Sakes Alive, Someone' s FIVE!

 It's true. My youngest little girlie turned five last month. Per our agreement, she won't be getting any older, thank goodness. It's good to have at least one kiddo that has agreed to stop aging after she reaches kindergarten. Hope she likes it since she'll be there for quite a while.

Festivities included Build-A-Bear workshop and Black Bear Diner on her Bearthday Eve (note the bear theme? We try to be consistent), then a family party the next day with cake and presents (and Baby Kaden!)

Please enjoy the following bear-load of pictures.

Happy Birthday to our singing-est little girl, whose smarticles, memory, and powers of observation put us all to shame.

A Short Story

Once upon a time there were bar stools in our kitchen. 

Then, one day, Spencer leaned how to climb up on them to get onto the counter, where he helped himself to an endless supply of tap water and gloriously bubbly dish soap.

Now, the bar stools are all in the living room, guarded by this vixen. (Okay, she's not really guarding them, but they really are in there for an indefinite period of time because Spencer is kind of a monkey.)

The End.

Lemon Squeezy

If you've never had help hand-squeezing 6 cups of lemon juice from these two adorable, professional juicers, you are missing out, my friends.

It goes WAY faster with their mad skills.

Easy peasy.

Love Pile

 Please enjoy some post-Valentines Day love-piling from four of my favorite people in the world.

Sometimes they drive me crazy. But mostly they are spectacular little humans.

What a wonder it is to be their mommy.

A Life Remembered

This weekend we celebrated the life and mourned the death of my sweet father-in-law, Dennis, who passed away in August. We had a simple, beautiful ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, where Dennis received full military honors and was remembered with tears and laughter by family and friends. It was very touching to see how many people were in attendance, most of them traveling great distances to be there. It was a wonderful  tribute to a sweet, gentle man, and a fitting farewell considering how many lives he had touched with his kind and calm demeanor. 

Songs were sung, words shared, prayers spoken, and then his remains were laid to rest at last. It was quite sobering to witness, but what a blessing to remember that his spirit lives on despite the fact that his physical body remains here on earth and we are continuing through our lives without him. Truly we have the privilege of not only remembering his life here on earth, but of ultimately seeing and embracing him again once our own earthly sojourns have come to an end.

Difficult as this whole experience has been, I pray that it is a gift to help us to remember what a fleeting and precious gift life is, and to encourage us to fill the time we are allotted with compassion and tenderness as Dennis seemed to do so effortlessly.

{Joy Young & Linda Monson}

{David & Pam Monson, Linda Monson}

“Life in all its resiliency, beauty and strength is sometimes eclipsed by its unquestionable transient frailty. Today we are alive…tomorrow is not promised. And it seems, the evil that lurks in the shadows, this side of heaven, often has its say. But let it never be that we allow evil, which basks in our fear, to hinder our ability to live vibrantly unafraid of what tomorrow might bring. The only way to defeat the inevitable darkness that touches this world is to live and love brilliantly bright with purpose. To not do so, is to diminish the very memory and glow of all the beautiful lights that have gone out before us.”  -Jason Versey

(P.S. Thanks so much to Handsome Zac, my soon-to-be nephew-in-law, for taking so many great pictures so that we could focus on the ceremony. And to my amazing family for coming so far to be a part of this. And my mother-in-law Linda for being so strong and amazing. You guys really are the best.)