Remembering Grandpa

A few weeks ago, my grandfather passed away. He lived a long and full 86 years. It really wasn't until the beginning of August that he started going downhill. I was sad to hear of him passing, but thankful he wasn't suffering anymore. It's such a weird emotion to have.

I am so thankful that the girls and I got to go out to Roseville last September. We helped him celebrate his big 85th birthday! Mallory got to know her great grandfather and make some fun memories with him!

My sister and I flew out together and met the rest of the family.

At the post-funeral lunch, there was a lot of memorabilia from my grandpa's life. I can't describe how much he loved Cal Berkeley. He was a die hard. I loved seeing all of his high school and college stuff.

His beanie from his freshman year at Cal:

He started writing his life story in journals about 2 years ago. My mom went through them all and typed them up for all of us to have. I'm so thankful for the sharp memory (that we always teased about) he had. It really was amazing...and totally skipped a generation:)

I didn't realize, until I started reading the memoir, that he retired as a Colonel in the Army! I blame it on being a girl and not being interested in those stories growing up:) I'm sure I wasn't just begging him to tell me all about World War 2 and what the Army was like. It's interesting now though!!

Because of his achievements in the military, he was buried with full honors at the Sacramento National Cemetery. Wow. The ceremony was amazing. "Taps" on a bugle, "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes and the folding of the flag. All of it was so moving and honoring. I loved that my grandpa was honored in that way.





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The siblings: Aunt Barbara, Dad and Uncle Mike

After the memorial service, we went back to Grandpa's house with some family. We all told stories about him, looked through photo albums and watched a taped interview from a couple years back (about his days in the Army). It was a great ending to a special day.

It was also my Uncle Mike's birthday! So, later that night, we all went to dinner to celebrate with him:

Also, while were in California, my cousin went into pre-term labor! Amy wasn't due until the end of October. Luckily (for us!), she delivered (a healthy) baby girl, Audrey Ella, early the next morning. We were able to drive into San Francisco and meet my second cousin!

What a perfect trip, with lots of celebrations! I'm thankful for my Grandpa and to celebrate the life he lived. He and that smile will be missed!

Homeschool Preschool

Towards the end of spring and early summer, we made the decision (with Mallory's input) to stay at home this year for preschool. I really had no intentions of keeping Mallory home. I was looking forward to making a good preschool, 2 days a week, part of our budget. But something changed.

Part of our decision was budget, part was the start of activities (not that she's the big FOUR!) and part was wanting to savor this last year with her (I may have teared up more than my friends that dropped their kiddos off at kindergarten this year did!). She enjoyed her Mother's Day Out last year, but wasn't necessarily walking in every Thursday with a big smile and brave face. Morgan on the other hand, I have a feeling, will be running through the doors as fast as she can without saying bye:)

So, here we are. My friend Karen and I are doing this together. We do our "school" at our own homes Mondays and Wednesdays. Then, on Fridays, we meet up at her house, finish up a couple of lessons and have show and tell (mainly for my introverted child:) ) of the letter craft each week. We're not really following a strict curriculum, mainly following lesson plans from this blog.

The girls have really enjoyed it. Minus the first week when I had strep throat and the start of pregnancy nausea, and then last week when we had our refinance closing change 3 times in one week (all during school time of course), we have finally gotten into the groove of school and being home together. I have a feeling that is going to be the best part. Routine, being home and not spending my mornings running one place to another...that is for Tuesdays and Thursdays:)

Mallory was cute on the first day. Brad helped get them ready while I finished up preparing everything. She picked out her outfit and everything:)

I could not get a normal pose out of this girl, but here's the first day (before calendar time):

The Do A Dot markers are a big hit around here (and, look who's hair is almost long enough for pigtails again!!!):

Who knew a $4 bag of pom poms could be so educational?

This was today. I love Morgan's face. She's trying really hard to stay in those lines:)

Another exciting day!

So, it's not exactly how I pictured this year going, but I am excited to see how it grows Mallory...and me, through it all!

Mallory and Morgan have an announcement....

Coming to our house late April!!!

All about Mallory

Our oldest girl turned FOUR in June! Yes, I'm that behind on blogging! Anyway. For some reason, turning four just seems so big. We are right around the corner from the big K word that I'm dreading....

This past year, Mallory went to a Mother's Day Out program once a week. She loved going and had a great year learning how to stand in line, raise her hand to talk, sit still in chapel, share toys...you know, all of those important preschool things.

