Thursday, March 25, 2010
Grandpa
Robert Steven Patterson, my grandpa, passed away suddenly this past Sunday morning. We got a call quite early in the day with the news. We spent the day with family, finding comfort in each other and in the idea of him being with Grandma again. Grandpa has always been this pillar of strength and unity in our family. I was always so proud to be a Patterson because so many people knew of him and thought highly of him. There were so many that had been helped and loved by him. It almost feels like our family is now missing those structural supports of Grandma and Grandpa. But I'm glad they are together again. We are grateful to have Janet in our lives and are grateful for her strength through all of this.
Grandpa taught me so much. Whether it was object lessons on fairness or patience, teasing and joking me out of grumpy moods, letting me borrow his car, teaching us how NOT to cheer at sports games, meeting him for lunch while I was going to school, him providing opportunities for growth through his "heavy" lectures, his patriarchal blessings, his steadfast example and encouragement to live life and to have fun - he always let us know that he was there and would be there to support us through anything.
I got to know him better through a project that he gave me last year. He had given many talks in the church over his years of service and I think he had handwritten 97% of them - in his beautiful script. After our last trip to Utah before Grandma passed away, I brought home a huge stack of papers and was privileged to go through and type them up. I had it reaffirmed to me that my Grandpa had great faith, loved jokes, loved my Grandma, loved our family and loved God. He rarely missed an opportunity to express those feelings. I will miss him very much.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Just your friendly neighbourhood blogger
This past little while has been a whirlwind. This is a catch up post on our regular comings and goings. So here goes.
I just love this picture of Claire sleeping. She's the ultimate sleeper. If she's tired, she sleeps, no matter where she is or what is going on around her.
We've had a lot of people over for various activities and I love having our house full of friends and family. We finally had our neighbours over and got to know them better, the missionaries stopped by for supper and encouragement, we met our new Home Teacher, my faithful visiting teachers stopped by with their fun kids, Francoise (the teacher that works with Ryan) and her lovely daughters came over for a crepe night, the birthday celebration for Mom/Rob/Nat/Maddie, and our Jethompton (Jensen/Thompson/Layton) extravaganza that I forgot to take pictures of (Eva, if you're reading this, email me the ones you took!). It's been a fun month so far.
I remember my Grandpa telling me, when he first learned of us buying a house, that we should always make it a place where friends and family would feel welcome and loved and I hope we can always do that, no matter how messy it may be at the time. :)
We're so lucky to live close to family. Natalie helps me with respite care every week and we've had help from every member of our family to watch the girls or give us support to do things. That has continued this month as well.
With Lisa's help the girls and I went swimming at Millenium Place again and had fun. Maddie consistently enjoys her Gymboree classes. Ryan took both girls to the Primary Easter party and they had a blast! We also took a quick trip to Calgary for Jessica (Ryan's cousin) and Dave's wedding reception. It was great to see everyone and the food and decorations were wonderful. The girls were very good travelers.
Madeline spent a lot of the night up on the stage, dancing to the music.
This was how the kids were most of the way home.
Claire's been busy at school. They had a nurse visit, a music class, a St. Patrick's day party with "real" gold, class pictures, and a fieldtrip to the grocery store which I got to tag along for. I think Madeline feels like she gets the short end of the stick having to stay home with me when Claire gets all these fun excursions. But we definitely took advantage of that spell of warm weather and even brought out the trampoline and the swings for a few days until our hopes of Spring were crushed yet again. But we did attend the open house for kindergarten and Claire met her teacher and saw her classroom. I think Madeline would almost be ready for kindergarten too - she fit right in there.
While I was on the field trip with Claire, Madeline had a special visit with Janet. They played, they read, they spent time together and she's been talking about it ever since. We're glad to have Janet in our lives.
I shall take this moment to say that I love Lisa. She's such a great part of our family now. We'll be sad to see our GRIT days come to an end. I rely on her so much for help, organization and overall good feelings about life. And luckily she's creative and involves us all in the process.
One major event that took place was Stephanie and Brandon's engagement! We're so excited and happy for them both. They will be getting married in August.
Ryan's had fun with his calling this month. He and the boys rocked out at the Variety/Talent show with a remake of Whole Wide World. Ryan's been very busy with work. He's had report cards due and his parent teacher interviews this week. We're definitely looking forward to having him home during Spring break, but I don't think it will really be much of a rest with all the things we have to do. It will be our "catch-up" week for sure.
I had an important milestone in my life. I attended my first Tupperware party at Lindsey's house which was a fun night out. It was nice to reconnect with some good friends from our old ward. I miss those girls! I also have been busy with Spa Lady classes, helping the missionaries with discussions, preschool meetings, preschool duty days and fieldtrips, choir and all the regular duties of life.
