A Happy Story

Dear Little E,
I just wanted to write down something you said this morning before I forgot it because it warmed my heart so much. We were just coloring a picture for Cousin Alan to send him on his mission in Italy. We were coloring the page from the Friend together and you said "Let me tell you a happy story." and I said "What happy story." Then you said "No, shhhh my friends are telling a happy story at their house. Let me tell you a happy story. Once upon a time Little E and her Mom were having fun. They were having so much fun." That was it, but it made my morning!
Love,
Mommy

Michael's Birthday Bananza!

Dear Michael,

I hope you had a wonderful birthday and that they treated you to a great party. We tried our best to celebrate here. I know that last year I got you the coolest present ever with that guitar shirt that really played, but I tried my best to top it this year. The first gift I gave you was actually gifts for all of your family that belonged to you along with letters that described where each item came from. I really wanted to give them all a little piece of you for your birthday. I also sent them all a note on facebook with all of the emails you sent me from Alaska. That way they could read a letter from you today. Then Little E and I made green cupcakes for your party and I bought Dr. Pepper and balloons to take out to "daddy's place" with her and my parents so we could celebrate right. We each wrote a note to you telling you happy birthday and tied them to the balloons to try to "send" them to you for Little E. I am sure you were laughing at our attempt because the notes were too heavy and the balloon just flew into a tree instead. We cut the notes off (I am keeping them for now) and sent the balloons off alone.

Our green cupcakes, we made the frosting too. They are on your favorite plate. :)

Little E ate 3 cupcakes and kept trying to steal more. She thought they were scrumptious!

I gave you two other gifts for your birthday that I hope you enjoyed. The first was your headstone. I worked on it from basically November to March and made it as personal as I could for you. The front has your favorite picture of yourself on it along with your name and information. Underneath the bench it the picture of you from the Alaska trip last year and instead of looking at the ocean you are looking at the night sky. You always loved star gazing so much. The stars have special significance too. I looked up what the night sky actually looked like on the night you were born in 1979. Then I had them put the constellations on just as they were that night. The quote comes from one of your favorite story's Don Quixote. You always managed to reach for the stars love, I beleive you have finally arrived.

Front. The quote says "Dream the impossible dream, Reach the unreachable star."

The picture from Alaska that I used for the front.

The back side has the picture of our whole family along with our hand prints and a quote I just stumbled across when I was looking around online for something that would fit. It fits perfectly! The names are all written in your actual handwriting that I took from your journal and  book you wrote our name in. I really hope that you like it. I have had several people (including the funeral director) comment on how unique it is. You were the most unique person I have ever known so I think it fits. I love you honey!

Back, with our actual hand prints! The quote says "If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you made me smile, I would have the whole night sky in the palm of my hand"

The last gift I gave you was me starting up guitar lessons again. I learned "Time of your life" by Greenday for you. You were right, Greenday songs are so easy! I am only sorry I never learned them while I could jam out with you. It took me a few days of playing it before I realized you used to play this one on the same guitar. :) That totally made my day! I know it seemed like I was always putting off learning songs to play with you, but I want you to know I really meant to do it. I actually had a piece of paper on the fridge where I was writing down songs for you to teach me that I would hear on the radio. I was really looking forward to making your face light up by saying "Ok honey, here are the songs I want to learn. Lets jam!" I was actually hoping to do that after you came home from that last trip. While I am sad that is never going to happen, I plan on playing you many songs while sitting on your new bench and hope they will make you proud!  I love you and hope you had an absolutely amazing birthday with your sister Sarah!

Love,
Jenny

Little E in her Star Wars shirt, in honor of your birthday! Little M wore a polo shirt that reminded me of you, but I didn't get a good picture of him.

My Little Super Man

Super Baby na na na na na!

I just wanted to post a quick picture from that night we had green pancakes. After I feed both the little ones Little M was getting a little fussy and tired. He had on the "My dad rocks" bib you bought for Little E from wallgreens when she was about this age. I flipped it around so it looked like a cape and we ran around the room letting him fly in to rescue animals from the floor (that he proceeded to chew on as soon as they were safe.) While I don't think my sound effects were all the way up to par he was giggling constantly and having a great time. I had a great time keeping our little super man entertained, and laughed out loud when Little E started helping me hum the superman theme song. :) What great kids we have honey! They are such joys and I really couldn't be luckier.

Love,
Jenny

PS. His favorite things to go after right now are cardboard boxes, shoes, and electrical cords. He will roll all the way across the room, over all of his toys, just to get one of those three items in his mouth. He's already trying to live on the edge! You best help me keep him safe honey, I am going to need the extra set of eyes!

More songs.

Dear Michael,

I am slowly figuring out how to do things on the computer including how to work the play list on this blog. I thought I had it all figured out but today I discovered another place that showed the broken link songs. Earlier I wrote out a list of all the songs you had added to the play list before I started changing it. So here are the other songs that you added that just haven't been on for a while because their links had been broken.