At the end of May, the MDO had an end of the year program. They sang about 3-4 songs from their class. I gave Mallory a piece of gum on the way there and totally forgot to get it from her when we arrived. She also started twirling her hair when she's nervous or being shy. Soooo, the entire performance consisted of her twirling her hair and smacking her gum...and wearing her Barbie dress up ring. Nice. At any rate, it was cute and video worthy. Here's "I've got friends at school...":

Here she is after....where in the world did the last four years go? She is not a toddler anymore, she is a little GIRL!!!!

Our dear friends, the Livers, moved to the metroplex this summer. We love this family. My girls do as well! Shep and Owen went to the same MDO. Poor baby Marley was poked, annoyed and smothered the entire night by two girlies obsessed with babies!!

A little family shot:


Mallory has a best friend. Her name is Bella. If you read my blog (does anyone anymore?), you've probably seen her on it! We met the Smiths about 2 years ago. Actually, I "met" Karen 4 years ago, but that was from stalking her blog. There. I said it. I stalked Karen's blog and then she moved to my city, our sisters became friends, I met Karen, we had babies the same age and tons more in common. It's really not so creepy when you explain it all....promise!

I digress. Mallory and Bella are a week apart. Bella has grandparents that live on lots of acreage in a beautiful area near us. They also have two horses that are famous in our house. "Oreo" especially. When Karen and I started talking about the girls' birthdays, we decided it would be fun to have a joint party. So the plans began for an "Oreo birthday"! I made the invites and Karen did the cake. The rest was easy....let the kids ride the horse and order pizza!

It was BY FAR Mallory's favorite birthday ever!!! It was also the dirtiest Mallory has ever been. I loved it! She and Bella had so much fun. We had lots of their friends there and lots of family as well.

Getting ready to par-tay! Showing off how stinkin' old she is now...sniff, sniff.

Of course birthday girl Bella is a pro at riding Oreo!

Morgan wasn't quite sure. She hung on for dear life and then gave us this face when she was done. There was a smile during the ride....I think:)

The birthday girl! She loved every minute of riding on Oreo!

Some of the girlies at the party. It was H.O.T. that day!

After they blew out the #4 candle!

My dad (aka "Grandpa") manned the slide. It was serious crowd control at times!

The Bankheads and the Smiths. We love this family!

Like I said, we have babies the same age. Morgan and Gunnar are 6 weeks apart. When the four of them get together, they are a silly bunch! I would have put the whole series of these pictures up, but it would have taken up the whole blog. Hilarious, these four.

Happy birthday to Mallory and Bella!!

Galveston 2010

Back in May, we took a family trip to Galveston! We rented a beach house with Brad's parents, brother and family, sister and husband and us. The plan was to leave on Saturday, but both girls were under the weather on Friday (of course...Murphy's Law of vacations or something). So, we rested one day and loaded up Sunday.

The girls were beyond excited to spend an entire week with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and defintely their cousins! We are lucky to have a neice Mallory's age (Julia) and a nephew Morgan's age (Johnathan). They are great playmates and the girls have a ball anytime they are around.

Brad was sneaky and planned for me to get away and have a pedicure (the trip fell on Mother's Day). I got to go to a "chocolate spa" and enjoy an hour long pedicure! I envisioned a chocolate fountain pouring over my feet, but realized quickly it's just caffeine and cocoa in the products. Much cleaner, but still smelled fantastic! It was a great surprise!!

We mostly stayed at the house, but ventured into "town" a couple of times. We walked around downtown (saw the water level that Ike was at...wow.), ate at Guido's Seafood and walked the seawall a bit. There was also lots of Wii playing, Scentsy smelling (LaShay just started selling it, so we got to open all of her samples...mmm!) and EATING. Each couple took turns cooking dinner for the family. There was not a shortage on good food, that is for sure!!

Okay, on to the pictures...that are not in order...

Morgan slept in a "big girl bed" (aka mattress on the floor at the foot of our bed) for the first time during the trip. When we got home, we asked her if she wanted to sleep in her crib or big girl bed. She said "big gurl bed!!!!", so down went the crib and in went a twin mattress. The transition was soooo much easier than I thought it would be with this rascal:

Julia and Johnathan are seriously little fish! I kept calling Julia a flying squirrel in the pool. Anytime she would jump to someone, she literally leaped/leapt (?) 6 feet!

Johnathan had no fear either!

Mallory loved the ocean! She was jumping waves, riding them in and having a blast. I, on the other hand, almost had a panic attack trying to watch both girls in the ocean. You should have seen the look on Brad's face when I asked if she should wear her floaties at the beach. It was a definite no:)

This little turkey had nothing to do with the water...pool or ocean! She's more of a "grazer". She would run right up to the water edge an then run away squealing. As you can see, the humidity did great things for her hair:)

We took pictures on the beach our last morning there. I snapped this before my camera battery died...of course. Planning on making this into a silhouette...sometime!

