A beautiful tribute

Our friend Patti Ramos posted a letter from us and some beautiful photos of Kristen on her blog: "Preparing for the journey ... not just the destination"

A beautiful gift at just the right time

My Aunt Sharon does amazing cross-stitch work. We have her work all over our house. She made us a beautiful framed wedding piece with our names and wedding date, and then made a piece for Katelynn when she was born with all her "stats" that I had framed. She had Kristen's all ready before she was born, she was just waiting for the "stats". It was divine that there was enough room for the details she ultimately included. She gave this to me at Kristen's service and I was so touched. I'd been wanting to get it framed through Creative Memories and just barely got it to them in time before they accepted their last order. (CM no longer does Custom Framing.) We're not sure where we'll display this so I wanted to display it here. You can click on it to enlarge it and see the beautiful details. The saying at the bottom I added so it would look like Katelynn's who's has a scripture at the bottom.
Thank you Aunt Sharon, it means so much to me to have such a special gift for each of my girls.

It was actually interesting to get this when I did. I've been going through a "wave" over the last week or so, which took me a bit by surprise. I had been doing so well most of the month of February and got caught off guard by a wave of grief that started over the weekend. I know they will always come and go in varying degrees, and this was just one of many more to come. There had been so much celebrating of Kristen this weekend and getting to tell her story which I enjoyed. However, all the talk of her without getting to also talk about the hard parts took its toll. I don't enjoy talking about it, but am finding I need to find ways to talk about it because grief will always find it's way out, one way or another, and I'd much rather have it be constructive. Tears are cleansing in so many ways and I had been denying them their power, thinking I was getting "better." Little did I know....have you had a good cry lately? :) Give it a try, you might be surprised how good it makes you feel!

A fun opportunity for a cute photo session!

Our MOPS group is offering "Antiquities", a fun opportunity for anyone who has kids under 16. We did this with Katelynn when she was about a year old and I was really looking forward to it this year! The photographer was amazing and really worked well with Katelynn, letting her crawl all over her as she took photos! Other moms had newborns all the way up to middle-schoolers. (You can click on the photo to be linked to their website for more details.)

Here's how it works - with a few words from their website: You purchase a photo session sitting for only $10. Your session includes a FREE 10X13 sepia-tone portrait (retail value $69.95) and Antiquities provides all the clothing and props for children up to age 16. The 10X13 sepia-tone portrait is a limited offer (one per family or household). Children will be photographed ONLY if a parent is present during the photography session. Once I've received your payment, our coordinators will call you and set up your sitting on either April 3rd or 4th (Fri/Sat) at our MOPS church in downtown Puyallup. The photos will be available before Mother's Day - I don't have the exact date.

This has been a really great fundraiser for our MOPS group in the past as we get 100% of the sitting fees and I believe a residual on any portraits purchased - however there is no obligation to buy photos - you still get your 10x13 FREE! My goal is to sell at least 15 sittings so if you're interested or know someone who might be, please pass this along! You can call or e-mail me or even contact me through the blog.
Thanks!!
Tara

The Big Day!

Today was my special day to go shopping for my grand prize from the radio contest that you all helped me win! We were picked up at 9:30 in a stretch limo and taken up to Bellevue where we were met by a photographer and Matt Case from the radio video taping us! We got to meet another winner and her husband and looked around a bit. We then were introduced to Rex, Marci's owner and he provided us with a small welcome gift: a pair of sterling silver hoop earrings in a little pouch. Matt said a quick prayer and then the caterer welcomed us to enjoy the delicacies. And they were wonderful! Cheese souffle, mini goat cheese tarts, chocolate mousse and chocolate covered strawberries, smoked salmon tarts and fruit parfaits. All accompanied by parkling apple cider!

We each got a personal assistant to help us look around and that's what we did! Rex, the owner, encouraged us to take our time looking but to consider a significant piece, versus a few lesser items. He acknowledged that most things in his store were on the more expensive side so that we should enjoy our prize and choose something that we would treasure for years to come and that would remind of us our love stories. I had thought at first to get a watch but then decided that I wanted something I wouldn't be worried to wear. I didn't think I'd be wearing a $500 watch to the park!! So I then thought of an earring/necklace set. But as I looked, nothing really struck me as "meaningful" and technically I had already been given the earrings! I had a hard time not thinking of quantity over quality, wanting to stretch my prize as best I could, not sure if I wanted to spend my whole certificate on one item. Until......

