1 Year Post-Fire

A year ago the day started out as a normal spring weekend day for us...we went to church, had lunch, lounged around a bit at home and then headed out to "the farm" (my parents) for a Sunday afternoon visit and some mushroom hunting.  Grandpa was working on the horse trailer at the garage so Phil and Grant stayed up there with him.  The rest of us, along with Grandma headed to the woods to do some mushroom hunting.  All was right with the world and we were laughing and enjoying ourselves.  Then I heard the first explosion...assuming it was nothing, we continued hunting.  At the sound of the 2nd explosion, my mom and I shared a look and said that we should go check things out.  As we looked up towards the house, we could see flames shooting from the roof and the explosions continued.  We ran through the woods out into the lane, where we were stuck just watching the house burn, with Phil and my Dad running in and out of the house and poor Grant watching from the pasture fence where they told him to go and stay.  I remember talking to 911 and then waiting what seemed like hours to hear the sirens coming down the road.  I remember the look on my mom's face and the the feeling of panic rising up. I remember calling my brother and sister-in-law to tell them to come...calling two friends to ask them to pray...all while waiting in the lane until the fire department okayed us to come closer.  I remember seeing Phil, my dad and Grant and knowing they were okay....the look on my Dad's face when we finally got to him.  Seeing Molly, their dog being coddled by a friend/EMT who had rescued her from the house and given her CPR...I remember firetrucks, firemen, neighbors, family and friends rushing down the road to us.  The memories come flooding back as I look at these pictures.  I remember the sick feeling in my stomach as we got our first look inside the house...the horrid smell as we packed up belongings for my parents to come stay at our house for the night...the feeling of helplessness at not being able to fix things....I remember not being able to sleep because my body was so tense that I couldn't relax enough to sleep...I remember like it was yesterday.  But, it was a year ago and life has gone on.  It has changed, but it has gone on...and we are all okay.  We are haunted by the memory, but we rejoice at the new structure and the safety of all of us that could have easily been hurt.  The following are some pictures of the day after the fire and present day...The comparison is simply breath-taking to me.  I tried to take very similar angles of the original after-fire shots to show the difference.  I started to write about each picture and explain it...but realized that the pictures tell the story really. 

 

Last year on this day...we had no idea what was coming late that afternoon...no idea. Life was turned upside down and has not been the same since...but we have moved forward, grown closer and loved each other through much.  For that, I am thankful.

eggs

Easter Sunday we got up and  went to an earlier church service.  Daddy was on sound for church and would be gone ALL morning for 3 services, so we decided we would come home from church and then color Easter eggs (nothing like waiting til the last day, huh?).  We were all a little grumpy from getting up early, but managed to have a good time anyway!  Here's Kiara...she had such a hard time not moving the cup around and sloshing the water everywhere!

Grant hard at work writing special messages on his egg before dying them.

Brock checking out if the egg is dark enough for his liking...

Kiara was in awe of how the eggs changed colors. She knew they were going to, but seeing it herself was shocking apparently!

Eggs are colored and we are happy!

All three kids after their egg hunt!

We had a fun time hunting eggs as well...it took awhile as the Easter bunny forgot some places where they were hid and we couldn't find them.

Kiara reacted the same way for each egg she found, mouth open and a gasp/squeal!Of course, then she had to dump it all out to find out what she had.

Ahhh, the joy of being a kid again!

Easter

I'm way behind on blogging again. I think I will get caught up, only to fall behind again.  I have several posts started and saved and several more that are in my head...but tonight I am determined to at least do one post before I turn in for the night. If I had posted this right after Easter I would say something like "He's alive...He's alive indeed!", so I was wondering what do I say when it is several weeks past?  Well...HE'S ALIVE...HE'S ALIVE INDEED!  Because praise God that He isn't just alive on Easter, He is alive and present each and every day!  What an awesome God 

I'm not sure why Grant looks squishy in this picture. And his hair has been cut since then so he isn't nearly as shaggy!

Kiara in her Easter dress. Her and Daddy picked this out together on a shopping spree and she was madly in love with it. She asked every day if she could wear it yet, to which we would say that she had to wait until Easter Sunday. Easter morning, she raced out of bed and said "I can wear my new dress today!!" Her hair was curled for church, but drooped very quickly.

