Grandma Midgley and other stuff.

September started out on a sad note, my grandma Elaine died on the evening of Aug 31. My sister Bev and I headed out that night at 10pm, to Bellvue, to go and be with our aunt Darlene and to be with grandma. It was hard to be there but it was also a very peaceful and spiritual time as well. I'm thankful to believe what I believe. Knowing that life doesn't end with death has been a great comfort to me. It is hard to loose a loved one, but I know that I will see my grandma again and that she is happy and with those that have gone on before her.  I will miss you grandma!

Here is a picture of Grandma and Grandpa Midgley many moons ago.

The kids also started school on the 1st. I was still in Seattle so I missed their first day. I think they had a good time and that all was ok.
Oct 4...
I started this post back in Sept and I thought I would finish it now. The kids still love school, surprising, I know. Cordin has decided to do band this year. He is playing the clarinet which so far he seems to really like. He has learned how to put it together and how to make sound, now all he needs is the notes. Gabbie is loving school. She is such a social child and thrives on being with others. She is supper smart too. Both her and Cordin are. Gideon wants to go to school so badly. We are thinking of putting him in pre-school. I think he would love it. I just need to justify the expense. Brynwen is growing up way to fast. She is 18 months now. She loves to be apart of everything and follows brothers and sister around like their shadow. I can't believe that all of my kids are getting so big.

Joe and I are doing well. We are living life and doing what we do...work and home and work. Joe's birthday is this Friday and we are excited about sharing this with our family and friends. Our good friends Bill, Maggie and Miri are coming to spend 5 days with us, we can't wait. We are so excited to see them. For Joe's bday we are planning to have dinner with all of our fam that is here and with great friends, then it's off to play laser tag. It should be a great night.

That's pretty much all that's going on with us so far. We are happy and healthy and excited for the coming months. I will work on doing better at posting all the fun stuff that is happening to us as this holiday season begins.

Summer in a nutshell

August is more then half way through and I am sad to see that summer is coming to a close. School starts for us in 1 week. I can't believe this, and have mixed feelings about sending the kids back to school. Cordin is going to be in the 5th grade. Yes really. Gabbie is going into the 3rd grade, and I am feeling like an old mama. Cordin doesn't want to go to school, which is not really all that surprising, and Gabbie is very excited to go, mostly for seeing her friends, not the actual school part. I have liked having them here. They have mostly been really great. We have had our moments of course, but I will miss them when they are gone for most of the day. Gideon is sad that they will be gone, he really likes having them here to play with. Now he has to go back to having just mom to entertain him. What am I going to do? He really wants to go to school and be a big boy like brother and sissy.

Our summer was pretty tame. We had one really big adventure when we went to Utah for 2 weeks. It was a great trip filled with lots of family and fun. We did the Dino museum and went swimming a couple of times up at the reservoirs. The weather was pretty great the whole time we were there. It was so nice to spend time with Joe's family. The kids loved having cousins to play with and hang out with. I really liked renewing relationships with all of the family. We got home in the middle of July and have been swimming and playing here. Like I said it's been pretty tame. We are going to "end" our summer with a camping trip over labor day weekend. We are so excited to spend some time with my brothers and sisters. Everyone but Brooke and Evan will be there. They are coming in the middle of Sept. I can't wait to have some good quality time with my siblings. It's been awhile since we were together.

                                           Face paint at the museum

                                            Cordins dragon

                                           Chandler's Dragon

                                           Justin's Dragon

                                            Gideon's dino

                                           Gideon and Justin on the dino

 

     Justin Cordin and Chandler on the dino.     

                                                                        

                                           Gideon and a Turkey.

                                            Cordin on a horse.

                                           Gideon on a horse.

                                            Gabbie on a horse.

                                           Brynwen on a horse.

                                            All the kids in jail.

                                           Kids in jail again.
Well, that's been our summer in a nut shell. I'm looking forward to what this school year will bring. I'm sure that it will be filled with lots of surprises. Hopefully they will all be good.

The fun is about to begin!

Well, here it is the end on June. I can't believe that it is already the 29th. I know I say it a lot but where does the time go? We have had another busy month. The kids finished school on the 11th. It has been a challenge to come up with things to do to keep them busy. We finally have some nice weather going on so, we have been able to spend time outside. Gideon is an outdoor fanatic. He loves to be outside. We have finally started to put the swing set together, I can't wait for it to be finished. He will be so excited to have his own park.

We are getting ready for our Utah trip. I am so excited! It is going to be so nice to not have to work for 2 weeks. I can't wait to see family. I really love Joe's family and it will be so nice to spend time with them. The kids can't wait to see all of their cousins. They are thrilled to have instant friends to play with. We have some great activities planned for the trip too. We are going to go to the dinosaur museum, which will be Gideon's first time there. In fact it's his first time to Utah. We are also going to go to one of the water parks they have there. There are many to choose from so it should be lots of fun. I can't wait to see everyone. I will take lots of pictures.

I also get the chance to renew some of my old friendships. It will be nice to see people that I haven't seen in a long time. I love spending time with friends that you can just pick up where you left off and if doesn't feel like any time has past. This is going to be a great trip.

Stories from heaven

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to

Earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there

being so small and helpless?" God replied,

"Your angel will be waiting for you and

will take care of you." The child further inquired,

"But tell me...here in heaven I don't have to

do anything but sing and smile to be happy...

"God said " Your angel will sing for you and

also smile for you, and you will feel

your angels love and be very happy."

Again, the small child asked "And how am I going to

be able to understand when people

talk to me, if I don't know the language?"

God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful

and sweet words you will ever hear,

and with much patience and care,

your angel will teach you how to speak."

The child then said "But what am I

going to do when I want to talk to you?"

