Jonny Boy

Well, this is long overdue, and will probably be a couple posts to complete. But most of you know that my dad past away this past January. January 26th to be exact. And although I lost a mentor, a friend, and true role model that day, I know that my life has been forever changed not by just the life I got to live with him, but even moreso the experience of his last 2 years in his preparing to leave this world.

So yes, this will be a little deep, and spiritual, but hopefully moving in the same. As that is truly why I want to share. To motivate just like my dad loved to do; to inspire all of us to give it our best, not to receive glory, but because it’s the right thing to do.

In giving, there is receiving,
In love, there is loss,
Yet in losing, there is growth.

All these statements ring true in my relationship with my dad over the last 2 years of his life. We definitely loved, we gave a lot, and we lost. But in the end, it was worth it, and we definitely came away with more than I could have imagined. :)

It started one day with my dad whispering in my ear, "I think I'm dying" and pinnacled with a hand reaching out in love.

To put it lightly, it stunk seeing your dad waste away to nothing. A man that you looked up to in everything he did, who loved you through thick and thin, to be reduced to what we as humans would call "weak". However, in his "weakest" human hours, I truly believe that he was the strongest of his life, showing that no matter what this world gave to him, he would be ok. He knew there was more to life than what this world has to offer, far more.

My mom and dad told me a long time ago.... you know, this stinks, but you know what, "these are the cards we've been dealt". So when we placed my dad in the assisted living complex 3 years ago, we all knew it was going to be ok. It stunk, but we knew we'd be ok. Having to make that decision was probably the hardest decision I may ever have to help make. And there were many, many, many difficult nights, difficult days, questioning, crying, and more questioning. But through it all, the times I would go on to have with my dad behind those secured doors, changed my outlook on life forever. So the walls that I felt were locking my dad down, actually opened up my heart to a grace and gratitude and love that I've never experienced before.

I'll leave it there before this post gets too out of control, but want to end this post with a tribute to my dad that I wrote for him, well, 2 years ago now……Some of these statements can have dual meanings I guess, but are written truly to inspire and lead us to be our best out of true love.

Things My Dad Has Taught Me
(Mostly through his actions, but also in perceiving his life)

- It’s ok to fall
- In order to live life to it’s fullest, you need to take some risks
- There’s no substitute for passion-it’s what makes life worth living
- Go after things you desire
- Crying is ok-it means you are passionate about something
- Life could always be A LOT worse
- Be thankful for what you have, not just physically
- Be compassionate
- Don’t judge, cause sometimes you really just don’t know
- We are all extremely blessed, we just aren’t always extremely thankful
- Love is stronger than anyone can ever believe
- Life is tough, cherish what you have when you have it
- Don’t wish, dream and work hard
- Faith is special and we can all use A LOT more of it
- Some of life’s true blessings are found at the end of your rope
- Sometimes the challenge is all you need
- Friends truly are angels without wings
- It’s easy to disagree, it’s trying to truly understand the other viewpoint that can be so tough
- You don’t know until you try
- There is no one like your dad

Mckynzee - 3 months and Baptism

The weekend of October 23 and 24th was a big one for our sweet Mckynzee. On Saturday the 23rd she turned 3 months old. Wow, how time flies...I could hardly believe that she was 3 months old already...which meant my maternity leave was coming to an end. I sure loved being home with the girls for those 3 months. It was sure a challenge and I felt like a zoo keeper most days, but I wouldn't have changed it for the world. The last month, especially, was enjoyable. I felt like we had a great routine just in time for life to change. Mckynzee was finally starting to have more good days than bad. She was such a fussy, gassy little girl in the beginning which made it especially difficult. She wanted to be held all the time which didn't make the older girls very happy. It was a juggling act at first, but that 3rd month it felt like we all blended and really started to work together and enjoy our days together. Mckynzee became such a happy, talkative baby most of the time. I loved waking up in the morning to her smiling from ear to ear and listening to her high pitched voice. Her response to seeing my face just melted my heart...oh if only time could stand still. During this month, I made a future prediction that Mckynzee would be our social butterfly. She is just so responsive to people...I swear she'll carry on a conversation with anyone already and she is only 3 months old. She can be screaming her head off and then stop to smile when she sees you and say a few words before returning to screeching. Oh and does she have a high pitched squeal. It's just so adorable...I can't get enough of it. It's quite ironic for me to think that she was by far our most difficult, crabby baby and yet our most smiley, happy baby! She is just such a joy to have in our family. I feel so blessed!


