Grandpa Wolf

After a short battle with lung cancer, my grandpa (my mom's dad) passed away a month ago this week. He was not only an incredible man & grandpa, but my last grandparent. We lived in the same town growing up and for quite a while, just around the block. In my small town, we could walk to my grandparents' house and did that often. I wanted to blog about him at the time, but feared I wouldn't portray him as I'd like. I still don't have all the words, but here are some great things about my grandpa.

He gave me a nickname that (sometimes unfortunately) has stuck. Most of my family & many family friends still refer to me as..."Bootie". My grandpa used to sing, "Bootie go to night, night" and the nickname stuck. You can see why I say unfortunately, although I do love being the grandchild singled out. :)

He loved to travel and some of my greatest childhood memories involve vacations with my grandparents. We always traveled to Florida, via my grandparents' van, playing games on the long drives. My first encounter with the ocean was with him, as well as my first trip to Disney World and several other amusement parks. When I get a copy, I'll post a poem he wrote about his many travels.

He was an giver, encourager and "filler". My aunt read a children's book at his funeral about filling people's buckets. My grandpa did that in all aspects of his life. He loved his family & friends unconditionally and lifted people up just with his presence.

He was a joke-teller. Every time we saw him, he'd have a new joke. He loved to make people laugh!

He was always genuinely excited to hear from me or see me when we visited. After I had children, he always wanted to see them, wanted to know how they were, wanted to see us more.

He was an incredible Christian man and I am thankful I had him as an example in my life. He lived an incredibly full life, to a grand 87 years old. Though I'm still sad that he's gone (and even caught myself about to ask my Dad just last night on the phone how Grandpa was doing), I know he is with His Savior now as well as being reconciled with my grandma, mom and many other relatives & friends.

Playing Catch Up

Well, I have obviously not blogged in some time. I've been very lazy about it. So, I'm gonna do a quick catch-up. Here are some highlights...

Rory had her 2nd birthday, with minimal fanfare. The four of us celebrated at home with dinner, cupcakes & presents.





Cami got to use her golf clubs at the driving range with Devon for the first time. A future Annika Sorenstam?




The four of us took a week-long vacation to Southern California. We spent four nights in San Diego at an awesome little hotel on a marina. Seriously, on the marina. If we had jumped off our balcony, we would have been in the water. We went to Sea World, the zoo, and the beach as well as toured other parts of San Diego, ate some great food, including some places highlighted on Guy Fieri's, "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives". The next three nights were spent in San Clemente, a gorgeous beach town about an hour north of San Diego. My best friend & roommate from college lives there along with her husband & 3-month old baby boy. We had such a great time visitnig with them, eating good food (again) and just relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous (although a little cool at times) weather and scenery.

Easter

We had a busy Easter weekend. We were able to take the kids to Eggzzstravaganza on Friday night for a "sneak preview" with other staff & volunteer kids that were not able to participate on Saturday. The girls had a great time checking out all the rooms. My friend, Tricia, was the creative genius behind it and it was incredible! There was a glow-in-the dark mininature golf room, an obstacle course, a Big 12 Shootout and Baby Nascar (toddler roller coasters) to name a few. The girls especially enjoyed the Baby Nascar room. Rory would have stayed in there the whole time had there not been other kids wanting a turn.

Saturday, the girls & Devon spent the day in Ashland working on his dad's roof (well, just Devon) while I spent the day at church helping at Eggzzstravaganza and Kidcrest. I was incredibly moved by the Kidcrest service. We have amazing volunteers back there who consistently show their heart for Jesus through their words and actions.

Sunday morning, the girls enjoyed their Easter baskets, but I'm proud to say that Cami knows that "God's Son" is the answer to this question: "What is Easter really about?" She was also able to tell me about the story book she made with pictures of the Last Supper, the cross & the empty tomb. Yeah!




Of course, we never got a picture of them together. We were running late before church and Cami wouldn't cooperate. Then after church when she would, Rory had chocolate on her dress. :)

Church Talk

Cameron attended "big" church this weekend for one service and Devon wrote down the comments she made during the service:

I like that water thing when they put their heads in.

Jesus helps people when they are hurting.

I think I need to sit down because I could fall down.

It's not balanced. It's supposed to be balanced.

It's taking a long time to get it balanced.