I went and looked at some of the displays in the window cases and saw the only pearl pendant they had in the whole store. I was interested in something pearl, but not a strand of pearls. It reminded me of Kristen's Christmas ornament and I knew that was it. It is a single pearl on a sterling silver base edged in diamonds. I looked at the price tag and it was 1/2 again more expense than what I had to spend, priced at $1,450. Lori (my personal assistant!) said "let me go check on something" and went to ask Rex what he thought. He came over and said "I can do this two ways, I can change your gift certificate to $1,450 or I can change the price of the necklace to $1,000. How does that sound?" As you can guess, I agreed! The more I looked at it, the more I liked it. I had thought I wanted a pearl pendant, but this one makes me think the pearl is being held, not just dangling there by itself. And if I really wanted to get into "significance", the shape holding it is a triangle, which could represent the Trinity!

As we all had our packages wrapped up we were given a gift from Spirit 105.3 of a T-shirt, a Third Day CD, the DVD "Fireproof" and our Chris Tomlin tickets. Wow! The gifts just kept coming! We all gathered outside for a few photos with our limos and then we were off once again! The three of us winners agreed we should get together before the Chris Tomlin concert which would be fun!







Needless to say it was a very fun day with lots of treats and surprises! Thank you Spirit 105.3 for the opportunity! Thank you Marci Jewelers for the experience and the wonderful gift! Thank you Salon and Spa Dolche for the fun, new hair style! And thank you everyone who voted for our story. It was an honor to honor Kristen in such a way!

Katelynn's New Ride

Our friends Ryan and Staci gave us their daughters bike and helmet she had outgrown. Katelynn thinks she's pretty cool on it! Of course she still needs a little help from daddy. :)

My friend Shelly watched Katelynn for me last week and took these photos. Amazing! Shelly is the one who did our family photo for our profile and also helped take photos of Kristen. She does an amazing job! If you want her info, let me know!

Happy 3rd Birthday Katelynn!

Hard to believe Katelynn turned three this weekend! (on the 2nd) We had so many things going on this weekend that we’re taking today to just chill! My parents came over from Spokane and we had family photos taken on Saturday morning. We then went to Olympia to celebrate Katelynn’s Great Grandma Rosemary’s 80th birthday.

Sunday we had the red party with balloons she had asked for! It was great to have family and a few close friends around to celebrate her. We did the best we could to have everything red and she thought it was so fun.







Then Monday (her actual birthday) I decided to start a family tradition for her that my family had always done. We woke her up singing “Happy Birthday” each of us carrying candles, flowers and then she got to open a gift. (granted, she was already awake by the time we got it all ready and I told her to go lay back down for a surprise!) I don’t know if she really got what was going on, but it was fun just the same! Unfortunately, I had made Katelynn’s 3 year check up for that morning, thinking she didn’t have any shots coming and it would be easy and carefree. But they had a flu shot ready for her and that kind of put a damper on her day.







Later that day I had two girlfriends over and their three kids each – so with just two other families present we had 7 kids running around between the ages of 5 and 20 months! In the photo with them all on the couch, it looks pretty harmless. However, it was lunch time for everyone, nap time for most (including the birthday girl!) and considering I am used to one at a time, we'll just say I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to kiddo birthday parties! I am sure I'll have lots of exposure in the coming years, and this was just the start! (I am so glad the moms were here with them, they each pitched in to help with lunch and it was really fun!)
I won’t post all the photos from the weekend but here are a few to show she had LOTS of fun! Thank you to everyone who participated in one way or another!

Momma's got a brand new 'do! (thanks to Spirit 105.3 and Salon & Spa Dolche!)

As a qualifier for the first week of the radio “Love Story” contest I received a gift certificate to Salon and Spa Dolche in Everett. We were going to be talking family photos over the weekend so I decided to make the trek and get my hair done! For those of you not familiar with the area, it meant an hour drive north - but oh so worth it! My friend Shelly took Katelynn for the whole day so I could take my time and not worry about her (thanks Shelly!!). Shelly even gave me a note as I dropped Katelynn off letting me know she remembered it would have been Kristen's 5 month birthday that day and this was a wonderful way for me to celebrate her - with a gift I wouldn't have had if it wasn't for her! Thanks Kristen!

