Flashback to 1984

My Mom has 4 sisters, and is close to 3 of them. My Mom and her three close sisters had girls (boys too) and all of them dressed those girls in beautiful dresses with matching hair bows and the works. When I look back at pictures, my cousins and I looked so well kept and cute most of the time. I think that is where I get it from with Jayna. I like girly things...I guess you could say I'm a girlie girl. Although, I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty and I was a tom boy in a lot of ways when I was younger. None the less, I love dressing Jayna up in dresses and headbands! When I was pregnant, my Mom found a box of clothes she had kept all these years. She passed down to me some of the dresses that I wore 20 + years ago. My, how styles have changed! haha. But the dresses were still cute! My Mom really wanted to get pictures of Jayna in this particular dress that I wore...here are some pictures of baby J. My Mom was in her glory, having flashbacks to 1984! haha

Love sweet girl!

4 Generations...

My Grandma is Genevieve Prete (Butler was her maiden name) She is turning 86 years old August 23rd 2012. My sweet Grandma has vascular dementia. She lives in a Care home in Cardston. My Grandma is one of the most loved woman in my life. She is so special to me. Growing up she was so fun, and I loved spending time with her. My Grandma always looked beautiful. She always had her hair and makeup done, wore a nice dress or outfit and had matching jewellery. She loved jewellery and had a huge selection! (back in the day she wore a nice curly brown wig lol)She was a great cook and baker, and made the BEST pies! Coconut cream pie was her speciality! Sooo dang good! My Grandma kept amazing journals along with pictures and I remember several occasions looking at her journals with her while she read them to me. My Grandma was very talented at the piano, she would play by ear and was so good! I still can hear the songs she would play in my mind. When she would occasionally hit a wrong key, she would say, "Oh shoot." haha. My Grandma had a beautiful singing voice as well, and would sing with me when I was a little girl. My Grandma was very affectionate, always giving hugs and kisses. She often wore an apron. She hates cats! Like seriously, gets sooo freaked out, it's actually kind of funny to witness. She had her first 5 children in 5 years...then another 4. I remember she wore red and pink lipstick, and blue eyeshadow often. She always had long beautiful well kept nails, and super soft silky hands, which I loved to hold. My Grandma loved to laugh and smile. She is so kind and loving to all. My Grandma would often send me a Birthday card and always write a sweet note to me. This was special, since her and my Grandpa have 36 Grandchildren! My Grandma had a really strong testimony of our Savior and His Gospel. I remember her sharing it with me on several occasions and always being a good example to me. She was able to serve 2 missions with my Grandpa, one to Africa and one to Arizona. The Grandma I knew as a little girl, and up to before my Mission in 2005 is very different to the Grandma I know now. It makes me cry thinking about it. When I go to see her, she no longer knows my name, but I can see in her eyes she knows I'm family. She still gives me a kiss and a hug, but she can't have conversations with me anymore, read me her journals, play piano and sing, or bake any pies. She lives in a small room, and sleeps on a single bed. My Aunt Alanna lives in Cardston and takes care of Grandma, visiting her almost every day and bringing her out of the Care Home. It makes me really sad to see her so different. It is a terrible disease that has taken over her brain. But I can keep the memories, and I know that one day when I see her in Heaven, she will be how she used to be. I love my Grandma sooo much, and I'm so grateful that I always expressed my love for her growing up and for the special relationship that we shared. In the recent years, we have sat down at the piano together, but this time I'm the one playing the hymns, and we sing together. Interesting that she still can carry a tune and will sing along with her to whatever song you are singing! I have many precious moments with my Grandma, and I will love her forever. This month, I got to go down to Cardston with my Mom and Aunt Jeanine. We were able to get a 4 Generations picture which was really important to my Mom and I!

I have never seen my Grandma so expressive and happy in the last 5 years until I saw her with Jayna! She really loves babies, and seems to come alive when she's with them. It was really cool to see. She was talking to Jayna in small sentences and totally attentive to her. I will never forget it.

Love you forever, my sweet Grandma Prete!

Girls Night, family style

This post is mostly for my Mom (Nana). On Sunday night, July 8th, we had an all girls sleep over with my two neices Emma and Arianna! They got to spend the night with us since we were going back to Calgary the next morning and could drop them off! This was monumental since they had never been allowed to do this before, and we were beyond excited! First thing we did when their parents drove away was scream and jump up and down in a circle! haha. (I don't ever think I will grow up)Then we wanted to take advantage of the warm weather, so we went for a walk to the park ouu ahhh, very exciting I know, but it's Carstairs. It was kind of crazy with the mosquitoes actually, and we ran screaming through the grass to get to the park, since they are the worst there! I took a bunch of pictures for my Mom, because she is an avid scrapbooker and I know she would want to scrapbook her first sleepover with her grand daughters! My Mom and Auntie can be a lot of fun, and they were just like little school girls themselves! Walking to the park, look at the excitement in their eyes!

First stop...teeter totter. Arianna was about to fall off!

So Nana and Auntie decided to help the girls out!

My Auntie's idea to try and look like animals in a cage, lol

Meanwhile, Anna is loving taking care of Jayna, she is such a good babysitter that girl!

Slide time!

The Queen's of the Castle...

After the park, we headed downstairs because it was still soo hot! Auntie was bringing down a mattress for the girls to sleep on and got the bright idea to slide down the stairs on it! Oh my gosh, this is why I love her, she is so fun! My Auntie is in her 60's and actually has osteoporosis really bad! She has broken her wrist twice and has screws etc in it, and her ankle once and has metals plates and screws in it! However, she still takes risks and lets nothing stop her from being her crazy free spirited self! We all had a few go's at it, some good wholesome fun!

Cousins!

Then we had ice cream and the girls played with Jayna. She loved to touch Arianna's face, well actually pinch her face. Jayna has a super strong grip and little nails that are sharp no matter what and she puts those together to equal pain for whoever she gets her little fingers ahold of! In this case it was Arianna's face. Good thing she's so darn cute, you forgive easily that way, lol.

Or if you're really lucky she'll get your hair!

My Mom was leaning over Jayna and her glasses fell on her face! We were all laughing so hard, kind of one of those times you had to be there! Jayna didn't know what the heck was on her face and she couldn't really see through them either, she kept trying to touch them with her fingers and would miss! Finally, she got them off. I won't do that again, cause I don't want to damage her sensitive eyes if that's possible, but it was a good laugh.

It really was a fun girls night, and I sure love my family!

More firsts for baby Jay!

I have seen other babies suck their toes, but never Jayna until last July 7th...I got home from Victoria that night and when we got home I changed Jayna's diaper, she was still half asleep, and she grabbed her foot and started full out sucking on her toe!! hahahaha I started laughing so much and quickly grabbed my camera. I just missed it, but this is close enough...

We went to Sylvan Lake last Sunday and Andrew took Jayna in the water. It was pretty cold, but she was such a trooper. Didn't fuss, didn't cry. She was really curious and had a rather serious look on her face, and would occasionally make an "Oh" face when he put her in the water up to her neck! She is going to be a water baby just like Daddy and I, I know it!

Her first taste of carrots! She liked it!