Grandpa

My grandpa passed away last Saturday, May 4.  He was a simple person with a simple life.  He was 94 years old and lived with his wife in their farm house until just a few months ago when he went into the nursing home.  Here is a pic of him from last summer.  This is how I will always remember him.  Wearing bib overalls and his WWII veteran hat.  He was a dairy farmer.  As a child, one of my favorite things to do in the summer was to help Grandpa milk the cows.  He never 'updated' his milking system.  He went out into the field, brought in two cows, and put them into stalls where they ate grain.  He had to strap the milker onto each cow and then dump the milk by hand into the milk pail.  When it got full, he carried it up and dumped it into the milk cooler.  Talk about hard work!  I was honored to play the organ for his memorial service on Wednesday.

After the memorial service and lunch, we went back to Grandpa Stevie and Granny Lindy's house for a nap and then some fun!

Grandpa Stevie got this cool new lawn mower.

They had baby lambs!

They also had a tree cut down in their yard the day before.  Walking on the log was so much fun!

A little swinging with Lindy.

After you cut the grass, you get to feed it to the chickens.

Just a random pic cause I think its cute.

My Little Singer

By now, everyone knows I love to snuggle my little Benny.  Here is our morning routine:  he wakes up, I give him his binkie, and I bring back to bed with me.  We start the day with about 20-30 minutes of snuggling.  He likes to put his cheek against mine and play with my hair.  Sometimes I'll sing him songs.  Lately he has decided he will sing to me.  Its usually just random humming (he has the binkie in his mouth.)  But today I could pick out every song.  He hummed "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Jesus Loves Me," and "Where is Thumbkin."  His sweet little eyes are closed, and he is humming away.  I hear another melody and can't quite decide what it is.  Then I realize it is "I Am Jesus' Little Lamb."  That isn't even a song I sing to him.  Its the song Grammie always sings to him when she rocks him. 

Benny knows how to melt his mommy's heart.

When we were out and about this morning, he was singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" complete with hand motions in his car seat.  His best line of the song is 'out came the sun.'  He's such a cutie!

The Resurrection

The egg hunt.  Mommy says to go get the egg.

I got it!

Two cuties.

I don't see any more eggs.

It seems that a lot of little children are afraid of the Easter Bunny.  Not Benny.  He was so excited about the Bunny.  He cried when we had to leave the Bunny.

Easter morning at church.  Benny getting ready for his solo.

 

The whole family.

 

Afternoon fun at Grammie and Grampie's house with Faith and Callie.

 

All in all, we had a great time celebrating Easter.  Sadly, about 24 hours after our joyful celebration we learned of our dear Uncle Paul's passing.  He was imperfect, like all of us.  But, he did know the love, grace, and forgiveness of our Savior, and for this we are thankful.  I hope he knew how much he meant to us.  This week I was thinking about all the happy memories with Uncle Paul.  He came to our wedding and wasn't afraid to pull out his very best dance moves for the occassion :)  He bought us a KitchenAid mixer for our wedding gift because he knew I liked to bake.  I use it all the time and think of him.  He was our first overnight house guest in our very own home.  He came into town during the fall of 2012 and wanted to surprise Grampie (his brother) by showing up unexpectedly at his retirement party.  Much of our belongings were still in boxes, but I was excited he was staying at our house.  During this same visit, it happened to be his birthday.  We went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday.  After dinner, he insisted on taking us shopping to buy us a crib for the baby we were then expecting.  I told him he wasn't allowed to buy us gifts on his birthday.  But, that's just the type of guy he was.  He was so generous and liked sharing with others.  To top it off, after we got home with our new crib, he gave us lots of toys, diapers, and bibs that he had picked out on his own for our baby earlier that day.  He was so happy to surprise us with these gifts.  Benny plays with some of those toys everyday, and I think of his generosity.  We think of him when we hear our clock chime in our living room that he bought us for our 5th wedding anniversary.  Benny loves to hear it chime and proudly announces CLOCK each time it dings.  Most recently, he flew into town for Benny's baptism last February.  Uncle Paul never missed a joyous celebration.  Here he is below on our couch snuggling Benny.  We miss you Uncle Paul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 month old updates

Benny loves to snuggle and ready a good story.

Mommy and Benny are ready for bed! 

Last weekend, we had a birthday party for Grampie at our house.  Reports state that Grampie turned 59.  Looking good Grampie!  And yes, Benny has no pants on for this pic.  No shirt, no shoes, no service.  What about pants?  Benny indicates its working out well for him.  He still got to eat some chocolate cake. 