At 3 months of age, Kynzee is still sleeping through the night (9 pm - 7 am). She is thumb sucker (ugh!), which I believe though helps her self soothe during the night because we find her in the morning sucking away. She is quite the chubby monkey, wearing 6 - 12 month clothes and size 2 diapers. Her head is still covered in dark brown curls and her eyes are still blue like her sisters. She reminds me more of Maddy than of Mylee in terms of looks, except for the dark hair of course. Her hands are always in her mouth as if she is already teething. She starting to use them although hasn't really quite figured them out. We don't quite have a routine down yet for her, as we have been on the go a lot but she loves to take naps in her swing or the bouncy chair. She enjoys bath time unless she is starving and therefore screaming for dad to hurry up and get her to mom so she can eat. She is a great nurser, although can be fussy at times due to the "colic". We started with the bottles more regularly too and she seems to have no problems. Thank god as that was not a fun experience with Mylee. So as I said, October was a great month for all of us, but one of a lot of positive changes for Mckynzee. She finally started to show signs of growing out of her fussiness, although there were definitely still days when she was quite uncomfortable. Oh, if only I had 3 more months to be home with the girls!

Our family at FIRST church for Kynzee's baptism

Sunday the 24th was also a special day for Mckynzee.


She received the sacrament of baptism shared by friends and family. She was baptized at the First United Methodist Church in Brighton where we have been regular attendants now for about a year. Actually, I think one of the first Sundays we attended church there was when we found out we were pregnant with Kynz. She did pretty good while getting baptized and really just got fussy where Pastor Sherry introduced her to her church family.

The blessing of the water

Love this picture of Jason calming her down

Mylee and Maddy where actually more of a handful, eating goldfish as a distraction up on the altar...a bit embarrassing.

Here Maddy is actually lighting Kynzee's baptismal candle

Kynzee's godparents Tricia Dewar and Chad Drayton were both there for her with their families. Tricia and Chad are both childhood friends of myself and Jason, respectively. Their families were like second families to both of us and we still are close with them. We chose them because we feel like they are the perfect people to love Mckynzee and help her in her spiritual journey. We are honored that they accepted to be this special part of our lives, especially for Kynzee.

Kynzee with her Godmother Tricia trying to get some sleep


Kynzee with her Godfather Chad...finally sleeping

Kynzee with her parents and godparents

Proud Parents

Another family shot after the baptism

My parents (Grandma Simone and Papa Jack), Grandma Nancy, cousin Jordyn, and Dave and Sherri Drayton were also there to share such a special day with us. It was a beautiful morning followed by a wonderful fall afternoon with everyone.

Papa Jack and Grandma Simone

Cousin Jordyn

Grandma Nancy and Sister Maddy

The Dewar Family

The Drayton family

Tricia also took time out of her crazy life to shoot some 3 month photos of Mckynzee. She is an amazing photographer who we feel so lucky to have capture this time in Kynzee's life. We always feel bad having Tricia spend hours trying to take pictures of our kids, rather than visiting with us, while we are together but how could we pass up the opportunity to capitalize on her talent. We couldn't imagine any of else's perspective being a better fit for us. Thank you Tricia for being so amazing!

Check out Mckynzee's 3 month photos at http://triciadewarphoto.com/blog/mckynzee/.

A few funny stories for the photo shoot: First of all, we couldn't get Mckynzee to fit in Tricia's newborn basket. We tried to stuff her in there and then puck in all her chubby limbs but we just couldn't quite get her to fit. So I had to hide my hand under the blanket behind the basket and hold Kynzee's head up since it was sort of in an awkward position. I warned Tricia that she was BIG! Along those same lines, Tricia said she would bring some headbands for her. I said that I doubted she would fit in one. So Tricia had to bring toddler headbands for her. We did try to put on an adorable baby hat. I forced it on because I thought it would be super cute but Kynzee wouldn't stop crying to get any pictures in it. I think it was so tight that it was crushing her head and she just wasn't having it. Oh, did we have fun laughing!

