Nana

I have put off writing about my Nana, for the simple reason that I burst into uncontrollable tears whenever I even mention her name. My last post briefly mentioned a loss my family is going through... we lost my Nana. Her name is Linda Mae, but we have always called her Nana. I grew up living next door to her, seeing her every day of my life, having her be a huge part of my life. My baby is her first Great-Grandchild. I love her dearly. I miss her... there are no words to describe the pain of losing a loved one. I am sure many of you can relate. Even though it is a pain that we all must endure, and a pain that we all can relate to... it is still such a lonely pain. No one can truly comfort you except the one you lost.

She died from a disease called Amyloidosis. It is pretty rare and we did not know that was the underlying problem to many of her health issues over the last year until she had passed away. She had a leaky heart valve which resulted in her needing open heart surgery. She did not do well with that and ended up being on life support for a week. Which eventually needed to be turned off due to blood clots and other negative side effects.

I think I have had such a difficult time with losing her because of how YOUNG she was, and how sudden and unexpected her decline was. If any of you have suffered through having a loved one on life support- I know your pain. That is the worst emotional roller coaster to suffer through. I am thankful for the time I spent with her in life and while she was on life support. I will think of her everyday. I will remember everything she has taught me and I will try to be as great of a person as she was.

I am not at home... so I don't have any current pictures with me. This is how I remember her though. She was a very young Grandma and absolutely gorgeous. Her funeral was extremely sad and difficult for me... but it was of course very beautiful. All of us grand kids sang a song for her (because she always loved us to sing). We sang Josh Groban's song "To Where You Are". I couldn't even sing it... his words bring comfort, yet pain all at the same time. The lyrics are:

Who can say for certain, maybe you're still here.

I feel you all around me, your memories so clear.

Deep in the stillness, I can hear you speak.

You're still an inspiration, can it be that you are my forever love?

And you are watching over me from up above?

Fly me up to where you are, beyond the distant star I wish upon tonight to see you smile.

If only for a while to know you're there.

A breath away is not far to where you are.

Are you gently sleeping here inside my dream?

And isn't faith believing all power can't be seen?

As my heart holds you, just one beat away.

I cherish all you gave me, everyday.

And I believe that angels breath.

And that love will live on and never leave.

I know you're there.

A breath away is not far, to where you are.

I love you sweet Nana. I miss your more than I can say. I give William kisses from you every night, just like I promised. I wear my bird necklace almost every day and it makes me think of you. (I bought my Nana and I matching gold necklaces with birds on a wire... we both love birds) I will continue to miss you the rest of my life and I can't wait to see you again. I love you.

Growing Up

I can't believe how grown up my baby is! I am scared to think about how fast time will go when I realize how fast this first year has gone. Its hard to believe that he was a tiny newborn and now he is crawling, almost walking, eating normal food, has teeth and can talk a little too! So crazy...

Dubs loves to play in his tub... even if there is no water in it. And he likes to enjoy his bottle on the go now..

When we visit Gammy down in Orem... the french doors in the living room are his favorite. He has learned that if he squishes his face against the glass, he will get the entire room laughing. He sure does love to make everyone laugh. 

A couple weeks ago we took Dubs out for his FIRST SWIM. We went to an indoor pool at my Brother and Sister-in-Laws house and man it was SO fun. He absolutely loved it and would have stayed all night if I would have allowed. I am glad he likes water (for now)... cause I have always loved water and Lake Powell and the pool and all that fun summer stuff. Scott is not a big fan of all that.

This is the only picture I have of him where you can actually see his teeth!! They cut through in March. He just wont ever let anyone pull his lip down to take a picture. His top teeth are just about through as well. He is the cutest. That is all.

Easter

I logged in to catch up on my blogging.... and there is a whole new blogger set up that I do NOT know how to do yet. So my photos are all out of order... but we will continue on anyway :)

Easter was a lot of fun this year. We had an Easter Egg Hunt at the Halladays. Here is Dubs with his daddy getting ready to head out and hunt! :)

We also visited the family down in Orem. Here is Dubs chillin' on his Great-Papa's chair. Doesn't he look so much older than a 10 month old??

My parents gave William lots of treats (his favorite) and lots of cute shirts... including a Star Wars, Superman, Batman and much more!! He looks so cute in his shirts.

Here he is reading his favorite book from us, called "Peek a Who?". It is such a great book. I highly recommend it if you have small children. For some reason, he just loves it.

