My dad

We've all heard a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think these pictures capture what truly made my dad the happiest. Here are some from the past few years.

Grandpa holding Kaylee. This picture just looks like he is so proud of his little grand baby.
This was Kaylee Jo's first check up. Grandpa thoroughly enjoyed this! I love his smile in this picture as he listens to her chest. This was always a face he made when he listened in his stethoscope-I am so happy I have it captured when he was listening to Kaylee.
Two proud grandparents checking out Jaynee for the first time. This will be one of the hardest parts of losing dad. I always knew dad would be there to hold the babies right after they were born. He always held them just like he is in this picture. I love his face and smile. This picture captures so many feelings for me.

Grandpa and Emmie. She was such a fussy baby-this was actually "happy" for Emmie and I am so glad this was captured in a picture with her grandpa!
This is a favorite because it shows how he played with his grand kids. This was taken a few years ago in Idaho. I love his sandals and socks-so him! What could be better than a grandpa who will play in the sand and build a castle with you?
Dad loved to take bike rides. In fact, he usually rode his bike to work any time the weather permitted. This was taken a few years ago when Kaylee Jo was learning how to ride. He loved to go down on the trail by the river to the lake with all of his grand kids and mom. He would take up the rear, as always, so he could watch them all and laugh at the silly things they did and saw along the way.
Dad has been the Easter bunny for as long as he has had grand kids old enough to hunt for eggs. He would put on his ears, hold his giant basket that he and mom filled with eggs, and hide them all over the yard. My friend who lives behind mom and dad said it was one of her favorite things to see-Dad's pink ears peeking over the fence in the yard as he went around the yard hiding eggs.
The "Easter bunny couple." Such a great picture! Mom and Dad loved doing this and this is one of the memories my kids have already talked about. They loved how their grandpa wore his funny ears and hid the eggs. Mom and dad are such a wonderful example of love towards one another and their family-they did these kinds of fun things all the time.
He hid them all over the yard-in the bushes, under the bushes, in the fence holes, in the hubcaps, in the trees, up the rain gutters...in fact, mom found one months after Easter was over!
This picture was taken on the fourth of July (08). Jaynee stayed with grandpa the whole time and was very concerned about the loud noises, but I think she felt very safe in grandpa's arms; I can relate.
Jaynee and grandpa at South Fork this fall (08). I love her smile-she was just so happy being with her grandpa. His face is so happy to me-just so content.
Granpa played softball with the kids all the time. He was always the pitcher and would do some crazy wind-ups to try and fool them into when he was going to throw the ball. I snapped this picture and after taking a closer look, am so happy I did-look at his face-that is just him. He paused the whole game to smile at Jaynee running through the middle of the field-so patient and so happy to have them all around him.
Grandpa having a conversation with some of the little girl grand kids. He always made them laugh when he would talk to them about them being his little squirrels. He would tell them they all had bushy tails and they would just laugh and laugh. I know they never wondered if their grandpa loved them.
This is one of my favorites. This is my dad-a protector. He has always been that role in my life-a protector, my safety net, always quietly there. This is Kaylee, Jaynee and Emmie and Grandpa watching them as they sit by the river.
This is our last family picture taken. This was taken in July. I think my dad looks so happy here; surrounded by his little squirrels and all of us who felt his happiness and love everyday.
Here he is on Halloween night. We took a drive over to grandma Allen's little care center, and dad had already taken Halloween candy over to her before we all got there so that we could trick -or-treat her. Dad is sitting beside her trying to fix her hearing aid so that she could hear us. He took such wonderful, careful care of grandma.
It's tradition. Grandpa's squirrels go to his office every Halloween and trick-or-treat. Dad always dressed up-from Mickey mouse, Colonel potter, superman and this year-his letter man's jacket and his jeans rolled up with white socks. It was a highlight in his day whenever we came in. He would always stop doing what he was doing, and make sure we were taken care of, had a treat and many times he would introduce us to his patients and tell them all about the grand kids.
This is the last procedure that he performed for our family. Jaynee broke her arm on Friday and I am so glad she did or we wouldn't have these pictures. I will never forget these moments he tenderly took care of her arm and gave her a little tiny pink cast. I hope Jaynee will always remember this also.
If you came to the funeral, you heard me tell the story about dad's one blue Christmas light. Dad loved blue, he was color blind but blue was one color he could see. For years he has wanted to put up all blue Christmas lights, but comprimised with a red, green and white assortment. However, for the past 4 years, he has managed to put up one blue light and hide it somewhere among the others. Each year he would finish hanging the lights and then tell mom that she had to go and find the one blue light. Dad passed away 2 days before Christmas, and so the lights remained on through the holidays of course. I found his one blue light the night he passed away and found myself giggling and crying at the same time. It just felt like he was right there with me.
My parent's neighbors gave this tribute to my dad. A friend of mine took the picture and sent it to me. That night they put one blue light on their house and kept it up until they turned their lights off after the new year. Thank you Hoffmans! It says so much of how you feel about my dad. You can be sure you will find one blue light on my house at Christmas time from now on.

This was a hard thing to do, but I am happy I have posted this. Doing things like this make it real; I know that may sound strange-but sometimes it is like I am trying to hide from the reality of what has happened, and then doing this makes me face it and really see that it has happened. I just want to express that I am so happy that I have so many incredible memories-recently and from the time I can even remember being alive. I truly have the most wonderful dad anyone could ask for, and I am so thankful that I got 30 years with him.

Kaylee Jo turns 8!!!!

Although Kaylee Jo doesn't look so happy in this pic, I promise she was really excited! Well, Cam doesn't look so happy either. Oh well, at least the mom was happy for this day!