Here are the bulk of pictures from our giant birthday celebration. It was the last time we saw Grandpa and we're so glad that he and Janet were able to come and we could hug them and spend time with them then.
Part of the gang at the table, chowing down.
The kids at the small table. Steph, Maddie & Brandon. :)
Claire flashing that winning smile
Dad got Madeline some great books and here they are reading about the princesses.
And here's Steph reading Fancy Nancy to the rest of the kids on the couch.
Two manly men talking shop. Ryan & Greg
Janet and Grandpa
Maddie got spoiled and loved it. She was very appreciative though. We've kept all the cards people gave her up on the piano and she's taken them all down everyday since to "read" them.
The other birthday kids, Rob and Nat.
Madeline is serious about rocking out. She got some great gifts.
Madeline had 2 cakes to put candles on, but she insisted on having her candle in Great-Grandpa's famous nanaimo squares.
She then proceeded to enjoy the spoils.
Claire took a turn at rocking out.
We also had a second little impromptu party for Madeline. Here we are goofing off at the table with our shish kabob feast.
The candle blowing preparation.
Maddie and her new favourite movie. Thanks Auntie Val!
Her new favourite books. Thanks Justin!
Our impromptu party turned into a dance party. Maddie and Grandma
We broke out the instruments Ryan had borrowed from the school for his talent show and everyone was having a lot of fun.
Maddie dancing with Dad (aka Ryan). I love this picture!
Just a note about our dear little Madeline. She is such a special part of our family. She came to us at a time when we were really struggling with Claire's disabilities and what that might mean for us and we've been able to watch them both grow together. Maddie is a great example, a wonderful helper, a deep thinker, a sweetheart, a ballet dance extraordinaire and a great friend to her sister. I am always interested to hear her stories and to know what she is thinking about. She's started interpreting what Claire wants now and for some reason, Claire ALWAYS wants to share her toys with Madeline. We have so many dance parties in our house, it's not even funny and Madeline usually is the instigator. I know that her strong personality should make things very interesting as she grows, but I cherish that strength in her and I think it will take her far. We love her so much.
I just love this picture of Claire sleeping. She's the ultimate sleeper. If she's tired, she sleeps, no matter where she is or what is going on around her.
We've had a lot of people over for various activities and I love having our house full of friends and family. We finally had our neighbours over and got to know them better, the missionaries stopped by for supper and encouragement, we met our new Home Teacher, my faithful visiting teachers stopped by with their fun kids, Francoise (the teacher that works with Ryan) and her lovely daughters came over for a crepe night, the birthday celebration for Mom/Rob/Nat/Maddie, and our Jethompton (Jensen/Thompson/Layton) extravaganza that I forgot to take pictures of (Eva, if you're reading this, email me the ones you took!). It's been a fun month so far.
I remember my Grandpa telling me, when he first learned of us buying a house, that we should always make it a place where friends and family would feel welcome and loved and I hope we can always do that, no matter how messy it may be at the time. :)
We're so lucky to live close to family. Natalie helps me with respite care every week and we've had help from every member of our family to watch the girls or give us support to do things. That has continued this month as well.
With Lisa's help the girls and I went swimming at Millenium Place again and had fun. Maddie consistently enjoys her Gymboree classes. Ryan took both girls to the Primary Easter party and they had a blast! We also took a quick trip to Calgary for Jessica (Ryan's cousin) and Dave's wedding reception. It was great to see everyone and the food and decorations were wonderful. The girls were very good travelers.
Madeline spent a lot of the night up on the stage, dancing to the music.
This was how the kids were most of the way home.
Claire's been busy at school. They had a nurse visit, a music class, a St. Patrick's day party with "real" gold, class pictures, and a fieldtrip to the grocery store which I got to tag along for. I think Madeline feels like she gets the short end of the stick having to stay home with me when Claire gets all these fun excursions. But we definitely took advantage of that spell of warm weather and even brought out the trampoline and the swings for a few days until our hopes of Spring were crushed yet again. But we did attend the open house for kindergarten and Claire met her teacher and saw her classroom. I think Madeline would almost be ready for kindergarten too - she fit right in there.
While I was on the field trip with Claire, Madeline had a special visit with Janet. They played, they read, they spent time together and she's been talking about it ever since. We're glad to have Janet in our lives.
I shall take this moment to say that I love Lisa. She's such a great part of our family now. We'll be sad to see our GRIT days come to an end. I rely on her so much for help, organization and overall good feelings about life. And luckily she's creative and involves us all in the process.
One major event that took place was Stephanie and Brandon's engagement! We're so excited and happy for them both. They will be getting married in August.
