Remembering Gramma Sue

Sue,
I miss you a lot. I think about you often and I still find myself shedding tears when I'm reminded of you (usually when I'm all alone though or when I think no one's looking). I guess I'm too prideful to cry in front of others. Time definitely heals pain as I'm finding out, but it can still be tough at times. Earlier this month I was visiting my family in Washington. After church one Sunday I drove by a cemetery on my way to my mom's house. There was a man standing above a grave next to his motorcycle. I couldn't help but imagine that this would be Layne in just a few short weeks. My heart ached for Layne. I can't fathom what life would be without Nathan.
Christmas was always a BIG thing for you. The best way to describe Christmas this year was different. It was nice don't get me wrong but it just wasn't the same. I was really excited to decorate the house but the more decorations I took out the more it reminded me of you, and it was hard. It probably didn't help that most of the decorations we have was either made or given to us from you.
We got a Christmas card from Beth. I was thinking how nice it was of her to think of us (which it was) but I definitely wasn't prepared for what was inside. It caught me off guard when I opened it and saw that it was "from you". She, along with some of your other friends, decided to make your last Christmas decoration and send it to all your friends and family. You already had your theme picked out (of course) for this last year (snow globe) with all the supplies for your decoration and your Christmas cards picked out. They made all the snow globe decorations and then signed your card with your stamp signature. I'm thankful they did this because in a strange way it gave me some closure.
Layne gave me Christmas gifts from you which at the time caught me off guard just as the card did but I'm so grateful for them. I'm grateful that he thought enough of me to give me those things.
It was a little weird being in the house over Christmas and also when we were there for your funeral. I kept waiting for you to walk through the door or walk down the stairs and give me a hug but of course it never happened. I miss hanging out with you. I miss talking with you. I miss doing projects with you. I miss your laugh, especially your snorting laugh. I even miss you teasing me. Someday though we will have this again and I can't wait. Until then, just know that I miss you and love you.

Love,
Ash

Dyer at nine months!

This last month was a big month for Dyer! He learned so many new and exciting things especially the two weeks we were gone. Poor Nathan didn't get to enjoy any of these firsts but Dyer sure had fun showing daddy all his new tricks when we got back.




Dyer's definitely working on his teeth. As you can see in the picture he is tugging at his ear. He has his two bottom teeth and the four front teeth are slowly but surely working their way down. He bites on everything he can get in his mouth. It's still weird for me when he smiles big and I can see almost a full mouth of teeth.



Dyer is still our happy smiley little guy. He loves to smile at just about anyone. Most of the time if someone says hi he has started to wave with his fingers and sometimes it sounds like he is mimicking "hi" . It's pretty cute!




I know I wrote it in an earlier post but Dyer started creeping forward the night we got to Washington (Mar 2). Too bad he didn't do it for Nathan before we left.



Dyer is definitely not a picky eater by any means. I can put anything in front of him and he will scarf it down. He is basically a bottomless pit too. Most of the time I have to be the one to end his feeding times. In my opinion he is a big solid guy but I guess we will find out how big he really is as soon as I get him in for his doctor's appointment.

Once we got home he has basically been eating table foods that we have been eating. I don't think I've given him any jars of baby food. He seems more excited with what we are eating. I actually like it more too since he can eat at the same time and I don't have to spoon feed him nearly as much.



As you can see in this picture and the next one Dyer was not all that excited about having a photo shoot. He wanted to crawl around and have me hold him so he kept getting upset when I would sit him back down on the sheet. Dyer's definitely crawling now (Mar. 11) and is much happier now that he can get around on his own. He still gets frustrated though because he has a hard time keeping up with everyone which means he definitely prefers me to carry him around still. He loves his mommy and wants to be will me at all times.



I had to take this picture because this is so not Dyer. He was so upset.



Dyer loves standing and has pulled himself up a few times. He has started to take a few cruising steps here and there but he's definitely not there yet. He likes to hold onto someone's fingers and walk around and he has started to use a toy walker but is still unsure of it.




Dyer also started clapping when we left on vacation. He loves clapping!

I've updated a lot of posts from our vacation so make sure and check them out!

