Karli It's Your Birthday....

Happy Birthday Karli!!!

Karli turned 11 today. To celebrate her special day Mom and Karli went to get pedicures together, just the two off them.

Mom bought Karli her first teenie bopper magazine to read while she got pampered. Karli couldn't put it down. You can bet the posters in that magazine will be pinned on her bedroom walls asap.

Proof of the pedicures:

For her birthday dinner Karli chose to go to none other than Olive Garden. We are not sure which Karli enjoys more at OG, the Alfredo sauce or the Andes mints when the bill comes.
When we got home Karli opened presents. She got some Littlest Pet Shop Toys to add to her collection, a big pink dish chair for her room, and more Andes mints.
Isn't she cute? Happy Birthday Big Girl. I can't believe it's been 11 years. You make your Dad and Mom so proud.

4th of July Weekend

We had a great time this 4th of July weekend. First off were our visitors. Kristin's mom came back with her to stay for a while, and the family couldn't have been happier. Then on Thursday we had the pleasant surprise of having Landon's sister Melody and her family visit as well. 8 kids and 5 adults under 1 roof, and never did we feel crammed. It was truly a good time.

First was our exciting 4th. The ladies went shopping during the day to find some.....well whatever it is we ladies go looking for when we are shopping (and you ladies know exactly what I mean). Then we had a barbeque in the afternoon, as the street was shut down and a "mini" block party broke out. We got to meet all of our neighbors, and watch as the kids had loads of fun in the streets. That evening we found a nice comfortable patch of grass in the neighborhood and setup camp waiting for the illustrious fireworks that only the city of Rio Rancho could offer.

And boy those fireworks did not disappoint.

But the moment all of the kids had been waiting for was back home. As we returned to our house, Tim and Landon broke out the fireworks they had purchased from Target and proceeded to tickle the kids pyromania funny bone. Let's just say that if a child lighting off fireworks is wrong, our kids sure don't want to be right!

The next day was a good one as well. Tim and Landon went off to the desert (they kept complaining "it's our turn...it's our turn"). They broke out our quads, and had an afternoon of trailsetting delight. They did return a little sunburned on their arms, but smiles on their faces. That evening we went to our first Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game. There were more fireworks scheduled for the post game festivities so we were pumped. As we reached the middle of the 6th inning a rainstorm of epic proportions set in, postponed the game, and sent the rainsoaked Marlows and Skinners back on I-25 towards home. Not necessarily fun, but definately memorable.

Thanks Mel & Tim and Lucille for joining us for the weekend.

Tommy's Birthday - 5 Years Old

We happened to be in Arizona while Tommy was to have his 5th birthday. It couldn't have worked out more perfect. Having little friends yet in New Mexico, and a whole slew of cousins all in the Valley of the Sun, we had little trouble making arrangements. Pizza and swimming at aunt Melody's place (thanks Mel), what could be more fun to a 5 year old. Grandpas and Grandmas, Aunts and Uncles along with cousins all made his day special. Let's not forget the memorable Elmo cake and presents.

There's our clown doing his immitation of Kid Rock.

ALL SUMMER LONG TOMMY!!!!!!!

It's Hard.

I haven't felt like posting lately, mainly because I feel like this blog should be about happy things and I haven't felt very happy lately. Landon will be doing a lot of the posting after this, for a while.

My Dad's funeral was awesome (as awesome as a funeral can be anyway). I have to say that all my siblings and my Mom and many others (Uncles, Aunts, friends and ward members) really stepped up to the plate and made it really nice. Many nice words were said about my Dad. He was a great man. Always will be to me. I wish that everybody could have known my Dad.

It is fun now to look for little signs that my Dad is with us. Things that everyday people would say whatever. But things that my family says that's Dad looking down on us. I have no doubt as to my Dads place in heaven. Our family has our own personal angel now.

After the funeral, I stayed for a few extra days to try to help comfort my mom. On July 2nd, I was loading up the car to come home and my mom said,"I think I am going to go with you". I was so excited because I knew as long as she was with me I knew what she was doing and how she was feeling and I could do my best to help her. And off we went. New Mexico bound.

Mom stayed with us for a week and a half. I am so grateful she did. I ended up getting strep throat halfway into her stay and she was tremendous help. The kids actually got fed and the laundry got done. I felt so bad. She just got done taking care of my Dad and had to come take care of me. I wanted her to come to our house and have fun and that was not the case. I kept telling her how sorry I was. She would just say, its okay it keeps me busy and doesn't give me time to think.

Mom left yesterday. I cried. I think having her here helped to pause my mourning. I was so focused on making sure she was okay (and being sick) that I didn't cry once while she was here. (Okay, maybe once but we cried together). Now with her back in Arizona I feel like I need to move on. The whole world can't stop for me while I mourn. I know that my days of mourning my Dad are long from being over. I keep telling myself that it is okay to cry.

Its been hard to want to return to a "normal" life. I feel like if I go back to normal then I am forgetting my Dad and I don't want that. There is a saying that I read on a Caring Bridge Website that honors my friend's Son it reads; "Moving Forward, But Not Moving On". That is exactly how I feel. I will move forward. But I won't move on. I want to remember my Dad forever. Nothing will be the same with out him. There will always be a little ache inside me for him.

On a side note: Thank you to all of you who have called me, left such sweet comments for me or attend the funeral with the sole purpose to support me. I am so grateful to have such a great circle of support during these hard times.