Ryan's had fun with his calling this month. He and the boys rocked out at the Variety/Talent show with a remake of Whole Wide World. Ryan's been very busy with work. He's had report cards due and his parent teacher interviews this week. We're definitely looking forward to having him home during Spring break, but I don't think it will really be much of a rest with all the things we have to do. It will be our "catch-up" week for sure.
I had an important milestone in my life. I attended my first Tupperware party at Lindsey's house which was a fun night out. It was nice to reconnect with some good friends from our old ward. I miss those girls! I also have been busy with Spa Lady classes, helping the missionaries with discussions, preschool meetings, preschool duty days and fieldtrips, choir and all the regular duties of life.
Here are the bulk of pictures from our giant birthday celebration. It was the last time we saw Grandpa and we're so glad that he and Janet were able to come and we could hug them and spend time with them then.
Part of the gang at the table, chowing down.
The kids at the small table. Steph, Maddie & Brandon. :)
Claire flashing that winning smile
Dad got Madeline some great books and here they are reading about the princesses.
And here's Steph reading Fancy Nancy to the rest of the kids on the couch.
Two manly men talking shop. Ryan & Greg
Janet and Grandpa
Maddie got spoiled and loved it. She was very appreciative though. We've kept all the cards people gave her up on the piano and she's taken them all down everyday since to "read" them.
The other birthday kids, Rob and Nat.
Madeline is serious about rocking out. She got some great gifts.
Madeline had 2 cakes to put candles on, but she insisted on having her candle in Great-Grandpa's famous nanaimo squares.
She then proceeded to enjoy the spoils.
Claire took a turn at rocking out.
We also had a second little impromptu party for Madeline. Here we are goofing off at the table with our shish kabob feast.
The candle blowing preparation.
Maddie and her new favourite movie. Thanks Auntie Val!
Her new favourite books. Thanks Justin!
Our impromptu party turned into a dance party. Maddie and Grandma
We broke out the instruments Ryan had borrowed from the school for his talent show and everyone was having a lot of fun.
Maddie dancing with Dad (aka Ryan). I love this picture!
Just a note about our dear little Madeline. She is such a special part of our family. She came to us at a time when we were really struggling with Claire's disabilities and what that might mean for us and we've been able to watch them both grow together. Maddie is a great example, a wonderful helper, a deep thinker, a sweetheart, a ballet dance extraordinaire and a great friend to her sister. I am always interested to hear her stories and to know what she is thinking about. She's started interpreting what Claire wants now and for some reason, Claire ALWAYS wants to share her toys with Madeline. We have so many dance parties in our house, it's not even funny and Madeline usually is the instigator. I know that her strong personality should make things very interesting as she grows, but I cherish that strength in her and I think it will take her far. We love her so much.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
SLACKER ALERT!
Well this is one of the longest stretches I've gone without updating our blog. Hopefully I have some readers left. Bravo to those of you who have not given up on me!
Here's a quick list of some highlights over the past....month and a half. Yikes
In point form...
Anniversary - We have now been married for 7 years! I feel like a schmuck for not doing one of those lovely, timely posts on the nature of our love. But we did have a wonderful time away at an undisclosed location where we had a lovely dinner at The Creperie, walked around downtown, browsed bookshops, jimmy-rigged a flat screen in our hotel so that we could watch a funny movie while swimming, slept in and had lots of fun.
Olympics - We watched them, we loved them, we bought the gloves. It was fun to be so patriotic. :)
Swimming - We love swimming at Millenium Place.
Big Al's shark feeding - that pretty much says it all.
Ryan spent a few days winter camping up near Hinton with the YM. He made it one night in the tent and spent the other in the cook house. Luckily they had good weather, ate well and had fun playing hockey and hiking. He had an educationally fun time at Teacher's Convention. He's been helping with the track team at school and attending track meets. He was also officially invested at Baden Powell night with the YM.
Claire had an opthamology appointment with Dr Lewis, I enjoyed my duty days at her school, she had a penguin visit her class, she had a vision assessment, we're figuring out kindergarten for next year, we had a fun music therapy class at the CNIB, she went to the GRIT Winter Festival with Lisa, and did her first scripture and prayer in our ward in primary.
I've lost 15 pounds in the past two months. Yay! I'm really enjoying going to Spa Lady. The group fitness classes are awesome. I've had a few meetings with the Preschool association and an open house for the school. I've joined a women's choir, Bella Voce, and have been working a lot doing transcriptions and annotations at home. It's been a great job, but it's taking over my life a little bit.
Our family has had the missionaries over for dinner a couple of times, had a delicious, candlelit Valentine's Day dinner, celebrated our Family day in Wetaskiwin, had a good time at Broc's baptism and had Rob sleepover while my parents were in DC.
