again.

(This is from my 1st birthday. Sorry for the poor quality, it's a picture of a picture.)

I miss my dad. A lot.