Easter Thoughts

I have been thinking about Pierce a ton lately. Brigs and Frank (my nephew) and I went to the cemetery a couple days ago to take some Easter decor and ever since then I have been close to tears thinking about him a lot. My nephew was looking at the dates and said "May 2011, it's been two years?" I can not believe that in a little less than 2 months he would be 2 years old, and in 4 months he will have been gone for 2 years.

The following two days after our visit, during my runs I had bouts of tears just thinking about how much I miss him. I am so amazed at how grief can change over time and not hurt so intensely all the time but the missing is still so strong. I just want to know what he'd be like, look like, what our life would be. I just miss holding him and snuggling him. I miss him when I do these things with my other kids.

Brigs talks about Pierce a TON. Like multiple times a day. He always says things like "Pierce is in Heaven with Jesus" and he always talks about sending him balloons and something about if he could catch it and pop it and then I am lost. haha not sure if he thinks that would bring him down or what, but I love that he thinks about him so much.

Last night we were talking about Easter and why we celebrate it. We read a little story about Easter and talked about how because Jesus died and was resurrected, we will be able to also. So will Pierce, and our family can be together again.

Koen decided he probably ought to read Brigs this children's book from Seagull called "what happens when people die." Someone gave us this book when Pierce died (thank you) it is really good. So Koen is reading this book all matter of factly, teacher like, to Brigs and asking him questions..."what happened to Pierce's body and spirit?" etc. I could not help but let the tears flow. How sweet is that? And how sad at the same time? He wanted to help Brigs understand this better when I wish neither of them really needed to understand that at all. Then of course Koen asks, "mom are crying because of Pierce?" He is just so tender. love him.

We had my nephews this past week and in the car one of them said something about a baby and Brigs said "babies die." Frank was like "no they don't" and Phil and I leaned into each other and said "to him they do." :( so sad.

Today I am just so grateful for Easter. For our Savior. For his death and his Resurrection. I am so glad to know that one day our family will be able to be together again. We will be able to see Pierce. He will have a perfect body that wont be sick. I know this will happen and I look forward to it with great Joy.

Me Lucky to Have You

I made a sign for my house last year for St Patricks day that says "Me Lucky to Have you," seriously my favorite sign. I loved reading it everyday and having it as a reminder.

I went to Scrapaway the weekend before St Patricks day and was awful surprised the leprechaun still found us. ;) We woke up to treats in our shoes, as usual, green peeps in our toilet, green streams all around and green milk! SHE even left us a new movie, a note and a pin wheel for Pierce.

 Then we had green smoothies and pancakes! YUM!

 We all dressed in lovely green for church and then on the way home we stopped by the cemetery to take Mr P his pinwheel. :) Love him.

Was it Scrapaway??? Or Craftaway?

One of my favorites times was here again, Scrapaway. You know I missed the fall one because we were on a cruise and I refused to miss this one for the same reason, so...I left a whole 3 days later. :) Like I mentioned I am done actually paper scrapping, but Stacie and I had no shortage of crafts to take on. I also got 3 great runs in, with fabulous weather and enjoyed time with great friends, wins all around. And I def could not leave out my most fabulous husband, who really is the bomb. He willingly worked 3 12's in a row starting the day after we got home {more the day of since we didn't get home til 1:30 AM} then did Super Dad all weekend so I could go. Ladies, it doesn't get much better. I am one lucky girl. ♥

 Stac had a birthday the day before we left. My cute sis surprised her with singing and cheesecake!

 The whole She-bang

Crafty!!!

Disney Cruise- Part 3

Wednesday March 6th- Sea day
You know what one of the best parts of an inside cabin with kids is? Not having any clue what time it is when you are sleeping. Most days our kids slept til 9 or 10 if we didn't wake them up. So great. This day we of course spent the day at the pool. Did I mention the weather was amazing while we were at Disney World? It really was perfectly warm, but not too hot. The rest of the trip the weather was warmer. Not great still, but a blanket and jacket weren't as necessary! haha

 After a day out and about we had to get ready for pirate night. So fun! I love how on every night there was a theme they had the characters and staff dress up to theme. We all brought our pirate A game, and decked ourselves right out!

 Of course we hit the show which was maybe the hypnotist(boring) or the "Disney Dreams" show, which was great. Lumier came out again which Brigs was more than happy about. AftertThey had a pirate party up on the deck. All the characters were out dancing and then Mickey ziplined across the top! Pretty awesome.

Of course they ended the party with a buffet. They had a cool ice sculpture and lots of food! Mr. B feel asleep mid show and was totally out!

Thursday March 7th- Key West
We had one goal for our day in Key West....make it to a beach! We had yet to be on a beach or in the ocean, it needed to change. We had to ride a little trolley out of the Navel base were we docked and that was nice and scenic. :)

 Then we hit the town. We walked and shopped in route to the beach.

We were stunned and alarmed when we showed up to the beach with our families in tow to a naked man standing there. I was DYING! "Phil, can he do that? Laura do you see him?" Once we got to the front side of him we realized he wasn't actually naked but wearing a nude banana hammock G string. Wow. After we passed by him we made our own little spot and had a nice time at the beach.

Of course on the way back Phil and I had to get a picture with our favorite Maragaritaville. We didn't get our nachos this time, we had other plans. :)

We decided to hurry back to the ship in time to catch Wreck it Ralph in the theater. Although once we got in Brook, Laura and I decided it was a nice time for a girls lunch. :) Awe, perfect. Then of course we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. 

 This was our last formal night. Of course we needed a picture with Goofy looking rather spiffy. Too bad I look like I am ready to run away...what am I doing? lol

This was out last night eating at Lumier's. The boys needed a picture with Lumier for a keepsake. :)

Phil is always a good one at taming the crazy littles.

We were all pretty tired this nice and opted to not hit the late night show after the regular one. Except that Phil missed the memo. haha He took our kids to the kid's camp while I was waiting for him out in the hall by our room. haha at least our kiddos got to make fun pillow cases at Pluto's pajama party!

Love these little rugrats...so much!
Friday March 8th- Last sea day
I don't have one single picture of the day, we really just had a low key day. Movies, naps, laying out, exercising. Pretty great. Our last dinner was at animators palate. That was for sure my favorite restaurant. Not because of the food really, I just thought it was cute.

 Phil had to catch this shot of B....see if you can tell where it is....He said he had to document it because he spent half of his trip there. ;)

We did go to the final show kidless this night. We let our kids go do the goodbye party in the clubs. Then we went to the adult show which was a comedian/juggler. It was actually really funny. During it we got a text letting us know B had fallen asleep in the Oceaneers club. awe.

A few final photos....

Saturday morning we disembarked and headed back toward Houston. We spent our morning shopping at the outlets, then hit lunch with the Browns, Wrights and Howlands at a yummy Mexican place. After we checked into our hotel for what but more swimming....

We hit the sheets early that night and flew home Sunday evening after just chillen and hitting another of our PA favorites, Panera. I sure loved vacationing with this boys. :) {as usual, wish we weren't always missing one :( }