Logan's Blessing

Logan's blessing was on Sunday October 14th.  So, of course, our families came into town and we fit in as much stuff as possible!  The Smiths came into town on Thursday night late so we just hung out.  Madison & Brooklyn loved being around baby Logan.  I'm a fan of Logan's hair in this picture.

 

After unorganized plans of maybe going to Disneyland Friday didn't work out, we decided to go to Downtown Disney instead.  We had some yummy lunch at Rainforest Cafe and ate waaaayyyy more than we should have before heading over to the Lego store.  Let me just tell you that it's a good thing Daniel doesn't have a credit card because he wanted to spend a couple hundred dollars in there!  Legos are definitely his new thing.  Then us adults decided to go to Matt's school's varsity football game so we got a babysitter and went.  The team did not do so well, but the announcer was pretty funny.  "People who stand up for the kickoffs enjoy them 65% more than those that don't."

 

 

 

Papa, LouLou, and Josh got in late Friday night after much confusion with the flights, first mixing up Burbank and Ontario, then luggage going to LAX while passengers went to Ontario, going through Las Vegas, and finally both luggage and people ending up in LA.  Whew!  So we all got together with the Smiths Saturday morning and went to Hollywood.  Now, I have lived my entire life in Orange County and have never been to Hollywood, like for the experience.  I've been to shows at the Pantages and the Ahmanson but never to do the whole touristy thing.  Probably because I felt like I'm not a tourist.  But let me tell you, it was pretty cool.  Not nearly as bad of a drive as I expected.  We went to Grauman's Chinese Theater and saw the hand and foot prints of some really cool people, as well as the stars on the sidewalk.  I, of course, got pictures of Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra.

After the theater we went up some musical piano stairs (serious) to this massive candy store.  They had a whole section of Wizard of Oz stuff - if only this cookie jar wasn't $60!  Then the next brilliant idea was lets buy this ginormous hershey bar and split it.  If only that wasn't $100....  But seriously Josh what are you doing?

 



After lunch, our family and Papa went home because we had to get ready for a bbq at our house and we thought some of our guests said they would be there at 3:30.  As it turns out we could have stayed another 2 hours and made it home in time but we had a good time with those that were there earlier.  The Smiths, LouLou, and Josh went to see the Hollywood sign.  They drove up to this trail and hiked up to get good pictures. 

 Then Sunday, the big day.  Matt gave an amazing blessing, none of which was recorded at all due to yet another technical mishap.  Oh well, now they can't say we liked one of them more than the other because we have the words to one of their blessings and not the other.  It was a special day and we had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone at the house afterwards.  The Smiths left Monday morning and the Brinks 1 flew out Monday afternoon.  Thank you everyone who came to make that day so awesome!

I would have liked Daniel to have been in this picture but we had a little wardrobe problem.

 

 

 

He was not so sure about his new pal Roarburt.

Savanah is going through a huge Mickey phase right now so we pulled out Daniel's old costume for her.  The second picture is what I found the day after the Smith's left.  Looks like a crime scene, which makes sense considering "this neighborhood" (haha Lindsay!).

 

And finally, I got the boys pictures taken (more to come of those) but here are Logan's blessing pictures.  I was not thrilled with the photographers because we didn't have much that was usable, not because Logan wasn't absolutely adorable but because they were a little special.  The last one is not one that I'm particularly fond of but he kind of looks like a mob boss or something right?



 

 

 

2012 Walk

Throughout the past year, Becca, my mom, and I have gotten more involved with the OC Walk to Remember organization.  It started when Becca began making the memory boxes.  After she spent like every dollar she had on them, she contacted the director of the organization and told her what she was doing and was hoping for some financial help.  The lady got donations and sent her like 500 more boxes and stickers with the organization's information on it to put inside the lids.  We have been designated the official memory box volunteers.  We've also helped out at community events and I was able to help get the roses ready for the Memorial Ceremony for the walk this year.

 

This year, we turned it into a much bigger event.  This year our team consisted of our family, my mom, the Tows, Becca & Brad, Lindsay, my aunt Sherrie, cousin Shelby, my uncle Eric & his daughter Haley, my uncle Matt and his whole family, Becca's friend Tessa Canfield and her mom and fiance, and Lindsay's friend Deven.   We even started a fundraising page in Nathan's honor and by the end of the event, we raised $1050!  I am soooo grateful to those who donated to help out. 

The walk this year was on October 6th.  They had a lot more going on this year, with "running" bibs, temporary tatoos, and even a book give away.  Right before the ceremony started, there was a rainbow in the sky.  I didn't know this until this last spring but when you have another baby after a loss, it's called your "rainbow baby" so seeing the rainbow was kind of emotional seeing as though Logan is our rainbow baby.  I felt like it was kind of a sign, like Nathan was happy about Logan and knew we hadn't forgotten him.  Maybe that's stupid but it made me happy.

 

It was a really beautiful day and such a great opportunity to remember our precious Nathan.  It was still very difficult but I think soon it will be easier to make it more of a celebration of Nathan.

More Logan

It's been a while since I've posted pics of Logan so here they are!

 Look - he's Tebowing!

This is a bad picture because I took it on my phone but he looks so cute in his designer diapers!

I'm starting to smile...

 I realized today that Logan was wearing his coming home outfit and it made me a little sad how big he's gotten.

In other news, sometimes this kid does stuff that creeps me out.  Like crazy coinsidences.  I don't by any stretch of the imagination believe that he knows what's going on but it's a little freaky.

* When he was home from the hospital for only 2 days, he and I were laying on the bed and Daniel came in and I said to play with Logan.  Daniel said "Logan - get my nose!"  I laughed and said "Sweetie, Logan doesn't know what a no-" and I got cut off when Logan reached up and smacked Daniel right on the nose.

* When he was about 2 weeks old, I was messing around with my mom and said I wonder when they actually start understanding English and what we are saying.  Mostly because I want to know when to stop saying bad words.  Logan instantly started crying.  Weird...

*I was changing his diaper and I said "Let's get our legs up for a new diaper" and he lifted up both of his legs.  For reals?

I can't think of any more off the top of my head but seriously.  Freaky.

 

Oak Glen

Last year we thought we were going to do things with our family that matched up with what Daniel was doing in school.  But we totally sucked at it.  So we're giving it the ol' commumity college try again, beginning with apple picking since they learned all about apples in their 2nd week.  Our nephew Clayton also is in ROP preschool at a different location so we thought it would be fun to invite my brother's family to come to Oak Glen with us and pick apples in the orchards.  Jeff couldn't come but that gave us the opportunity to drive up in one car.  We weren't very organized once we got there so it took longer and we had a  few meltdowns but overall we had a really fun time. 

 

We're ready to go!  YAY!

 

Ummm... not as excited now.  It was a long drive.

 

 

Afterwards we grabbed Jeff & all headed to my mom's for an impromptu gathering.  We swam, ate pizza, made smores, and watched "The Avengers."  Long, fun day!

 These boys were tuckered out!