Happy 6th Birthday Annalise!!!

The day after Hanmadang was Annalise's birthday party!

Her FIRST with friends!!!

She was bursting at the seams with excitement!

 She was dressed and ready to go hours before the party started!!

We were off to the Jump Around Fun Zone....

We got everything all set up in the party room.

The kids have time to jump first, then once they have cake, etc. in the party room they aren't allowed back on the jumpy toys. (I like this rule! :) )

They were jumping in no time!!!

And taking some water breaks!

Avery and Jordan were too big to jump...so they played hangman 

until the littles were done jumping.

When the jumping time was up, we headed into the party room.

Annalise decided to do cupcakes FIRST!

Then Avery thought it would be a good idea to have a game prepared just in case we had some extra time.  Avery organized the girls to play "Pin the sunglasses on the Barbie".

(We forgot a blindfold, but they were creative!)

There was also a cool board for the girls to write a message to Annalise....

Next up....PRESENTS!!!

So many great things....Annalise was a little overwhelmed!

And finally....a photo shoot with all of the girls before heading home.

Happy Faces....

Mad Faces....

Silly Faces....

We all slept well that night!  Then Monday was Annalise's birthday.

More presents to open before school....

Her requested birthday lunch....a "bun-wich"...

And a special birthday hair-do!

She had a great day at school and requested "Good Burger" for dinner.

No complaints from the rest of us! 

Happy Birthday to our sweet and sassy six year old Annalise!

We love you so very much!!!!

Taekwondo Hanmadang

For survivors, life continues.

I wanted it to just stop for a bit, but it didn't.

Life went on.  Without Grams.

I stayed with my Dad until the end of the week, 

but wanted to be home to cheer Avery on at her first Taekwondo competition.

Leaving him was so hard. 

(He promised to come over to our house the following week for his birthday 

which made leaving at least bearable.)

The US Taekwondo Academy where Avery takes classes held a regional competition called Hanmadang (pronounced Hah-Mah-Dong).  What is Hanmadang? 

It is the Korean word meaning "Festival". One time a year they host a Taekwondo Festival for students from all 9 USTA Martial Art Studios.

Since it was Avery's first competition, we had no idea what to expect.  She chose to only compete in performing her poomse (poom-say) and not do the sparring competition. 

The day began in Marysville at 10 a.m.

There was a lot of waiting around.

Uncle Geoff and Auntie Robin met us there....

They did the opening ceremony and got all of the students down on the mats to warm up.

They did the Taekwondo version of "YMCA"....

After waiting for a couple of hours, it was finally Avery's turn.

The staging area....

Then they get called to the ring where they will perform their poomse in front of three judges.

This is when Avery started to get nervous.

She did awesome!!!

The judges let the audience see the scores before they flip their cards around.

Everyone was cheering.....

We had no idea the day would be quite so long (the girls gobbled down all the snacks I brought within an hour of getting there!) and we were all STARVING, so we decided to leave before the closing ceremony and get some lunch.

Avery got her medals and was very proud of her performance!

We're so proud of her too!!!

Such confidence and poise.  Way to go Avery!

Losing Grams

It felt like I had just gone to sleep.

My mind was still racing, thinking about what a great 10th birthday Avery had.

At midnight when the phone rang, it got my heart racing.

We've had those middle of the night calls before.

But she's always been ok.  And in my heart, I knew that any call could be the one.  

You can't ever prepare for that call.

My Dad sounded different.

Scared.

He told me that the ambulance had just taken her from the house.

They thought she had a stroke and that it didn't look good.

He was on his way to meet them at the hospital and would call again when he knew more.

I hung up the phone shaking.

Mark woke up and asked what was going on.

I told him I thought it was "that" call.

I didn't really know what to do.  I guessed I would just wait until he called back with more information.  It wasn't like I was just down the road and could meet them there....I'm about 6 hours away.  I tried to go back to sleep, but just cried, cursed the bad luck of her health, tossed and turned until the phone rang again a couple of hours later.

It was my Dad again.

"They don't think she's going to make it.  You should try and get over here."

It was the middle of the night.

I hopped in the shower, went to the school to do sub plans and then debated about waiting for the girls to wake up before I left.  I didn't know what I would tell them, and Mark talked me in to just going.  He would have a conversation with them in the morning.  

