A Perry Tale: January 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

this little guy...

...always makes me smile. Picking him up from his crib or just when I'm about to lay him down makes me pause, breathe in all things baby about him -- his smell, his soft cheeks, his fuzzy hair -- and try to remember every moment, thank God for healthy kids and by then I'm getting all sappy and sentimental about the kids growing up too fast.

Ryan is such a good baby, you can't help but smile.

You can see his teeth in this photo!

Monday, January 20, 2014

celebrating Hannah

Enjoying Hannah's birthday with a little celebration!

Great Pa reading books with the birthday girl.

A Tinkerbell dress up costume!

Play doh!!

Also getting some attention :-) … playing footsie with Pa.

Suddenly shy.

Princess Sofia cake.

Hannah's request for a cake was "Sofia and Clover." Wish granted.

Sophia is a character on a Disney cartoon, Clover is Sofia's pet bunny.

Keep the hair OUT OF THE CANDLES!

Showing off all three fingers.

Licking the frosting off of Clover.

Who doesn't do that?!?!

{Side note: Hannah doesn't need cake. She could eat a pile of frosting. I'm pretty sure she could probably eat a heap of butter cream frosting as big as an actual cake. No joke.)

Birthday girl and mama.

Great Pa, Hannah and Lucas.

Getting the royal family all lined up.

Our princess.

The princess crown got a lot of miles that night...

But it seems to fit one head just perfectly. :-)

The party with family was the night before her birthday.

The day of her birthday she opened presents from dad, mom, Lucas and Ryan.

Even though the weather was anything but ideal, we did venture out for pizza - the birthday girl's meal of choice.

Happy birthday, sister!

A Sofia the Princess DVD for the van.

Honestly, it's about time. Hannah has been watching Lucas' DVD collection for years.

Daddy helped open while Hannah waited patiently.

An American Girl Bitty Baby.

The name game… We saw the movie Frozen a few days before Hannah's birthday. Elsa and Ana were great ideas for a name for her baby. She just has a hard time remembering which name she wants to call the baby. Sometimes it's Ana… sometimes it's Elsa. We'll see what name sticks as time goes on.

Friday, January 17, 2014

when Uncle Koen visited...

It was a bittersweet Christmas. We all missed Ann. We were so glad to have Koen in Iowa with us.

After a few days of celebrating the holiday with our whole family together, our family headed home. We were excited when Uncle Koen came with us! We had no plans for his time at our house and our little town - just our normal family time.

Playing the board game "Sorry."

Entertainment by a three year old...

Hannah, Ryan, Uncle Koen.

Koen and me.

After the kids were in bed it we had some good conversations and what I have referred to as "therapy." Reliving some of the moments of the last year. There are moments that only Koen, Brent and I experienced. It was comforting to discuss them and recall thoughts, feelings and conversations.

There was wine… and some tears… laughs, too.

A really great story from Christmas was the thought that Koen put into his many gifts to our family. Ann's hello ducky was a staple in her treatment. Yellow Duck accompanied her to every appointment, chemotherapy, laid with her on the radiation table and slept in her bed at the hospital and St. Peter's (hospice). Yellow Duck accompanied Koen to Iowa for her funeral, too.

Koen searched and searched for additional yellow ducks to give as gifts. There were none to be found. The company that manufactured yellow duck was purchased by another company ten years ago and they no longer produced them. Koen tracked down a staff contact from the new company website. He inquired if there were any yellow ducks to purchase. Anywhere. Sofie, the staff person who responded to the email, did more than her due diligence to look… she found three yellow ducks in a cardboard box in the basement. Koen was ecstatic and would've paid much more than they were worth to purchase them. He was so thankful he told Sofie the story of why these hello ducks are so important to our family. She must have a kind heart because upon hearing Ann's story, Sofie mailed them to Koen at no cost and told him the trio of ducks was anxious to meet their new family. There are still good people in the world.

The new ducks meeting their long lost duck friend at Koen's new home.

This is Koen's sense of humor:

Ready to go to U.S.?

No, master!

Upon arriving at the hotel in Chicago...

U.S. isn't so bad!

(apparently the ducks were ready to party - that's alcohol, cigarettes and a telephone with the ducks)

Ducky is fitting in well in our family. :-)

We are so thankful that Koen is a part of our family. No one ever plans on going through what we've experienced in the last year and a half. There was no one in the entire world that could have made her any more happy than Koen - before the cancer diagnosis and certainly not during her illness. He promised us more visits and I know he will be with us (even thousands of miles away) for more of life's milestones.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

blog books

Pouring over photos and stories from 2013... I love this. Exactly why I do it... Capturing memories.

Monday, January 13, 2014

<< teeth >>

This kid lost his first tooth!

It was December 27 and he had taken a bit out of a donut. He came to tell me his tooth felt funny and I looked - it was sideways! Of all foods, a donut! I thought it would be an apple or a piece of steak or something. Nope - appropriate for a donut loving kid.

And just a week before Lucas lost his first, Ryan's first tooth came IN! Three days later, the second tooth was in. When I tried to get a pic of those new, white buds he only wanted to play :-)