This is my grandpa. I was a grandpa's girl, so when he passed away in February, I took it pretty hard. I adored him. I am a lot like him. I felt a great peace with his passing, but it was still very hard for me. 

I still think of him as alive, and then have to remind myself that he left months ago to be with the Lord, my grandma and my aunt. 

He adored my grandma, that has been obvious to me my entire life. When she passed away last fall, I knew that he would follow her soon, with a broken heart. He just wanted to be with her, I know that. 

My grandpa never met a stranger. In fact, he met friends in the craziest, most obscure circumstances. 

I remember visiting Minnesota when I was little, year after year. We would walk to McDonalds for breakfast and just about everyone in that restaurant knew him. It was his thing. 

My grandpa was strong-willed, faithful, loving, loyal, captivating and honest. I loved him very much.

This is one of my favorite memories with my grandpa, reading Bernstein Bears, Bears in the Night. He was so animated and I loved it. I bought this book for Carly. I only wish that I would have thought to have him read it to her. 

I inherited many of his traits, and for that I am grateful because he was a great man. 

I hope that I am half as good to Freddy as he was to my grandma. 

Minnesota

Alright. It has been long enough. I need to face the months of non-blogging and just do it! So, let's start with February. 

Carly, my sisters, brother and I flew to Minnesota (my parents drove) for my grandfather's funeral. More about him in my next post. 

Carly's hat and mitten finally got put to use! Burr...It was cold there!

We made it to the Mall of America and even rode a ride!

Carly was less than thrilled. Freddy may not be able to count on her as his roller coaster buddy when she grows up.

She got a bed all to herself. This time she didn't even fall out!

Mickey Mouse pancakes at Perkins, of course. I loved chocolate chip pancakes when I was little, so I ordered them for her. She didn't inhale them like I used to, even in the shape of her favorite cartoon character.

Despite the circumstances, we had some good family time. I always loved to see my uncle and cousins.  

Elmo Live

Back in February...ish...Some sweet friends of ours gave us tickets to Elmo Live.

So we invited Cheryl and Davis along.

We walked in just as the show was starting and the noise of it all really had Carly freaked out. She kept telling me that she didn't want to go in. Davis, on the other hand, had no problems at all. Being the good mom that I am, I just picked her up and carried her to her seat where she promptly played the "I pee" card. Dangit! Nothing you can do about that one, so we were off to the bathroom where I also gave her a pep talk.

She wasn't sold on the idea of going back in, but I somehow tricked her into it. She eventually got caught up in the show and really enjoyed it. Except for when Elmo was off stage. She didn't like that at all.

Next up: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live.

T-Tiny smiles for the camera

I have discovered something wonderful. I have discovered how to upload entire blogs worth of pictures from Picasa in a matter of seconds. No more adding them one by one and waiting MINUTES for them to upload. It is GLORIOUS. I was able to upload a bunch of pictures on to blogs and save them as drafts so that, when I found time, I could just type out the commentary and hit publish.

Seriously, this is greatness. Now that I have discovered this shortcut, I won't procrastinate on blogging just because it is a whip to upload pictures.

Anyway...As I was looking through my 25 blog post drafts, I found this. This unpublished post that is full of totally cute pictures of our t-tiny. She must have been around 7 months old, I am guessing.

So, enjoy this flashback to cuteness.

Bye-Bye Nursery

As Carly's third birthday creeped closer and closer, I decided it was time to say goodbye to the nursery. And then I realized that I never did take any pictures of the...nursery...Wow, it seems weird to call it that now. I guess because it is hard to remember her as a newborn, a baby.

Anyway...Here are some of the "nursery" that was slowly turning into a big girl room - see the big girl toys?

The stripes are gone now and I thought that it would be more difficult (emotionally) to paint over them than it was.

I have a few more things that I would like to do to her big girl room, but once I do, I PROMISE to post pictures. I promise.

Good Morning, Birthday Girl!

I love Pinterest. I "pin" ideas, recipes and crafts and then forget about most of them. But not this one.

The night before Carly's birthday (after she was asleep), we hung streamers on the outside of her bedroom door...

...and covered her floor in balloons.

Lola didn't much care for the balloons, but...

...Carly loved it!

What a fun start to a special day! Thank you, Pinterest!

Happy birthday (March 13) to my sweet, sassy, smart, receptive, loving, heart-warming THREE YEAR OLD, Carly!

Carly's Birthday Weekend

We made Carly's THIRD (yikes! when did that happen?!) birthday weekend extra special.

We ventured out to Grapevine Mills Mall and she rode the carousel. She liked it okay as long as daddy was right by her side, holding tight.

Then we did something that I may come to regret- we took her to Build a Bear (with a coupon, of course). I am hoping that I didn't start a new addiction. But, hey! Better Build a Bear than American Girl, right?

We let her pick out her teddy bear and all of the clothese.

She picked out a giggle to put inside. The bear stuffer forgot to add it, so poor Harper had to have surgery before she was even 5 minutes old.

Her favorite part was the bath. Harper had quite a few of those while we were there.

She even got to ride one of those silly...games?...rides!...in the middle of the mall. She was semi-thrilled.

And when we got home she planted the strawberry plant that bought her - because she can eat her weight in berries - especially strawberries and blueberries.

messy spaghetti

When Carly eats spaghetti, it's not just her that gets messy...

...even Lola needs a bath on spaghetti night.

Carly Cuteness

Carly is stinkin' cute. And I know that isn't just me that thinks so.

She did some cute things while I was on a blogging hiatus.

She LOVES to clean the fridge. She asks me to spray it with the cleaning foam and she goes to town for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. If only she were interested in doing floors, windows, base boards, fans...

And she finger paints with her food (berries mostly). Should this be cute to me?