JADYN's 7

I am WAY behind on blogging...again. I'm going to try my hardest to catch up before a bunch more happens in the near future. In that attempt, here's a post about Jadyn & her 7th birthday. (The next few posts will not be in order, so bear with me.) The lucky little girl had 3 different parties. It was crazy!

PARTY #1
Mimi took all of the girls to see "The Princess & the Pea" at the Hale Theater. It was so fun & the little girls had a blast! Thanks again Mimi! We all loved it! After the play we met all the boys @ Peter Piper Pizza for a combined party for Jadyn & Creed. It was a fun day & even better that it was a day spent with family!


PARTY #2
Jadyn had a friend party this year. We decided awhile ago that we would only do parties for friends on the odd years of the girls birthdays. That way it doesn't conflict with baptisms, YW, etc. And at our house, for Mom's sanity, we keep things low key. Jadyn decided to have a few friends over to watch a movie. She picked the Pixar Shorts DVD. They had popcorn & LOTS of treats. Those poor parents probably hated me that night. I'm sure every single one of those girls went home with a MAJOR sugar high! It was fun & Jadyn loved every minute of it. Despite the fact that her cake did not turn out. We had an awesome cake planned out, but I am no Buddy! (From Cake Boss) I tried & it failed miserably. Jadyn was really upset. Oh well!! Nothing I could do. At least the lip gloss & charms she wanted to give out turned out alright. Otherwise the party would have been a total bust!


PARTY #3
The day before Jadyn's birthday we had a last minute impromptu party with the Parkinson's. Needless to say, I'm soooo glad we did!! This was the week before Esther's passing & the last time we would all be together. We ate dinner, had cake & just enjoyed being together. Kevin showed off his mad skills - doing push ups with kids on his back. Then he was almost taken down by our tough dog Nui!! Hunter & Steele sported all of their Laker gear & took the verbal beatings they received for doing so in stride. It was a fun night!


The next morning was Jadyn's real birthday. We had Ciara spend the night after the Parkinson party. Jadyn received the traditional breakfast in bed & then opened her presents. After that we all loaded up & went bowling. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that. I tried, but pictures don't turn out very well in dark bowling alleys. She had a wonderful, party packed birthday this year! Only 1 year until she's baptized. Now that's CRAZY!!

KYLIEism

I was given strict instructions to NOT put this on the blog. But, since I'm the boss I'm doing it anyway! Not to mention that I've had a lot of silly Jay stories lately that I needed a Kylie one somewhere...

The other day we were all sitting on the couch. No doubt watching something on the Disney Channel. When Kylie brings up this movie...

Have you ever seen it? We own it - we LOVE it! It's great! Kylie says something along these lines...
"You know how Ozzy Osbourne played Joseph?"

I thought Erik was going to loose his lunch! He was laughing so hard. If you know Erik at all. When he laughs hard he does this weird giggle chch, chch thing. Well, he was doing that. It was hilarious!

We then corrected her. "No Kylie, it's Donny Osmond."

She says, "Oh yeah. Wait, who's he again?"

I'm not sure if this is sad or not. Maybe. But, when you say Donny from Donny & Marie or Puppy Love, etc. She draws a blank look & is clueless. But, when I mentioned - "Remember he's the goofy dancing guy in the White & Nerdy video with Weird Al." She was all over that one & knew exactly who it was.

Hmmm. That's some great parenting right there! Just to redeem myself - she also knows him from Mulan. He sings "Let's Get Down To Business". Another classic at our house.

Just for kicks. If you haven't seen the Weird Al "white & Nerdy" video click HERE. It's funny! Another Donny Osmond clip we love is this clip from the Jimmy Kimmel show. Click HERE for that one. It's quite hilarious!!

SWEET ESTHER

ESTHER RUTH PARKINSON
July 27, 1945 - June 7, 2010

Erik's sweet mom Esther passed away on June 7th. It's been quite the whirlwind. So many emotions. She has been sick for most of her life. She's been in a lot of pain the past few years. It's nice to think that she is no longer in pain, but it's still hard for the rest of us. Erik was very close to his mom, so it's been hard for him.

She got sick about 4 months ago with a really bad infection & we thought we were losing her then. She pulled through after a couple of months & ended up losing sight out of her left eye in the process. Erik was excited that she seemed to be getting better & trying harder than some of her previous surgeries. She went in for a pre-op check up to do plastic surgery on her eye. When she was in the hospital for her infection a lot of the infection rested on her face & especially her eye.

After a couple of surgeries to release the pressure it was just too much for her eye & she lost the sight in it. Because of this it drooped a little & they wanted to fix it so it wasn't so noticeable. At her appointment they told her she wasn't a candidate for surgery due to the fact that she had 2 leaky valves in her heart & she needed to get those taken care of. That was on a Friday. She went into the hospital on Sunday night because she wasn't feeling well. They wanted to do surgery to correct the leaks, but couldn't just yet. They didn't know what was causing it. Whether it was a blood clot or an infection in her heart. Until they figured it out they couldn't do surgery & they didn't feel like she would make it through at this point.

Monday morning Pete, Ron, Nikki & Andrea were with her & she was talking & doing fine. Pete headed to work. About an hour or so later 8 doctors rushed into her room kicking Ron, Nikki & Andrea out. Apparently she went into cardiac arrest. They worked on her for 40 min, but her body was done. In many ways it was a blessing that she didn't have to go through a bunch of surgeries again.

The worst part, I think, is the fact that we were in St. George through this whole ordeal. In fact, we didn't even know anything was wrong until Sunday night. We planned on heading home early on Tuesday so that Erik could be available to help & be with her in the hospital. We were told not to rush home - she'd still be their in the next couple of days. Erik had to find out over the phone a state away that his mom had passed. That just sucked!
{Erik, his Dad Pete, his younger sister Andrea & older brother Ron}

We drove home first thing Tuesday morning. What was the use at that point rushing home Monday night? Once we arrived home Erik headed straight to his Dad's to help with the planning. Most of the planning was already done. His Dad was extremely blessed. Things went so quickly & smoothly. Completely different experience compared to my brother Michael's arrangements. It seemed like that was an overwhelming stress. This was so smooth it made me nervous the whole week. But, it turned out lovely! The funeral home {Falconer Funeral Home} was amazing!! If you ever need to use one, I hope you don't, check them out. They were truly wonderful!

We had her viewing on Sunday night & the funeral on Monday morning the 14th. All of the grandkids sang at the funeral. It was beautiful! The poor kids had a rough time, but it was beyond touching. Esther loved her grandkids more than anything. She would do anything for any of them.
{The only grandkid missing from this picture is our nephew RJ. He's currently serving in the Guayaquil, Ecuador Mission.}

Ron told me hilarious story that I've never heard before. One Saturday they were outside playing ball. He was batting {with a wiffle ball bat} and got too close to her. He smacked her right in the eye somehow & she had a massive black eye. This Saturday happened to be the day before Mother's Day, so she showed up at church on Mother's Day with a giant black eye from her loving son. She will be missed. Her smile, her generous heart, her love of sports {not to mention screaming at the TV when refs didn't call things the way she thought they should go} are just some of the things we will miss most!!