Here is his Easter basket from us. It's "Avengers" and we filled it with all sorts of books, baby sock monkey, monkey neck pillow for the car, an Easter tie and much more!! I think he liked it :)

 The spoiling never stops!!! Here is a portion of his Easter basket from his Grandma Halladay. She went ABOVE and BEYOND as per usual!!! She really spoils all the kids (and us too!!). He got all sorts of toys and treats and books. He just loves it all!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

9 months

My baby is almost 10 months old now... but I am slow and never posted his 9 month old pictures. He is such a big boy!! He did drop from being in the 83% to being in the 60% for his weight and height. But he is SOOOO smart and happy and just moving right along. He has been crawling since he was 6 months old, and now he can stand on his own and take up to 3 steps on his own. I am blown away by how fast he learns.

I do not deserve this perfect baby. I am so glad that he is mine!!

He is ALWAYS playing with my glasses and trying to take them off of my face and put them on his. So he was pretty excited to play with Aunt Bri's fake glasses that look a lot like mommys.

I am starting to plan his big 1st birthday party. I am thinking of having a sock monkey theme. He LOVES Sock Monkey. It is between that or Superhero. Hm.... Any suggestions?

Luck O' the Irish

We normally don't do anything for St. Patrick's Day... I think the most we have ever done is go out to dinner at MacCool's (an Irish Pub in Salt Lake). However, since we have William- I want to make all holidays extra special. So for St. Patrick's Day we all wore something GREEN...

He is DEFINITELY my Lucky Charm

I also made us a traditional Irish dinner: Corned Beef and Cabbage! I purchased the all ready seasoned Corned Beef from an amazing butcher shop, Snyder's. All I did was put the corned beef in a crock pot, added cut-up parsnips and carrots, frozen pearl onions and 3 cups of water. I cooked it on high for 4 hours. After the 4 hours, I added 6 wedges of cabbage and let it cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes more...

It was seriously the BEST corned beef and cabbage I have ever had. William even liked it!!! His favorite was the cabbage and carrots.

I also made some traditional Irish Soda Bread. Our friend Eric gave us his recipe. All it contains is flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. You knead it for one minute and form it into a flat circle, cut a deep 'X' in the middle and bake it on 375 for 45 minutes. SOOOOO yummy!

I am NO photographer... but here is our meal!! It was SO good. We are definitely doing this EVERY St. Patrick's Day.. and maybe even more often than that :)

For dessert I made Green Velvet Cupcakes (found the recipe on Pinterest). I topped them off with an Irish Cream Frosting (also found on Pinterest AND not pictured). They were awesome as well!!!

Our little family!! I had a fun and festive day with my favorite boys. I am glad they enjoyed the food and we all had a great day. Hope everyone had a fun St. Patrick's Day!

Chinese New Year

Every year Scott's family goes to a Chinese New Year celebration at Joy Luck in Sandy. It is sooo much fun. There is always good food, good entertainment and of course great company. They even have a lion dance around the restaurant with some awesome drums! Some of the kids are scared...but the others will "feed" the lion money in red envelopes. Here comes the lion to our table...

Scott and Dubs are testing the waters.... he wasn't scared at all!!

I couldn't get a good shot of him feeding the Lion... but he did. Look at my cute boys!

I just love those rosy cheeks!!! They are ALWAYS rosy. We had such a great time celebrating the Chinese New Year!!

Our Days of Birth

We have just about finished celebrating our birthdays. We tend to celebrate all month long... First up is Scott's birthday: Scott with the cake I made him.

I can't take credit for this cake... I found it off of Pinterest (of course!!) and here is the blog that I copied: http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2011/09/mint-chocolate-chip-cake.html

This frosting is PERFECT for Scott. Mint Chocolate Chip is his all time favorite ice cream. I only made her frosting recipe and of course followed her decorating pattern :) Scott's cake is marble though. I thought it turned out pretty well. I am not so much a baker as I am just a cook. I would much rather cook a dinner meal than cakes and cookies. BUT here is the end result:

Scott wanted car parts for his birthday, which seems to be the growing trend for birthdays... I also surprised him with a coin that he collects and some earmuffs for the trax stop! Lots of family came over to celebrate and gave such generous gifts as well. Here is the birthday boy opening gifts.

And Dubs with his Aunt Boots... he is always pretty excited to hang out with his favorite girls.

My birthday was next! (Just a few days after Scott's). This sounds so lame but all I wanted for my birthday was to watch the Bachelor in peace. Ha ha. So Scott made us a spaghetti casserole for dinner and a tres leches birthday cake! They were SUPER delicious. My family came over and watched the bachelor with me. It was lots of fun.

Scott spoiled me (as per usual!). He gave me every season of Parks and Recreation on DVD, as well as The Office Season 7. He let me get my hair done- and I LOVE it. My family also spoiled me with their generous gifts. Scott found these super cute slippers... they are basically the definition of Elise: Gray, Purple, Green and BIRDS:

They are from Fossil and I love them.

Thanks to everyone who made our birthdays so special!! Our families are the best and really do spoil us!! Happy Birthday to my man. I hope you had a great day.