(The last 2 are in reference to the scale Pieter used as a visual).

A Really Big Sister

Another Cami story...

I was being lazy the other night and said, "Who wants to put Rory to bed?" and surprisingly the response came from Cami, "I will." She took Rory into their room, told her to get in bed, "read" her a book, turned out the light and shut the door. We didn't hear a peep from Rory the rest of the night when we typically hear some small cries of resistance.

Bible Stories

Since moving up to the 4 and 5-year-old class at church, Cami has been loving Kidcrest even more (if that's possible)! She doesn't always tell us what she has learned, but today was a special treat, possibly because she heard it three times this weekend since Devon & I both worked all services.

Me: What was your lesson about today?

Cami: Well, our story was about a father and he had two sons. One son took all of his dad's money and then he spent it all. He fed some pigs and then he was going to eat their mud. Yuck! He went home and his father threw a big party to celebrate.

Me: That's a great story. Thanks for telling me!

Cami: Our Bible verse is(as she does the actions she was taught), "The son wants to tell others about the Father." Luke 10:22

She remembered the entire verse by herself along with the reference! I'm so proud, which is of course why I'm bragging about her on the blog.

Princess & Pirate Party

Friday night we celebrated Cami's birthday by having a Princess (and pirate) party at our house. We had several of Cami's friends over...Lakota, Ava, Noah & Taylor, and Braeden & Sophia, as well as their parents. The girls dressed up in princess attire, while the boys had sword fights. We made chili for the adults and pizza for the kids and ice cream cake to top it all off!


Before the party


Dressing up


Yummy cake


Princess Ava


Princesses Lakota & Cami dancing

Happy Birthday, Cameron!

My firstborn turns four today! Here are four things I love about her. (Thanks for the idea to my friend over at Life Unscripted).

1. Her incredibly expressive personality
2. Her ever-growing vocabulary
3. The way she "protects" her little sister
4. When she unexpectedly hugs me and tells me she loves me!

Happy Birthday, Cameron Jo!

The Golden Globes

As much as I love sports and sporting events, I also enjoy the "girly" things, like Awards shows. The Golden Globes are typically a really fun event because they're a bit more casual. Well, maybe casual's not the right word. I mean everyone is still decked out and fixed up (maybe a LITTLE much on the hair, Drew!) so maybe off-the-cuff is better. They tend to have an "anything goes" feel versus the more serious Oscars. Plus, they honor both television AND movies!

Last night's Globes didn't disappoint in that area, although I was concerned the camera crew or director were on crack at one point. Not the best I've seen technically. I digress, though...

Some things I noted...
First of all, Heath Ledger's win for his performance in The Dark Knight. I thought his nomination was definitely deserved and MAYBE he won because of his untimely death, but he won! The director of The Dark Knight accepted the award and gave a beautiful speech on Heath's behalf. It was a very heartfelt moment.

I was incredibly excited for Kate Winslet's not one, but TWO wins, although her first speech was rather boring. Do you have to mention EVERYONE's name? Her 2nd go-round, she was even more emotional and incredibly sincere, giving love to Leo and her director husband, Sam. I saw tears in Leo's eyes!

I also loved the real emotion from winner Sally Hawkins. She was sincerely grateful.

It was fun seeing Steven Spielberg awarded just because of the video montage of movies he's been involved in. Funny thing...during most of Spielberg's speech, I was wondering why they were showing a beaming Drew Barrymore so much. I kept asking myself what movie of his she'd been in. I kept picturing her as an adult and couldn't place it. Finally, it hit me, oh yes, ET! Duh!

The ad libbing from many presenters made for lots of laughs! Don Cheadle making fun of Brad Pitt being dumb in "Burn After Reading", Colin Farrell making a reference to his former "habit", Tracy Morgan's acceptance speech for 30 Rock's win and everything Ricky Gervais said.

As always, cable shows and movies I don't watch or haven't seen won, but it always makes me want to see them and I've actually HEARD of most of the nominees this year. I'm hoping to see Slumdog Millionaire soon! I'd already heard it was excellent and apparently it was rightly rewarded by taking home four Globes.

