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Tag: Family

Saying Good-bye

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A great man passed away today. Other than my family, he was probably one of the first people to meet me after I was born. Since my dad was attending SMU, my family lived just outside of Dallas, far away from family and friends. Clyde and his wife, Vivian, took us in and became close to our family, close enough that my sister and I have always referred to them as our “adopted grandparents.”

Vivian & Clyde

Although we moved away before I was old enough to really know them, we continued to visit at least once a year. They were a huge part of my childhood. We loved our visits to Texas simply for the fact that we got to see Vivian and Clyde. I have so many great memories of helping Clyde feed the animals out on the farm, riding on “our” pony, sitting in the back bedroom of their house with my sister listening to Tiffany and Tommy Page tapes, sitting on the swing out in the yard in the evenings, running around Vivian’s office while she worked, being fascinated by their “old-style” refrigerator, drinking out of aluminum cups that made everything seem so much colder, and so much more.

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The last time I saw them was a few months after my daughter was born in August of 2008. Walking into their house felt like taking a trip back in time. Very little had changed. Everything was exactly where I remembered it being, down to the powder container on Vivian’s dressing table.  It was strange, yet comforting.

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I sat there watching Clyde hold my baby girl, just as he had done with me thirty years before, knowing that it very well may be the last time I would ever see him. His health had been going downhill for quite a while and he really wasn’t expected to make it much longer.

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A few days ago we found out that Clyde was on around-the-clock hospice care. This morning we got the news that he was gone. I’m sad that I wasn’t able to make another trip down to visit, though I’m incredibly grateful that I was able to make that last trip and that he got to meet my children.

I won’t be able to make it down for the funeral, as much as I would like to go. I want to be there to hug Vivian. I want a chance to say that final good-bye. Since I can’t be there to do it in person, I’ll leave it here and hope that he knows just how much he was loved.

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Obligatory After Christmas Post

I’ve been trying to write something, anything, for days.  But the words just won’t come.  I want to write about what a special, amazing, yet simple, Christmas we had, but I don’t think words can convey the feelings in my heart this time around.  All I really can say is that it was filled with fun, good food, and people that I love dearly.  I didn’t feel stressed, even though I rushed to get everything done.  The kids were so excited and so much fun. We had Hubby’s parents here again this year, which makes it even more special.  It was just a perfect day all around.

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Zach was thrilled that Santa did indeed bring him a DSi. He was convinced he was getting it, so I’m glad it turned out that way or we would have had a very unhappy little boy.

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Evie was pretty happy with everything she got, but she especially loves the little trampoline. She’d be much happier if she didn’t have to share it with her brother though. She really got into opening the gifts this year and it was so much fun to watch her.

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After the gifts were all opened and the kids had some time to play, we headed over to Grandma’s house where Hubby was more than happy to try out his new turkey fryer. Zach had an extra surprise at Grandma’s when he bit into an olive and out came a tooth! It was his first one to lose and he was so excited!

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(apologies for the bloody picture, but I haven’t managed to get a better one yet!)

We had a delicious dinner and opened gifts with the family, visited, played, and finally came back home when we were completely exhausted from the day.

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Then we got up the next day, headed to my Dad’s house, and did it all over again! The kids enjoyed having another day of Christmas and it was nice to spend some time with my Dad and his wife since we don’t see them often anymore.

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We even managed to get a picture of all six grandkids together again. They may not be smiling or looking in the same direction, but they are all in the picture.

And that was our Christmas. It may seem a bit hectic, but to be perfectly honest, it was one of the best (and most relaxed) Christmases I have had in a while.

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‘Tis The Season

In between photo shoots, editing photos, Christmas shopping, two Thanksgiving dinners, a birthday party, laundry, bill paying, and just generally putting out fires in every direction I turn, we somehow managed to get the Christmas Tree up and decorated.  To be perfectly honest, I put the tree together, strung the lights and garland, and then pretty much let the kids go crazy with the ornaments.  I put a few up toward the top where they couldn’t reach, but mostly just let them go with it.  They were thrilled, and continue to re-arrange it on a daily basis.  We have yet to find the time to hang the lights they begged for on the house, but we’ve still got a couple weeks for that.

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Every year I swear I’m going to not let things get so hectic this time of year, and every year it does.  As I scanned through the few snapshots I took of the kids while they were decorating the tree it struck me just how much they have grown over the last few months.  They both required new shoes again last weekend as their feet just keep getting bigger and bigger.  My babies are not babies anymore.  Even Evie, who is still only two for a few more months, talks and acts well beyond her age at times.  They just look so big sitting there next to the tree.

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I also realized, as I was uploading photos to Flickr, that I took very few photos of my kids over the last month or so.  Very few compared to what I normally take anyway, and it makes me a bit sad.  I know I overdo it on the photos most of the time, but I absolutely love looking back at all those captured moments when – on days like today – I realize just how fast they are growing and changing.

