Messages to Maree

Sometimes we all miss Maree and wish we could have her close again so we could express our great love for her.  Since I can't pull her down from Heaven (although I wish I could at times), we decided to send some love up to her.  We all wrote messages or drew pictures on balloons to tell Maree how much we love and miss her.  It can be difficult at times to say what we are feeling, so this gave us all the chance to put some of it into words.  Each one of the kids took special care to make their message just right.

We took all of our balloons out to the cemetary and released them by Maree's grave.  It never gets easier to not have her with us, but moments like this are comforting to help us connect with her and remember what an important part of our family she is.  Maree truely is our angel!  How grateful we are that families are eternal!

"Love you, Maree!!!!!!"

Strawberry Shortcake

Our little Ray loves to read books, and this Strawberry Shortcake book is one of his favorites.  In fact, he has the entire book memorized.  It is the cutest thing to hear him "read" the book.  One night (the week of Halloween) when he had eaten a lot of candy and was super hyper he read the book with me and would do some pages really quiet and some pages really loud - it was hilarious!  Ray is such a fun kid!  :)

Jaymon Turns 5!

Jaymon turned 5 in December and wanted a pirate cake.  I made him this cake, but the ship split in two before the party so I called it a "shipwreck" cake.  Then I did my best to put it back together...

I can't believe this cute little guy is 5!

For Jaymon's party he wanted to go to Pojos with his cousins.  This is Miss Sophie.

 

It is always so fun to open presents!

Jaymon has been asking for a "little violin" for over a year now.  His siblings all have string instruments (with the exception of Ray), so we finally gave in.  It is so cute to see him play.  Someday he will sound good playing too!

Jaymon insisted that we needed a pinata or his party would not be complete, so we did this pinata at home with the family (because I forgot to take it to Pojos).  :)

At least it was a pull-string pinata since we were doing it inside...  
It was a great day!