A Picture Update

So it is a stormy Friday night and I have about 1% left in my tank.

Luckily I did some picture work yesterday so I can share the pics from the week with you without too much effort.  :)

Here goes...

On Monday night we went bridesmaid dress shopping for Mari's wedding.
Obviously, neither of these dresses were chosen.  But we did find one,
so that was exciting!

On Tuesday night Jim and Coco were in town, so we got to see them for a nice dinner in Uptown.

Maya still enjoying her one-on-one time with G-ma, Pa and Boom.

A girls dinner out, some afternoon reading, and "Nakey" time.

Today: Maya playing at Boom's, a carnival (with bounce house the teachers enjoyed!) at my school, an unexpected and
sweet gift in the mail from my friend Emily, and some sweet sister time.

I'll end with a Flashback Friday of silly Ms. Maya and her tongue.

Have a great weekend.

A Grief Update

It has been awhile since I've done a grief post.  So today seemed like an appropriate day for a couple of reasons. 

One reason being that it was one year ago today we lost my Grandma, or Gi-Gi as she liked the girls to call her.

My grandma was 91 and lived a long, full life. She taught us a lot about tenacity in her last couple days, because she held on as hard as she could while her body slowly shut down. She was a tenacious lady her whole life, actually.

Our grief over her loss rather quickly turned to gratitude, as we were thankful for her long life and also thankful her suffering was over.

None of us could have imagined our journey with grief starting again so suddenly 7 months later.

Which brings me to my second reason for posting about grief.  It has been a mind boggling 20 weeks since we lost my dad.

And really, the longer it gets, the more unreal it seems.

I haven't had much time the past few weeks to do much of anything besides putting one foot in front of the other and surviving another life transition back into full time work and being a parent of a kindergartener and busy 2-year-old.  I haven't really let myself think about much of anything because I couldn't really afford to lose it.

But tonight I'm sitting in it and thinking about it.

It is really hard to think about my dad's mom living to 91 and my dad's dad living to 79, and my dad only living to 59.

I know I should feel thankful for having 33 years with an awesome dad, but I just can't get past the feeling that we were cheated in the worst possible way for not getting another 30 years.

And I can't read the news because I hear about all these horrible people in the world who are still here, but my dad- one of the best people I knew- isn't.

I just don't understand.  I don't know how to make sense of it all. 

One thing I do know is that I can't believe how much I miss being able to go for my sunrise runs.  I desperately miss the sunrays.

Thankfully tonight, on a day that was dark and stormy, the sun prevailed and I got a little taste of what I have been missing.

And you can bet I'll be out the door at 6:30am on Saturday morning to see some more.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday.

Since I was too wiped out on Friday to do a picture update, I'll try and catch up today.

Maya is getting into the groove of having the adults to herself everyday, and I think she likes it.

Callie loves kindergarten and has even had a little reading homework to do. She brought home a low level book and said "Mom, it isn't very exciting, but I can read the whole thing by myself!" I love that she is already a little literary critic. When she gets picked up from school, there is always a snack waiting in the car because she is HUNGRY!

As for the weekend, there were two big events. One was a birthday party for my mom and Uncle Peter, who also turned 60 on Friday (they are "twin" 1st cousins, born on the exact same day)! We had a lovely dinner party at the Suurmeyers.

As you can see on the bottom right, there was even a party game- little mazes. Thanks to the Suurmeyers for hosting a wonderful evening, and to G-ma and Pa for babysitting so we could be kid free.

This morning was Maya's first day of 2-year-old Sunday School!

I stayed with her while Chris was with Callie, teaching her class for the 4th year in a row. There was a magician that came to perform for all the Sunday school kids, who Cal thought was hilarious. The girls did a little coloring together at the end of the morning.

Because I'm sappy, I dressed Maya in the same dress Callie wore for her first day of Sunday school three years ago. Can you tell who is who? :)

I think Maya's serious face gives her away...

We are heading into our first full time 5-day school week, with something going on for all or at least one of us every night to boot. It is going to be busy and exhausting. 

Hope your week is less crazy and more calm than ours will be.

Happy Birthday Boom!

All I have in me tonight is a birthday post.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOOM!!!! We love you!!!!

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Labor Day Edition

Happy Labor Day.

It wasn't really too fancy of a weekend for us.  Callie and I had Friday off too, so it was extra long.  Chris had to work on Saturday and today...bummer. But we managed to have some fun.

Saturday

The girls and I played at home on Saturday.  It was hot, so we got the pool and sprinkler out- probably for the last time this summer.

The girls had fun running around and getting wet!


IMG 0096 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Boom came over later in the afternoon.  We took her to Callie's kindergarten playground, and then she babysat the girls so Chris and I could go out for a little date night.

Sunday

We took the girls to the big indoor park on Sunday morning.  It is always a good option when they need to get a lot of energy out.

IMG 0133 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I have no idea what the "Poopy Butt" comment was about, but it comes out of their mouths multiple times a day, so I'm not surprised.

On Sunday night we went over to play and have dinner at the Helds'.  With the children all big and crazy now, taking good pictures is much more difficult.  I got a couple pictures of the girls (minus Baby Sylvia).

And then we attempted to recreate a picture from 5 years ago with our kindergarteners.

As you can see, five-year-olds are much less cooperative than little babies. :)

Monday

The girls and I headed downtown for the morning.  We played with Boom and Auntie Yoda, and I went for a run.  It was only the 2nd run since the half marathon, and the first one where I got to see some sunrays.

After we got home, I got a cute video of Maya (sort of) singing one of her favorite songs.


IMG 0177 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I love toddlers. Speaking of toddlers, she knows what to call herself. You can also see how she ignores what I say pretty much all the time.


IMG 0193 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I'll leave you with  KINDERGARTEN PAST and KINDERGARTEN PRESENT. 

Family Pictures

My friend Shannon dabbles in photography, so I asked her to take some family pictures.  It has been about a year since we have done that, and we need some updated pictures for our walls.

We went to Callie's kindergarten playground, because I love the outdoor candid shots.

Here are my favorites. 

First up, CALLIE.

Next up: MAYA.

And some casual walking and candids.

We did the family pictures at the end and the girls were clearly getting squirrelly.

Thanks to Shannon for the pictures!

Since it is a long weekend, I'll post the usual weekend wrap-up tomorrow.

A Picture Update

Happy Friday!

The biggest news of the week is that we now have a full-blown kindergartener. She had orientation on Tuesday morning, and then started full day on Wednesday.

She loves it so far. Her teacher, Ms. Carhart even emailed us a picture from the first day.

It is going to be a great year for her.

The other big news from the week was that Chris, Maya and I were all hit with bad colds and coughs. Yes, the same week we all started our new fall routine. But we all made it through the week  and are looking forward to a long weekend.

As for the pictures...the girls spent Monday with Boom on my first day back to work.

We celebrated the end of summer with a DQ run.

Maya spent the week with Boom, Daddy, G-ms and Pa. Callie got a little time with them all as well, after they picked her up from school.

My week back to work was good. It will

be nice to get back into the swing of things. I was happy to have today off, though, and Callie did too. So the girls and I went to the park.

Have a great Labor Day weekend.