My hairstylist was amazing! She took her time to listen and and then took it from there. I had no idea what I wanted and what I came out with was incredible and really fits me. I am so happy with the color (well, colors, four of them to be exact!) and the cut is really fun and easy to take care of. The whole “treatment” was a bit more than my gift card would cover but she said that since I was the grand prize winner, she wasn’t going to charge me for the haircut. Thanks Kelsie!!!

Before, During and After:

Hidden Treasure!

We purchased our house from the original owners who had it built in 1964. We knew there were hardwoods throughout the house under the carpet, but had no idea what condition they were in. (the bedrooms were already exposed.) The floors were going to be our next home project, when we had the money for rugs and possible fixing of the floors.So last Sunday during dinner I noticed how nasty the carpets were looking and asked Kevin if he thought we’d be able to pull up the carpet before Katelynn’s birthday party the coming weekend. So we moved the couch back just far enough to pull up a sample. This is what we found!!

So we started pulling and cutting! The floors are just beautiful! Talk about a little sweat equity!! Here are a few before and after photos. All we've done to them is patch up a few holes from the carpet stretcher and tack strips and then we gave them a good mop cleaning. After talking to our neighbors, it sounds like the floors have been covered since the original owner bought the house! Thanks for sweeping a treasure under the rug! :)

Our Budding Artist!

I know every parent is proud of their child’s drawings, but I love this one! Katelynn has really enjoyed drawing smiley faces. She is getting really good at them too, complete with two eyes, a mouth, nose and chin - which apparently is really good and not expected for a child her age. This drawing was really cute because she drew Daddy – complete with his short hair and goatee! (the main face towards the top, the circle under the mouth is his chin!) There are a few other faces too, I think Katelynn and I may be a few of them. (the two "real" smiley faces and the “mouse/rat” were compliments of Daddy.)

Yep, it's winter-time

Other than Christmas, what two things do most people relate to "winter"? Snow and colds. We've got 'em both!!
I think I've been sick since we started really getting snow so I haven't been too aware of how much we had. My crazy fever finally broke (100-102.6 for almost 4 days!) and I finally got some restful sleep this afternoon. When I woke up Kevin pointed out the snowman across the street. It's huge!! What I thought was so funny was another blogger mom had posted photos of the snowman she made with her 2 year old during the first snowfall - about 18 inches tall. Then there's this huge snow monster across the street! Katelynn said she wanted to go make a snowman but she woke up with a temperature so I told her she could when "her numbers" were better. That's what we call it when we take her temp, we "take her numbers." But Libby had no reason to not play in the snow. She takes every chance to go play! Kevin was throwing snow balls for her and she'd dig for them then eat them. I had to take a photo of her. At least one member of our family is getting to enjoy the snow!

Katelynn the "Baker"

So while mommy was trying to recover from the "bug" going around, I decided to make some cookies with Katelynn.


It began with a simple question. "Katelynn, do you want to make cookies with daddy?"The response.............

"We're going to make cookies" according to Katelynn. Priceless..............

So we begin. Of course you have to know, that we have discovered the wonderful world of Krusteez cookie mix in a box. These cookies aren't made from scratch. Some cookie mix and a little bit of water, and wallah, cookie dough, just add your favorite topping. Ours became peanut butter cookies because Katelynn liked the picture on the box. She grabbed one of the chairs from the table and pulled it over to where the stove and sink area are in the kitchen. I know her intentions were good, to help daddy make cookies. It changed quickly from helping me, to oh look at stuff in the sink, to "daddy can I turn the water on?" My response......."Ok but dont turn the water on too high, just have it trickle out of the fawcett." Agian, that lasted for only a few minutes. Next it turned into Katelynn wondering how much water the counter top will hold before it drips over the edge.........Is the image good enough in your head yet?

Yes, I finished making the cookies AND I got the privilege of cleaning up a nice big puddle of water. I love you Katelynn.........Maybe I should have named this post Katelynn the "Plumber."

Kristen's Ornament

Well, we braved the crowds and ice and actually went to the mall this evening. I had some shopping to do for our church to make up for some of the giving tree ornaments that didn't come back. On our way to Target we passed by Hallmark and decided to give it a try to find an ornament for Kristen. We looked for about 45 seconds in the baby/kid section then saw this one just to the left and knew it was perfect! We both said "That was easy!" We then looked for one for Katelynn, but that wasn't as easy. We decided to try for that one later. :)

Good enough to be a tree!

