Papa

My dad ("Papa" to his grandkids) passed away in his sleep on January 23, 2014.  Our world is forever-changed, and we've all had to soldier on without the D-fam patriarch.  Some days are better than others. There are times when I can logically reason with myself and there are other times that I'm sad.  Sad for my kids that he'd love to play with and mostly sad for my mom.  I had 3 weeks left in my pregnancy when my dad died and we hadn't decided on a name yet.  We immediately knew we wanted our daughter's middle name to be "Hope" because that's what we needed most.  The last time I saw my dad was January 1, 2014 and our last text message was January 13, 2014.  He told me, "I hope you feel better.  Try to rest as much as you can."  Always looking out for me, always being Dad.

Christmas in BA

We spent a couple of days in Bad Axe in between Grandma's Memorial Service and a New Year's Eve wedding in the Detroit-area.  Cruz had fun playing with MORE toys and chasing his favorite Kiel-cat around the house.  We even went sledding at "kindergarten hill."

Figuring out how to build a train track

Hanging with Uncle Greggie

Grammie's iPad

Did you know he likes trains?

Back to South Bend

Cruz is 3

Cruz's 3rd birthday was December 27 and he brought in donut holes to his friends at daycare.  Later that day we drove to our hotel in Grand Blanc (MI) where we had a pizza party with Grammie & Papa, Uncle Matt and Uncle Greg!  The next day was the Memorial Service for Grandma Williams so we also had a chance to see more family members there.  Having a birthday around the holidays means it's always busy!

Grammie & Papa

He loved the blowers

His new 'puter

Cruz is 3

Our Christmas

We had a very relaxing Christmas at home...in our pajamas!  It was all four of us (Sam, Cruz, Novali, and I) and we opened presents, played with our presents, and generally had a lazy day.

The night before we went to the Christmas Eve service at which Cruz loudly sang "O Christmas Tree" after the song was done playing, and he was a careful big boy with his candle.  

On Christmas morning, Santa brought Cruz an orange bike and several toys which he had to keep playing with so it took a while to open the presents.  Novali received a curling iron so after we were done opening presents, she went upstairs and did her hair for hours.  (not an exaggeration)

I made breakfast and Sam made lunch/dinner.  There were naps involved and that night we went to a neighborhood with a lot of Christmas lights.  Neither child was impressed.

All in all, it was nice to be home with family and we weren't traveling to see other family members until later in the week.

"The orange bike from the Target!"

"The fun is trying to guess when you play Guess Who!"

Work of art

Santa picture 2013

Cookie decorating

Shots of sprinkles

Here and There

This guy got his daycare pictures back - poor nose.

Thanksgiving

RSP and Cruz in Bad Axe

Getting out the decorations

Setting up the nativity

Happy Halloween!

Everyone was worried about the weather on Halloween, as if everyone in the Midwest had recently moved from tropical climates.  It rained most of the day and during Trick-or-Treating hours, it only spritzed on us. Cruz took goodie bags and his costume to daycare, and then he went to La Casa with Papi.  After that, we went to a few houses in our neighborhood trick-or-treating, and Cruz was fine to go home.  His favorite candy is suckers, and did not like the Reese's peanut butter cup...more for Momma!

Blue candy

This way!

Trick or Treat!

Walking with Papi

Our poor pumpkins

Watch out for puddles

It's the Great Pumpkin, Cruz!

Cruz had been talking about pumpkins since he saw them on some porches in our neighborhood...in September.  He would also talk about them outside Kroger, or outside Wal-Mart and I kept reassuring him that we would go to the farm and get some.  

Corn Maze at Thistleberry Farm

He was terrified to go on this hayride (the tractor was too loud)

Cruz and the haul

You can sit on them.

She's a beauty!

Cleaning the pumpkins

Scooping the seeds

He's also going to be a pumpkin for Halloween (he's REALLY into pumpkins)