Soccer game and Kids Club

We went to Aaron's first soccer game. Jana's the coach. It was really cute and fun to watch the little kids play. I can't wait until Easton starts up soccer next week. Aaron did really well and not to be biased or anything but I'm pretty sure he's the best on his team. He even scored 2 of the 3 goals for his team (not that we were keeping track or anything).



Aaron



Coach Jana



Half time



Aaron's cheer section


After the game and lunch we headed over to The Kids Club. It's a little on the spendy side but if you stay for a long time (we stayed for about 3 hours) its worth the money. Jana and I took turns going into the jungle land with the older kids and staying behind with Dyer. It was pretty fun but it got so hot!




It is basically a huge maze with lots of slides and a ball area.



The boys loved the ball area. It has tons of nerf balls that you can load into gun launchers and shoot them at targets and/or people.



Blair loved the slides.



What Jana does best! Actually she was taking pictures of the kids and sending them to me so I could see what they were doing. Unfortunately she stinks at taking pictures and they were all blurry.



It was hard to take pictures of the kids when they were inside and I was outside but I wasn't about to take my camera into all the craziness. Easton's in the middle of the picture loading his gun to shoot at people.



Easton going down the snake slide.



Blair followed by me.



Aiden



Aaron





Gma hanging out with Dyer before bedtime.

Hanging out at Fish Papa's

When we got to my dad's house he had cartoons on and I thought it was really funny how fixated all the kids were so I had to get pictures!


Easton and Blair


Aaron and Aiden


Someone was tired and bored! Haha Jana!



My dad and Sharon were dog sitting. Blair really liked the dog and surprisingly Dyer even seemed to like him or at least tolerate him.



Aaron apparently doesn't like kisses from mom.



Sled family photo (Aiden, Jana and Aaron)



This little monster has four teeth coming in on top! It's hard to see in the picture but his teeth look like stair steps the way they are growing in.

Look whose crawling now! Video (dark of course) of Dyer crawling:



He started crawling on Mar 11. There must be something magical about Grandma Gma's house because every time we came to her house Dyer would do something new.

He also pulled himself up for the first time the very next day (Mar. 12).

Visiting Shannah!

While I was in Washington I got to go back to Oregon to visit Shannah! It was only for about half a day but it was fun to talk and catch up! Easton stayed with his cousins but I took Blair and Dyer with me. Blair and Savannah (Shannah's little girl) are about a month apart so it was really fun to see them interact together. It's not very often that Blair has a girl her age to play with so I think she was in heaven. I was a little worried how Blair would interact with Savvy since she didn't get along very well with her cousin, Ashlyn and also because Blair is very bossy. Savvy is pretty much the total opposite of Blair. She is very sweet and soft spoken. Blair actually surprised me and was pretty much on her best behavior. I wish I would have taken more pictures but it is what it is.


Blair and Savannah decided they wanted to exercise together. They were too cute not to snap a few pictures.


Blair and Savvy. Shannah's in the background!

Video of them exercising:

Chuck E Cheese

On my mom's day off we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. This was a big thing for my kids because Easton has only been there once before and Blair has never been there unless you count the fact that I was almost ready to pop with her the last time we went there. It worked out nicely. Aaron basically did his own thing. My mom hung out with Easton and Dyer, Jana with Aiden, and I was with Blair. I had so much fun with Blair! It's not very often that I get to hang out with just Blair. I definitely need to do a better job of hanging out with her one on one.


Grandma Gma, Dyer, and Auntie Jana



Blair chilling out with Chuck E



Grandma with Dyer



Gma helping Easton with the squirt gun game.


Video of Blair and Easton riding some rides:






Easton riding the horse. This brought back cute memories of Easton from the last time we were at Chuck E Cheese when he had just turned 2. He LOVED this ride and basically refused to get off of it. He spent most of his tokens on this ride. I went back through my posts and found this little gem. How cute was he?



He doesn't look all that happy but believe me he was in heaven on this ride. It's crazy to think that, that was almost 3 years ago.



Here's Blair's photo with the famous horse. Now I'm wishing that I would have gotten one with Dyer on the horse. Anytime we go to Chuck E Cheese now I just might make all my kids get their picture on the horse.

Video of Blair riding the horse:

I had to film her because she kept yelling, "Yee-haw!"

