I'm a Big Boy!

Tyler wants so badly to be able to do the things that the other kids do. I caught him helping himself to some lunch recently. The older kids love to eat warm tortillas with butter melted on them. I used to eat them when I was a kid after my mom made homemade tortillas. They are delicious. Well, with Tyler's allergies, we don't use real butter much, we use the Wegmans tub'o'love spread. Tyler wanted butter on his tortilla, he didn't care that it had chicken on the inside already! That little boy is very coordinated for his young age to be able to work a butter knife like that!



Ok, you pulled another story out of me...About 3 weeks ago we were at my friend Rebecca's house for a picnic after she had her baby christened, and Tyler grabbed a plastic fork and was handed a mini-straw, one of those coffee stir sticks. He was able to put the straw on one of the pokey things on the fork. I thought that was pretty impressive for an 18 month old to have that eye hand coordination and the fine motor skills to go along with it!

End of the Olympics

Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!


I am so proud to be an American. I have loved watching every minute of these Olympics. China did a fantastic job hosting, and the closing ceremony last night was beautiful. Sadly, I had to work on opening night, so I missed that performance. So many world records were broken and broken again by these amazing athletes. America finished in the lead with the most medals won, while China had the most gold. What an awesome way to show the world coming together in friendly competition. In our Sunday School class that Mike and I teach, the 12-13 yr olds, we were talking yesterday about anger and controlling our anger. Mike brought up a good thought, what if leaders of countries challenged each other to a game of chess instead of war when there are problems! It made me think of the Olympics and how all of that can be set aside and people so different from each other in culture can stay in the same housing and spend over 2 weeks together with no problems so they can have some friendly competition. Makes you think.

Baskets and Crayons, What more could you want?

Tyler is so funny now, he does things so we'll laugh. It's amazing to me how early kids develop a sense of humor. Tyler loves to be inside of buckets or baskets or under blankets. He's learned how to say "boo" and jump out at us. It's very cute! I am proud to say that my 19 months of pulling shirts over his head and saying boo every time his little head popped out has finally paid off! So anyway, I bought some plastic bins to store some of my things in because of a mold/flooding problem in the basement (I won't get into it right now, but soon) and they were in the front room just waiting for a tiny person to climb in! So here is Tyler in all of glory with his bagel, keepin' it real (that one's for you Mike!) in the plastic tub. When he does something cute and he knows it's cute, he does his "cheese" face at me to ask me to take a picture! He also tipped the tub over and though that was hilarious!





So of course, Brooke has to get in on the action because she saw how much fun Tyler was having, and had to get in on the photo op too! She's just a little bigger though, and barely fit. I just had to laugh. Since Brooke stole the plastic tub, Tyler had to move on to bigger and better things, like...the laundry basket! He's so crazy!




Tyler is so busy now, it drives me crazy. I don't know about everyone else, but I forget for the most part, from kid to kid what they are doing at what age, so it's almost a surprise to me when they do new things. I got used to telling the older kids, we color at the table on paper and they just do it. It's been a long time since something was colored on around here. Until yesterday. Tyler went a little crazy with a black crayon he pulled out of our junk drawer and then kept pulling out of the garbage can because I kept throwing it away. HOW does one little boy and one black crayon travel so far so quickly? The fridge, a dining room chair, the silverware drawer...

the dining room table(these are just remnants because McKee cleaned it up), and the garbage can.

So, being the mean mommy that I am, I made him clean it up. He has to learn some time right?

Family Picnic 2008

Once a year my mom's side of the family gets together for a reunion/picnic/camping at my Uncle Denton's house in Nunda, NY. We usually have a great time and most of the family comes. My mom is #9 of 13 kids, 12 are still alive, and there are 51 cousins. We have so much fun. My uncles all play together in a band, so there's music, and food and Uncle Denton has a pond near the camp site. My kids love going because they can run around and do almost whatever they want with my cousins who are their ages, and my cousins' children. We roasted marshmallows, fished, danced, and talked. Only 4 of the 6 of us were able to make it this year, me, Dave, Michael, and Matt. McKee was in Myrtle Beach with Damon, so he wasn't there either. Here are a few pics.

Grandma

So the services this weekend went pretty well. An interesting fact is that Grandma was laid to rest in a mausoleum at Riverside Cemetery on Lake Ave in Rochester, NY. When we were there Friday morning for the service Mike spotted Johannes Van Den Berghe just a couple spots diagonal from Grandma's. John Van Den Berghe was our Stake Patriarch, and sealed Mike and I and Seth and Brooke in the temple. It was a little bit of a comfort knowing they are close by. I know it seems silly, especially since we know it's just an empty body, but it made me feel better. I found some pictures of Grandma the way I remember her better from when we were little kids. I thought it would be fun for you to see her they way I will always remember her, and not so sick as the last couple pictures.

Here's Grandma and Grandpa dancing.




This is Christmas of 1987 in their front sitting room.

I found the other pictures of Grandma

We went to visit Grandma in May just after she came home from the hospital with her cancer diagnosis. She loves babies, always has, and absolutely loved seeing Brooke and Tyler. She had alzheimers/dimencia for the last couple years at least, so she didn't remember who I was, or the kids, but it didn't matter. I'm so grateful for the chance I had to take these shots of the kids with her. I wish the boys had been there too, but they were at school. You can see the smile on her face.

Lee Caternolo

My grandmother passed away at about 12:45am this morning, August 13, 2008. She has been suffering from pancreatic cancer for many months now. It is a relief to know that she's no longer in pain, but sad to see her go. My heart breaks for my step-dad who is an only child and has now lost his mother, and for my grandpa, I can't even imagine losing the person you have loved for your whole life. I am grateful for the knowledge I have of the gospel to help me know and understand what has happened to her and where she is now. I can only hope that I will be able to share that with my family in some small way to help comfort them.

Here is a picture of me with Grandma and Grandpa on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 when we were able to visit with her at home. She was a beautiful and caring person. She always kept herself busy with taking care of everyone around her. The sunset that night was beautiful. I love her and she will be missed.