Remembering

What do you do when you don't have any roots where you are living on Memorial Day? We were excited to see that our village had a small parade in honor of the soldiers that have died. We went to that and felt it was a moving experience. Along with honoring the soldier, I had my grandparents and other family in my thoughts. We had a neat day that really had the spirit of remembering in it.

We went for a walk through a nature preserve as well.  These folks are my joy.  I sure love them, even if they are a bit crazy.  I loved that they wore matching shirts, even Rebecca's is a super-hero (Word Girl).

Here we are watching for the parade.  It almost looks as though the children are saluting the soldiers; however, it is just the sun in our eyes.

We are thankful to all those who have paved the way to helping us have the life and freedom we enjoy.  We truly are bless.

Thoughts on Mormon Funerals

My Grandmother passed away almost two weeks ago, and she was the last of my grandparents to pass. I have had an interesting mix of emotions these past weeks and I have gone through this process. It may be strange to some that I would feel happy at my Grandma's passing, but if they understood why then it is not so strange. Understanding what we believe happens to a person after they die is a major part of this. (Here's a link to explain the Heavenly Father's plan for us)

 My Grandma became a widow about 20 years ago.  She and my Grandpa were beautiful sweethearts.  I always knew they loved each other and we all ached for her that she was left without her best friend to be a companion with her for the rest of her life.  Through this great trial, there is also a blessing, because of this great loneliness, she was able to spend a lot more time staying with her children and grandchildren.

I loved having Grandma live at our house during my high school years.  She would say all those phrases that will stick in my mind for the rest of my life.  She woke every morning so thankful to be in such a beautiful sunny place.  She was always interested in what I had planned for the day.  She would sit and play happy, marching songs on the piano for hours at a time.  Other times she would sit quietly and crochet baby blanket for all her great-grandchildren.  I loved listening to her tell the story of how hard it was to be short and how the custodian would curse as he moved the block of wood she had under her feet to help her in penmanship.  I loved how she would start tap dancing through our kitchen.  She was always willing to sing and dance with me.  My sister came home from a trip with a coconut bra as a souvenir and we were all laughing and trying it on as we did the hula around the room.  Grandma came in and to our surprise she put the bra on too and started dancing around.

 

Grandma was always ready to join in and have fun with us.  I love her so much, and she has become the real Grandma in my life.  I am so thankful for her love and patients and endurance.  She is truly my friend.  I love her so much.

 

Empty Eggs

What started as empty eggs became a hunt around the house for the meaning of Easter!

In case you don't want to try to read the [long] narrative, here are the scriptures we used:

1. Carpenter's Son, Matt. 13:55
2. Lamb of God, John 1:29
3. Bread of Life, John 6:35
4. True Vine, John 15:1, 5
5. Light of the World, John 8:12
6. Messenger of the Covenant, Malachi 3:1

Egg Decorating
Here are some of the decorated eggs: (l-r, t-b: David, Benjamin, Rebecca, Maryann)



Here is an expanded view of Maryann's egg:



Easter Morning
Each of the baskets has a single, empty egg (empty like the tomb on resurrection morning).



The children were understandably confused.



The envelope had a scripture pointing to a reference about people who were also confused and thought Christ was only the Carpenter's Son, Matt. 13:55.



To the Garage!



Another envelope had a scripture referring to Christ as the Lamb of God, John 1:29.



To the stuffed lambs on Benji's bed!



This one had a scripture reference to Christ as the Bread of Life, John 6:35.

To the kitchen!



This one had a reference to the True Vine, John 15:1, 5



To the Florida room!



Another scripture pointing us to the Light of the World, John 8:12.




To the only light that was on in the house!



The reference of Christ as Messenger of the Covenant (Malachi 3:1) was prefaced with a brief description of the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and comparing the pressed olives to the strain Christ felt while suffering.

To the mailbox!



Where we found cans of olives.



Which everyone loved.



So what started out as a single, empty egg, became baskets overflowing with great gifts.

And we remembered that Easter is more than candy, too.

The Wonder of Walking

Here is our little one-yr-old walking like a pro (with a bit of encouragement):

Learning Something New

The delicious orange blossoms:

Happy birthday!

This is a time of learning. It seems we are always learning something new. When you are one you are learning how to walk. When you are three you are learning how to spell your name. And the older you get you just keep on learning: to make paper airplanes, what a fresh coconut tastes like (and the funny things you can do with the shell...), how to make slime, etc.

Enjoying a cuddle session.

Hello, hello, hello?

Walking is fun!

Mad science and mucky slime.

Now a Wolf!

Life in Paradise

What do we do in Florida? How do we spend out time? Well, here is a long post to show just what we spend our time doing. Sometimes we have exciting events to go to and do, other times we just go day to day doing tasks (which can be fun in its own way, like planting fruit trees).

Our Valencia Orange tree, and Mango is pictured in the background as well.

Teddy, enjoying the scene from our bench as the children play all around him.

Just what can you do with a Florida Room? We have made it into an extra play room. The children love playing out there. We also have story-time in the evening by the Christmas lights occasionally.

The school sent home information about "Saturday Night Lights" at the Equestrian Park because they were having a booth of a silent auction. They also gave everyone a free parking pass. We decided we would attend just to see what this was all about. Wow, was it fun! Everything was free and the children were able to feel like they were at a fair!

We were able to watch horse jumping.

David loved this rock wall!

Rebecca loved just hanging from the rope, and I think David like dropping the most as well.

They had two ponies giving rides to all the children. I think our children rode at least three times each!

They walked the horses around this large courtyard.

The smiles say it all!

This was not the first ride for Benjamin, and may I say his first reaction was the best! After he got off the horse the first time he was giggling with excitement that HE rode a horse all by himself!

There was even a reptile booth where the children could hold a Bearded Dragon.

It loved Rebecca the most, and even looked like it was going to sleep.

For Presidents Day we went on a "hike" to see the wilderness that is near us. We were on a mission to see how many alligators we could find. We ended up spotting six! It was eerie thinking of how quickly they disappeared under the water... We kept wondering whether there was one right next to us in the water and we just couldn't see it... We had heard that others had seen hundreds previously, so I am sure there were more that were unseen!

Spotting our first 'gator!
This one was farther away than the others in the water by the rode.

Bit by bit this life is turning into home, and we love it!

Baptism and Family

Our eldest son was just baptized, and it was such a wonderful experience. He is such a good boy and a good example to those around him. We were very thankful that both sets of grandparents were able to join us and cousins too! We felt so loved that even many of our friends came to support David as well.

One friend was so surprised that a father was able to baptize his own son. This never crossed my mind that it could be any other way, but now I am filled with gratitude that Heavenly Father has give all worthy men the opportunity to hold the priesthood which means that a father may baptize his own children and bless his own family.


On Sunday we had David confirmed a member of the church and he received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Another blessing of being baptized is having this gift of the companionship of the Holy Ghost always with us to help guide us through life.

I am afraid David wasn't feeling too happy here because he knew his cousins would be leaving soon.

Later, on Saturday, we took our family to play at the beach. For some it was the first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean! What a fun time they had, even with the stormy weather.

Two beautiful cousins getting to ride to the beach together!

Thanks to all those who were able to come, and to those who wanted to come but couldn't. We love you!