Remembering Uncle Joe

Uncle Joe died April 13.  He was 95 years old.  He was my grandmother's brother, but really the only 'grandfather' I knew.  He had some health issues this spring and was in a rehab facility getting therapy to be able to go back to his house (where he has lived by himself since 1988 when his wife died).  He fell out on the way back from his therapy one morning, into the arms of his favorite blond therapist that he affectionately called 'Angie baby'.  For all who knew Uncle Joe, this could not have been a more appropriate way for him to go.  Turns out he had a brain bleed and thankfully did not appear to suffer.  Here is a picture of Uncle Joe from when he came down to Georgia for our wedding in 2002.  Sharp guy.  He was a joy to be around, and I miss him.

I got to go up to Pennsylvania for Uncle Joe's funeral.  It was such a blessing to get to spend that time with my mom, and to see family and friends I hadn't seen in years!

My dad's two sisters drove over for Uncle Joe's funeral.  It was great seeing them, and fun to hear some stories about my dad!  I hadn't seen Aunt Diane since my wedding, and Aunt Nancy since Kate's first birthday when she came down to see us in GA.  From l. to r. me, Mom, Aunt Diane, Aunt Nancy.

We also got to visit with Aunt Sissy (my grandmother's sister).  She has Alzheimer's and lives in assisted living with her husband, Uncle Vincent.  She was doing great when we saw her, although she was very sad about Uncle Joe.  Here we are in their suite.  Nice to see where they are living!

Easter 2009

We were back in Wake Forest for Easter Sunday.  Here is our lovely door-hanger, courtesy of Kate :)  We hung it on our front door, and it reminds me every time I see it that we have a hope that does not disappoint!

Kate and Carter had been waiting so patiently to go through their resurrection eggs that I had made for them.  They obliged me with a picture for the blog before we started opening them :)  These eggs a fun (and free!) way to teach them the easter story and what we are really celebrating.  It's a hands-on visual that walks them through Jesus' last days, his crucifixion, and his resurrection so that they can understand what we are celebrating this weekend!

After a phenomenal service at N. Wake Sunday morning, we went to the Knight's farm for a brunch with the Lyons, Robinsons, Crafts and our friend Brandi.  The Knight's are moving the end of this month so we're trying to see them as much as possible between now and then.  We try to make sure and get a family shot every year on Easter.  Carter wasn't feelin' it though, since it was naptime.  Here are the best ones we got!

Sweet Kate

Little man

Sweet baby boy.  Josh was not very excited about his outfit, particularly since Kate said it looked like he was wearing bloomers :)  He indulged me though.  And doesn't Hudson look sweet?  That baby stage goes by so fast...

Hudson's new thing is standing up.  He will definitely be our early walker.  That's all he wants to do these days!  He hasn't gotten steady enough to let go, but will pull up on anything that is stationary!

This is Nathan Knight, Josh with Carter on his shoulders, and Larry Lyon walking down the road to let Carter look at the cows.  We're sure going to miss all of this when the Knights go up to DC, but we are excited for Restoration Church!  And a new place to go visit them :)

Catherine had a huge black trash bag full of empty plastic eggs.  Kept the kids entertained for a good solid hour.  Who knew?!

I could just eat him up

I love all the seasons, but every year when spring rolls around, I'm always so excited!  It is such a time of renewal with all the beautiful colors of God's creation in bloom.  Here is our house with all the colors.

I've been waiting to see what we have in our yard here, and missing my yard back in Buford.  I spent many hours working in that yard, and am really looking forward to doing that here now!  The azaleas lining the side of the house need major help, so that will be a project for a while.  But each one has at least one flower blooming, so there is hope for them to live, with a little help.  Which is exactly why I love spring, and the fact that we celebrate our Risen Lord and Savior at this particular time of year.  Because through his resurrection, Jesus conquered death so that we could have life eternal if we will put our faith and trust in him. That is the only hope for us to live.  And we can't do it on our own.  Just like my pitiful azaleas, we need help too.  That's the beauty of the Gospel.  Jesus came to save us.  Hallelujah!

Easter in Norcross

We spent the second half of our time in Georgia down in Norcross with my family.  Here are all the kids showing off their best bunny-noses after breakfast one morning.

Kate and Carter playing on the sit-and-spin.  Things are always more fun when done together!

Kate baking cupcakes with Auntie Daria.  She loves helping in the kitchen.

Later, Kate was helping me decorate them after they had cooled.  She was also quality control...wanted to make sure the icing tasted ok! 

Mimi hides eggs around her house for the kids to find.  It's fun to watch the kids enjoy something I used to do as a child.

Hudson was a spectator this year.  Didn't seem to bother him a bit.  He enjoyed hanging out with Daddy.

Checking out their eggs

Daria and Jim

Me and Josh

Mimi and her "honey-bunny" as she affectionately calls Kate.

The kids have been really into Jim Henson's new show "Sid the Science Kid" so they were pretty excited to get magnifying glasses in their baskets.

We took a day to go down to the Atlanta Zoo, along with everyone else in Atlanta it seemed!  We had a great time though.  The weather was great and we all had fun seeing the different animals!

Here's Mommy Panda on the left and the brand-new baby panda on the right.  Definitely the highlight for the kids!

The otters were the highlight for us...love to watch them.

Daria and Jim have been on a Scrabble kick recently, and we got sucked right in.  Pretty much any free window of time, you'd find Josh and Jim playing.  Lots of fun!!  Good to be back in Georgia, as always.  We didn't get to do and see all that we wanted to, but that always leaves more for the next trip!

