Uncle Fred

For those of you who know me well, know I have an uncle who could be perfectly described as a mountain man! He owned some mountain land north and west of Ft. Collins, CO and lived alone in a camper trailer. He was always complaining about the bears! He had no running water on his property and used stoves to keep him warm in the winter.

My mom was supposed to meet him the day after Thanksgiving (on her way to our house) at his turn-off so she could give him some food items he had requested from Kansas. He never showed up that morning and she began to worry! He would never miss an opportunity to get his favorite hams and black walnuts! My mom continued to try to get a hold of him the entire time she was at our house and then stopped back by his turn-off on her way back to Kansas. She never received any word from him so her worry increased. She just knew something was wrong.

She was tempted to drive up to his property to check on him, but my aunt and I encouraged her not to just in case something bad had happened. See, my uncle was a fetal alcohol syndrome baby (he was adopted as a baby by my grandma and grandpa) and struggled his entire life with his addiction. He was a chain smoker as well and had many accidents throughout his life including a traumatic brain injury and several back injuries. He was not the picture of good health by any means.

About five days after my mom got home from her trip out here she received a phone call from a man she didn't know. He claimed to be my uncle's friend. He hadn't heard from Fred in about three weeks so he decided to go check on him and unfortunately found him dead in his trailer. He could tell by Fred's phone that my mom had called many times. The next day my mom received a call from the coroner. The coroner wanted to know what to do with Fred's body. She also mentioned that it appeared as if Fred had laid down to take a nap on Thanksgiving Day and never woke up. He apparently had a heart attack. 

Fred hadn't been in contact with his boys (he has 4 biological sons) in years so my mom didn't have any current information on them. The coroner took what little information Mom knew and found Fred's oldest boy in Cheyenne, WY (only a couple of hours away from Fred's property). Mom had already decided to cremate Fred (because that was what he always wanted). My mom received a phone call from Fred's son (his name is Fred too) and they were able to reconnect. She mentioned that Fred's wishes were to be cremated and for his ashes to be spread on his property. Fred Jr. was more than happy to do that for his dad.

As the week progressed, Fred Jr. informed my mom that he wanted to spread Fred's ashes on his property on Friday, December 12th. My mom and aunt were going to meet him there. It took me a while to decide if I could go, but I ended up making a very quick trip (there in one day, back the next). Dave offered to take some time off of work and to stay home with the boys so I could go. I have such a wonderful husband! I'm glad he allowed me the opportunity to go!

Fred's boys are the only cousins I have on either side of my family. As kids, I was closer to his younger two boys. I hadn't seen Fred Jr. since I was in middle school, maybe. I was excited to see him again and reconnect with a cousin!

There ended up being a lot more people there than I thought. I'm glad we had such a good turnout to say a final good-bye to my uncle. It was a beautiful perfect day in the mountains! Although I spent most of my life being scared to death of Uncle Fred, in a strange way I will miss him. It makes me sad to think about the challenges he was given in life and wished it could've been easier for him, but I do know that all things happen for a reason. Good things can come out of sad circumstances.

The house he had worked on for years and never finished and the camper he was living in

Fred Jr. saying a few words

Spreading his ashes

My mom, Fred Jr., & Aunt Cathy

Fred's first wife is in the middle, her husband is on the far left, her oldest son (Fred's step-son) is between them and then Fred Jr. & his wife are on the right

Reunited cousins

It was fun spending time with Fred Jr. He looks so much like his dad and his mannerisms are so much like him as well. I'm hopeful we can stay in contact and not let another 20+ years go by before we see each other again!

Good-bye for now Uncle Fred! You will be missed.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

While decorating for Christmas, Miles found Dave's Santa hat in one of our Christmas totes. He wore it pretty much that entire first day. I thought he looked so cute in it and just had to take a picture of him in front of the tree...and Oliver too although Oliver wouldn't wear the Santa hat!