The boys wanted to change as quickly as possible, but Kiara would've slept in her dress I think. Here she is playing bashful with Grant.

Brother/Sister Love

Mommy and her K-Bug

Kiara learned during spring break how to do the "rock and roll hand" and is always doing it when she hears music. This picture was supposed to be all of us doing that, but somehow, I was the only one!

Easter eggs and Egg hunt in a later post...but don't forget, as my kids would sing to you..."God's not dead, He's surely alive!" Amen!

Spotlight on an Artist

We were surprised last week to discover that Grant, our 3rd grader, had artwork that was selected to be in an art show.  Each year, each of the elementary schools and intermediate school have an art show at a local art gallery.  The art teachers at the schools choose what they see as the best pieces and display them for the community to see for the entire month of March.  They had the special Open House to kick things off this past weekend.  We were very proud that Grant actually had two pieces in the art exhibit to be displayed.  He really has enjoyed art this year.  I was impressed with the fruit basket...I can't draw a fruit to save myself!

In art class, they have been studying Picasso, who is a famous painter that I like to say was a little "out there"...Grant has been very interested in him and how he worked, so this next project he was very proud of.  He even came home and did a couple more in the same style with markers just for fun.  When we were at the gallery, he told us that this was a "Picasso" portrait of Tim Tebow and then proceeded to show us the characteristics that made it look like Tebow!  Gotta love it!  Even art relates to the Broncos for us!

Here's our handsome guy in front of his art work...it was up higher on the wall, so you can just barely see both of his at the top of the picture.  Great job Grant!  We are so proud of you buddy!

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve we put out our cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, along with a letter to Santa...here we are, all ready for bed and excited for Santa to come!

HE CAME!!!!!!!

Santa brought us lots of goodies...each of the kids got a Tim Tebow Broncos jersey!  That might have been the favorite gift of all, I think!

Kiara enjoyed opening presents this year and began playing with her dollhouse right away!

Lots of the gifts were Denver Broncos or Penn State...Grant also got a new Bible and Bible cover and both boys got a Broncos watch!

It always seems to be done so fast...all of the build up and then done in the blink of an eye...leaving a path of destruction and aftermath in it's wake...the kids played while Mommy and Daddy cleaned it all up before getting ready for church!

Later on...Kiara found Grandma's mascara in her bedroom and tried to apply it herself.  She came out announcing that she was BEAUTIFUL!  She is, but I'm thinking it isn't because of her make-up skills! HA! 

Another Christmas come and gone...so much work to prepare and then it's over and done. Until next year...

Family Memories

It is now March..and Christmas blogs have not been done...so I think they will be brief blips/blogs in order to catch up...glimpses into our time, if you will because I simply don't see my life slowing down anytime soon!   We had Christmas on Christmas Eve with my parents, brother and his family and my Grandma.  Those six grandkids LOVE their time together.  They had a blast playing together and we noticed a definite split between the boys and girls this time...the girls were playing dress-up and beauty shop and obviously the boys wanted nothing to do with that!  Here's a picture of the 6 grandkids with Grandpa and Grandma...very difficult to get a picture of all of them looking, smiling and not making a face (main problem was my little terror of a 3 yr old!)

One of my niece's gifts was a little make-up set and she decided to give Great Grandma a little bit of a makeover after her and Kiara were all made up.  If you know my grandma at all, it would shock you that she would let them do this.  She was such a good sport and the "girls" had a great time together.

Here Grandma is with all of her makeup on!  I couldn't believe she let me take her picture.  She HATES having her picture taken...I think for almost 95 she looks amazing!

Kiara decided to be our entertainment for awhile..she sang, danced, played her little piano and drums...and we laughed and laughed.  I can't remember ever seeing my grandma laugh so much in my life!  It was really fun to watch her watching Kiara!
I can never get my videos to load here but we have some of Kiara's performances and all of us laughing hysterically in the background.  What a kook!

Here's Great Grandma with 6 of her 10 great grandkids.

Kiara's favorite gift this year...her pink cow'girl' boots from Grandpa.  She adores them and wants to wear them all of the time.  Her favorite outfit after Christmas was her pink Tim Tebow jersey, leggings and her cowgirl boots!

More to come...