Forever in our hearts...Grandma Willis

While the country was celebrating Memorial Day this past weekend, our family had a sad loss.


My grandma Lila Willis passed away. These past few days have really allowed us to lean on our strong beliefs and be thankful for the knowledge that we have about the plan of salvation and in knowing that we will be with her again someday.







She has been quite sick for awhile, including the beginning stages of Alzheimers and a bad fall 4 months ago that led to a broken hip. She has not been back home since then as different parts of her body just were giving out.


While we have been incredibly sad at our own loss, we also have the great knowledge that Monday was a great reunion day for her. Over 50 years ago she lost a 3 yr old daughter in a car accident, and as a mother now myself, I can only imagine the loss she carried in her heart in not having her daughter to raise. She is now reunited with her precious daughter Kay and with my Grandpa that we lost to cancer when I was 5 yrs old.


This loss makes me so thankful that she has been freed from the pain she was in, but she also leaves a large posterity that will miss her until we are with her again.

I was lucky to have lived close by my grandmother while growing up and to be able to spend lots of time with her. My favorite times were when I got to spend a few days at her house, just me and her. We would spend time baking together and reading stories. I am sure all the grandkids remember her "library" that we got to check books out from! She always had an immaculate home (that must be where I got my OCD from!) and a beautiful yard. I used to love eating the huckleberries that grew in her backyard. She was a frugal woman who saved everything, just in case she might need it again. Just this past week while going through some of her papers we found thank you letters that we had written to her as children more than twenty years ago. It was such a fun thing to find on such a hard day. We also had fun laughing and crying as we looked at old pictures and letters that she had saved.

I know that she loved her family very much and while we do mourn her loss, I know that I will see her again. Till we meet again...

Feeling a little Crafty

I have been getting the fabulous Family Fun magazine for quite a few years now and I always see things and think "Hmm...that would be fun to do." So I rip out the page and file it away to be forgotten. However, last month had the cutest thing- and it was so easy, I had to do it! Kelsi helped me today when she got home from school.





Kayli loves her new toy!! And I love that I already had everything to make it!

And in case you were wondering, my baby does know how to smile, she just refuses to do so in the presence of any recording device :)

Wii had an accident!

Since Kelsi was ready for school early this morning, I let her play a little Wii bowling. She is an amazing bowler and is known to get strike after strike. This morning she got a little too excited and this is the end result...





RIP Vizio! We loved you while you were with us.

Look what we have at our house!!

Cousin Fun in the Sun

Andrew always has so much fun with his cousin Ben. This past week Ben came and spent a few days at our home and these two little boys just played and played all day..

One day was so nice they played outside for over 6 hours! I could not get them to come in. I quit fighting it and just threw some food outside for them to eat :) They played at this water table for most of the time...


I did get them to stop playing long enough to eat a little food...


and by 7:30 that night they crashed!! My favorite kind of day!


Sunshine and cousins are two of our favorite things!

Happy Easter

In years past, we have always had Easter Egg hunts at home or at the Buttons house. On Saturday before Easter, I took the kids to 2 Easter Egg hunts in the community. (Same fun for them, less work for me!) We had a great time, depsite the crazy chaos and all of the already over-sugared children. The kids were actually better behaved than many parents who I saw! The first picture is when they started the hunt and asked that ALL adults stay outside the boundaries and let the kids go in alone. See all the adults?? I even heard one parent telling his child to push kids and do whatever it took for him to get the golden egg so he could win a basket. Nice lesson to teach a child! I very loudly said to my children, after I heard him coaching his son, that this was just for fun and to help little kids and make sure that everyone had some eggs. :)


Here is Andrew, proudly holding up his basket of eggs.


Kelsi with her basket.


The kids Easter morning before church...we were rushing so we didn't have time to get Kayli to smile. She really does smile, but so far NEVER when a camera is present.


This is a cute outfit from Kayli's Great-Grandparents, the Tolmans. The onesie is from a friend, who thought it was perfect for Kayli. I agree, isn't she a doll??

Spring Break Fun

Dave had to be on call for work the week of Spring Break, so it was either we stay home (boring!) or we head over to see family with just me and the three kiddos. I was a little nervous for the long drive with Kayli, but she slept the entire way over! We started by going to my brother's new house is Gig Harbor. We hadn't seen it yet, so it was lots of fun. They live right by the beach and the kids had lots of fun with their cousins.


Kelsi and Madi were looking for crabs to catch and torture...


Andrew and Gavin just wanted to throw rocks in the water.


On Monday we headed south to Olympia so that my grandparents could meet Kayli. She loved her Grandpa Tolman so much! (We all do!) We had such a great visit with them. My Aunt Ann from Alaska and her daughter Keren and her 2 kids were there also. It was fun to catch up with everyone. We also got to visit my Grandma Willis and spend some time with my parents.


Tuesday found us at the Pt. Defiance Zoo and before we could even park this Peacock wanted to play with us.


The kids all rode the free carousel until they were dizzy...


This was the highlight of the day if you ask Andrew. See the post below!!


As we were leaving the zoo a rather scary looking clown offered to make free balloon animals for the kids. Siting next to him was a rather large looking bucket for donations :) When he asked Andrew what he wanted, Andrew of course said "A Whale!" Well, Scary Clown said he couldn't make a whale and what was Andrew's second favorie animal? "A whale!" Finally after going back and forth for a few minutes they settled on a tiger. But seriously, how hard can it be to make a whale?? This is all the kids with their balloons.


We hardly have all the grandkids together at the same time so we thought it would be fun to get pictures taken. At the Beach. Ha ha. It was pouring down rain and freezing cold. But we got some cute pictures. This one was almost good, till I realized that I cut my dad's head off. Sorry dad. After the few minutes of freezing the kiddos, we took them all to McDonalds and let them take over the playland for awhile. Good times!


Friday meant it was time to head home. My drive over the pass had been great going over, just a little windy. Then I kept hearing all week how it had been snowing so much. Yuck! This is what we saw as we drove back home. But the sun was shining and no snow was falling...yay!


I was relieved to get over the pass with no weather issues but before I knew it we were sitting still and not moving. Ugh! There was an accident that caused my normally 2 1/2 drive home to take more than 4. Really not nice to do to a mother driving with 3 young children. Despite the craziness of the week we had a splendid time and hope to invade, I mean visit with, our family again soon!!