Grandma Mol

As I mentioned in a previous post, shortly after Grandpa and Grandma Mol were here for Easter, Grandma suffered a heart attack. While recovering the next day, her heart gave out and she passed away.  It was a shock since she had been in relatively good health and we had expected her to recover from the heart attack. We are grateful for the time we had gotten to spend with her recently so Ryan has fresh positive memories of her and that Adam's parents and the rest of her kids/many grandkids had the opportunity to see her in the hospital before she passed.

We headed up to the visitation (about 5 hours away) on Sunday morning and stayed for the funeral on Monday. The boys did well considering the long drive-we mostly hung out in the basement of the funeral home. Ryan took the news really well-he was very matter-of-fact about how Grandma went to heaven and got a new body and that we'll see her again when we go to heaven.

They displayed the last roll of film from Grandma's camera and this was the last picture in the book.

After a long day, the boys were ready to settle down and watch Frozen at Aunt Stacy's house. (Or Cohen didn't get the "settle down" part.)

The funeral service was very nice as we knew it would be with Adam's dad leading it. The grandchildren all got to share their favorite memories including her baking, canning, curlers, and saving everything. A few of my favorite stories were the Mol grandsons admitting how they would come in with their dirty boots and shimming on the rug all the way across the kitchen to the cookie jar and back out the door before Grandma caught them sneaking. Verlyn also talked about how if there were 3 green beans left after a meal, she would save them in the fridge. He called it the original 3-bean salad. She also gave us homemade jam and bread for Christmas and once a granddaughter discovered the jar she got was labeled 1997 (in 2013).

Cohen at the funeral lunch.

It rained the entire time and the cemetery was flooded but they had a nice break in the rain when it was time for the interment service.  We had a nice lunch and got to see many family members before heading back home.

We will miss Grandma Mol very much but are grateful for the wonderful legacy of faith she left.

http://www.dingmannfuneral.com/obits/obituary.php?id=467181

Ryan as a baby

Easter Sunday

After church, we went to my Grandma's for brunch and then Abbie and I had organized an egg hunt for Ryan, Saylor, and Cohen. They loved finding their colored eggs (except Cohen again didn't really understand what he was supposed to do). It was a warm day and it was fun to get everyone outside to watch.

Ryan and Saylor liked their treats-Cohen's favorite were the bouncy balls and little "koosh" balls.

We even tried for a few pictures and got a good one of our family!

Easter Weekend - Saturday Night

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Adam's parents to spend the day with them and his Grandparents from Minnesota. Ryan LOVED the Easter Egg hunt. Cohen wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do--he kept stomping on the eggs when he found them and breaking open the ones with jellybeans all over the ground.

Ryan also had fun playing soccer with some of the neighbor kids in the back yard.

Then it was time to open 75 eggs!!

Enough candy to last until Halloween.

The most special part of the weekend was Adam and the boys getting to spend Friday and Saturday with Grandpa and Grandma Mol. They had a great time and we cherish the time that much more since Grandma Mol passed away less than a week later.

Easter weekend-Sat. morning

On Saturday morning, Adam was having breakfast with a friend, so I made a special bunny breakfast for the boys--chocolate chip bunny pancakes. I don't think Ryan was as impressed as Cohen, (but he did love eating them).

I looked out the window after breakfast and noticed some Easter eggs in the yard. Ryan was SO excited that someone had surprised us with an Easter Egg hunt. As he ran to get dressed, he declared it the "Best day EVER".  They picked up the 12 eggs and read the note left on our door by one of my co-workers and her boys. It was a super-fun idea and Ryan loved it so much, he is already planning how we can do this for someone next year.

10th Anniversary

Adam and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary with not much fan-fare but we plan on going away for a weekend sometime soon.  I had fun tagging some members of my wedding party on facebook, especially my flower girl who is now a beautiful 16-year-old.

Part of me thinks we look like a couple of kids and part of my sub-conscious still thinks of us as looking like this...maybe a few more wrinkles for me. I still love everything 10 years later...my dress, flowers (tulips and lilies) and even the pink. Ryan hates looking at our wedding pictures--it makes him mad he wasn't invited :)

Here's to many more decades with the one I love!

Birthday Treats

We have a wellness team at work that comes up with challenges to try to help us live healthier. Unfortunately, the week of my birthday, I was not much help in the "eat your 5-7 fruits and vegetables" challenge as I brought these giant 15" diameter chocolate chip cookies.

