Pictures from Pittsburgh

Here are a few pictures of our time in Pittsburgh for my Grandma's funeral.  Most of these are from my cousin Jackie - I think I took 2 pictures total.  I think I just had my hands full holding the baby most of the time!

Molly and Luke "sneaking"

Gotcha!

Linde with Finn

Mom, Tammy, and Melissa

Madeline and Ana

Loey and Finn

John & Madeline

Patrick & Finn

Gone home

My Grandma Jennie passed away last Wednesday morning.  She was 97 years old, and had lived an extraordinary life, in a quiet and unassuming way.  She was a teacher, a missionary, an encourager, and a wonderful grandma.  She loved God with all her heart and loved people in real and practical ways.  She was funny, smart, humble, never complained, prayed without ceasing, and made awesome gravy.   Since Grandpa died in 2005, her health had been declining, and in the last few years she lived increasingly with anxiety and confusion.  She had been ready and waiting to go home to Heaven for a while, so now we are rejoicing with her.

On Monday we got the news that she was not doing well - blood pressure, heart rate, various signs that the end was coming soon.  Patrick and I took Finn and drove to Pittsburgh on Tuesday.  (The big kids got to stay with Bobbi and they had a great time.)  We got to spend the afternoon with Grandma.  She was on morphine, but still obviously uncomfortable.  She was more awake  than I had expected, but mostly just gave one-word responses to our questions, and seemed to tire quickly if we tried to talk to her much.  But we sat and held her hand, and let her listen to Finn laugh, and sang some psalms for her.   My mom also flew out from Colorado and arrived while we were there.  Before we all left, she suddenly asked about Elijah, which was the most she'd said all day.  We were all so surprised!  We had dinner and spent the night at Uncle Bruce & Aunt Margie's house.  It was really nice to get to spend some time with them, too.

We got up really early and drove back Wednesday morning so that we wouldn't miss Molly singing in the little Christmas program at our Bible study.  Mom called while we were driving back to let us know that Grandma died.  She died before Mom and Bruce & Margie could get there, but my great-aunt Jean and great-uncle Clark were there with her.  I am so glad that Grandma did not have to linger long, and that we got to say good bye, and to know that the last thing I said to her was, "I love you."

We took all the kids and went back out to the funeral, which was Saturday.  It was great to be with all my cousins (we were only missing two of my brothers - Stuart and Cameron - all the other grandkids got to be there) and celebrate Grandma's life together.  We also celebrated my birthday - how great to be able to be with my family that day!  I was so glad that we got to spend a lot of time with Mom & Dad and with my brother John and Linde and baby Madeline.  I thought it was going to be a long time until we got to see them again.  It was such a blessing to have that time together.

Mom, me and Grandma 2002

Grandma & Grandpa 2002

Four generations (with Elijah) 2007

Nana's visit

Nana came to visit us for a week before Thanksgiving.  We were all so glad to have her back!  Elijah has decided that it's not good enough to have Nana for most of the summer, and a week here and there, he says that Nana and Grandpa have to come and live with us ALL the time.  =)  We got to go to Elijah's Thanksgiving celebration at school while she was here - the kids sang some songs and said their verses and we got to share their "feast."  Nana helped me get a bunch of little projects done around here - I was so excited to finish some things!  We never would have gotten so much done before having people over for Thanksgiving without her.  She left Thanksgiving morning to go spend the day and the rest of the week in Pittsburgh with her mom, Great-Grandma Jennie.

This kid grew a bit since Nana got to hold him last!

 Nana and the kids had a real tea party while she was here.   They ate fancy cookies and drank "tea" (cran-raspberry juice!) out of tea cups.  It was so much fun!

Elijah's Prayer

Last night, Elijah was praying for Great Grandma Jennie:

"Dear God, please bless Great Grandma Jennie and keep her from sickness and death in between a rattlesnake."

I'm not quite sure that anyone will ever know what that means.

Pittsburgh trip - visiting family

While we were in Pittsburgh, we got to visit my Grandma and Great-Aunt Jean. Since it is flu season the kids are not allowed to visit Grandma where she lives, so Aunt Jean invited all of us to her apartment for the morning to visit. It was really nice to see them, and for Elijah and Molly to spend time with them.

Elijah and Great-Grandma Jennie had fun coloring

Molly and Aunt Jean

The kids just spread out their toys and books and made themselves at home!

Elijah listens to Uncle Bruce read.

Start 'em young! Molly listens to the story, too.

Visiting Great-Grandma Jennie

Molly with her great-grandma and cousin Oren

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a very good but very busy week here. (I'll post more about the rest of the week later.) We celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday with my parents and two of my brothers, Stuart and John, and John's family. It was a really nice, fairly relaxing day (as relaxing as preparing Thanksgiving can be), and everyone said that the food was good. I can personally vouch for excellent mashed potatoes and gravy and, of course, Dad's famous apple pie is always wonderful. Unfortunately, turkey totally grosses me out right now, but maybe by Christmas I'll be ready for feast food again. Patrick took over making Grandma's pumpkin pie for me this year, and it turned out very well - John had to have seconds.