 

So, what's new with Benny.....

1) Its interesting that he figured out you blow out candles so quickly.  Since Grampie's party, he will point to any candle, even unlit candles, and start blowing.

2) He likes to try to put on his own shoes.  Its tricky business.

3) He LOVES to play on the bed.  He knows how to get off the bed by himself (although I don't trust him enough not to be right there.  Don't need a Benny falling off the bed.)  He has this book called "All Fall Down."  There is a part that says 'bouncy, bouncy, on the bed, all fall down."  He loves for me to say that while he bounces and falls over.

4) We have a book with the song "If You're Happy and You Know."  He likes to do the verse 'if you're happy and you know it do a dance.'  He's got some pretty nice dance moves.  Takes after his mother.

5) A new word he learned to say this week was 'balloon.'  Its so cute.

6) He likes to carry around his toy elephant from his Noah's Ark Set and say 'Arooh' and wave his arm like a trunk.

 

My heart melts for a cute little Benny.

 

 

I Almost Died of a Heart Attack

Today I started getting gray hair.  Benny frequently likes to go in the bedrooms upstairs and close the doors behind him.  No big deal, right?  So, this morning he does this when going into his bedroom.  I was going to take him to story time at the library, so I decided to take the opportunity to throw on a different shirt quickly.  In the 30 seconds I was gone, Benny---with his ever advancing fine motor skills---LOCKED HIMSELF INSIDE OF HIS ROOM.  I go into instant panic mode (even though his bedroom is quite safe--outlets covered and only a few toys, books, and stuffed animals for him to get into.)  I frantically try to get ahold of Kevin at work.  No luck.  I try to call Grammie and Grampie. No luck. My thought is that there has to be some way for me to get this door open.  I try to remove the door handle.  (Kevin only has about 4 million tools and I can't find a screwdriver.)  So, I surrender and call 911.  They were here in about one minute.  They are super fast.  I'm sobbing hysterically.  They try to pick the lock but couldn't get it.  So, they busted in cracking the wood around the door frame.  When they opened the door Benny was like "Hey guys!  Want to check out my teddy bear I was playing with?"  He didn't seem to care that he was locked in his room.  Kevin called just as the police left.  He calmly stated "I'm glad benny is ok, but you know you could have used the key to unlock the door."  WHAT?!?!?!?!?!  We have a key to those doors.  Why don't I know these things?  Today I earned the Stupid Award and got my first gray hair.  (I hear gray hairs multiply quickly.)

Ways to Get From Here to There

I'm not going to win the mother-of-the-year award.  I have failed to properly announce to the world that Benny can walk.  He has been walking for weeks now.  He started taking some steps around his birthday and became quite adept maybe mid-Januaryish.  Somehow we never took a video.  What was I doing?!  At any rate, we took a video of Benny's new means of mobility a few days ago.  We went to the mall this Saturday.  He loved it.  Walked all over the place.

http://youtu.be/F0V6I-zctf0

Speaking of new means of mobility, we bought a new car!  In the video above, Benny is carrying the keys to his new wheels.  Sadly, this meant that our fine 1993 BMW 525---fondly named Ed is no longer with us.  Getting rid of Ed was sad.  Kevin and I took lots of trips in that car.  It drove us to our first home and brought Benny home from the hospital.  So long Ed!

Trusty Ed.

 

Ed has been replaced with a brand new 2012 Mazda 5.  For those of you who don't know what a Mazda 5 is, its a station wagon/mini-van sort of vehicle.  They call it a station wagon but it has sliding doors like a mini-van.

 

The new Mazda looks good in our 'outrageous green' garage.  Yes, the paint color was called 'outrageous green.'  People at Sherwin Williams think its odd when you buy multiple gallons of really, really bright paint.

 

Just cause I'm cute.

Happy Birthday to My Nana

 

Dear Nana,

 

I miss you so much.  I hope you are enjoying the Florida sunshine.  Its very cold and snowy here.  I wish we could be together.  I would turn all the lights ON for you and make all the fans go 'rou and rou' (round and round).  Its still one of my favorite things to do.  I'd like to show you my bath toy---an 'octa' (octupus).  I also wish we could share a bowl of ice cream for your birthday.  Make sure you eat some and think of me!

 

 

XOXOXO,

 

Benny