December is certainly not slowing down.  I have so many things I want to write and post here, but there is so very little time to accomplish that.  This weekend I’m doing two photo shoots for friends/family, have a birthday party to attend, and then hopefully can squeeze in some time for my own family’s photos.  Next week we have our first appointment to start evaluations on Zach for his sensory issues, then my cousin’s wedding that weekend where I am also helping take photographs.  The next weekend is my nephew’s birthday, and then my in-laws are coming to town and suddenly we’re at Christmas.

Somewhere in there I need to finish buying /making Christmas gifts, edit all those photos I’m going to be taking, AND try to find time to hang out and have some fun with my own family.  The kids are so excited about Christmas this year and I really want to enjoy that with them, including fun things like making cookies, watching Christmas movies, writing out their wish lists, as well as reading and talking about the story of Christmas and helping them to understand what it is really all about.  I wish I had a giant Pause button so that I could get all of the things finished that I need to do, then catch back up with my family.

Whew! I’m not sure how that all reads, but I’m talking a mile a minute in my head as I’m writing.  That is how rushed I am feeling with everything right now.

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My Very First Family Photo Shoot

A couple of weekends ago, I had the pleasure of doing a family portrait shoot for the Winfrey family. I was a little nervous for my first official family shoot to be a family of six, but they were so easy going that I calmed down pretty quickly and had a ton of fun.

Winfrey Family StoryboardThe best part was that I learned so much from doing this.  I have a couple more fun photo shoots coming up in the next couple of weeks (including trying to get some fun Christmas card photos of my own kids) and I can’t wait to try out all the cool things I’m learning!

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We All Think She's Pretty Special

Sunday morning Evie woke up with a stuffy head and a runny nose. I didn’t think much of it at the time because I didn’t give her the usual dose of Zyrtec before bed time due to the recent recall. She was a little extra clingy, but we were in a new place for church that morning. By the time we got home (after exposing her to probably 20 other kids) I realized she had a fever and she was saying her ear hurt.

I made all the appropriate phone calls and decided I needed to stay home with her on Monday and get her to the doctor. Fortunately, she woke up with no fever and everything checked out fine at the Dr.’s office. I shelled out $30 to find out that she was just fine and maybe has a bit of a cold.

After the doctor, we stopped at my office for a few minutes, made a quick stop at Target (where I got suckered into buying her a Backyardigans dvd because she was asking for “back-agains” all morning), then headed home.

For some reason she wanted to eat her lunch in the living room. This is not something we do, well at least not since having kids, so I thought her request was funny but decided to go with it. We had a great conversation while we were eating and then I attempted to put her down for a nap, which she was having none of. I tried settling her down with her new Backyardigans video and dvd player, but that didn’t work. She wanted to watch Elmo in my bed (the only way I’ve been able to get her to nap lately). That didn’t work either. She wanted to sit in “mommy’s chair” so I let her. She was having fun manipulating me and it really was getting too late for a nap anyway so I let her enjoy it.

Shortly after that, she climbed up in the chair beside me at the kitchen table where I was attempting to work. I was listening to Pearl Jam in preparation for the show that night. She came up and started banging her head to “Save You” and said, “Mommy, my like this song!” with a huge smile on her face. She’s really been discovering music lately and I’m loving it. We had an impromptu dance party right there in the kitchen, followed by some giggles and hugs. It was one of those perfectly simple moments that fills my heart with so much joy.

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Soon it was time to go pick Zach up from school. Normally I pick Zach up first so Evie rarely gets to go in with me to pick him up. The kids were out on the playground when we got there and when Zach saw us walking up he lit up. He screamed out, “Sissy!” and ran up to give her a hug and a kiss. Soon he was rounding up all of his friends because he wanted to make sure they all got to see his baby sister. He wouldn’t let us leave until everyone had seen her and kept saying, “Isn’t she cute? She’s my baby sister.” My heart was melting.

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Fast forward several hours and Hubby and I were sitting at the Pearl Jam concert (which is a topic for a whole other post). We were chatting with the people next to us who also have two kids when Hubby asks to see a picture of Evie on my phone. I pulled up the picture I had taken that morning (above) for him and he took it to show the couple next to us. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but just like Zachary was earlier that day, he was very proud to show her off.

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I love how we all appreciate her in different ways. I see so much of myself in my daughter, but I also see her father, and little bits and pieces of her brother. She’s a little bit of all of us, all wrapped up in one tiny little package.

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iheartfaces – Smiles

This week’s iheartfaces photo challenge theme is “Smiles.”  One of my favorite things about photography is being able to capture a genuine smile.  I get lots of forced cheesy looking grins from my kids, but when I capture a true smile born from happiness the photo usually becomes a favorite.  There’s just something so energizing when you can see the joy pouring out of a photo.

This last weekend we celebrated my nephew Brayden’s 3rd birthday.  His parents scored a great deal on this Power Wheels motorcycle and boy was he excited to receive it!  I have a feeling he’ll be spending a lot of time outside this summer!

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Need a little happiness in your day?  Go check out all the other smile photos at iheartfaces!

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