In memory of John Franklin Carey

On June 3, 2010, Jim's dad passed away.  I've just spent the last few minutes looking through pictures to find some good ones to post and I must say, it was rather difficult.  He lived an amazing life on this earth and was a blessing to everyone that was privileged to know him.  I am so very grateful for the man that he is and everything that he taught Jim, my children and myself.

He was one who, when visiting museums and historical places, would take the time to read every plaque because he loved to learn.  He was always sending our family articles that he would find in the newspaper that were related to things the kids were interested in or that he thought we would enjoy reading about.  He was a teacher by trade and found ways to teach his family always.  I was helping Lexie clean her room the other day and noticed that she had put one of the articles he had sent to her up on her wall.  It made me happy to see that she, too, cherished those letters from grandpa.

He was an amazing example of charity.  I don't think I can remember ever hearing him say an unkind thing about anyone.  He always found the good in people and was ready and willing to serve anyone who needed it.  I know that my family is better for the service that he has given us.

I hope, that as my children continue to grow, they will cherish those memories they have of their grandpa and that they can share those memories with Calvin.  Unfortunately, Calvin didn't get as much time with grandpa as the other kids, but we will try to help him know how wonderful his grandpa is.  While at the funeral, one of Jack and Shirlee's friend's came up to me and told me that she wanted to share a story with me.  While I was at my grandma's 90th birthday party in Idaho, Jim took the kids to Bend so they could visit Jack, who had just gotten out of the hospital.  They went to sacrament meeting on Sunday and Calvin was sitting on someone's lap right next to Jack.  This sweet woman said that she looked up to where they were sitting and she saw this sweet little boy(Calvin) stroking his grandpa's face softly.  She said it was one of the most touching things that she had ever seen.  I'm grateful that she shared that with me.  I think that Calvin knew his grandpa better than we thought he did and somehow he knew that this would be the last time he would see him.  I wish I could have been there to see him with the rest of the family, but I'm so grateful they got that weekend with him before he passed away.

I'm truly grateful to have had him in my life for the past 15 + years and look forward to when we will see him again.

Jack loved to golf and during the first few years of our marriage, Jim was able to golf with him quite a bit.

Kenedy's baptism

Jack, Shirlee and their four wonderful children--Jan, Jill, Kim and Jim.  This was taken on our cruise to Alaska.

On our cruise to Alaska in May 2005

Here he is studying the informational plaque at a lighthouse on the Oregon Coast.  That's little Haden in the background.

Jack and Shirlee's 50th wedding anniversary in Lincoln City, OR.

At the Portland Zoo teaching Cooper about this exhibit.

The Carey clan, all except Jill and her family, in Lincoln City, July 2009.

I just love this picture of two of my boys and their grandpa.

Our fabulous dinner at Denny's in Philadelphia as we tried, unsuccessfully, to make it to our cruise on the Mediterranean.

Goodbye Dad.  We love you and can't wait to see you again!

Haden's 9th birthday

On June 5, Haden turned 9.  I can't believe that he is 9 already!  He's got a full year of cub scouts under his belt, is now taking drum lessons and will start 4th grade next week.  He continues to be our little comedian.  It's fun to watch him continue to become more and more witty.  He is just naturally funny...I can't believe the things he says sometimes.  For example, we were in the car with the whole family and I said to the kids, "Dad and I are going on a date tonight, so I need you to be well-behaved  for Kenedy and Hallie."  Haden's response, with a bit of sarcasm, was, "Oh! I should have gotten you some flowers.  I didn't know you were going on your 200th honeymoon tonight."  Crazy boy!  He is a great kid with a great personality and I'm looking forward to watching him continue to grow.  Who knows what number honeymoon Jim and I will be on by the time he's 10!  ;-)

We had to celebrate his birthday without Jim because he was in Bend helping with arrangements for his father's funeral.  Jack passed away on June 3.  I only mention it briefly here because I plan to do a proper post about him and the funeral.  We didn't go out to eat like we usually do as a family, but he was able to open his presents and have cake and ice cream on his actual birthday.  We went to Bend the Sunday after his birthday and Jim had gotten him a very cool race track.  All in all, I think he had a great birthday.

I have to throw in another story about Haden's comedic antics.  During the pack meeting in May, Haden was going to be getting his Wolf badge.  We had pack meeting in the gym and were sitting facing the stage.  The different dens were doing skits throughout the meeting and awards were being given out in between the skits.  Haden's den did a skit and came down off the stage to sit down.  Right after they sat down, Haden's name was called to get his awards.  He stood up, turned around and said, "Just a minute", then ran out of the gym.  I couldn't believe that he was getting up to go to the bathroom when he was about to get his award.  Well, he wasn't.  Instead, he ran up onto the stage where the curtains were closed, told the Cub Master to say his name again, then opened the curtains dramatically and said, "Here I am."(or something like that...I can't quite remember)  It was quite an entrance and something I will never forget.  He is always trying to get a laugh out of the audience. ;-)

Haden giving me the pin after his dramatic entrance to get his awards.

Opening his drumsticks...I don't think he had any idea what they were.

He might be a scary drummer!

Money is always a good present.

A joke book...perfect for Haden.

Haden wanted a very plain cake this year.  All he asked for was chocolate cake with orange frosting and the writing in green.  He helped me by writing Happy Birthday Haden!

