I know that families are forever.

I don't really know where to begin this post. It is definitely log over-due. All I know is that the past three weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions. I guess I will start from the beginning. My mom and I had been planning a road trip to Ogden, Utah for my cousin's wedding. Honestly, I was really looking forward to it. I love traveling. Growing up, we would always drive. My cousin's wedding was going to be at the Salt Lake Temple. So, we were going to stay with my grandparents in Ogden. My mom decided to fly up to Ohio on March 31st and we would leave April 3rd to make it for my cousin's wedding which was on April 10th. Everything was going as planned. Two weeks before my mom was going to head up she called telling me that my Grandpa, my mom's dad, had a heart attack. She said not to worry though, he had surgery and was going to be fine. A few days after that he began to have problems breathing and the doctors thought that he pneumonia. After about a week of treatment he was only getting worse. I will never forget the day my mom called me and said that her and my brother were heading up to Utah. Grandpa wasn't doing so good. It was Tuesday March 24, right in the middle of Matt's test week. I was so scared. I always knew the day would come were my grandparents would pass but I was never really prepared for it. After a long and emotional 3 days my Grandma had to make the very difficult decision to turn off the machines and let him go. He passed away Friday, March 27. He was 85 years old. His funeral was held that following Monday. I was not able to attend the funeral. That was probably one of the hardest things to deal with. I wanted so badly to be there for my mom, her 4 sisters, and my Grandma. The prices of airline tickets were just too much. My Aunt Carol and a good friend of the family took some beautiful pictures and my mom told me everything that happened, so it was like I was there. My Grandfather proudly served his country with the United States Navy for 30 years. My two brothers and sister also serve in the military and were able to participate in the funeral. My brothers, 1st Sgt. Joshua Farmer, 1st Sgt. Adam Farmer, and my sister Petty Officer 1st Class JeriSue Pierce. My brothers were honored to be able to fold the flag at my Grandpa's service.
My sister presenting the flag to my Grandma.

I will never forget my Grandpa. He was a man that I always looked up too. He was a very strong and courageous person. He was also very funny and talented. He made the best homemade pies (banana cream was my favorite!) and homemade beef jerky (honestly, we would all fight over it). He was also very skilled with his hands. He could and would make anything out of wood. He made me a jewelry box one year for Christmas. When I was younger I loved cats and had a collection of them. He made me a wooden cat that I proudly added to my collection. It now sits on a shelf in Kaia's room. My earliest memory of Grandpa was from when I was probably 3 or 4. I remember driving around in his old, white, Ford Ranger pick-up truck. There was a silver button that you would have to push before you could turn the handle to open the wing of the window. Every time I would push that button Grandpa would honk the horn. He had me convinced that the button really did honk the horn. He and I would both get a huge laugh out of it. Also, when I was about 8 years old my dad and I were in a musical, The Music Man. He and Grams came to one of our performances. Grandpa told me that he could hear me singing over everyone else and that I did a great job. Mama told me that he watched me the whole time and just couldn't stop smiling. He was always so proud of us. Anytime we would send him pictures he would walk around the neighborhood and show us off to all of his friends. Everyone in the neighborhood knew us because Grandpa wouldn't stop bragging. When I bought my first car, he and Grams happened to be visiting when my dad, my brother, and I went car shopping. That morning Gramps and I were looking through the paper. We found a little silver Saturn SL2 that fit my criteria. I went with my dad and brother to take a look at it. Yes, I feel in love with it and bought it. I will never forget the look on Grandpa's face when I pulled into the driveway. He was grinning ear to ear. I gave him a hug and he looked down at me and said, "That's the one we found huh, darlin'?" I had a lot of fun looking at cars with him and getting his opinion. The last memory I will talk about is the last thing he told my mom about me. I was really broken up that I couldn't talk or see my Grandfather when he was so ill. So, I asked my mom to let him know that I loved him. When she told him that he said that he loved me too and asked her to tell me to take care of those boys for him. He loved my boys. I remember the day when we first found out that we were having the twins. My grandparents were visiting my mom and were there for the phone call. It took 10 minutes before my mom believed me and told them. My Grams and Gramps were so excited! I am the first to ever have twins in our family. A few days later when Matt and I began discussing names. I picked the name Gatlin Matthew and Matt picked Gabriel Maximus (both of his names were picked from his 2 favorite movies, The Patriot and Gladiator...mk9
gotta love that inspiration. LOL). We shared our ideas with my family and my Gramps suggested that we name both of the boys after Matt. He said that if wouldn't be fair to name one and not the other. We took that advice and decided on Gabriel Matthew and Gatlin Matthew. I could go on and on about my Gramps. He is one of the greatest men I have ever known. It was hard to let him go, but I know that I will see him again. It is comforting to know that he is out of pain and has been reunitied with his mother, father, siblings, and my cousins Dean and Jacob. Until we meet again Gramps, I will miss you. I love you.

Once upon a study break...

Matt has yet another week of tests starting Monday. (Blah!) I honestly do not know how he deals with it. I sure couldn't. Anyway, Matt got up early to head to the school to study but, took a little detour and bought the Twilight movie for me! (YAY!) He even brought it back to the house so that I could watch it, not that it happened. My children dominate the T.V. during the day and if I even try to watch something they are either in my face, climbing all over me, and as always, Kaia is non-stop talking. This evening, Matt came home to have dinner and spend a little time with the kiddos. When dinner was ready, he came down and said, "Why don't you put in your movie. I promised that I would watch it with you." I did a double take and asked, "WHAT?" Yes, he took TWO precious hours away from studying to watch Twilight with me. And that, my friends, is one of the many reasons why I love my husband. He is the best. Oh, and he even liked the movie. Yeah, Twilight has that effect on people. LOL

A brief moment of spring.

