Georgia on my mind...

This past weekend we changed our plans from flying to SLC to driving the 13 1/2 hour trip to Georgia. We went to see my mother and my cousins. My mother recently moved out there to be closer to her sisters and to be back in Augusta, GA where she grew up. It was a very pleasant trip and my mother was doing better than I expected.
On our way down we stayed in Charlotte, NC with my cousin Tiffany and her kids. Here is Kade, Jack, Lydia, and Serrin…

This is me and my cousin Tiffany and our two babies that were born 2 weeks apart.

Then on Thursday we headed for Augusta, Ga and it was busy from the moment we arrived until the day we left. We moved my mother into a nicer apartment than the one she was in and she seems very happy right now. And yes, my mother is that small...

On Saturday, we finished up moving the last of the items over and got her settled so that she was functional. Then later that day, we met up with my other cousin Jaime and her family just outside of Atlanta. We met them at a restaurant called The Blue Willow Inn Restaurant. Formerly known as the Bertha Upshaw House. While the Upshaw’s lived in their grand home, Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With The Wind, was a frequent visitor during courtship with Redd Upshaw, her first husband. Redd Upshaw, of Walton County Upshaws, was the character basis for Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. Knowing that bit of history made it that much more interesting to eat there. It was beautiful and the food was fabulous!! Good ol’ southern cookin’!

So, do you think they could be twins? It’s a little crazy how alike Natalia, Jaime's daughter, and Lydia look. Lydia is just a few months older than her and they both are having trouble growing out their hair – it must be genetic!

Here are Jaime's kids and Lydia and Jack sitting on a bench at the Blue Willow Inn.

The drive home was beautiful... especially at this time of year. This was taken in Virginia.

Jack’s workbench becomes a reality!

This is the workbench before he and his dad made it a reality with nails. He stacked wood for his seat.

Daddy and Jack built his workbench together, this is so great for Jack. Thanks, John for being such a great dad! Here is the workbench complete with his own chair.

Here is a small video of their project together.

Missing My Dad Today...

This is my favorite picture of my dad and how it demonstrates his love for his grandchildren. One year before he passed away, I took Lydia and Jack to SLC to visit family and this picture was taken as we were saying goodbye to fly back to Cincinnati. My dad was a good man and he was such an example of strength and perserverance as he battled Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) and other trials in his life.

Below:

This is me, Lydia and my dad; Lydia was about 7 months old and this picture was taken in that same trip. He passed away in July of 2006. Lydia was named after his mother Lydia Jane Tracy.

You know missing someone after they pass away never goes away, sure you go on with your life but then something happens or you see something that reminds you of them and all of the feelings just flood back. I am greatful for those times because it helps to keep their memory alive for us. My trials may not be as great as his were, but I hope I can handle them as well as he did.

Thanks dad for your example!

Like Father, like son

I was cleaning Jack's room this morning and came upon this... and had a little chuckle. Jack had drawn up plans on how to make a work bench, complete with 5 steps. He's only 6-years-old, I don't know where he learns this stuff. But he definitely takes after his dad, I love it!

School, solid food, and the red coats...

The kids had their first day of school on Wednesday, here they are getting ready to go to school. Lydia is attending a Preschool here in buffalo that runs 5 days a week 2 ½ hours a day. She seems to love it, although she would prefer to ride the bus with her brother Jack. Jack started first grade, he loves it and says that his teacher is really nice.

Emily has started solid foods. Here is a video of one of her first bites, she laughs at the very end it is very cute. We love having Emily, she wakes up with a smile on her face that lasts all day long. She is cooing and laughing and rolled over for the first time a few days ago.


Lydia is now riding a bike, well with training wheels that is. Here is a picture of her on her new bike that we found on Craigslist for $5.00, it’s great and is perfect for her. I included a small video of her riding her bike.
The weekend before school started, we went to Fort Niagara. It is the oldest continually occupied military site in North America, it’s history goes back to 1679. The fort played an important role in the struggles of France, Great Britain, and the United States to control the Great Lakes region of North America. While we were there we met some military men dressed up in the old outfits that they wore back then and they did some cannon demonstrations for us, which Jack absolutely loved! I loved the history and the view of Lake Ontario, someone once said “if there is beauty in this world, in water it is.”

