Yes Please.

Yes, our little Olive has been trying to tell us that she is ready to eat. Grabbing at whatever food or drink we have. She has tried rice cereal a few times, with no success. She unfortunately would vomit everything out a few hours later, so we have moved pass that. For now we just give her tastes of what we are eating. I know what you are thinking- enchiladas, lasagna . . . of course not. Age appropriate foods of course. Jude loves to help out during feeding time.

A Celebration of Life

My dad is my Hero. He always will be.

Growing up he was a great example to me of what a good husband and father looks like. From daddy daughter dates, to holding family prayer and scripture study in the home, to attending all of my sporting and dancing activities.

3 years ago, my once active dad found out some devastating news. He had been diagnosed with ALS, or "Lou Gehrig" disease. ALS would eventually affect all voluntary muscle groups including his ability to breathe on his own. Thankfully ALS does not affect the senses, bowel function and his ability to think or reason. For the last few years, it has been hard for us to sit back and watch his strong body, get weak. The small limp in his right leg, progressed through his body and other muscles weakened, until he needed a lift to get him into bed and into his motorized wheelchair.
His love was his family, he loved his grandchildren. Throughout this diagnosis and his new life, he never lost sight of who he was, the Lord was so active in his life, and often blessed him with treasured moments. He was so positive, he accepted this trial, and still found joy in the journey. He felt an urgency in his life, so he spent his days with his family, his grandchildren, traveling with his childhood sweetheart, my mother, doing family history, attending institute classes, doing missionary work, and spending time in the temple. This year has been quite rough on him, after 2 boughts of pneumonia, a collapsed lung, and respiratory distress, his lungs were weak with minimal hope of recovery. His last 2 weeks of life he was in the hospital, until he asked to go home.

My dad was being called on a mission. He wanted to go home, his heavenly home. Our family flew out and met them at home, and spent his last hours and days by his side. We are grateful to have had the chance to be with him, to talk to him, and express our love. Although his body was ravaged by this awful disease his mind was still bright. He knew exactly what was happening. He was at peace. It was a peaceful passing.

The service was a beautiful celebration of his life. My mother and us girls spoke along with his best friends. He had the service program planned.
I know he is gone from this life, but he will always be with me.
I know he is happy, his beautiful spirit is no longer confined to his imperfect body.

Us girls after a long day. After the service, and burial, and luncheon.
It was back to the house to relax.

Our little family.

Jude giving his little sister a nice hug.

The following pictures were on display at the church during the viewing and service,

to celebrate my father and his life.

This one is my favorites. It shows my mom and dad's relationship in high school, with their school dance pictures, and his love letters he wrote in her yearbook.

I love you Daddy.
PS- Happy Birthday today!

What a year. . . so far

So I have not updated my blog in quite a long time, so here comes a update. It will be all over the place, so try to understand, that is kinda where my brain is at right now.

Let's start things off, with a typical Monday night around here.
Girls getting together and watching the Bachelor.

After a great snow storm, we headed out and went sledding with some friends.

Jude and daddy had such a great time, I spent most of the time in the car with sleeping baby :)

Olive sure loves her daddy. She gets so happy when he comes home to play.

Jude and a few friends over for breakfast on the weekend.

Jude loves to do anything that daddy does. His new favorite thing is to pretend to shave his face.

I know we spent some time in Arizona before Christmas time, but we went back to play early in January while John went to Colorado for a guys snowboarding trip. Here is Olive and her cousin Alex. We call him "Big Al", and her "Little O", I am sure you can tell why by the difference in their size. They are only a week apart.

And don't get me started on little Jude and his cousins. He LOVES them. I never see him while I am in Arizona, he is off playing with his cousins all day. He has such a great time. Here he is with his cousin Jacob.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Before we left Arizona, John was able to give Olive a beautiful priesthood blessing. It was such a nice blessing, and she looked so beautiful. The dress that I was blessed in, Olive was able to wear, so it was special for me.

My sister and I with our babies. Her 4th baby boy was blessed with Olive, it was nice to make it into a family event. Her boy Alex, was born a week before Olive.


On Christmas Eve, we had an enjoyable evening in front of the tree with our little family. We read Luke 2, and just talked about the true meaning of Christmas with our kids. Starting these little traditions gets me excited for many more Christmas' to come. Jude was excited for Christmas this year, so I know each year Christmas will be more and more fun!

Here is our little princess. She is getting so big!

And of course, Jude, who could not sit still for one minute!

Our little kiddos on Christmas Eve. . . Then Christmas Morning arrives.

We spent hours playing and playing with all of the new toys.

And when Olive was not sleeping, she was playing too!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This past week we took Olive swimming for the first time. Jude loves to swim at the indoor pool at the YMCA, so we did a little family swim date. Olive loved it. She was just so relaxed, and enjoyed the water.

My attempt at a family picture :)

And a very happy new year too!
We had a few friends over for some late night games, and food.
We had a blast!

Time in Arizona

This year we spent Christmas here in Kansas City but took some time in mid December to go and spend some time with our families in Arizona. It was a nice break from the cool weather here and we enjoyed soaking up with sun in 78 degree weather.

We spent some time with the Taylor family, enjoying some wild adventures and exploring in a cozy cabin in Northern Arizona.

We started our trip off with an indoor skydiving adventure. Here we are getting ready to fly!

Of course, little Olive had to try it out too!

We did it! And we all made it out alive. It was such a blast! I can't wait to do it again.

Thanks MaryAnne!

Here is little Jude playing around, while we attempt to have a photo shoot.

Here is little Juniper. Jude and Olive got to meet her for the first time. Jude loved playing with her. She is such a cutie!

A Taylor family shot. John, me, Jude, Jordan (john's brother) with Olive, MaryAnne with Juni, and Matt and Ashley ( john's sister).

While at the cabin, Jude loved to play outside, it was beautiful weather. The cabin was on a lake, so Jude loved to wear his snow boots outside and throw rocks with daddy in the water.

I love the running shot with those boots :)

Then we spent some time with the Jones Family. Every day we were busy doing something fun! It was just so nice to have daddy with us all the time!

Spending the day at an aquarium. Jude could even touch a star fish!

Playing with all of Grandma's toys. Jude loved to dress up as a warrior and pretend to kill the dragon with his cousins.

And of course a day at the zoo. We attempted the zoo in the summer with little success, it was WAY too hot, but the winter is the perfect time to go. Jacob was the only one brave enough to ride on the camel.

We all took turns feeding the giraffe.

We decorated gingerbread houses one night. My sister with 2 of her cute boys. Jude's house had a lack of candy on it, the candy never made it to the house, straight to the mouth.

It was Olive's first time meeting Grandpa. She loved him, she would sit on his lap all the time. Here she is with her cousin Alex, they are just a week apart. He is quite a bit bigger than her!

Jude in his cute suit after sitting on Santa's lap, we went to look at the temple lights. Here is Jude running around making funny faces.

Jude wanted to be the camel for our families nativity scene, here he is trying on his costume.

Olive sitting on Santa's lap at a family Santa party!

A Christmas update coming soon.