Finding joy during the pain...

It has been a tough couple of weeks since my mom died. Explaining it to my children, watching my dad grieve the loss of his sweetheart of 36 years, coming to terms with my own life without her. Through all of the pain and tears, it is essential that we continue to find joy in our lives. Molly has played a huge part in helping us all do that. She is the sweetest, most easy-going (and cutest I might add) baby and makes us smile even when we're hurting. She is almost 4 months old and is at the stage where she smiles and giggles at everything. We knew she was a blessing when she was born but had no idea how important she would be in our lives just a few months later. She was a source of joy for my mom for the three months they got to spend together and is now our source of joy through the pain we're experiencing. Here are just a few pictures of her adorable smile. Tell me you're not smiling right now just looking at them!

Barbara A. Krumins 1947-2009

My mother passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, January 24th. Below is just a small group of recent pictures of her with my children. My heart is broken that they will now have to live their lives without their precious Nana.

We love you and miss you more than you can imagine Mom! We will anxiously await the day we meet again in heaven.

Updates...

Gosh - a month and a half has flown by since my last post. I could blame it on having three kids, but I was just as bad before Molly was born. Speaking of Molly, she is already almost 9 weeks old, which means I go back to work in 3 weeks:( I am having a lot of fun being home with the kids and look forward to the two weeks that Mason has off, too. Here are a bunch of pictures from the last several weeks!

This picture is of Mason with his coloring contest entry that won him 1st place. There were 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners for each grade in the school district and over 280 entries. Only 16 kids won and Mason was one of them! (If it looks like he's wearing lipstick, it's because he has been getting chapped lips lately and won't stop licking them. Remember that as a kid?)

Here are Jeff and Megan at the awards ceremony...
And Mason and I...

This is GG (Great Grandma) and the kids on Thanksgiving.

And here's Molly on her first Thanksgiving in an adorable turkey onesie we got from a friend at work.

Here is our Christmas card picture (which are being sent this week:)

And Molly in her Christmas dress...
One of the first times I could get all three kids to sit together willingly...

Finally capturing Molly's smile on camera...

The first time I was able to get Megan close to Molly (she was 2 weeks old).

I'll try to be better about updating, even if it's just to put more pictures out instead of writing. That's all the readers really want to see anyway right! Take care;)