Easter in Buford

Josh had the week before Easter off so we packed up and headed down to Georgia.  It's crazy to think that we had not been since Christmas...where does the time go?  We went to Buford first.  It was their Spring Break that week too so we were able to catch a quick visit with Josh's sister Kecia and her kids before they were heading down to Panama City for the week.  Glad we could see them, but sad that we missed out on seeing Uncle Ken.

Here's Kate and Aunt Kecia.  Kate was extra happy because she and Nen had just gotten back from the nail salon and she got to have her fingernails and her toes done...what a big girl!  She had flowers on some of them, her special request to have them just like Sam has (Kecia's 17 year old daughter)

Kate and her cousin Will Wilson (Kecia's son).

Kate, Carter and Hudson with Mema and Pop (great-grandparents).  The kids always love seeing them...

It's a tradition with Josh's family to do a big egg hunt every year.  This year we changed it up and did it in Dawsonville at Josh's brother Kevin's house.  Worked out good because Josh's dad hides eggs for all the 'big' kids and had run out of ideas around his yard. :)  The kids got to do their hunt first.  Carter was so little last year, so this was really like his first year to do it.  Didn't take him long!

Hudson got to have his own basket, but didn't find many eggs :)  However, he was completely satisfied with having one egg to play with.

Carter and Campbell in the Diego fort

Kate and Caden had the best time riding on the John Deere tractor.  They rode laps around the house for at least 30 minutes.  They stopped long enough to pose for me, and show off their ring-pops.  They are almost exactly a year apart (both August babies...she's 4 and he's 3) and always have such fun playing together!

Campbell, Cullen and Carter.  When we get together with Kevin and Teri's family, Hudson is definitely the odd-ball of the crew as he's the only kid that doesn't have a 'K' or a 'C' name.

Kevin and Teri Lynn

Kate, Carter and Caden playing 'Elefun' and definitely having fun doing it!

Truly a blessing to be back in Buford for a little while.  We got to see some good friends and enjoyed a nice visit.  Would have been better had Carter not been sick with a stomach bug most of the time we were there, but what do you do?  We made the most of it.  Here's Team Reed with Nen and Pa.  Love them.

Catching up

As I'm sitting down to do this post, I'm reflecting back on the past couple weeks and realizing that we have been way busier than it felt like we were!  It's been fun though!  One thing we have really enjoyed so much about being here in WF is the proximity.  Everything is so close!  Back home in GA, we were so used to having to drive at least 10 minutes to get somewhere, usually closer to 15-20 minutes!  But here it is such a blessing that we can get together with friends spur of the moment because everyone is so close by!

Last week was Rachael and Dan Davis' birthdays (they have exactly the same birthday- how fun for their family!  Same year and everything, think Dan said he's older by about an hour maybe?)  Anyway, we kept Lana for them so they could go out for date-night and celebrate their birthdays together.  Here are Lana and Kate busy painting birthday cards for Rachael and Dan.

My sweet littlest man

Russ and Miranda Bennett were in town last week with their two children.  George and Catherine hosted a dinner one night for us to all come up and visit with the Bennetts.  The weather has been so variable, but was nice enough that night for the kids to eat outside.  From l. to r. Caleb Robinson, Aidan Robinson, Tori Beth Robinson, Bailey Bennett, Kate, and Anna Kate Lyon.

From l. to r. Nathan Knight, Josh, Larry Lyon, George and Russ Bennett.

From l. to r. Stephanie, Andi Knight, Miranda Bennett, me and Catherine.  Such a fun evening!!

We're in that weird season of the year when it is super cold in the mornings and really warm out in the afternoons.  I'm in the midst of switching out the kids' clothes for the warm-weather clothes...that's quite a project with three little ones!  But we're trying to cycle through all our cooler weather favorites that probably won't fit by next year.  Here's Kate in one of my favorites...no small feat to get her to wear it, she is extremely opinionated about her wardrobe choices each day :)

Can't believe how big Carter is getting...he's still my little man though!

Josh is the coolest dad.  Our friends Rob (he's on the guitar) and Emily Lourcey have Rock Band and they were playing it the other day with Kate and Carter on the drums.  My man rocking out to Boston while literally rocking Hudson.  Love him!!

Kate was invited to her friend Josie Henkel's 4th birthday party last weekend.  It was a 'Pinkalicious' party...right up Kate's alley!  Here's the party crew gathered around to read the story 'Pinkalicious'.

Josie's mom Rachel decorated everyone's faces.  Such a smart idea to use washable markers instead of paint!  Much less mess and easy to wash off at the end of the day!

Kate taking her turn with the pinata.  Love the image of my sweet little girl in her party dress and pretty bow whacking this pinata as hard as she could with a baseball bat.  It just makes me smile :)

Kate and Josie...two cuties!

Carter's hair is crazy in the morning...he was just hanging out in the kitchen with me while I was getting breakfast ready.

At the same time that morning, Kate was very busy talking on her (pretend) phone.  She's our little diva!

And seeing her with our old cell phone and sunglasses like that triggered a memory of a similar picture of her from a few years ago...Check out our little diva at 20 months!

And our big news...Hudson is crawling!  He's so proud of himself!  He hasn't quite figured out how to shift into high gear, and he also still stays contained to whatever room he's in at the moment.  We know those days are numbered, so we're just enjoying it while it lasts!!

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