This race track is amazing.  He has had a lot of fun coming up with tons of different designs for the track.  It can race up to 3 cars at once, I think.  

Just thought I'd throw in a close-up of one of the cars on the track.

Grandma Thomas 90th birthday

My Grandma Thomas turned 90 on May 29 and I was able to fly down to Idaho by myself and spend Memorial Day weekend with my parents and go to Grandma's birthday party.  I left on Thursday night and came home on Monday morning.  Growing up, we spent quite a bit of time at my grandmas house before we moved to Washington, so I have many fond memories of visiting and spending time with her.  At the age of 90, I am amazed at how healthy and active she is.  She is an amazing example to me and I'm so grateful for all that she taught my mother that has been passed along to me.  

It was mom's responsibility to make the cupcakes for the party on Saturday, so we spent Friday morning frosting cupcakes.  We frosted 84 cupcakes--why we didn't make 90, I'm not sure.  It seems fitting, but we had the number 84, which is 7 dozen, in our heads and didn't stray from that.  Anyway, we spent about 3 hours making frosting, coming up with designs for the cupcakes and then, ultimately frosting 84 cupcakes.  I must say I don't want to frost any cupcakes for a very long time and I don't want any butter cream icing either.  It was a time consuming project, but turned out so good in the end.  Our cupcakes were fabulous!  We celebrated by going to lunch at the Olive Garden and doing a little shopping.  It was a good day.

Saturday was the party which was held in the church building in Weston, ID.  All of my aunts and uncles and most of  my cousins and their kids were able to attend.  It was really great to see all of my mom's family.  They are always really fun to get together with and we always eat a lot and laugh a lot while we are together.  After lunch, we had a nice program for my grandma where each family had prepared something to preform for her.  It was really fun to see what the different families came up with as a tribute to Grandma.  I sang and played a song on the piano called "Always" by Patsy Cline which was one of her favorite songs.  All in all, it was a great day that ended with a family picture of everyone in our family that was there.  I can't wait to see the picture of this wonderful family that is her posterity.  After the party, we took some flowers to my Grandpa Tomasi's grave.  I don't think I've been to his grave since he passed away and it was nice to visit it. 

On Sunday, we went to church and then spent part of our day visiting the graves of a lot of my dad's family members that have passed away.  We were able to visit my Grandma and Grandpa House's grave and a lot of their brothers and sisters.  We went to several different cemeteries and it was fun to listen to my dad talk about his family and the memories he has of them.  We went by BYU Idaho so that my mom and dad could show me the campus and the building where they went to church while they had their callings at BYU Idaho.  It's really beautiful and so cool to have the Rexburg temple right there next to campus.  

On Monday, before I left, we went to visit Paul's grave and leave some flowers there.  I haven't spent memorial day decorating graves for a long time and it was really nice to do that while I was in Idaho.  I felt a special spirit as I was able to honor those people and remember all they have been in my life.  It was a really great trip.

One of the boxes of our fabulous cupcakes that we decorated.  

My Aunt Sheryl's birthday is the same day as Grandma's, so my dad decorated these cupcakes for her.  The words are spelled out in sprinkles that he painstakingly placed on the cupcakes with tweezers. ;-) 

They look so good on the cupcake tower!

Just a picture of some of the decorations and the buffet table for the party.

I thought these picture collages of all the grand kids and great grand kids were really cute.

We put up a big world map and marked where all the missionaries in our family served their missions.

Grandma blowing our her candles.  I thought this cake was really pretty...especially with all the fresh berries.  It was yummy!

My mom's sister Judy and her family always come up with the most hilarious skits and whatnot.  This is grandma watching their skit and laughing her head off just like the rest of us were.  

These two ladies have been my grandma's friends for most all the time that she has been married and raised her kids.  I just think they are so cute.

The Rexburg, ID temple

Calvin's 1st Birthday

This is going back in time a little bit, but I have to get updated before I can post my Philly/New York pictures.

My baby Calvin turned 1 on May 27 and I can't believe how fast the time has gone.  I'm not sure I'm ready for him to be so grown up.  He is such a sweet little boy and so easy going.  I was wondering there for awhile if he was going to mellow out a little bit--from about 4 months to 9 months, he barely slept at night.  But, then, he magically began to sleep all night again.  Hooray!  He reminds me a lot of Haden right now.  He doesn't really say anything--in fact, he just started using his voice and making lots of sounds right about when he turned 1.  He did things a little backwards--he was walking pretty proficiently just before 9 months, but didn't wave or jabber at all until about 12 months.  Crazy boy.  As sweet as he is, he has a little bit of the dark side in him.  Anything he can find to dump out, he does it--the smaller the item to be dumped out, the better.  We spend a lot of time cleaning up after Mr. Calvin.  I love my little Calvin.  I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father sent him to our family and that I have the privilege to be his mother.  Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

I was gone on Calvin's actual birthday, so I bought lots of birthday decorations to make up for it--or so Jim says I did because I felt guilty.  Come to think of it, I don't think I decorated quite so much for the other kid's first birthdays.  Shhh!  Don't tell anyone!

Calvin's cute birthday celebration high chair!

Everyone got into the spirit...including Jim

Calvin's favorite treat is definitely ice cream so it seemed appropriate to get him an ice cream cake.

Just testing out the waters.  

Now that I know what it is, I'm all over it.

Calvin opening his present from Lexie.  

I love this shirt.  It's perfect for Calvin because he seems to always be hungry!