October Festivites

During the fall we always have so much fun preparing for Halloween. It is a beautiful time of the year to be outside and the kids love all the activities we do relating to autumn. This year was a lot of fun for me, especially, because I was still on maternity leave and was able to enjoy being home with the girls. Some of the highlights this year were pumpkin carving (as every year is), making a scarecrow with grandma Nancy (oops, we forgot to get a picture), searching for pumpkins throughout the neighborhood (Mylee was obsessed with "Ppppaaa"s), counting the bats and spiders hiding downtown Howell, visiting the animals at the Howell Nature Center, trick-or-treating during the Legend of Sleepy Howell and having cousin Jordyn win the funniest costume, searching for personalized pumpkins, and then ending the month with an unforgettable trip up north to celebrate Jaelyn's 6th birthday and spend time with the family and compete in the annual Kriegl pumpkin carving contest (post to come).

Pumpkin Carving as a Family

Our first attempt at getting a picture of the 3 girls with pumpkins

Kynzee all smiles by herself

Mylee loved the pa's on her shirt

Maddy showing us her pumpkin she picked out at a local farm

Maddy and Daddy cleaned the pumpkins out as Mylee and Mommy watched as we are both texture freaks and find the pumpkin guts pretty disgusting

...in fact she gagged

Mylee enjoyed her first pumpkin carving experience nonetheless

Maddy helped me poke holes

Our finished products...Shrek and Elmo
(We had to go easy this year as we have our hands full with the 3 kids as it is)

Searching for Bats and Spiders downtown Howell

Mads and Jojo enjoyed our night out as a family walking around downtown Howell

Maddy finds a spider

Mylee does too

Kynzee slept through it all...next year she'll be able to help

Maddy throwing a fit when we where finished

Howell Nature Center

The girls loved this buck...actually they loved all the animals

It was gorgeous walking through the woods on a fall day and having all the leaves crunch under our feet. This was one of my last days on maternity leave with the girls and it was a great way to spend the day!

Legend of Sleepy Howell

Another attempt at the 3 girls together, this time with their costumes
before going trick-or-treating downtown
Maddy - Pippi Longstocking
Mylee - Pippi's monkey Mr. Nielson
Kynz - Pippi's horse Mr. Alfonzo

Freckle-faced, red-headed girl

She is our monkey...that's for sure
She says she is an "uh, uh, ah, ah"

Can't get enough of this sweet pony

Jordyn as a baby
(She won the funniest costume in her age category)

Look who's coming to your town...2 Pippis

Maddy with Hayden and Kendal who came to enjoy Howell with us
and reap the benefits of still paying taxes here

Love this picture of Hayden...and love this girl to death

The gang losing control at this point (minus Marnie who was working)

Personalized Pumpkin Hunt

Trying to get a picture of the kids before letting them loose to find their pumpkins

Maddy helped Mylee find her's in a leaf pile

Maddy happy after finding her's hidden in the sand box

Kynzee apparently still looking for her's even though she is sitting right next to it

All 12 pumpkins after being found
My dad did an awesome job on the pumpkins this year.
The kids just loved having their OWN pumpkins.

All the grandkids accompanying their pumpkins and smiling

Grandpa wanted another angle and since the kids were cooperating we were able to get it

We tried again with costumes but by this time the kids were DONE
We should have known better

We tried another one of our 3 girls in their costumes
(I'm hoping next year will be a little easier)

Love this picture of the beautiful birthday girl
"Happy Birthday Our Sweet Jaelyn"

We unfortunately did not get any picutres from Halloween night trick-or-treating. We got home 30 minutes before it was time to go out so we were rushed. I took the older 2 girls out for about 30 minutes. Mylee was more interested in riding her new bike but eventually figured out what Maddy was doing and that she was getting candy so she participated. She was pretty cute running up to the houses holding her bag up. She would say please and thank-you but wasn't quite able to say trick-or-treat. Maddy was sweet helping her up the steps and telling her what to do. We only made it half way around the block and Maddy was ready to go home and hand out candy instead. Mylee was ready to go home and eat the candy. So it was over and done with before I even thought about taking pictures. Good thing we spent all month trying to take pictures of the girls in their costumes.