Grandma Dorothy

Heaven now has a little more laughter and love. A fashionable, wise, wonderful person entered those

gates Sunday evening. She was welcomed by her parents, several siblings, husband, daughter in law, great grandson... The reunion must be wonderful! 

My grandma Dorothy was smart, witty and had a great sense of humor. 

She was a character.

She was someone who really loved her FAMILY. 

She invested LOTS of time in her family. 

Grandma Dorothy and her great grandchildren! 

This was taken at Berthusen Park, celebrating her 90th birthday.

I remember when Grandma Dorothy held Merit for the first time! 

The day Merit was born, Grandma Dorothy became a great grandmother and then in the years to come, MANY more great grandchildren were born. 

January has been exhausting. Lesha's difibrillator procedure that had to be repeated was heavy. 

A tiring time, especially for Lesha. Saying lots of heart prayers... Lesha is brave and a trooper! 

She is doing lots better now.

Grandma Dorothy went to the hospital last week. She was surrounded by family. 

Natasha and I are the only grandchildren that don't live in or close to Lynden. So, Grandma has all six of her children there, sons in law and daughters in law, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She enjoyed her family so much and was always surrounded by them.

Today...
I am looking through some old pictures. Remembering Grandma Dorothy. I am soaking up these wee ones and the washer and dryer are going non stop.
Later today we will celebrate Willem's birthday in his classroom. He requested Dominoes! Carrying several pizzas, juice boxes, Oren and getting Hazel into the classroom should be entertaining.
On Sesame Street this morning, the letter of the day was the letter O. This was rather exciting, because of Oren Paul. ;) Hazel sang along with some of the tunes with her microphone, a bulb syringe, in a hand me down outfit from Maddie which is great because they are cute but even more importantly they are from MADDIE.

We went to a basketball tournament for Merit in Wenatchee over the weekend. It was fun! I love watching Merit play. He is competitive and works so hard. Willem loves hanging with Merit's friends and Willem and Hazel had buddies to run around with and visit with during all of the games. Oren is a pretty cute fan.

There is a lot of good, even on the heavy days. And soaking up the small stuff, well, that is what I love to do.

Happy Birthday Willem

Seriously cute.

Such a sweetheart.

Love for life. 

A JOY!

The boy who loves an Alaska adventure, camping or any outdoor fun...

Happy Birthday Willem Vance!!

Adventure Seeker, kind hearted, sweet boy!!

We love you so much! 

A bitter sweet day today. We love celebrating Willem, but last night my Grandma Dorothy passed away.

Heaven is now her home. 

She lived a long, great life. 

She always had family near her and was so good to her family.

She was a character and will be greatly missed. 

Death is never easy

But I am very thankful Grandma Dorothy lived a long, full life.

A little update...

Whew. I am kind of behind on a lot of things.

Time to make some lists and cross some things off I guess.

Lesha is recovering. She has very limited use of her left arm. I hope and pray that her recovery goes great and that she has a good appt. on Friday. Last week was heavy. 

I would love a weekend with my brothers and sisters. We are kind of spread out and all pretty busy. This summer we'll make it happen. 

I sure enjoyed this morning! Celebrating a friend who turned 40 today! Good, nourishing conversation, a great play date for Hazel and snuggles for Oren. Ohhhhh and GREAT food! 

This Guy.

I am so in love. 

We all are! 

A frosty morning walk feels good

My walking partner, Nellie, is pretty sweet and always up for an adventure.

I have to keep moving. Exercise seems good for my mood and my brain. 

Oren's babble is also good therapy. 

Tonight the kids and I are just hanging out. It feels good. Pizza, a movie, cheese its, a little reading... :) 

Sunday, January 12

This has been a really rough week.

I will explain briefly about my sister Lesha's ICD procedure. 

She called the Seattle hospital Wed. to find out what time she should arrive Thursday. It was then she learned insurance would not cover the heart device she had carefully researched and decided on. She was overwhelmed and bummed.

So, different device, different placement and more of a surgery, with no time to get used to the idea. The surgery happened. It was very difficult. She is petite and getting everything where it needed to be was very difficult. After some time, it was determined that the procedure was not a success. The procedure was repeated Friday. Hundreds of texts, several phone calls and many, many prayers later, the surgery was a success, we thank God for this.

It has been a few years since I had felt that discouraged.

I can't imagine how Lesha felt.

It is great to know Lesha is home. Please pray her follow up appts. look good.

The people who reached out, cared and prayed were and are a blessing. 

Today is the anniversary of my nephew Case's death. Ugh. 

Earlier I had a blog post about how excited I was about January. 

I think I was being overly positive if there is such a thing.

Breaking out of this funk is hard. 

Here's to a better week, a better outlook, and a great recovery for Lesha. :)

Ice Skating, Christmas break FUN

We started yesterday morning off right with Sticky Buns! 

Then we got geared up for ICE SKATING! 

Taking four kids ice skating made me a little nervous... BUT, it was GREAT! Oren was a trooper, content and along for the ride. Willem and Merit did great on the ice. Hazel ran around pretending and eating snacks.

Willem

Hazel

Merit saw a few friends there

Merit

Oren

A sweet Christmas Break memory...

I welcome January!

SO here is January.
I love January for several reasons.
Here's to hopin' we get a NO SCHOOL snow day, drink lots of hot cocoa, make mitten cut out sugar cookies... I hope we get evenings of movie watching. Cold, brisk walks on sunny days, ice skating and try to get a little organized all sound good to me! Hot coffee on frosty mornings, baby snuggles, good books...
This weekend Merit has a basketball tournament, it is really fun to watch him play. 
For the month of January I can only check facebook if I am on my treadmill. This either means very little facebook, or lots of walking and running. I am actually okay with either.

easy bake oven sugar cookies

cabin cozy

This room is SO stuffed with FUN! :)

It's the craft room.

And it needed a makeover so Willem and Hazel have been helping me paint it. 

Having them paint is frustrating, messy but most of all beautiful.

I told myself I had to use paint I had on hand, so the blue (it is supposed to be gray) is the color of Oren's room. In Oren's room it looks pretty gray, here, more blue.

This room CAN BE a catch all. I am okay with that, but every now and then I try to make it pretty again. And my hearts been warmed by the sweet sentiments I have run acrossed. I have saved lots of pictures and

old letters from people. MANY of the letters are from my Aunt Meredith and my sis Lesha from when we lived in Boardman, Oregon. 

Mother's Day cards from my boys, gift tags and cards from Natasha with beautiful detail! The sewing machine I bought when my job with the school district switched to full time. When we moved east of the mountains, I worked mornings for the Royal City School District, soon I got a full time job there (with benefits!) Within a month of this I went to the dentist :) and bought a sewing machine!! Wish I was a better seamstress.

Since having this room somewhat picked up, it has become Hazel's art studio.

My "brown paper bag" wall and the new blue.

Lissa inspired me to do the brown paper bag years ago.

My friend Maria made this beautiful hat. I wear it. Hazel wears it and Oren wears it. Thank you sweet friend! 

Happy January! 

More pics from 2013

Happy New Year! Although I am excited to be moving into a new year with new resolutions, new beginnings and new memories to be made... I do love to look back at the many pictures I took in 2013! Lots of sweet memories, lots of photographs... so here I am sharing a few more! 

Love looking back at MEMORIES MADE