Not quite the Partridge Family....

The angels are singing

Tuesday night we received a phone call letting us know that our Grandma Thelma had passed away after a long, exhausting battle with Cancer.

While we are so so sad to know she isn't here physically with us anymore, we are SO happy to know that she isn't hurting anymore. So happy to know that shes in heaven dancin' with Jesus!
While we know we won't get to see her next time we visit Papa Jerry, we find HUGE comfort in the fact that we WILL see her again someday.

Because she had a personal relationship with Jesus, because she loved him with everything she had, because she found Joy in calling him 'Father', she is now in a place where there is no more pain. No tears. Where she will never go hungry. Never go thirsty. Never again know sadness!

Grandma Thelma has made an incredible dent on my heart spiritually. You never questioned where she stood in her faith. Never questioned what was most important to her in life: her relationship with her very best friend in the entire world, Jesus.

I've learned from Grandma Thelma how important it is to let those you love know it, every chance you get. She thought the world of her family and friends and would do anything for them.
She was a beautiful woman, inside and out and I can't wait to party up in heaven with her someday. :)

I want each and every one of you to know that I do love you. I so totally care about each of you. I wouldn't call you my friend if I didn't. I hope if there has ever been any question in your heart as to what this 'God thing' is about, that you won't wait another second wondering, that you would simply ask! God loves each of you more than you could ever imagine. He physically died for you so you wouldn't have to for every little sin! How freakin' awesome is that?! I love that regardless of how screwed up I think I am, God looks at each of us as his precious child. SO cool.



Grandma Thelma loved her Livie-girl :)





This last picture is from a trip we took a few weeks ago to see Papa and Grandma Thelma so that she could meet Miss Samantha and spend some precious time with her two great-granddaughters :)


And precious time it was.

I'm lame.

No, seriously. I know this because I couldn't even manage to post a picture of my youngest daughters first Halloween until now. Yeah. Lame.

Well, regardless, we DID have a super fun time getting the girls dressed up and showing them off to all the grandparents and great-grandparents.

Miss Olivia decided VERY early on in the season that she wanted to be a fairy. And a cow. And a duck. And Dora. But after realizing that there is only 1 Halloween, she settled for the fairy. And an incredibly DARLING fairy she was:


Our little ladybug was pretty darn cute too, I must say...
And as you can see, she was TOTALLY digging the costume and the camera flashes and the fact that we LEFT HER ON THE FLOOR ALL BY HERSELF!! *GASP!* The nerve, I know. We are awful parents.

All was well in the world again once she was tucked back into the Moby, or her 'cotton womb' as I like to refer to it as.

Miss Olivia was all about the trick or treating this year my friends. In fact, she had the trick part down cold. I'm not sure how many times we tried to explain to her why knocking and then turning and running down the sidewalk wasn't the right way to beg for treats. I think by the last house she finally got it, as long as I was standing RIGHT NEXT TO HER AND DON'T LEAVE, MOM!! *sigh* oh my little daredevil....
We tried and tried to convince Sam that if she just gave the old trick or treating thing a try, she may really like it, but she just turned her little nose up at me and rolled her eyes way back into her head-farther than I really thought humanly possible-and promptly went back to sleep. Can you say BOR-ING?!

In between houses, lack of sleep mixed with hints of a pending sugar high began to ooze from Liv's little body. She began to entertain us with some obviously practiced fairy dance moves:

Watch out 'So You Think You Can Dance'! I KNOW this one can dance!!

Dad was pooped by the time we made it back home. What, you would think he worked all day or something?! Oh, wait, he did....
So some down time with his girls is just what he needed before everyone was whisked off to bed to sleep off their sugar-induced comas....


I'd say we had a pretty fun night. (Considering we landed at least one Baby Ruth bar, it was a freaking EXCELLENT night in my book!)