Madeline is busy as a bee. She's getting really good at going to the bathroom in the right place, but for some reason is deathly afraid of going "number 2" on the toilet. Any tips? Sheesh. She loves her Gymboree classes, still gets dressed up fancy everyday and loves to wear my high heels around the house. She's getting very excited to start preschool next year and has been loving the gorgeous weather.
Alright - to go along with my disjointed lists are some random pictures!
Madeline got this new dress from our friends as a hand-me-down treasure. She loves it. Can you tell?
Claire can fall asleep anytime, anywhere.
Madeline has picked up my penchant for perusing the flyers on the weekend.
A beautiful sunset over our garage.
Claire and her new walker. Note that she is standing and walking without sitting on the sling. Yay for Claire!
Candlelit Valentine's Family dinner - before
Candlelit Valentine's Family dinner - after
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTK1arRPHAHZoquWlH7cR1LHTjkQtcdWegoL1yuoNlzLpLM6FzaLN4jmOtdFxr9A7A2paqiWq1zHMD-L3BfIyaOvvQE6ud_S0l6gbeIJQR5aDwGhaOUBfodokeW2wJ0TO1tgK91Fkf9go/s1600-h/IMG_5977.JPG">
Madeline picking up some good life "skillz" from Dad.
I think we need a bigger tub. But there's always room for more bubbles, right?
Tandem head massages.
Claire sporting her Olympic shirt and long bangs whilst playing a tune on her pian-yo (as Maddie says it).
A typical dinner moment captured in time.
Here's a quick list of some highlights over the past....month and a half. Yikes
In point form...
Anniversary - We have now been married for 7 years! I feel like a schmuck for not doing one of those lovely, timely posts on the nature of our love. But we did have a wonderful time away at an undisclosed location where we had a lovely dinner at The Creperie, walked around downtown, browsed bookshops, jimmy-rigged a flat screen in our hotel so that we could watch a funny movie while swimming, slept in and had lots of fun.
Olympics - We watched them, we loved them, we bought the gloves. It was fun to be so patriotic. :)
Swimming - We love swimming at Millenium Place.
Big Al's shark feeding - that pretty much says it all.
Ryan spent a few days winter camping up near Hinton with the YM. He made it one night in the tent and spent the other in the cook house. Luckily they had good weather, ate well and had fun playing hockey and hiking. He had an educationally fun time at Teacher's Convention. He's been helping with the track team at school and attending track meets. He was also officially invested at Baden Powell night with the YM.
Claire had an opthamology appointment with Dr Lewis, I enjoyed my duty days at her school, she had a penguin visit her class, she had a vision assessment, we're figuring out kindergarten for next year, we had a fun music therapy class at the CNIB, she went to the GRIT Winter Festival with Lisa, and did her first scripture and prayer in our ward in primary.
I've lost 15 pounds in the past two months. Yay! I'm really enjoying going to Spa Lady. The group fitness classes are awesome. I've had a few meetings with the Preschool association and an open house for the school. I've joined a women's choir, Bella Voce, and have been working a lot doing transcriptions and annotations at home. It's been a great job, but it's taking over my life a little bit.
Our family has had the missionaries over for dinner a couple of times, had a delicious, candlelit Valentine's Day dinner, celebrated our Family day in Wetaskiwin, had a good time at Broc's baptism and had Rob sleepover while my parents were in DC.
Madeline is busy as a bee. She's getting really good at going to the bathroom in the right place, but for some reason is deathly afraid of going "number 2" on the toilet. Any tips? Sheesh. She loves her Gymboree classes, still gets dressed up fancy everyday and loves to wear my high heels around the house. She's getting very excited to start preschool next year and has been loving the gorgeous weather.
Alright - to go along with my disjointed lists are some random pictures!
Madeline got this new dress from our friends as a hand-me-down treasure. She loves it. Can you tell?
Claire can fall asleep anytime, anywhere.
Madeline has picked up my penchant for perusing the flyers on the weekend.
A beautiful sunset over our garage.
Claire and her new walker. Note that she is standing and walking without sitting on the sling. Yay for Claire!
Candlelit Valentine's Family dinner - before
Candlelit Valentine's Family dinner - after
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTK1arRPHAHZoquWlH7cR1LHTjkQtcdWegoL1yuoNlzLpLM6FzaLN4jmOtdFxr9A7A2paqiWq1zHMD-L3BfIyaOvvQE6ud_S0l6gbeIJQR5aDwGhaOUBfodokeW2wJ0TO1tgK91Fkf9go/s1600-h/IMG_5977.JPG">
Madeline picking up some good life "skillz" from Dad.
I think we need a bigger tub. But there's always room for more bubbles, right?
Tandem head massages.
Claire sporting her Olympic shirt and long bangs whilst playing a tune on her pian-yo (as Maddie says it).
A typical dinner moment captured in time.
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