Video of Blair shooting baskets:

She actually impressed me on how well she did. We did cheat a little by putting her up higher where the balls come down but that was because she was too short to shoot them from the ground.



Blair on her princess ride!



Easton and Aaron with tons of tickets! Both Easton and Aaron played a train game but the tickets weren't coming out. My mom went and told one of the workers. The tickets were jammed so the worker pulled out tons of tickets to get them unstuck and just gave all those tickets he pulled out to Easton and Aaron. You can't tell in the picture but Easton already had about 2 inches of folded up tickets in his hand before I snapped this picture.



I think this was Easton's favorite game this time around. My mom said he played it a lot!

Afterwards we took the kids to the mall to play and to get something to eat. I got a smoothie and gave Dyer a taste. He LOVED it and kept getting upset if I wasn't constantly putting some in his mouth. I'm pretty sure I created a smoothie monster!

Visiting Whiting Family

After visiting my grandparents in Eastern Washington (Quincy) I went with my dad and Sharon to visit my brother, Wade and his family in Madras, OR. Yes, I was all over the place but that's not really anything new for me. Almost as soon as we crossed over to Oregon my dad got pulled over for speeding. He lucked out big time and didn't get a ticket. He definitely was going fast enough over the speed limit that we were all sure that he was going to get a ticket.

Easton was feeling carsick so I made sure to give him part of a travel motion sickness pill which definitely helped him. I should have gone with my gut and forced Blair to take part of one too but it can be a huge struggle sometimes so I decided against it since she wasn't complaining. I paid for it big time right before we got to my brothers. Luckily for all of us it happened only about 10 minutes from my brother's place. And actually Dyer threw up first. Thankfully it wasn't very much. My sister in law, Mykle, was a lifesaver. By the time I got Blair's car seat out of my dad's car and her mess cleaned up out of the car, Mykle already had her in the bath and all cleaned up. Then by the time I got Blair out of the bathtub and into her pjs, Mykle already had her car seat cover and clothes in the wash and her seat cleaned. Thanks a million Mykle!



Blair all cleaned up!



Blair and Easton with Grandma Sharon.



Fish Papa reading to Kannon and Easton

Since my kids slept in the car on the way to Wade and Mykle's they really didn't want to go to bed and were basically a nightmare. I broke down in tears because nothing seemed to be going right, my kids were behaving horribly, and I was so tired from lack of sleep. My dad came to the rescue and got all my kids asleep for me. It was definitely nice to get a little break!



In the morning Easton and Kannon watched cartoons together.



Uncle Wade gave all the kids rides in the wagon.



Random but I thought it was funny that I think every picture that I have of Blair so far for this trip she is wearing the same exact outfit (minus her pjs)! I swear she had other clothes than just that outfit. At first she kept messing up her other clothes with her bowel movement issues and this was the only outfit she had that stayed clean. She did manage to puke on that outfit but then Mykle washed that outfit and since the other outfits were still dirty this was the only clean one she had for a while...

Thanks to Mykle I have all the pictures above. She was sweet to send them to me.


Emery and her cousin, Jarom, (on the other side) are only a week or so apart so they celebrated their 1st birthday together. It was the hungry Caterpillar theme. It was very cute and I wish that I would have taken more pictures of the party but unfortunately I didn't. Before the party started I had to run into town and buy more pull ups because Blair went through way more than I had planned on using. It was a good thing I bought some when I did because as soon as I got back Mykle had Blair back in the bathtub cleaning her up. She got poop all over her herself, her clothes and she even managed to get poop on Mykle's parent's rug. GROSS!!! I didn't think to bring extra clothes for Blair but luckily Mykle's mom managed to find some clothes that would work for Blair. I should have taken a picture of Blair in her new outfit.



Emery eating her cake. She loved it! And that might be an understatement. To be honest though she actually scarfed the whole cupcake down. It was pretty impressive if I do say so myself. I've never seen anything like it before! That's my kind of girl!



Fish Papa with Blair and Dyer.



Emery all ready for church.



Kannon dressed and ready to go.



All the cousins before we left to go back to Washington.



On our way back it started snowing really hard in the mountains. It's a good thing we left when we did because we might not have made it back if we would have left an hour later.