A bit of "pre baptism" jitters!
Our little 8 year old! I can't really believe it!
All the family that came! We even had Cameron's Nana come-so Kaylee's great grandma. That was pretty special to all of us. We were just missing Wade and Erin and their family.
We wend to Jump on it for Kaylee's birthday party. Emmie, Alison and Maryn decided it wasn't fun to jump unless I was with them! Of course, nothing is fun without the one who was giving them all bounces!
If you look closely, you can see Kaylee in the air, doing straddles. My Camera man (cameron) wasn't there, so the pics weren't so hot with my lack of tecky stuff skills!
I thought this pic was funny of Jesslyn-even though you can't see her very well, this is about all I "saw" of her and Kaylee-they were bouncing around the whole time like little monkeys.
Birthday cake and presents after the jump on it party.
WOW! Look at my amazing cake! It was so different in my mind...hmmm, funny how that is always how it turns out when I bake. Oh well, it tasted lots better than it looked! I am taking orders now for anyone who wants one of these for their birthday party!!!!!!!

Patient daisy

This is where Jaynee likes to eat her "moke n' cheese" (macaroni and cheese). Diasy ALWAYS waits for that one special day when she is going to miraculously drop some for her to eat. ITS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN DAISY! Jaynee
She will eat an ENTIRE box, and then when every sinlge last little shell is gone, she will DRINK the "juice" until the bowl is dry. If there is one thing that I for sure have on my food storage shelf, it better be "moke n' cheese" for Jaynee. And for the refrigerator thing...I don't know why my child likes to sit there and eat it-if any of you could shed some light on this situation, it would be most helpful in my quest to understand my 2 year old!

"Christmas kickoff" Dance recital

Here they are right before the concert began. They were both so excited it was hard for me to even get them to hold still to take this picture!
I just loved this picture of Kaylee. She looks so happy and so herself. I was really proud of both of them.
I didn't get as many pics as I hoped from this dance recital-for some reason, I have no pics of Emmie's dance. However, I did get these two. It was so fun to have Kaylee in the same concert-now that they are both taking from the same studio and Kaylee is no longer spending her hours in the gymnastics gym. Way to go girls!

Cam and I went to Boston-and I turned 30??!!!

Boston in mid-day. I took this picture from the "duck" tour.
Here we are at the State house.
Here is Cute Hana, wearing the tour guides hat. She was so fun to be with! She knew all the great info on things, and she knew how to get all around the city. I felt right at home with my own personal "tour guide!"
I drove the duck too. It was pretty cool!
Here is Hana and I riding the Boston "Duck". It is an old world war 2 vessel that takes you on a tour of the city, and then it takes you right down into the Charles river too.
This was the graveyard where lots of famous people are buried. Can't remember specifics on this particular plot because really, these things are all over the city!! It was so bizarre! You would just be walking along, and look to your left and see a graveyard right in the middle of the city. They were really beautiful though-in their own way.
This pic looks a bit eerie, but it was SO pretty. I took this the last night we were there.

Going to Boston with Cam was amazing. While he worked, I played. (yea I know, not fair, but I was not about to sit home.) We were able to do things together in the evenings and so that was nice. Hana took me all over on Wednesday, and then On Thursday, while she had class, I went running all over Boston and saw a lot of the things that I saw on Wednesday from a distance. It was so much fun. Thanks Hana banana for the great birthday! And Thank you Mari and Jake for watching out 3 little girls so that we could get away for a few days. You two were so great I don't think our kids wanted us to come home!!!

October in a Nut shell

This was taken the night of Halloween after I had compiled the girls loot into one big "bribe" bag for the rest of the year (literally-this lasts us until next halloween! I love it-you clean the playroom, and you get a treat out of the treat bag-even the neighbor kids know what it is, and where it is) Anyway, I found Jaynee digging like a little animal looking for something that interested her.
If anyone knows Bill that owns the practice my dad works at, you know this looks nothing like him! I was laughing so hard at him, that I had to put it on my blog for all of you who know him
Caught ya!!!! She had her basket of candy out before we were even half way done trick-or-treating!
The grandkids at "papas" office. That is the yearly tradition-we have to make a stop at the office and see what papa was that year.
Great grandma Allen with her three little witches. She was right in the middle of eating her pumpkin bread bowl and soup. Dad went over earlier and gave her some candy to give to the kids, so hopefully that was fun for her, and I know it was fun for the girls. She is so sweet, and it is so hard to watch her grow old. She was the BEST grandma any child could have asked for!
The little witches trying to be scary with thier capes out.
This is about half of the grandkids. Amy's kids were clapper girls, along with Casey as a vampire.
Jaynee getting her face painted at the ward carnival.
Did you notice the dog? Why or why do I even spend money on the darn thing. Oh well, it was pretty funny for about 10 seconds.
Carving pumpkins was a hit for my kids. Their favorite part?..Roasted pumpkin seeds! I tried to get them to try them, and once they did, they made me promise that we would eventually open all the pumpkins on the porch and roast those seeds too.
I went to help out with Kaylee's halloween party. Here were are the the "pin the nose on the pumpkin". I spun her so many times I can't believe she was still standing.
Here is Emmie and Colten, her "boyfriend" at Pumkin land. I went on her fieldtrip with her and it was so beautiful that day, and the kids had so much fun. Emmie told me the other day "mom, I am never going to stop liking Colten." oh boy, what am I in for with this little one. Fortunately, Colten is a cute little, well behaved little guy that things Emmie is "so cute!!"
Ok so I am WAY late on this post, but now is better than never. This is kind of the "wrapped up"version of our festive fun Halloween nights.