The finished product

We had such a warm December. I kept hoping for snow, but it just wasn't happening. I did try to take advantage of the warmer weather and get the boys out to play in it every once in awhile. On one particular warm day I took the boys to a park that is close to our house. I knew Miles would have fun, but I wasn't sure about Oliver. He completely surprised me when I put him in a swing. He LOVED it!

Miles loves to swing too

On Saturday, December 13th we headed north to Dave's brother's house in Tremonton. Zach and Tammy were having a Christmas party for the family! I had just gotten back the night before from a quick trip to Colorado (details coming in a future post) and Oliver hates his car seat so we weren't totally excited about making the trip, but we wanted to spend time with family and have some fun. In true Oliver fashion, he pretty much cried the entire almost two hour trip up there (and back). To say I was frazzled by the time we got there would be an understatement! We all had a good time, but I was pretty much a bump on a log. I really wanted a nap, but knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep even if I tried. They did a great job with all of the games (although Miles wasn't a huge fan of the gift exchange game especially when his own father stole the present he wanted). It was so nice to be together!

After searching Pinterest for gift ideas for Miles' preschool class, we decided to make everyone sleighs made out of candy. Although Miles just wanted to eat all of the candy, he did do a great job with helping me put them together. He was so excited to give them to his friends! I thought I had made just enough for his class so I prepared him for the fact that there wouldn't be any leftovers. Fortunately I had the number wrong and Miles was able to get one as well. He would've been heartbroken had he not gotten one.

Another fun thing that happened in December was Oliver discovering that he likes to push his elephant toy that Grandma gave him for his birthday around while he walks behind it. He uses it like you would use a walker. He doesn't crawl as much anymore and uses the elephant to get around. One of these days he'll get brave enough to take some steps! Our backs are ready for him to start walking.

Christmas party at church

On Friday, December 5th our church had its annual Christmas party. I had caught the bug that had already gone through both boys and even Dave so I was not feeling well at all. I really wanted Miles and Oliver to see Santa though so I encouraged Dave to take them to the party. Having both boys alone isn't an easy task so they didn't stay for the dinner and program part of the party, but they did get to see Santa!

As you can see, Oliver was a big fan of Santa! Dave said that Miles reacted the same way to this Santa as he did to the mall Santa. He was very reluctant to sit on his lap at first, but after some encouraging he faced his fears and did it. Again, he asked Santa for a trash truck!

Pictures

Getting Oliver's 1 year pictures and family pictures for our Christmas cards posed to be a challenge! I didn't want to spend a lot since we've invested a lot already this year for Oliver's milestone pics so my options were limited. I received a pretty good coupon for pictures at JCPenney and decided to give them a try. I used to manage the JCP Portrait Studio in Provo and haven't been back since I quit several years ago so I was very hesitant to go there. We had good luck with the studio in Grand Junction and Wichita though so I was hopeful we'd have the same luck here. 

Unfortunately things didn't go so well. Our photographer put forth little to no effort to get Oliver to smile and ended up putting him in a crate so he couldn't crawl around. She could tell that we were frustrated so she offered us the opportunity to reschedule. We reluctantly agreed hoping the next time we'd get a different photographer.

I called the day before our second appointment to request a more experienced photographer and was told that the manager was the one working during the time we would be there. I learned that the current manager was my best employee when I was there so I had some hope we'd get better pictures this time around.

When we got there the manager was nowhere to be found. One of Dave's former students was our photographer instead. Although he tried a little bit harder, we still didn't end up with any pictures I was satisfied with.

I wasn't sure what our next step was going to be when Dave told me that one of his coworkers at Provo High has a wife who is wanting to build her photography business. I got in touch with her to see what her rates were. She offered us a fantastic deal that I couldn't pass up.

So, the day before Thanksgiving we spent some time getting Oliver's 1 year pictures done. We also got some family pictures done at the same time. Oliver is such a mover. It's definitely not easy to get a good picture of him! She earned every penny. We ended up with over 300 pictures!

I think they turned out good. She did a good job capturing our little family and all of our personalities! Below are a few of my favorites (let me know if you'd like a copy of any of them)!

