Family Time

Wow, what a week. I know there are tons of pictures this week, but as you can see a lot happened. First, Grandma Margaret passed away Thursday afternoon. She lived a very long and fulfilled life, but suffered a massive stroke the Saturday before Easter. Uncle Volk returned home safely from Afghanistan, came up for a visit and ended up in the ER (I'll explain in a minute)...Uncle Travis and his girlfriend Erika came down from Montana for a visit, Newt got stepped on and had to visit the vet to get his foot stitched up, Laney and Tana got two new orphaned twin kitties, and we caught up with the family at Grandma Margaret's funeral. The first random picture of half of my face was Laney's very first picture she's taken with my camera...I think she got her photography skills from her Uncle Walter. Her painting skills from probably her Aunt B and her Great Grandma Margaret. While she was painting outside, she looked up at one point and saw a cow wandering up the driveway. She quickly stopped painting, picked up her "phone", and called Kenny, Shiloh, and Daddy, to let them know there was a cow out. She and Uncle Travis also painted a mural in sidewalk chalk in the garage. Tana finally figured out how to get her arm out from underneath herself and is now rolling from her back to her tummy and up to her elbows. She is now sitting for really long periods of time and is figuring out how to shift her weight around to compensate for reaching for toys. She is totally enamoured with Laney and Laney can do no wrong in Tana's eyes. Laney loves to read to Tana and show her the pictures. She takes Tana's hand and helps her feel the pages and pictures that have textures on them. Tana loves reading stories. I will sit her on my lap while I read to Laney. When I make sound effects for the animals, she looks back up at me and smiles and laughs, then looks back at the book and touches the page. She also likes to try and eat the books. We got the twin kittens "Buzz and Woody" at the vet when I took Newt in to get his foot fixed. They along with 8 others were abandoned. Both kittens follow Laney everywhere. But Buzz tends to hang with Laney and Woody seems to want to hang with Tana. OK, so Uncle Volk was trying to get a calf's leg freed from a fence and the calf kicked up with the other leg and sliced his middle finger open (we think)...not too pretty. So he has 12 stitches and a huge bandage...oops, sorry uncle, we hope it's feeling better. When I told Laney he was at the doctor because he'd gotten his hand smashed between a calf and the fence she said "oh no, uncle must be hurting." At Grandma's funeral, Uncle Richard was loving on Tana and Tana gave it right back to him. She is a super hugger and snuggler, always wrapping her arms around my neck, squeezing her body close, and open mouthed kissing my face. She did it to Mor Mor last week when we visited but that was the first time she had done it to anyone other than me. Uncle Richard was giving her hugs and kisses and she just kept giving them right back, it was so cute. She would kiss him then pull back and smile, then hug and kiss him again and again. Laney found the pastries at the reception and quickly learned about the yummy frosting on top. She couldn't stop licking it off of her face. Uncle Scott got some snuggles too, but Laney couldn't keep her tongue in for the pictures :) The last few nights when Laney says her prayers she ends them with "old man" instead of Amen :)