My birthday was great... Abbie helped Adam pick out a great jacket for me and she also helped me spend some birthday money on some new Sperry top-siders. Who needs Stitch Fix when I have her?  After Adam made supper, we went to the movie "Draft Day" at the local theater. It didn't start great when we found the movie was sold out except for 2 seats in the very front row on the floor. I barely made it through previews with the motion sickness and we wondered why this movie was so sold out on a Wednesday. That's when the movie started and we realized...we were in the wrong theater! We were in "Heaven is for Real" which just opened that night and was sold out. The signs had been switched but we were relieved to find the right theater for our movie and plenty of good open seats.

It was a good day and makes getting older just a little easier.

That one day when it felt like Spring

After a long winter, we had an amazingly warm day on Saturday (don't worry, we got snow the next day). With temps in the 80's, we spent almost the entire day outside. Ryan was out playing in the sandbox with Adam by 8:30am. After Adam left for football, we went to Kinderspeeland for the first time since Cohen became mobile and he loved exploring all the different tunnels, steps, and swings. We even ate our morning snack there and stayed for almost 2 hours.

We had a picnic lunch out on the deck and then while the boys took naps, Adam and I tackled taking down the Christmas lights. Yes, you can judge, but they haven't been on since Christmas Day and a time when the temps are above 40 degrees with both of us home is a rare thing in the last 3 months.

We took a family walk and then went out for supper for my upcoming birthday. What a gorgeous day!

Here are a few more pics of some outdoor time we've snuck in on the rare nice day:

Cohen's favorite thing: Chalk Throwing

You new around these parts?

Boys will be boys.

Gotta wear shades.

Cohen:16 Months

Cohen is loving the outdoor weather and his favorite thing is to toddle around the backyard. Since his attention span is about 10 seconds, he'll go from the water table to the sandbox, up the ladder, down the slide, to the football, and running across the yard, just to repeat it all again. He doesn't mind getting messy and has eaten sand on more than one occasion. He loves going for stroller rides and chasing Ryan's remote control cars. He also loves climbing around at the park, going down slides, and swinging.

Cohen's favorite habit right now is throwing...everything. Food, bowls, balls, toys, shoes...everything. He has a few favorite indoor toys-a noisy wooden push toy, basketball hoop, popping ball piano, and marbles.  He is getting a few molars in and doesn't have too much trouble eating anything he wants. He has gained a few consistent words. When I'm dressing him in the morning and he hears Adam come up from the shower, he'll whisper "Dah-Dah" and then go find him. He calls Ryan "Ry-Ry" and calls for him down the stairs if he's not around. He says "ball" and "my ball" and "nack" for Snack. He attempts several other words and we know he understands a lot of what we say. He also points to several animals/objects in books if we ask him to find something, so we're building word association.  I was excited the other day when he was pointing from his crib saying "Mama! Mama!" but unfortunately, he was just pointing to his favorite "Llama Llama" book.

Cohen has an easy smile and a great giggle. He loves to be chased and loves to be tickled. We love our blue-eyed, blond-hair little Dutch boy!

Collyn's Baptism

On Sunday, we were privileged to attend my niece's baptism. Collyns is so loved by all of us!

Our side of the family.

Saylor and the Schmoes in the wagon.

Collyns and her Nana

Movie Night

Adam had a  Middle School guy's night out to an arena football game on Saturday, so I promised Ryan we could have a movie night. He had seen Frozen in the theater but I hadn't seen it yet, so I was happy he agreed we should rent it now that it's on DVD.

Ryan can now actually sit through a movie and Cohen...well, he lasts about 5 minutes but is getting better at entertaining himself with toys.

Just because I tend to look back at this blog years down the road...Ryan has now seen 3 movies in the theater: Monsters University, Frozen, and the Lego movie. He also enjoyed renting Despicable Me 2 and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 on DVD. Now every time he likes a movie, he asks if there is a "2" or "3" out yet.  A few favorites we've recorded on TV include Mr. Popper's Penguin's, Cars, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Tangled and we've watched a few classic Disney oldies like The Little Mermaid, Cinderella and, of course, Peter Pan and Return to Neverland.

Fire Dept. Fundraiser

A local church puts on a chili feed fundraiser for the local fire departments every year and Ryan loves getting to explore the fire trucks. He had a lot of fun again this year!

Bros in the fire truck

Waving from the passenger seat.

My turn to drive!

Tattoo from the fire dept.

Thanks, Living Water, for putting on this fundraiser!