As for the fashion, most everyone looked incredible. I loved January Jones, Anne Hathaway, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate & Amanda Seyfried to name a few. As for the men, gotta love them in tuxes! Bruce Springsteen looked incredible and Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Leonardo Dicaprio all looked very handsome and classic. I even loved Ashton Kutcher in all black! However, I agree with the writer at E! who picked Johnny Depp as Hottest Presenter and said, "he seemed like he just woke up from some sexy dream, and because Glenn Close looked like an excited schoolgirl when he came onstage. Trust us, it ain't easy to get Close to squeal."

Birthday Wishes for My Best Friend

Happy Birthday to my best friend and the love of my life, my husband. Devon celebrated his 32nd birthday yesterday by having the day off! Lucky for me and the girls, I always cherish and relish when he is home with us. We had an excellent breakfast at Cracker Barrel, followed by a leisurely day at home and then dinner at Chevy's. Two times in a restaurant with the kids yesterday was surely a feat, but they really did a great job. One comment from a friend, "You're twice the age of someone getting their license this year." Nice. I laughed, of course, but really I'm not too far behind.

Happy Birthday, my love! I look forward to many more birthday celebrations together!

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas, celebrating last weekend with Devon's family in Ashland, Christmas Eve with my extended family and Christmas Day with my immediate family. The girls cleaned up on gifts as did Devon and I.

With my extended family, the kids exchange names for gifts, but they also receive gifts from my aunts and cousins. I thought Cami would be very gracious because she had been awesome the Saturday before with Devon's family, enjoying the gifts she opened and enjoying watching others open theirs. However, after one of the first gifts she opened (an incredibly cute puffy vest with a shirt to go underneath), it was not "Thank you" that came out of her mouth, but "I didn't want new CLOTHES!" Oh, to experience being unable to keep your child from saying what you don't want them to say. (Did you get that?) After a couple more not so gracious comments, she was sent to time-out for a bit, to come back in a much better mood and enjoy the Christmas festivities AND all the gifts she received.

Oddly enough, Rory didn't have much interest in opening the gifts until she caught a glimpse of what was under the paper. Her favorite toy by far...Handy Manny's Talking Toolbox. It kept her attention FAR longer than I've ever seen a 20-month-old's attention captured.

Christmas morning began with the traditional playing of Rich Mullin's, "You Gotta Get Up", followed by several hours of present-opening, a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs & pancakes cooked on Devon's new griddle and relaxing and playing games.

Here are a few pictures...


Trying to get a picture of Cami in her Christmas dress



Rory in her Christmas dress




Cami loved her princess dress-up clothes and modeled each of them within 10 minutes.




Rory's other favorite gift...Elmo Live!

A Few Pictures...

I've obviously been really bad about blogging lately and I still don't have a lot to say at the moment, but here are some pictures.

Thanksgiving in Iowa...


Cami "driving" the RV...


Rory channeling Harry Potter...


Cami's awesome gingerbread house...


The girls in front of our tree...

Halloween

The girls had a great time dressing up as Jasmine & a tiger! We trick-or-treated at Hy-Vee, at Devon's family in Ashland, the fire station near our house, then ended up at our friends, the Rau's, where Cami got to help pass out candy to other kids in the neighborhood.





Rory didn't really like wearing the hood as you can see.

Election Day

Finally, Election Day is here! I'm not what you would call a politically savvy woman. I do try to be as informed as I need to be on the candidates and issues of which I am voting, but I admit, most of my political knowledge comes from "The West Wing" (the TV show, not the actual area in the White House). However, I love voting! I'm incredibly grateful I live in a country where I have the freedom to do so.

I was excited to take my kids with me, although Cami told the lady volunteering at the electronic ballot who "she" was voting for. Nothing's a secret when you have a 3year old.

As an added bonus, I enjoyed a free cup of coffee from Starbucks just for voting...I love America!

First Haircut

Rory got her first haircut last week. She did great and sat very still! Her hair has grown much quicker than Cami's did. Cami didn't get her first real haircut until after she turned 2.

Before...her bangs were really long.



After (I think she was posing)

Homecoming

We took the girls to the Mizzou Homecoming parade Saturday morning and they loved seeing the floats, bands and of course, grabbing the candy off the streets. It was a pretty cold morning, but they didn't seem to mind at all.





Later, we had fun tailgating and watching the Tiger football team destroy the Colorado Buffaloes. So glad to get a win again and in such dominant fashion!