Thursday, May 10, 2012

And The Year Goes Marching On!

Well, April started out like March- with the passing of another family member.  My Uncle Roger Pugmire (married to my dad's sister Janene) passed away after battling with ALS (or Lou Gherig;s Syndrome).  My Aunt said he was very peaceful at the end and ready to go.  He was such a kind, fun and generous man. He was involved in keeping history alive down in the Bear Lake valley. He and Aunt Janene worked for and built up much of the Oregon Trail Museum. They were in a square dancers group for several years and they also served a five year mission at the Paris Tabernacle for the church.  I love my uncle very much.... he and Aunt Janene were one of the "safe" places of my childhood.  He will be missed greatly by our family.  

      
Top left photo is Uncle Roger... then Aunt Janene at the dinner following the services.  I also got some really nice pictures of my two sisters and me and Mom and Daddy.  Although it was a sad occasion, it was fun to see a lot of relatives I don't get to see much of. Even "met" one cousin I hadn't seen since we were just tiny children.   

Following the funeral for my Uncle, I spent a few days with Donnie and Katie and the boys.  We had such a fun time together!  Man those boys are growing way too fast!   I just love being with them and watching each of them with their individuality... It's such a wonder to me that I can be so close to each of them in unique ways that just fits.  
Arm wrestling, kite flying, playing at the park... all kinds of fun!  We laughed at the picture of Katie in her hoodie!  There's been a lot of conversation in the news about hoodies lately so we had to take that picture.  At one point (see bottom middle pic) Blake got so dizzy he about passed out!  Haedon was crazy fun, Carter busy being Carter (he he) and Nash just running from the swings to the slide to the jungle jim- all of us swinging and climbing and thoroughly relishing our time together. 

Took a trip over to Idaho Falls to see the O'Connors for a little while.  Again we had so much fun.  I can't believe what a joy and privilege it is to be Gramma to so many awesome children.  Eliza was her usual sweet self..even made me a paper cheetah which is her favorite big cat right now  (I will have to take a picture and edit it in later).  Evie ran around giggling and taking hundreds of pictures with Phoebe trying to help and Tommy kept loving on Gramma.  
Of  course we all had to take a picture on Gramma's lap.. first a nice one and then a funny face one.  Amanda at 9 months pregnant looked as beautiful as always. Busy momma with a house full of busy kids.  And this Gramma loves to see them all. 

Once again I got to have some quality River time.  I got her for a whole day and took her to see Mikey and Mailei and Maddy's music festival on the 18th.  She was adorable as always and just loved and loved on her Gramama.  


River has such a fun personality!  She tries so hard to "talk" and just laughs and smiles so much.  She has this thing she does when she accomplishes something, where if someone says "VICTORY!"- she will raise her arms and hands up with a huge smile. She is still a momma's girl, but she loves her daddy so much.  I think one of  the most tender things I've seen is her sweet smile of adoration when her daddy gets out his ukulele and sings to her.  Between her mom and dad's personalities, this little girl will be something pretty awesome!

The music festival for the Pocatello Charter school on the 18th was amazing!  I am so thrilled I got to see it this year!  Each grade or crew performed a theme song or two around Native American history and the choirs that Heather accompanies performed.  They started out by coming in and surrounding a section of the auditorium and singing a beautiful hallelujah acapella  song... it was so cute- River was singing right along with them (and quite loudly too!).   
The choirs were really really good.  It was very emotional for me to see the love of music carrying on down through some of my grandchildren.  And I have to say I was more than a little proud of my daughter Heather too.  She was acknowledged with appreciation and flowers at the end of the program- I'm so glad she stuck with her piano all these years.  She plays so beautifully and another fun thing was seeing how well loved she is by the other kids at school... I remember loving to be around my children's friends and peers as they were growing up.  I think it is really good for parents' relationship with their children to be involved at school, church and to know who their friends and peers are. 

After the festival we met Brady and Jade for pizza.  River was pretty happy to see her mom and dad. The other kids were happy to see them too!  Uncle Brady and Aunt Jade and River are pretty popular in our family with all the kids.  


Last but not least- he he he- I just had to post a picture of Haedon and Gramma sharing a moment of craziness!  I saw this cartoon that said, "When I'm old I don't want people saying "what a sweet, little old lady" - I want them to say - "Oh crap! What is she up to now?"   Yup, that's how I roll... this way no one will ever know if I'm crazy by choice or by happenstance....


 Gonna close for now... Mother's Day is coming up this weekend so I'm hoping to have some fun things to post next week.  Posted with love and gratitude as always... counting my blessings and loving my family.