I have been so bad at blogging lately but, I do have a really good excuse. I have been really busy with my calling at church and have not had much time or energy to get on here, so this post is a little past due. Last week, Matt was out of school for his spring break. It was so nice to have him home. He did have to worry about studying or making it to class on time. To celebrate this rare occasion, we decided to spend a lot of quality time together. And believe it or not we actually had warmer weather. On Thursday, it was 55 degrees under cloudy skies but no rain. (Whew!) Then, I remembered, we had a free pass to the zoo that expired at the end of the month. We packed up our things and went. Kaia kept roaring at him, silly girl.I love this picture, she was so fascinated by the fish. This one kept following her finger. Gabriel really enjoyed watching the monkeys jump everywhere.Kaia loved watching the pennies go around and around. Matt eventually showed her how to stop it before it fell in. I think she would have stayed here for hours. Here is Gabriel taking a trip down the slide. The static electricity was pretty bad so Gatlin started to sport some "fraggle rock" hair (as Matt puts it) coming down the slide. Here is Sassy taking her turn down the slide, all by herself. Gabriel was loving this playground, of course I had to carry him up. He won't climb the steps on his own. And Gatlin and Daddy having a lot of fun. The higher Matt threw him, the larger his smile got. This picture pretty much sums up our day. It was so much fun to be together and to be outside enjoying the warmer weather. We put the boys in umbrella strollers and had Kaia run beside us. Three hours later, we decided to call it a day. Kaia was so tired on the way out of the zoo she kept asking Matt and I to "come here" which means: hold me. It was the perfect day. This week the temperatures have dipped back down into the 30s. It was nice to get a little preview of spring weather during Matt's spring break.

How can it be?! Kaia is THREE!

Today was Kaia's 3rd birthday. We decided to keep it simple and easy. Kaia loves balloons so I decided to theme her party after that. I had Matt take her to the store while me and the boys cleaned up and decorated. I had been telling her for a couple of weeks that her birthday was coming up. And every time she would respond by saying, "It's my happy birthday, I get cake?" LOL Yes, all she wanted was some cake. I decorated the dining room with streamers and balloons. For the cake, I made neon colored cupcakes and arranged them to look like a bouquet of balloons. When her and Matt got back she walked in and saw all the decorations. She was embarrassed at first... and then she went straight for the balloons!We invited just a couple of our friends over (Steph, Brain, Ryker, Beegh, Randee, and Sharlie. Thanks again for coming!) And we just hung out and had a really good time. Kaia and Ryker really loved the cupcakes and some Dum-Dum suckers. Matt and I got her a pink doctors kit, a little baby doll with outfits and shoes (she loves to dress them), and a huge princess coloring book. Ryker, her best buddy, picked out a pink cellphone and necklace for her. Randee and Beegh got her two books and the Dum-Dum suckers. Grammie and Grandpa got her an outfit and talking Toodee from Yo Gabba Gabba. My mom is going to be here in a couple of weeks and decided to hand deliver her present. Uncle Nathan and Aunt Jill sent her the movie "The Fox and The Hound". I would have to say that she lucked out and got some really great gifts. Thanks to everyone that helped make her birthday so special. (Wearing her stethoscope.) (Daddy telling her what the names of all the instruments are.) (After her fourth cupcake.) (Ryker enjoying his very green cupcake.)

I am still having a hard time dealing with the fact that she is three. But I think that I am going to like this age. She is becoming more independent and has been a really good help the last couple of days. Hopefully, she will keep this behavior up. Happy Birthday Kaia and yes, you get cake.

(Here are some pictures Randee took, with her awesome camera, for us at the party...aren't they great? Thank you so much Randee!)

"Uh, fold ya arms" - Kaia Britt

A couple of months ago I realized that Kaia was probably the loudest child during the prayers each sacrament meeting. So Matt and I decided that she was long over due and needed to learn how to pray and how to be reverent. It is not that I didn't want to teach her, I was just a little busy this last year and a half, thanks Gatlin and Gabriel, better late than never, right? Every night before Kaia would go to bed we started working with her on folding her arms, then, we would say a prayer and, finally, we would teach her to say amen. After a couple of nights it was a new part in her routine and she would pretty much pray all day. If I am sitting or standing with my arms folded she starts praying and if she is getting in trouble she will say, "Mama, uh fold ya arms" and start praying. Pretty smart kid if you ask me. How am I suppose to discipline her when she has Heavenly Father and Jesus on her side. Somehow, I manage.

(She always has to say a prayer with her brothers before bed.)

(And she has to say one with just Mom and Dad.)(Yay! She did it! She is always so proud.)(To my Mom: This picture is for you.)

And now she is ready for bed. This is her comfort. She pulls up her eye lid and holds it in this position until she falls asleep...yeah, I don't really get it either. But whatever works! My mom loves when she does this. It is hard to believe that Kaia will be 3 on Wednesday. She is growing up so fast and is already a good example to me and Matt. She loves to pray and is always our reminder to do so. It's funny because they say children look up to you and follow your example. But, I often find myself looking down at them and realizing that they are the better example.