So I got in the car and started driving.

I had a lot of time to think.
I thought about so much during that drive.
I didn't really want to believe that her life could be over at just 67 years old.
I thought about all she had given me.....
she taught me how to be a Mom,
how to be strong and brave--even when I didn't believe I could be,
she believed in me and she was so proud of me,
and she taught me how important it is to tell people these things.
I learned this because she told me often.
Plus so, so, so much more.

When I finally arrived in Spokane I knew that they were just keeping her breathing until I could be there to say goodbye. There was no brain activity.  She had suffered 2 strokes.  The second had bled into her brain stem.  She looked so peaceful.  My Dad, Sister and her boyfriend, Niece, Aunt (mom's sister) and Uncle were all there.   We each had time to say goodbye.  We held my Mom's hand and created a circle.  We were there to watch her take her final breath.  It's a moment I will never forget. Ever.

We decided to postpone her Celebration of Life until later in the summer.
(More on this later in the blog.....)

I am so sad.  Like a deep, deep sadness I've never experienced.
I'm so lucky to have had a Mom like her.
But I miss her so very much and I think about her every single day.

Happy 10th Birthday Avery!!!!

Happy Birthday to this AMAZING, kind, beautiful, smart, talented girl....

 Avery's birthday happened on Monday....Crazy Hair Day at school!!!

She woke up early to put the finishing touches on the rainbow cake she had baked the night before.

Then it just so happened that I had a meeting and was able to take the girls to breakfast before school!

Avery got to choose what she wanted to do for her birthday party.

Sleepover?  Bowling? Rock Climbing?  Roller Skating?  Endless possibilities......

Then we went to Disneyland and she had her first Limousine experience!

Mark suggested maybe a limo ride after school with some friends as her birthday party.  

(Considering the double digits and all!!)

That's what she chose.

The limo met the girls after school.....Avery kept it a secret.

 The driver drove them to her favorite fro-yo place, Menchies....

 Yes....Annalise and I tagged along while Dad got the pizza for dinner.

(Weird he didn't want to ride in a limo with 10 girls?!)

 Pizza, presents, cake.....

I think Avery had an amazing 10th birthday!!!!

Being a Mom

I love being a Mom.

On Mother's Day we spent time together.

Went to the park, went to lunch...just spent time loving these girls (and their amazing Dad).

 My Big....

 

And my Little....

I never doubted that I would love my children with all of my heart.

But until you have them.....you don't fully understand what that means.

Every breath, every ounce of my being goes in to loving and taking care of Avery and Annalise.

And every day I think I love them just a little bit more.

xoxoxoxo

Early Birthday Celebrating

Uncle Geoff and Auntie Robin got to come up the beginning of May and we decided
to celebrate the girls' birthdays a little early.

It was a chill kind of Friday night....

Saturday they voted for a day of shopping with Auntie Robin!
We headed straight to the mall.
When we got there, they decided to see how long the wait might be to get a little manicure.
Just enough time to get lunch and come back for some painting....

So pretty!!! :)  Thanks Auntie Robin!

 There was also plenty of time to go to Target for them each to pick out whatever BIRTHDAY item they wanted.  Nothing like a little birthday shopping spree!!!  So AWESOME!!!

The girls gave us the "okay" to leave them at home with a babysitter
while the grown-ups had some play time! 
And we did....

Another fun visit with our besties.

Here Comes The Sun

Annalise had her first official elementary school concert.

She LOVES music!  She is always singing and dancing.  And seriously....the kid can learn to words to a song after hearing it once or twice.  She's amazing!

She LOVES her music teacher!

We LOVE the music teacher at Skyline.  

She is so creative and comes up with the BEST concerts.

They are fun for the kids and entertaining for the adults!

That said....well....I guess we were all just enjoying the performance a little too much and didn't take many pictures.  And the pictures that I did take....well....not the best.

If this is what happens to the second child....I wonder what happens to those kids who are like 4th or 5th or further down the line?  Or...maybe it's just me? :)

We did get some cute video.

Annalise is on the top row towards the right hand side of the screen.

And again....all but one of our video clips are a little too long to upload to the blog.

Hmmm....well.....

Thanks for a fun show Annalise and her Kindergarten and First Grade friends!!