Family Photo Shoot, 2012

Valentine's Day, 2013

Getty came home early from the after-school seventh grade Valentine's Dance saying, "It was soooo lame. Everyone just stood around in groups."

I said, "Did you ask the girls to dance?"

Blank stare. "Well, there weren't any slow songs."

"You know you can ask on fast songs, right?" Blank stare.

"Oh... well, I guess I'll do that next year."


Getty and Mia made chocolate fondue.

Cody and Trent joined us for our traditional Italian "Dinner with Fire" (we'll carry on the tradition for you, Linda ;)

And Mia requested the "Vroom" game—say "Vroom!" with no teeth showing, and make the person next to you laugh.

 

Rob won.

February 8th, 2013

It was Friday, the first anniversary of Elle's death. We had a fun, sweet day, but the emotions were undeniable.

I got a call from Mrs. B informing me that Cam had had a meltdown at school, the first one all year. It was over a simple assignment. He was fine now, she reassured me. When he got home, he told me he had also cried at recess, because he missed Elle. I asked him if he was missing her now more than ever, or if he was getting more used to.... I hadn't even finished my sentence when he blurted, "More than ever!"

Cy ranted for 10 minutes over having to turn off the basement lights, because "I'm the only one that has to do extra jobs besides chores in the family!!" We call him Cy-erella.

Getty started crying when I told him he could go sledding with his friends and some cute girls for an hour-and-a-half. The time frame wasn't long enough.

Anyways... Back to the fun, sweet part.

Cy's note to Elle, "You are the bomb dot com."

We all wore pink. (Cy's practicing for future press shots.)

Cam thinks Cy's too funny and pretty much full of it.

I was told many of the kids at the elementary and middle schools wore pink in Elle's honor. Too sweet.

Mia (and McKenzie) have a long-standing ban on pink, so Mia just wore some rose earrings and her Elle locket.

The cousins and aunts and uncles all wore pink for Elle, too.

Aunt Megan had this blanket embroidered for us. I love it.

And Granny brought over this sweet framed gift. The photo is of Elle, who has just drawn a heart and her signature with sidewalk chalk. O my goodness.

The Primary started this love chain in our neighborhood again this year in memory of Elle. We each got Valentine treats and then passed some more on.



While the kids were at school, I took refuge at the temple with Tonya. After the session, I noticed a Bible on the table and opened it up, not knowing where I would start reading. It fell open to the Bible Dictionary. The first entry on the page was "Resurrection"—another sweet assurance and reminder that death is not the end.

Rob got home from work, and we played the Candy Bar game, which Elle loved (when she was winning, of course). Trent was over, so we added a bag of Cheddar fishies, so we had a treat for everyone. That bag of fishies was like pure gold. Cam would roll the dice and occasionally win a candy bar choice, choose the fishies, and then Cy would roll the dice and win the fishies back EVERY TIME after Cam had won.
(Mia opted out of what she called our "Cheesey" activities ;)

The drama unfolding...

Cam hiding his fishies.

Cam losing his fishies to Cy.

Cam trying to regroup.

Cam giving up his fishies once again.

And again...

We coaxed Mia into releasing some pink balloons for Elle in the backyard.

At 11:00 p.m., we got a knock at the door. It was Getty's friends McKenna, Abby, and Lauren. They had heart-attacked the door and gave Getty a heart attack when Rob woke him up from a dead sleep and told him cute girls were here to see him. Pretty sure he let them catch a glimpse of his shirtless chest before he got dressed and went downstairs ;)