Hey Jude- the beatles 8

Weezer my name is jonas 11

Rainbow Connection- Me first and the gimme gimmes 16

Somewhere only we know-Keane 18

Someday- the strokes 19

Today- smashing pumpkins 20

Shake the disease- hooverphonic 22

I added the ones I could find back on, but here are a couple of movies of the two I couldn't fix.





I'm a little bummed that these ones couldn't be fixed because they were a couple of my very favorite songs that you introduced me to. I love them! Thanks for helping me to find a whole new side to music honey. I love all the songs that you brought into my life. :)

Love,
Jenny

Lets go fly a kite!

Dear Michael,

Today was such a blustery day!

Yesterday I was cleaning up the house getting ready for Lori and her family to come stay with us for the weekend. Little E was "helping" me clean out the office. She had a blast running around with the birthday card Lori gave you last year. I was finally cleaning out the huge box that has been moved from room to room since our we bought the house and had been filled with all the last minute junk that we didn't know what to do with. I guess it got tossed in there at some point and she loved running around while it played "I, wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day!" The card has a picture of a pig rocking out on the guitar and says "There comes a time in a man's life when he must decide exactly what it is that he wants to do..." on the front and then says "Live loud and have a happy birthday." inside. Lori wrote in it, "Mike as long as you have your priorities in order that's all that matters, Happy birthday!" Each of her kids wrote in it too. I remember you getting it in the mail and laughing so hard at it, then Little E ran around with it and had a great time enjoying the rockin music. But rereading it I know that you really did live loud and knew what truly mattered in life, living it with those you love. Thank you for that! You are a great example to us all and I try to remember that life is to be enjoyed as you did, not just endured like I sometime feel I am.

Another thing we found while cleaning up was the spider-man kite you bought me during our first year of marriage (I think for a christmas gift.) I told Little E that on our first big windy day we would take it out flying, and as I mentioned before today was blustery! So after nap time we got out the kite, put it together, and went across the street to fly it in the football field. Little E had a great time. You would have been so proud of her, she flew it all by herself this time! She really is turning into such a big girl and she had a great time telling spider-man all about her day and walking him home to get ready for bed. So thanks again for the gift honey. You were right, he is the perfect kite for a really windy day and we will get so much joy out of having him. It is a good excuse to make me leave the house when I would normally want to just ride out the windiness in my nice cozy home. Sometimes I need a little push out the door. Thanks for providing such a fun one. :)

Love,
Jenny

Little M's first "word" and Sign. Little E's breakfast.

Dear Michael,
I just wanted to take a minute and tell you about some of the really cute things your kids have been up to.

First, on your birthday Little M did his first sign! I am pretty sure he meant it anyways. He has been doing the hand movements for a while now but it was just a reflex that he would do while nursing. But that night I was signing milk and he looked up at me and did it back. I told him good job and did it again and he started grinning from ear to ear and did it one more time. But then he got into his meal and was done with all that silliness. I think its funny that Little E's first sign was dog but Little M is all about the food! He has been that way from the first minutes of life!

Last night I was getting him ready for bed and he was baby talking. "Bababagaga" you know. The he started doing "dadadada". I had to laugh because my sister Amber has been trying to convince people that "dada" being a first word was just the fact that it was an easier consonant to say. I called her up to let her know she could rub this in her hubby's face. lol I had to think you were probably right there grinning from ear to ear and wishing I could see your victory dance as he said your name as his first word. Love you honey, I wish I could have called you into the room and seen you light up as you heard it.

Little E is a real sweetheart  lately. She has learned to knock on her door in the morning for me to come get her so she won't wake Little M up. Then she sometimes watches a sesame street while I get a little more sleep. (Thank you netflix!) Then she wants cinnamon toast for breakfast every morning. Today she did something really cute while she ate. She was watching the school buses and I told her "Your toast is waiting on the table for you." She came running up to the table and pretended to be the toast talking. She said "Oh its Little E! Our favorite eater!" Isn't that cute! Then she proceeded to introduce herself to the toast with her full name and even told it mine. She would narrate when she was going to drink or if she was just going to break off a piece of the toast. She does this sort of thing all the time now. Its her way of making up little imaginary friends. She really does have a great imagination!

Well, I just wanted to keep you posted on the goings on around here. I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Love,
Jenny

What's for dinner?

So, what are you having for dinner? Well, Green Pancakes al a Little E. :) Her favorite color is green, so we mixed up a batch and she ate them like they were going out of style. Note to self, my new weapon of choice is food coloring!

Mix 3 drops yellow to 1 drop green to make Lime Green. :)

Yummy! Brinner! She eats any meal she can get away with on the counter now. She figured out how to climb up there on her own and thinks its the coolest place to be. I had to get a lock for the medicine cabinet because she kept getting in there. She really enjoys her "gummy medicine" vitamins and tries to get it all the time.