So after I posted yesterday about the whole Christmas tree issue, I decided to do SOMETHING to the house. I realized that I would do it if Kristen WAS here, and I want to do it because Katelynn IS here. So I cried my way through all the Christmas decoration boxes in the garage and found a few things that I could put up without feeling too overwhelmed! I got out Katelynn's Santa photos and put those on the piano with the storytelling bear from Grandma Betty and the lit wreath from Aunt Karen. Then I found the garland I always put on the entertainment center. I figured it's evergreen-ish, it has lights and a few decorations...it can pass as our tree this year, right? I cleared out the area for the tree just in case, but when Kevin came home he agreed that for a week and a half's worth of enjoyment, what I had done was just right!

I had put everything up while Katelynn was napping so when she woke up and came down the hall she didn't quite know what to make of it - after a few attempts in her sleepy-headedness, she finally got out "we have Christmas lights!" And considering she gives the same exclamation to a house that has 10,000 lights as she does to a house that has their porch light on, I am sure I would have gotten the same reaction with or without the tree, just as long as there are Christmas lights!

One interesting side note: We had gotten Katelynn a "My first Christmas" ornament in 2006 and my parents have been getting Katelynn an ornament each year too. We had intended to get one for Kristen this year too but just haven't yet. As I was pulling out the various ornaments, I found Katelynn's from last year and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought it was for Kristen! It's a pretty child-like angle with her eyes closed.So that's the one hanging in the middle of all our decorations this year.

NW Trek

Katelynn was given a Zoo/NW Trek pass for her birthday last year and we've had so much fun using it. A few weeks ago we had great weather and decided to head out to NW Trek, the local wildlife park. There were very few people and LOTS of animals out! We took the tram ride that usually is less than an hour, but it ended up being almost 90 minutes because of all the animals in the way! In some of the photos you can see how close the animals come to the tram (or how close we come to them, rather!) and there were a number of times we just had to wait for the animals to move!
On our way home I had Kevin stop the car so I could get a good photo of Mt. Rainier - my friend had just left to go back to Indiana and while she was here, the mountain was covered with clouds. I took this photo to prove it really does exist! :)

Add dressed up and somewhere to go!

I've had two wonderful opportunities in the last weeks to get all dressed up and both times I had so much fun! We had been given the gift of a night in Seattle as a get-away to be used at our leisure. Kevin was told to take his "bride" to Seattle, stay the night, go to the Met for dinner and bring back the receipts. Then my brother and sister-in-law gave us their Nutcracker tickets that they weren't able to use. So we decided to combine both gifts and "go all out!" We stayed at the new Sheraton downtown, ate dinner at the Metropolitan Grill (a very nice restaurant in Seattle) and then went to the ballet. It was fun to get all dressed up! Since we checked in to our hotel early, we had lots of time to get ready and not be rushed. Then last week our church had a women's Christmas party and we all got the chance to get dressed up. To read the rest of the post and see our photos click the title of the post.

Not all our photos came out that well, but here's a few:

We had GREAT seats! On the first balcony, you can see the spot lights.
We were sitting one row behind the first spotlight from the left. Thanks Trav & Amanda!This was the dance of the sugar plums.
We were at the opening night of the 25th Anniversary of the Seattle Nutcracker. At the end they had the who's who of the PNW Ballet and the Nutcracker production come out and take a bow with the whole cast.
Photo-op with the Nutcracker! We found out that the designer of Seattle's Nutcracker, who is Maurice Sendek - the writing of "Where the Wild Things Are" wanted to make Seattle's Nutcracker distinguishable from any other production. So he made the Nutcracker look like himself!

(Funny side note- while I was posting this, Katelynn asked a number of times what the photos were of. I told her it was of the ballet that mommy and daddy went to called the Nutcracker. She kept asking where I was in the photos of the dancers and then asked where the cracker was....when I told her it was the NUTcracker, it's used to open nuts, she then started asking where the nuts were. Gotta love looking at the world through the eyes of a three year old!)

Then last week our church had a "Christmas at Tiffany's" Christmas party for all the ladies at the Puyallup Pavillion. We had over 400 women in their finest all gathered for a good time. We had fancy foods & dessert, comedian Tim Hawkins and even give-aways, including a Tiffany's bracelet to one lucky winner! As I walked up to the door there was a line of gentlemen in white and black greeting us - and it was all guys from my bible study! What a treat!

Here are just a few photos I got that night.

Sandy and I.

Casey and I.


Me, Jen and Sandy.(Thanks for the photo, Jen!)