Hello, we're still here!

Wow, I just realized it has been a long time since I've posted on here. Since I've last posted we have celebrated Valentine's day with some fun crafts and baking cookies. Spring break has come and gone with a very nice relaxing trip back home to visit Ron and Ann and help Ann in her first week of recovering after ankle surgery. It was a break from work that both Steve and I needed. Steve has been very busy with all the merger related stuff at work. We are just praying that he is able to keep his job with the new company when the merger is complete this summer.

We are looking forward to the Easter holiday around here. All week we have been doing Easter related activities for the kiddos and enjoying our time together. We decorated eggs, made Easter cards for our grandparents and had an easter egg hunt this morning. This week the kids also had fun with having a tea party with Gracie's tea sets she got from her Nanas and they learned how to play the Wii. They love the baseball and playing the Wii play games. Grace really enjoys a game where you match up players that are the same and a "Duck Hunt" type game. Anyway, here are some pics from this week. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pics of the kids painting their eggs or during the egg hunt today. Sorry!

Hard times

Wow, so it's been a while since I've been able to blog. Mostly this is due to the fact that we have had a rough couple of months in our house. In addition to all the stress that Steve is experiencing with the purchase of his company by another and the stress of dealing with the uncertainty that he will have a job in the next six months, we have also experienced some tragedies in our family. On January 1, 2009 we lost my grandfather Pat Patton. Exactly one month later on February 1, we lost my grandmother Jo Patton. They lived a long and wonderful life, married for 68 years and dying one month to the day apart from one another. As a testament to their love, we had Grandpa's ashes buried in the coffin with my Grandma and they were laid to rest Feb 7, 2009 in the grave next to their beloved son David, whom was lost to stillbirth in 1947.

My greatest sadness at the passing of my grandparents is the fact that I did not know them as well as I would have liked to. I have great memories of the times we spent with them at their house, but I wish I had taken the time to really get to know them and what their lives were like. I greatly admire their love for one another, being married for that long is such a great accomplishment, one that I hope to live in my life and show to my daughter.

The funeral was obviously a very sad time, but it was also a good time as it brought all of my uncles and most of my cousins together for the first time in almost 20 years. The last time we were all together was at Grandma and Grandpa's 50th anniversary 18 years ago. It was great to see everyone and to get reacquainted with one another. We also were able to get together and tell of all our wonderful, sad and funny memories of both of them. It was a really healing time and I am so glad that I took the time to go. Here are some pics in memorium of Grandma Jo and Grandpa Pat and some of the "reunion" of our family at their funerals. Please continue to pray for our family as we come to accept this loss and celebrate that they are now with their Lord and son David in Heaven.

Grace's 3rd birthday party

Saturday we had Grace's 3rd birthday party (her birthday is tomorrow). She didn't sleep very well the night before and woke up not feeling very well. When I told her that we were having her party that day she perked right up and was so excited. She had a great time playing with her friends, opening her presents and having ice cream. She loved her cake, still talks about it too. That makes me feel pretty good since it took me several hours to get it just right, frosting is hard to get the right consistency! Anyway, she got really shy when we all started to sing to her, wanting me to pick her up and buried her head in my shoulder. She was exhausted by the time it was all over as you can see, but all in all it was a great day-enjoy the pics!

Fun Christmas crafts

Here's some pics of our fun craft times we've been having. These are pics of the stockings we made. I found this neat craft foam kit at Hobby Lobby that had foam stickers the kids were able to put on the stockings (with a little help). They loved it and we've had them proudly displayed.

We also made Christmas ornaments last week. I got this idea from the Santa Day that we went to for Steve's work. The kids loved it, though it was pretty messy as you can see. Anything involving glue usually goes over well with them though. We tried to make three, one for each set of grandparents and one for home, though some of them got bored before they got all three made.

Santa Day 2008

Steve's work has a Santa Day every year for the employees and their kids. We have gone every year since Grace was born. This was probably the best year because she was old enough to actually do the crafts and enjoy it. She had a blast and I think Steve did too. He kept shuttling us from one craft to another. When we were done we went up to see Santa but weren't able to get very close to him. The first year we went was the only year we have been able to get a picture and it was of her reaching for me and screaming. Oh, well, maybe she will be more open to sitting on his lap next year!

Holiday fun with the daycare kiddos

We made cookies yesterday. So much fun, and so messy. I wish I had thought to take some pics, but at the time I was too busy going from one kiddo to the next, rolling dough and showing them how to use the cookie cutters. Grace had already made cookies with Nana Glenda last year and both Nanas this year, so she didn't need much help, but the others seemed to think that the dough was Playdough, so they kept trying to make shapes with it and using the cutters wrong. It was pretty cute. I showed them how to use them, but they didn't really care, they were having their own fun doing it their own way. You have to love the creativity that 3 year olds display. I took a video of them singing Christmas carols too, I will figure out how to post them and put it on-too cute!

Thanksgiving fun.

We have had a great Thanksgiving weekend here at the Weber household. Nana and Papa Weber came into town on Wednesday evening, Uncle Chris joined us Thursday along with Steve's friend Jamie. My mom came to join us Friday. We have just had a great time visiting and hanging out. We got family pics taken on Sat and got the house decorated for Christmas and some cookies made. Very productive. We will be very sad to see everyone leave today though. Hope everyone had a great holiday!