11 months old and all of may...

my grandma mell slade died at the end of april, so at the beginning of may we had the funeral... or non funeral... she had a big list of requirements for when she died. she didn't want a funeral., just a musical extravaganza and she only wanted family to attend.  she made each of her children sign this piece of paper saying they would follow her wishes.  each family had a Representative or group sing a number.   i sang with my dad and jack and i also sang where can i turn for peace alone.  emily ended up having a terrible cold and couldn't sing.  for the closing song we sang america the beautiful and i was leading everyone from the front and bawled through the whole thing.  nothing better than having a good ugly cry in front of a group of people.. luckily most of them were crying as well.. the night before the funeral we had the chance to look around the house and see if there was anything we wanted.  i ended up taking a temple dress.  my grandma was tiny and short with tiny shoulders but luckily still my size.  i was also able to have one of my grandmas temple name tags and my grandpa sealer name tag which is really awesome.  i believe i was the last person he sealed in the temple.  we also found these awesome clothes of grandmas including matching outfits... and yes emily and i tried them on and then took them home... we also found a box of grandpas war memorabilia... and it had some really neat things in it... including a nazi arm band and uniform patch.  his plane was shot down and he had spent some time hiding behind enemy lines.. so it was crazy to see this in his box...

after the funeral we went out to the veterans cemetery to have her placed with grandpa.  it was quite the experience.... first the lady told us we may want to drive over as its a far walk... and it ended up being a hilariously close walk... my dad gave a very nice dedicatory prayer... after which we placed flowers along the sides of the casket... and then the lady informed us this part was over.  they lowered her body and told us they would now fill in the grave... they gave us no time at all before they started dumping the dirt back in.... hahhaa we were trying to take a big family picture all while the dump truck us unloading on grandma... it was bizarre... and something we all laughed about later.  after this we went back to grandma's for an awesome luncheon.  i hadn't seen some of my slade cousins in such a long time and it was great to spend the afternoon there with them. 

amanda was a champ and helped watch daniel for a large part of the afternoon.

my grandma was such a sweet grandma.  my favorite memories of her are in her big kitchen cooking amazing meals and cookies.... and pies.  she also had a drawer in that kitchen full of all these brown medicine bottles we called grandma's "magic juice"  now i know they are essential oils of sorts but back then... they just made us feel better.  she was an incredible seamstress.   made all sorts of things including a lot of her clothes and clothes for her kids.  she was a very loving wife.  she and grandpa truly loved each other and were sweethearts all their married life.  its sad that she was my last living grand parent... i'm glad she is back with grandpa and happy in heaven.  

the next week we found out we were pregnant.  and sadly that next sunday lost it.  it was such a short pregnancy that i wasn't devastated... or i didn't have a chance to get completely excited to be having another baby, but it happened on mothers day so it made it all the harder.  my awesome husband was so kind and loving to me the whole rest of the week as we dealt with the loss.  we did have a very nice afternoon at a bbqs at my moms.  daniel wouldnt leave his dad alone the whole time.. and david devoured some doughnuts and made a huge mess... and ate some plant dirt...

plant dirt not doughnut

my favorite sara came to town for a day and needed some help getting some retainers so we had her meet us at chris office... i was so excited to see her!!! its been way to long and she lives in okinawa.  short quick visit but so awesome still....

we also had daniel sit in the chair so we could sneak in a quick checkup for him... looks good!

we always have fun when cousin andy hangs out with us.... he's a happy little guys and he and david love to play together :)  

my friend was taking her preschool class on a fieldtrip to anderson dairy and invited us to tag along.  it was really cute.  they have talking animal show and then a little tour and a movie on history of the farm and then ice cream at the end! it was really fun.  daniel had a blast.  

david turned 11 months!! he;s a busy little guy.  still wont climb down the 2 steps to the family room but darts to the stairs anytime he notices the gate open.  he stands in the middle of the room with out holding anything but wont take steps... he's a happy guy but cutting several teeth right now so he's a little moody and crazy drooly.... all over drool.  

such different little guys... 

so fun to see the growth!

we enjoyed a nice family hike up mt charleston one saturday.  david sat silent in the backpack and daniel actually did pretty well walking on his own... we took a little food and snacks... nice weather for a little hike.

the most dramatic news of the month... according to daniel is that my van got a flat tire.  i went in to the garage and saw that it was dead.  chris took it off and found a scew in it.... daniel wouldn't even go into the garage until it was fixed... like he was so worried for the car... like its alive and in pain... haha and he talked about it for the next 2 weeks...

the other big new of the month is dad and edna got married.  they got married in the little chapel of the west which my grandpas friend and partner ed smith used to own and i believe at one point my dad worked there.  it was fun to actually witness my first vegas wedding on the strip... no elvis was involved but still fun.  she looks really pretty and had brought a traditional phillapean dress shirt for dad to wear... after the ceremony we had dinner at this really nice restaurant we were in the private dining room.  fun to be in there with dad's brothers and sisters.  fun night and we are really happy for dad. 

chris also had to do another crown on me so we had a nice little date at the office...

teaching my children the family way at a young age...

we walk to our neighborhood park every so often and usually someone else is there... this little boy was so cute and friendly and he and daniel ran all over...  

the boys love it when dad comes home... sometimes wrestlemania begins... sometimes its trampoline time... sometimes its garage play time....

we hit the road to reno for memorial day weekend.  we hadn't been back in 4 years!!!! i hate the long drive but the boys did awesome and chris was a trooper and sat in the tiny middle seat for 3 hours after daniel begged him to.... 

we stayed with chris' dad David.  he lives on a beautiful property with the best view!!! 

daniel had a great time running around his front yard and looking at the neighbors animals....

pretty soon grandma susan arrived along with catherine and jack and scarlett! daniel and scarlett had so much fun running all over the house together and watching together!

the next day while everyone else went to work we had some nice family time exploring reno... we went to the mall where daniel got to make his first build a bear.  he chose sky from paw patrol.  he was so excited and carried that box all over.  we stopped in a few stores and let the boys ride in a few cars... then we grabbed lunch at our favorite boston market and drove around town while the boys napped .  we stopped by digiprint and saw susan and david at work and drove to chris old neighborhood to see the house he grew up in... it was fun to hear him tell me stories from his childhood. 

big david was so excited to spend a little time with his name sake david.. and had to take a picture in front of his camp david sign.  it was really fun to spend saturday morning hanging out at the house and having the boys play while we caught up with david.

for lunch we met up with the hicks family and had red robin and then went to a park so the kids could run around while we talked.  it was so good to see them! for dinner we all met up at catherine and jakes new house and they made dinner for us.  such a fun night.  their house is so cute and they have done so much work on it.  really happy for them (and totally jealous haha)

we also found a box of chris old stuff... drawing and pics and what not... and there was also this paper from their DNA test that says he and jeff are identical twins... pretty fun.  

sunday we went to chruch and then hung out at the house for naps for a bit and then went to susans for her neighbors bbq.  it was fun to hang out with them and see catherine again.  we said our good byes to everyone and headed back to davids for the night.  the next morning we took our time getting up and packing and heading back on the road.  long drive home.  luckily we survived.  may was a good month... school is almost out and then we have a fun summer planned ahead.