We went to the aquarium at Moody Gardens one morning. The kids kept saying, "This is just like Nemo/Happy Feet!" Here's the cousins: Morgan, Johnathan, Mallory and Julia

There was a real starfish the kids got to touch...and Brad and Sharon, too!

Right before we left, Morgan started "the look". Anytime you would ask her, "Morgan, what's your look?", she would respond with this...and then burst into laughter! This is also before she got a much needed haircut...the mullet is gone folks!

The kids with their junk....I mean, souveniers from Murdoch's.

You can't visit Galveston without taking a ferry ride!

The first day....all ready for the beach!

The girls have been saving their money for months. We told them if they wanted to, they could bring their money and buy some souveniers on the trip. The night before, we dumped out their piggy bank and counted up all the money....$44 to share! The girls were so excited!

It was a great trip, with great company and great memories made!

Dare I...

...even attempt to update this blog?! Holy moly. Here goes nothing...

We'll start with my birthday! I turned the big 3-0 on April 24th. Here's a little pic from my birthday dinner with my three favorite people. Mallory took this picture...she is way into taking pictures with our camera lately.



Our besties, Tim and Kara, called us and invited us along on their spontaneous vacation to Boston! The dates just so happened to fall the week after my birthday! So, I kind of consider Boston my birthday present...Brad got off pretty easy, if you ask me:)



Boston was amazing! Our favorite place we've been, I think. The weather wasn't great. But, since the girls weren't with us, we didn't mind the drizzly 45 degree weather. Not exactly like "spring" in Texas.

We scored tickets to the final playoff game for the Celtics. To say that Bostonians are crazy sports fans is an understatement!! It was probably the most fun NBA game I've been to in a long time. Our hotel was right across from the "gahden", so we just walked out the door and across the street!



We bought a 2 day pass for the Trolley. That was a great buy! You can get on and off all day long. Of course, you hear the same script off and on all day long, too.



We also bought a week pass for the "T". This was another great buy...and fun to give to people as we left for the airport (since we didn't stay for a full week)! The T was interesting and apparently the bumps are soothing....



The best meal of the trip (well worth the hour we stood in line, outside in the cold, watching everyone eating inside the warm restaurant) was at Giacomo's in the North End. Tim read about it online and it was definitely worthy of the reviews! Lobster ravioli, chicken parmigiana and fried mozzarella...yummm!

While we were waiting in line, we visited with some locals (and also met some Texans!). I was so curious how much apartments and town homes were around Boston. She was telling us about a friend that just bought a 400 square ft. apartment for $300,000!!!!! My jaw fell to the floor. That ruined my fantasies of moving our family to Boston...oh, and the 10 months of snow/freezing temps!!



Who wouldn't want to live in a home like this? I fell in love with the row houses of Boston. So pretty and classic.



I think we were able to see just about everything there is to see in Boston...the Freedom Trail, Paul Revere's house, Bunker Hill (we walked up the 290 steps of the spiral staircase...and had the burning thighs to prove it!), Beacon Hill, Cheers, USS Constitution, Pizzeria Regina (the best pepperoni pizza!), lots of old cemeteries, ate dinner at The Union Oyster House; the oldest working restaurant in America, Fenway park, Mike's Pastry (way too many times to count) Boston Commons, Harvard, the Back Bay (my first time in an H&M clothing store) and too many Dunkin Donut stores to count!

We had a sweet homecoming with our two cuties. We met my parents and the girls for dinner after we arrived. When they pulled into the parking lot, all we could hear were screams! When we opened the door, Morgan was crying because she was so excited. Mallory, on the other hand, wouldn't even look at us. Typical. They are sporting their souvenirs from the trip, "Lil' green monstah" t-shirts!



My other bestie, Laura, turned 30 in June. We originally wanted Oscar and Brad to plan a big party for us. After thinking more about it, we decided to go away on a girl's trip instead! We went to San Antonio for THREE full days of shopping, eating, lounging and more eating. I officially converted Laura to Alamo Cafe tortillas and I think we covered all the La Cantera shops!



So there you have it. I'm officially 30 and officially celebrated.

Baby Will

Dear Baby Will,

Please don't hold it against me that I didn't announce your arrival on my blog until you were 2 months old! It wasn't for lack of love, that is for sure. I guess it's just life. You'll understand in 20+ years!! :)

I know two girls that are pretty smitten over you...from day one!


One, in particular, thinks that you are in fact her own baby:)





And now you are 2 months old! You are a happy, happy baby! We love to see you smile and hear you talk. We can't wait to see you more this summer. Shhh, don't tell Mallory and Morgan. I get to see you in a couple of weeks...all by myself! Get ready for some snuggle time!

Love,
Aunt Shannon