Jack found a large frog in our yard and we wanted to get a picture of him with it. When spring rolls around here in Buffalo that's when we find tons of baby frogs hopping around our yard and they are so very cute.

Here we are at the Naval shipyard, we took a quick trip out to show Jack the boats and submarine. We didn't go in them, but hope to take him on the tour soon.

Frequent Visitors

Ok, I just had to post this. Throughout the year we have some frequent visitors to our yard. On this particular day, three gentlmen (or gobblers to toms as male turkey's are called) trot into our yard trying to impress a couple of young female turkeys or hens as they are called (The girls are the ones with their feathers flat in the bottom picture). It was quite funny to see them walk around slowly and proudly with their feathers and chests all puffed out trying to impress and get the girl, and as if they were saying "my chest is bigger than your chest". We have seen some baby turkey's around sooo I guess it worked!

This Summer and Recently...

Today is officially our 8th anniversary, last night John took me to Shanghai Red’s for dinner (this is a picture of Shanghai Red’s taken from the water looking at the restaurant). It was very good and I highly recommend it. We had NY Steak with vegetables and a baked potato. Then we took a walk along the waterfront and over to the Naval Shipyard Museum late at night (here is a picture of the naval shipyard during the day), it was so nice to spend time with my husband without the children.

This past Sunday we got together with some old friends of mine that I hadn’t seen in about 15 years. This is Branson, Philip and Peter and of course me and John. I met both Peter and Philip (the twins) and Branson at EFY at BYU Idaho just before I finished High School and we would hang out all the time. When we moved to Buffalo last year, it was fun to find out that Peter and his wife Megan lived in our ward. His family came to town and we all got together, it was great!
John is busy doing his research months in residency, he has one more month left and then he will be in the hospital full time and then some… Although, he is doing research he takes call on the weekends, so he still is pretty busy.
Even though John is so busy, he finds time for his household projects; his next one as you can see is the basement. Below is a picture of our basement and the stairs (Lydia is on the stairs and Jack is on our makeshift slide), He has already framed in the stair railings and then he will frame in the walls to build an exercise room and a large playroom with storage closets for the toys. I will keep you updated on the progress.
Throughout the summer, Jack and Lydia have been taking ice skating lessons, swimming lessons and some soccer. They have truly enjoyed it. Jack had little scare in the pool during the summer where he almost drowned, we have continued his lessons and he is getting more and more comfortable in the water and is comfortable swimming in the shallow end (as long as he can touch!). I plan on taking them swimming throughout the winter to keep him comfortable and work with Lydia and her fear of putting her face into the water.

Jack and Lydia are also taking ice skating lessons, considering that Lydia spent her first lesson on her rear end crying this video I took is a huge improvement, (sorry the video is sideways, but I hope you get the gist. It is of Lydia skating backwards and Jack comes up behind her) They both seem to enjoy it and it is fun to have this resource so close.

In my slideshow up at the top of the blog, you can see some of our beach pictures, we went to two different beach party’s for the residents and the kids had so much fun. The water is like bath water and it only goes up to our knees, so it is perfect for the kids. I consider it a gigantic kiddie pool!

Oh yeah, we decided to name our cat Trixie, what do you think?

8 Fabulous Years!

This August, John and I celebrate our 8th anniversary and it has been wonderful! In the 8 years we have been married we have had a major carreer change, had 3 wonderful children, lived in 2 different states in the east where we have met so many wonderful people, and that is just to name a few. My husband is my greatest support, my love and I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else!

This a close up of our engagement picture, man don't we look young!!

The New Kitten

This is our new cat, we haven't officially landed on a name yet... We have kicked around KitKat, Felise, Loraine, Cinamon, Jasmine, nothing seems to click, if you have any ideas let me know!

I have to say that she is very nice and sweet, such a change from Ginger, and puts up with Lydia and Jack quite well.