Families are Forever

On April 21, 2016 my mom left this frail existence to rejoin her Father in Heaven.
She had been in and out of the hospital for the past 2 years with many health problems, but it was still shocking and heartbreaking to learn that she was put into a coma from which she would not awake.
When she passed, she was surrounded by her St. Louis family. For those of us who couldn't be there in time, my dad recorded messages from us and played them for her all day.

I am comforted by the knowledge I have of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. I'm grateful for the time I had with my mother here on Earth, for the time she spent with my children, and for the blessing of the temple which will allow us to be together again.

We drove to St. Louis for the memorial service and then to Kansas City for the burial. It was wonderful spending a few days with our family.

Her favorite granddaughters and her favorite color, purple.

I'm grateful for everything my mom taught me, and for the unconditional love she had for her family.
I'm holding on to the many many happy memories growing up with her! I'll never forget how she always rolled her eyes and tried to hold back a smile as my friends and I would cuddle up to her and persuade her to give us pretty much whatever we wanted. I definitely got my "soft side" from her.

 When I was little, my whole family went to Disney World and my mom made us all wear matching shirts with a picture of the temple that said "Families are Forever". I truly know that they are! And I'm so grateful I have a mom who taught this to me. I love you mom!

The Green Family 2003

April

-Paul's coworker saw the cake I made for Liam's last birthday and asked me to make a Minion cake for her daughter. We were getting ready to go out of town, so it was a rush job, but still so fun!

-I love when Spring Break falls on the same week as General Conference, because it is the perfect excuse to visit Grandma King!
She was so nice to prepare the General Authority bag activity for us, and she covered her coffee table with paper for the kids to draw and paint on.

Roasted hot dogs and marshmallows during Priesthood Session.

Walking the dogs between sessions

This week marked the start of Gavin's obsession with acting like dogs and cats. He does it ALL the time now!

On our way home we stopped at Jarom's house for a day to visit and go to the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day, but it was so much colder and windier than I expected! I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't just lay on the sand and soak up the warm sun, but collecting shells with Jenna and digging in the sand with the boys made for better family memories.

This was 2 seconds before he sat on Uncle Jarom's castle.

-Jenna spent the last couple days of her Spring Break playing school with Liam. She included reading time, recess, snack, a field trip, and making a sticker book. It was just about the best day of Liam's life!

-Once Jenna was back in school, we took the preschoolers on a field trip to Ivy Creek.

-Happy 33rd birthday to our favorite Paul!

-We made volcanoes when I taught about the letter v at joy school this month. They were all jumping around, laughing, and begging to do it again and again!

-We turned Gavin's car seat around, and the boys are both loving it! They are so stinkin cute; I love them so much!

-Jenna failed her hearing test at school, so we took her to the doctor to see what was going on. Paul and I have thought for years that her hearing wasn't 100%, but we let it go since no one else seemed to notice. So, we were kind of relieved to find out we weren't crazy.
The doctor tried to see in her ear, but couldn't see past all the built up ear wax, so the first thing they did was fill her ear with hydrogen peroxide to soften it up to wash it all out. Jenna thought the bubbling effect was so funny.

Once the wax was all cleaned out (it was a LOT), Jenna immediately said she could hear better. She described it like being under water before. She still barely didn't pass the hearing test, so we might have some more tests to do. But we're glad we now have this easy remedy in the mean time.

-My sister-in-law Kristy made us this "I love you because" sign for Christmas, and it's been fun thinking of new things to write for each other. One day after I had written something for Paul, we found this:

She really is just the sweetest little girl.