John, Linde and baby Piper were here all weekend. We had fun watching Elijah and cousin Piper playing, if not together, near each other. Piper is getting around on her own now and pulling up to stand and walk along things, so they were much more interactive than they have been before. Here are a couple of cousin pictures from play time on Friday.

Come on up here and play!

Cute girl

Piper shares Elijah's issues with pants that won't stay up. What a pain!

Elijah and Grandpa hangin' out, watching the CU game.

Catching up

Hi! The past six weeks or so have been really busy for us, with people visiting us and us going away, and lots of stuff generally going on ... so I thought I would just try and fill you all in on some of the stuff happening around here.

Elijah is growing up so quickly now. He is quite a pro at walking and likes to try to carry all sorts of things with him as he travels. He attempts to pick up and carry lots of things that are large, awkward or heavy - he just wants to do it himself. He is saying quite a few words, some more clearly than others, and tries new words all the time. Some of his favorites right now are: cheese, shoe, "tah" (which means hat), "dadda" (can mean either Daddy or dog, depending on the context), "nana" (which can mean either banana or his grandma), and "peas" (can be either peas or please). His new favorite sound is a firetruck, and he laughs and laughs when Daddy or Mama make the sound for him. One of his favorite toys is his tool bench, especially the nails, bolts and wrench. He is so much fun most of the time! On a less fun note, Elijah has been experimenting with temper tantrums, especially at diaper changes. The joys of parenthood continue! =)

Last month, my mom and I threw a bridal shower for my cousin Johanna. It was a great day and everything went well. Lots of people came, and a lot of people helped in so many ways. It was fun, but mostly I was glad that it was a blessing to Johanna as she gets ready to start a new life. Congratulations, babe!

I had a really nice time on my trip to Pittsburgh and got to visit lots of people there who I haven't seen in a while. I got to meet lots of babies and spent some time with my grandma. I stayed with Erin, John and baby Caleb - so fun!

I finally got to meet little Caleb!

After I got home from Pittsburgh, Patrick went to a conference in Flagstaff, Arizona which he enjoyed. But we've been glad to all be home and get back into a normal routine this week. Of course, next week is Thanksgiving and Johanna's wedding, so we'll have another crazy week! It's going to be really fun though, and we are excited that so many friends and family will be in town. Hopefully there will also be lots of fun pictures to post.

We've had some wonderful and exciting news from friends lately, too. Congratulations to Dave, Erin and Ella on the birth of baby Lucy! We are so thankful for a healthy mom and baby and excited for your new little love! We were also rejoicing with our friends Mike and Tori, who are finally in the last stage of an adoption process that has been so terribly long. Congratulations, and we are so excited to meet the little guy! Elijah thinks that the boys are going to be great friends.

Happy First Birthday!

The birthday boy, today

Elijah turned one today! We have actually been celebrating for a while ... First we celebrated with Patrick's family while we were in Pennsylvania. Elijah's grandma, Bobbi, made a strawberry shortcake and Patrick and I opened Elijah's presents for him. (We were also celebrating Aunt Diane's and Papa's birthdays - hence the multiple candles.)

Then we celebrated with lots of my family while my grandma and my brother John's family were here. I made Elijah a bathtub birthday cake, complete with rubber ducky.

Yesterday we celebrated again with Nana and Grandpa. Elijah got to open his own presents. The paper was the best part!

A few more pictures

Here are some more pictures. If you want to see a few more than I posted here, check out the photo album. Thanks to Melissa for some of the pics. We had a wonderful visit with Grandma, and I am thankful that she was able to come. This week reminded me how thankful we are for the support of our families, and for the legacy of faith that has been passed down to us. What a wonderful inheritance we have to share with Elijah. I pray that we will be as faithful to teach him about our amazing God.

Elijah with Nana and Great-Grandma
Reading with Nana
My mom and her brothers
Generations

What a trooper

Here are a few pictures of our little man from the past few days. I know I'm a little biased, but I can't help it - he's such a cute boy! We had such a busy week last week while my grandma was here - Elijah and I were away from home 8 out of 10 days. Normally we are homebodies, mostly so that Elijah can have a regular napping and eating schedule. He loves his schedule, and when we stick to it, he sleeps well and is a happy, easy-going kid. I was very thankful this week that Elijah weathered the disruptions like a champ. It was great to be able to spend a lot of time with Grandma and all of the people who came to see her. Elijah and I are both thankful for a couple of days to just stay home and get back on track, though.

A happy morning baby.

More family pics from Saturday

Elijah and Great-Grandma Jennie
Elijah playing with Melissa and Logan
Four generations

Some family time

On Saturday, we went down to Colorado Springs to Uncle Alan & Aunt Gerry's house and spent more time with my grandma and the rest of the family. The little cousins had a great time playing outside in the woods around the house, and the rest of us enjoyed visiting and eating good food.

Elijah had fun with his cousins.

Grandma and Rick.

Logan wants some of that oxygen, too!

Logan and Elijah were loving their great-Uncle Alan.