Family is the Best!

I guess that I missed blogging about Grandpa's funeral too much.  I did have a great time writing about him and posting pictures and memories of our time with him, but I didn't write much about the time we had as a family after he passed.  Funerals are so bittersweet.  It is so great to have time as a family and to remember and laugh about stories of Grandpa, even though we know that we will sure miss him!

Grandpa passed away on my birthday.  As the time was drawing near I could see that it was probably going to be the day he waited for.  He would have thought that was really funny!

Here is the group of our family before the viewing.  It was great for the kids to all get some time together.  We had a really great day together the day before as we booked the gazebo at our lake and headed for a beach day with all of us.  It was so much fun!  Filled with soccer in the sand, hot sun and cool water, throwing kids into the water, food, laughing, and just great time together!  it was so great to have all of the siblings together, hanging out and having fun together,  

Grandpa had asked me to give his eulogy.  This was incredibly stressful for me but I said that I would do what he wanted me to do.  I had begun preparing it while he was still with us.  I had the opportunity to ask him a big list of questions about his life and voice record his responses.  This was a really amazing opportunity that I had been meaning to do for a couple of years and finally managed to a month or so before he passed.  This helped me with the eulogy.  Also having my cousins send me a few memories and being able to hear some of their great stories was also very helpful.

I will forever be grateful for the opportunity that we had to spend so much time with Grandpa, for me and my kids.  We had him everyday for nearly 2 years and he was with us nearly everywhere we went.  We also spent a lot of time with him in his last month.  I had regrets of not getting to see either of my Grandma's in their final time and I was not going to have any regrets this time.  We were there helping to take care of and just be near him nearly every other day.  It was sure a blessing and felt a lot like sacred ground at his bedside.

All of the Grand kids made it for his funeral.  It was good to have family around, some that I hadn't seen in a number of years.

Here is our crazy, growing family!  It is fun and busy but the best way that we could possibly spend our time and energy!  Family is so important and it is these times and moments that that becomes so clear.  I am so grateful for my family and the joy that comes from loving people so much!

My Cowboy!

I love the one week out of the year where my husband feels like he will join into the spirit of the west and transforms into a cowboy!  He occasionally gets it out for Halloween as well.  

He got these boots a few years back in Texas.  It surprised me then and still does, to see him in cowboy boots.  But I still love it!  He even has a fancy belt buckle with stones set in it that help to complete the whole outfit.

These cute cousins playing.  Elliette and Adeline are the best of friends.  They are 2 years apart in age but Adeline is actually a little taller.  They always have fun together.

All the kids working to see if they can help get Daddies boots off.  I stood back and took pictures and laughed really hard as it was so much work to get off his boots.  4 kids pulling with all of their might.

Marshall already collected the hat.

Elliette has a prize of the first boot and the others still working on the other one.

Hair

Crazy facial hair growing spontaneously all over these kiddos one day!  They were trying at first to recreate the father on Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs.  With the big eyebrows that raise up and you finally see his little tiny eyes.  It was so funny to see Elliette try to do this huge eyebrow raise.  Then of course it got all carried away, as kids tend to, and have a total hairy face.  They also had big long beards like Marshall's but longer. It was pretty funny and silly.

Dawsyn was going to a princess birthday party.  I have gotten rid of most of our princess dresses.  They were very worn, they are actually too small for the girls and Marshall kept wearing them, which I didn't appreciate.  So most of them are gone.  So I loved to have Dawsyn dress up like a little Indian princess in her beautiful Sari dress and fancy hair.  She had a fun time at the party.

The girls decided that they wanted to get their hair chopped off.  For Kyndal that was a great idea as she has trouble getting her hair done.  For Dawsyn it was more sad as I love to do her hair, that is why hers is not too short.  Kyndal's is so beautiful, smooth and soft and easy to take care of!

A big pile of chopped hair!

Paul slicked his hair all crazy one day.  I couldn't hardly look at him and have a serious conversation.  So I tried my own crazy hair to see if it would have the same effect on him.  We had a good laugh at crazy hair time!

This baby's hair was getting too long.  I was ready for him to have a haircut.

I love a handsome boy with a fresh haircut!

A Happy, Normal Day

I love this kind of sampling of pictures that I feel like are nothing big and spectacular but really feel like what we are doing everyday.  Our life is full of fun and smiles, of course there is also tonnes of fighting and crying and craziness, as there are lots of kids.  But those moments make these great ones even better!

O, these boys!  I had thought for a while that we would be a family of all girls (with the exception of Paul of course!)  so these boys are a great experience that I didn't anticipate having!  They are fun and wonderful and so crazy and totally boy!  When Marshall was 3 he was a little confused that he wouldn't grow bigger and turn into a girls like all these girls he would see above him.  He would say "But when I grow up and am a Mommy."  But at 4 he totally gets it.  He is all boy!  The way he plays and the things that he is interested in. He wants to wrestle and play soccer and drive cars.  There is no doubt that our spirits and bodies are gender specific.  We are made to be what we are.  It is neat to see the contrast between boys and girls.

Baylor learned this day to climb into the toy bin.  He spent many days in the future like this, just sitting in the bin playing with the toys all around him.  He is so cute and happy.

This boy is such a goof ball!  He makes some of the funniest faces ever.  I remember that even when he was a baby he had the most expressive face.  He could do the funniest things with his little eyebrows that I can't do at all.  And here he still loves to make all different kinds of faces.  He makes me laugh!

Baylor has discovered balls more and he loves them.  He likes big ones and small ones and really anything that he can throw and chase.  Even when he can't even walk he lifts up big balls like this and then they both come falling down.  He uses it to help him stand and then lifts it up with him.

I don't know which kid came up with this idea but the kids now have a blast getting fat at the beach.  They sit and out many handfuls of sand into their shirts to have a huge sand belly.  It is so funny, especially these skinny kids with huge pot bellies.  They have had so much sand in there that they can't even stand up.  It is too heavy for them.

I take Baylor away or off of the stairs about 10-20 times per day.  He is a busy boy and he likes to climb.  He is not too bad on the stairs but a few times he has tried to sit back and would have fallen if I hadn't been there.  Mostly he climbs up a few and waits there for me or the girls to come a sweep him away from the stairs.  He thinks it is a funny game.  He really is a happy baby, and man is he loved!