Thanksgiving

Here it is the day after Christmas and I'm just getting around to writing about Thanksgiving! I obviously let myself get really far behind on my blog and now I'm feeling the pressure to get caught up! In January I always buy a blog book that contains all of my blog posts from the previous year. This is the motivation I need to get caught up. I have until Wednesday to get it done!

Although Dave had to work on Thanksgiving Day, we had a very nice Thanksgiving. We had to have our meal earlier in the day so that Dave could be to Target by 5 p.m. (yuck!). We invited Dave's mom down from Logan to help us eat our meal. We knew we'd have tons of leftovers so I'm glad she made the trek down to help us eat some of the food. Plus, we love having Grandma Dorothy around. She is SO much fun!

Dave cooks a yummy turkey. I'm in charge of the sides (well, except Dave's Stove Top Stuffing - that stuff is nasty and I wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole!) and think they turned out pretty good as well. Dave won't eat green bean casserole, but I make it for myself every year. I was thrilled when Dorothy cheered when she found out we were serving green bean casserole.

Dorothy spent the night with us and then headed back to Logan Friday morning. Miles loved having her around and we're so glad she made the trek down to spend Thanksgiving with us!

The table is set with my grandma's china & a Christmas tablecloth (lol!)

My buns

Checking the turkey

Picture with Grandma!

While Dave was at work most of the day on Friday, the boys and I spent the day getting ready for my mom's arrival. She spent Thanksgiving with my brother in Denver, CO and then came our direction for a few days. 

We weren't sure the weather would cooperate and allow her to come our way so I decided not to tell Miles that she was coming. I kept it a surprise until she knocked on the door. Miles was SO excited to see her! He was a bit confused at first. He then got really giggly and kept telling her she was silly for surprising him like that.

My mom was only here for three days. It went by way too fast! We crammed a lot in before she left. My main project was to get our Christmas tree up and decorated, which we accomplished. I also wanted her to help Miles decorate a gingerbread house because I hate that process but know Miles loves it. She was happy to help.

Grandma brought Oliver a birthday gift!

Grandma decorating, Miles eating

All done!

We went with a gingerbread train this year

What a wonderful holiday shared with wonderful people. We have so much to be thankful for!

Celebrating Oliver

Oliver's first birthday was on Tuesday, November 25th. Since our closest family members are 45 minutes away (with the others being closer to 2 hours away), we decided to have Oliver's party the Saturday before his birthday which was November 22nd. We had a great turnout for the party! We tightly squeezed 19 people in our teeny tiny townhouse. It was packed!

Oliver didn't seem to mind the attention and the chaos. Miles, of course, loved having his cousins around! I tried to keep his party low key so that my stress level would be low. I think I was actually successful in my attempts.

We served taco soup and cornbread with white birthday cupcakes for dessert. It was all so yummy! We had Target make his cupcake cake and it turned out so cute. For first birthdays they also give you a free "smash cake" for the birthday baby to smash. Oliver definitely loved smashing it! We had to encourage him to taste it by putting his hands up to his mouth, but he was more interested in smashing it.

The children mainly played upstairs in Oliver's room while the adults watched football and chatted downstairs. The children did go outside for a bit but it didn't last long. I think everyone had an enjoyable time celebrating our little man!

Hangin' out

Playing outside

Opening presents

Not quite sure what to do - good thing he has an older brother to help!

New books!

His cake & smash cake

My attempt at decorating!

Happy birthday to you!

Digging in

Not a huge fan of the taste

Eating cupcakes!

He got a bath immediately after

We are so thankful for the decision Kallou and Shannon made and the opportunity that gave us to have little Oliver in our lives. He is such a sweet addition to our family! We love him so much and have enjoyed watching him grow and develop his first year of life. We're so excited to see what the future holds for him.

We also have such amazing friends and family and are so thankful for all of the cards, phone calls and Facebook posts we received wishing Oliver a happy first birthday! We also appreciate those of you came to celebrate with us and know there are many more who wished they could've been there. You were definitely missed. We love and appreciate you all!