God said, "Your angel will place your

hands together, and teach you how to pray."

"Who will protect me?" the baby asked.

God said, "Your angel will defend you, even if

it means risking its own life."

"But I will always be sad cause I will not see you anymore..."

God said, "Your angel will always talk

to you about me, and teach you the

way to come back to me, even though

I will always be next to you."

At that moment, there was much peace in heaven,

but voices from earth could be heard and the child

hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now,

please tell me my angels name!" God replied...

"You will simply call her Mom."

"A mother's nurturing love arouses in children, from their earliest days on earth, an awakening of the memories of love and goodness they experienced in their premortal existence."

-M. Russell Ballard.

Where did May go?

I missed the month of May. There was way to much happening this month. We had Cordin's 10th birthday on May 1st and Gabbie's 8th birthday on the 2nd. We then proceeded to have Cordin's friend party on the 8th which turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. It was the first year in a long time that we let the kids have their own parties and didn't combine them. Gabbie's party was a slumber party on the 14th and 15th. The boys also had the father, sons camp out that same night so it was all girls here for he party. It was a lot of fun.

The 18th was Joe's and my 11th wedding anniversary. We had planned to go out on a date but weren't able to because of some stuff. We ended up going out on Saturday instead. It was nice to just spend alone time with Joe, it doesn't happen all that often. We went and saw Ironman 2. I thought it was really good. It was fun to just sit and hold hands with Joe.

On May 23rd Gabbie was baptised. Most of my siblings were able to come and lots of Gabbie's little friends from church were there. It was such a special day for her. Joe baptised and confirmed her. Bryan gave a beautiful talk on baptism and Ben gave an equally wonderful talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost, Gabbie picked the program. Breanne sang for us while playing her guitar. It was a really neat day all around. We then had everyone that wanted to come over for dinner. I am so proud of Gabbie. She is growing up way to fast for me. She is such a sweetheart and has a very tender soul. I love her and am so happy with the choice she made to be baptised.

On the 27th it was my birthday. It was pretty low key. We went to dinner as a family at the new Mongolian BBQ that just opened here. It was really good. There was lots of yummy food. The kids even behaved themselves, which was kind of shocking. Like I said May was a crazy month for us. I liked it though. It was nice to have lots of things to keep us busy and things to look forward too. Now we get to look forward to our Utah trip to see Joe's family. It should be lots of fun.

Catching Up

It's been awhile since my last post. A few things have happened since then. Where to begin...February we went down to Tricities to go to the temple with my brother Brent. He was taking out his endowments so he could go on his mission. Joe got really sick that weekend and ended up not going so I took all four kids by myself and headed down there. It wasn't so bad and I'm glad that I went to support Brent. Most of the family made it to Bryan and Rachel's. It was nice to see everyone and spend time together. Family is great!

The Tuesday after we got home, I got a call from my sister telling me that grandma Midgley had a stroke on Monday. It was a stroke that affected her vision on the left side of her body as well as her movement on that side. That was hard news to hear. Grandma has always been really healthy and independent, so hearing that her body wasn't working for her was sad. She has been in a rehab hospital for the past month and a half and we have just found out that she has been accepted into a private home care. We went to Seattle for a weekend in March to help Darlene look at some different medical home options and to visit with grandma. There are so many different options out there but we all felt that having a small private home care facility was the way to go with grandma. I think that she will be very well cared for in her new environment and it's really close to my aunt.

On March 22nd we celebrated Brynwen's 1st Birthday. I can't believe that my baby is 1 already. It was pretty low key. Bev, Demarco and Kade came over for dinner and cake. We sang happy birthday to her and she danced while we sang. We gave her her own cake and just let her go to town. It was fun watching her cover herself in chocolate frosting. She got some new clothes for summer and a fun little toy that she loves to play with. Shortly after she turned 1 she took her first unsteady steps. She is still crawling everywhere but loves to walk along the furniture and to walk holding mine or Joe's hands. What a sweet baby girl.

Cordin and Gabbie are getting ready to celebrate their birthdays. May 1st and 2nd are just around the corner. They are pretty excited because these are big birthdays for both of them. Cordin is leaving the single digits and moving up to doubles, I can't believe that he will be 10. Gabbie will be 8 and is so excited to be baptized. I'm not sure when we will be doing that yet, sometime in May. Gideon is happy, most of the time. He loves to be outside playing and this year we decided that we would buy a swing set for him. We did and are now just waiting for all of the boxes to be here so we can go and pick it up from Walmart. I am so excited for it to get here. I can't wait to have a "park" as Gideon says in our backyard. It will be so convenient to have it right outside our door. I know that both he and Brynwen will have lots of fun with it over the next few years.

Catch up on Brynwen...first birthday!

Brynwen is very mobile now. She has been crawling for the past month and a half. She is now pulling herself up and walking along the furniture! UGH! I can't say that I am very excited about this. I'm glad that she is learning and expanding her horizons but, I just want her to stay my baby. I know that this is totally selfish and that I should encourage her but, I really want her to stay little, I want my baby to stay a baby. She is pretty cute when she walks. She's very unsteady on her feet still and wobbles and shakes when she is trying to get anywhere. She loves to follow Gideon around and they play hide and seek all the time. Gideon will pop up from somewhere and she will just laugh and laugh. I should get a video of it because it really is very cute.

                                          At the park

                                          on the slide
                                          

                                          in the stroller


March 22 was Brynwens first birthday.  I can't believe that she is one already.  We did a small family party with Bev and Demarco and Kade.  We had dinner and then did the whole cake and ice cream thing.  She had her own cake and make a huge mess.  It was awesome!  Here is her cake...

                                          Eating rocks.

                                          Beautiful Baby!