My Grandpa

The Wednesday before last I received a text from my sister letting me know our grandpa (my Dad's father) was in the emergency room. I immediately called my mom to find out what was going on. They didn't have very many details yet, but he had had a stroke and my mom said she would keep me informed. Over the next few days we prayed and thought of him often.

On Sunday, May 29th my grandpa passed away.

He was 90 years old and lived a life that we were all very proud of and honored to have known him and have had him in our lives. 

 I was very very sad for those few days. At first sadness was all I felt, but then after realizing where he was now and what happens after death I felt a peace and comfort knowing that he would be reunited with his wonderful wife who he had been away from for almost seven years. He would also return to be with his daughter and son who also passed away early in life. With out the Gospel I know death would be something much harder for me to handle.
I will miss my grandpa very much. He reminded me of my Dad in so many ways. So calm, so patient, quiet, loving. Every time I saw him and hugged him he had such a cute smile on his face and it made me happy. I wish I could have seen him more often as I got older. My parents did a good job though when we were little in making the effort to go out and visit my grandparents often so that we could become closer to them. I'm thankful for that. I'll miss my grandpa, he was a wonderful person.

  (With our Grandma and Grandpa way back in summer of 97)

We drove out to Colorado last week in case I would have to fly to Utah for a funeral. We stayed there for a couple of days and then on Wednesday night Katelyn and I were able to fly out to Utah. On Friday the 3rd of June we had the funeral. It was wonderful. I'm glad I got to be there for my Grandpa one last time. Katelyn was a sweetheart and handled the driving and meetings all very well. She even got to put two flowers on my Grandpa's grave, which made me so happy to see.

We had a fun little trip out to see Nick's parents and my parents. I wish we could visit our families more often. Our next break is in August and I am looking forward to it very much! My sister is having her baby any time in the next couple of weeks and I'm thrilled to be able to go out and see her and her husband and the NEW little baby girl! :)

Easter Weekend

I wrote this awhile ago... but I'm just getting around to putting it up. It can't wait any longer and I keep forgetting to get our dinner pictures off of Nick's phone.. so I stole a couple from my friend Amy's blog.. (hope you don't mind Amy!)

This was a really great Easter weekend for us. Having Katelyn around and spoiling her a bit with Easter eggs filled with candy made it fun. I decided on Saturday that it might be fun to do a little Easter egg hunt for her and invite some of her little friends over. We had pizza, did our egg hunt, and just had a good night talking.

She loved going after the eggs! She wouldn't really carry her basket. She would leave it on the ground then go get an egg then come back to her basket and toss it in.

 putting an egg in

 friend Blake. He was good, he gathered up quite a few eggs!

 Showing mama all of her eggs

 One of the twins, friend Hannah. She wanted to go after those eggs, but she's still a little tiny! She enjoyed some chocolate though :)

 Katelyn going after an egg daddy hid well behind the bush. 

She was also really slow because she knew the eggs had something good in them so she would pick it up.. shake it... then realize there was something in there and sit there and try to open it instead of just trying to collect them all. ha. She just wanted the candy.

On Sunday we had a good time at church. We had a little Easter lesson as a family. Then we went over to a friends house for dinner. My friend Amy is cute, fun, and SO talented! I was so impressed by what she did for all of us. At the time of writing this I was actually devouring the delicious cupcake she made. :)

 She had everything so nicely decorated. And behind the napkin are those cute little cupcake's she made that look like Easter bunny's! They were delicious too :)

Everything looked really nice. Afterward we had a chocolate cake contest. A few of the couples made a chocolate cake and we voted (don't think we ever really decided on a winner) on who's tasted the best. We really appreciate good friends, thanks for having us Amy!

HaPpY bIrThDaY!!!!

Nick's birthday was yesterday. I always love when it's his birthday. Actually, I love any day when there's reason to celebrate (valentines day, birthdays, fourth of july) because it gives you an excuse to do extra fun things like go on a date or make a cake.
That's basically what we did. We went out to dinner (when I say we went out to dinner I mean we did take out.) We usually don't like going and sitting in a restaurant so we order it and enjoy it back at home. :) Ok, Nick might say that's a lie.. because I do like going and sitting in the restaurant, but that's only if we are alone because it's easier with out Katelyn and we get time to talk, but she was celebrating with us so she came along and we just went back home.

I made a really easy and yummy cake (recipe from a friend) and it turned out good, as always. 

SO now Nicholas is officially one year older! I'm so happy to have him as my husband.

BYE BYE BINKY

The binky is officially gone now! I hope. Katelyn hasn't had it this whole week and most likely she won't be using it EVER again. I feel like my baby is so grown up now. Wow. It wasn't too bad and I recommend to any mom.. get rid of the bottle/binky before they can say the word and whine for it!

Random

I know I have a few things I want to blog about. I have tons of pictures everywhere (on Nick's phone, my phone, our camera) so I will just use what I have right now. Let's see.. we haven't been up to a whole lot lately.
We redid our front yard. We took out all of the dirt in the flower bed, went and bought some natural stone, mulch, flowers and then got busy! I really love how it turned out and I enjoy doing family projects like this.

(you can see how boring our flower bed used to be-- behind Katelyn)

I don't have a picture of the outcome, kind of pointless, but just know it turned out nice :)

I'll admit, working on our home makes me love it so much more. I won't want to move from Oklahoma when we are done. I already know that. I miss being around family so much, but it's so beautiful here. I love our neighborhood, our friends, and the people. I just have felt really good living here. It's crazy how you don't think of something a certain way until you actually try it out. When we first found out we'd be moving to Oklahoma I just thought "WHERE? Oklahoma? What is there to do there?" and I wasn't too thrilled. Now, I could tell anyone that it is an awesome place to live (despite the tornadoes, massive hail storms, and unbearable heat).. it really is a good place to live. :) At least for me.

Next... Katelyn had her 15 month check up. We did the whole shot thing, it made me sad, but I know you've already heard that. We put her on the scale and the numbers went up.. up.. jumbled around... and came out to a whopping

19 lbs. 8 oz.

We both we're like "what?? you're kidding" Haha, not that I care, but we thought she'd at least be 20 pounds by now. If we had to wait until she was 20 pounds like the toddler car seats tell you to do.. then she'd still be in that tiny little infant car seat. Everything looks great though and the doctor isn't worried about her weight, so that made us happy. 

Katelyn is growing up SO fast. She says quite a few things now. She sometimes (I say sometimes because usually she'll do it for us and when we try to get her to say it for other people she acts like we are crazy) will say:

-Thank you

-Hi Dad

-Gamma (grandma)

-duckie/birdy

-uh oh-- this is her new favorite. I don't know how she learned it, but one day she just started saying it and now we hear it ALL THE TIME. She will throw something down like her binky (on purpose) and then say "uh oh..." 

She thinks she's sneaky ;)

It's definitely starting to feel like summertime here. The weather is nice and warm and we love being outside. 

Does she look like she's ready for summer? :)

Unfortunately we don't get a summer break like last year. Nick's school just made it so that they will be in school for the whole summer (or at least that's what it feels like). We will get a break in August and hopefully have time to visit Utah and Colorado. I may have to sneak in a vacation before August to go see my sister and her new little baby girl!! She is due the end of June.
Well, there's not much more to say. I'm going to do a little Easter egg hunt for Katelyn today. We'll see how that goes..
Happy Easter everyone!

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GIVEAWAY!

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