We Love Our Grandma Simmons

Renee Simmons - Isn't She Beautiful!?

My sweet & beautiful Grandma Simmons passed away on Sunday, September 23.  We had the chance to remember, honor, and celebrate her life today.  She has always been a woman I have looked up to.  She is one of my modern-day female heroes and I aspire to be more like her.  Without saying it she inspired me to be better, serve more, and endure!  She's a strong woman of faith and, while she did bear testimony at times, I knew what she believed by just watching her.  I love God for blessing me with such a beautiful and strong grandma.  

Grandma came to see me when I was born.  I've loved her ever since!

I love her so much and I'm SO happy for her right now.  She now longer has to endure one more physical trial (no more relentless physical therapy sessions, no more hospital stays, no more broken bones, no more back aches, etc.) and she's with people she loves and hasn't seen in so long.

Grandma Simmons came from California to visit us.  She came several times,
but this happened to be a visit in 1980.  I was 3-years-old and it's no surprise
that I had to be on her lap.

Of course, that means she left people here on Earth that she loves . . . including me.  I sometimes get sad when I think that I can't go visit her, that she won't be to the next family function, or that she won't be here when we have more children.  But, I find great joy and peace in knowing that she'll be there waiting for me when it's my turn to cross over the veil.  It's goodbye, but only for a short time.  We'll be together again and this is one of the reasons I love my Heavenly Father, His plan, and His gospel.  He truly loves us and He knows how much we love our families.  Thus, He makes it possible for us to be together forever and always!  How sweet and how comforting.

As many of you know, we brought Evie home on Mother's Day.  Grandma Simmons told me that this was her MOST FAVORITE Mother's Day ever.  Being 83 years old and having several Mother's Days under her belt, I think that's saying something.  I think that if we hadn't gotten home at 8:00 that night, she would have been right over.  Instead, she was sure to come and meet little Evie the very next day!  She was so happy for me and Beau and so thrilled that Evie was joining our/her family.  My grandma loves her grandchildren and great grandchildren to pieces!

I'm SO happy that I have this four-generation picture

 During one of grandma's hospital stays, we stopped by to visit to help bring some cheer.  Evie brings a ray of sunshine with her wherever she goes, so we thought Evie could help brighten Grandma's day.  Sure enough, that is exactly what happened!

This was taken on June 30.  Evie had just started smiling really well and she gave
grandma some of her biggest smiles that day.  I think it melted all of our hearts!

 The viewing and funeral were nice.  It was so fun to see my aunts and uncles and several of my cousins.  I always find such irony behind such events because I really wish my grandma and grandpa could have been there with all of us.  I know they were in spirit, but it just seemed like they were missing a big family reunion or something.

Here we are at the viewing.

Grandma's favorite flower was the rose.

All seven of grandma's children.  I love my aunts & uncle!

My cute mom & dad with all their grandchildren (minus 1 - Nic had a football game).

The entire Heaps clan (minus Nic).

Traci flew into town to be with us during this time.  I love my baby sis.

My mom with her daughters.  We love our mom.  I already told
my mom that I don't know how I'll ever live without her.  I told
her that she is not allowed to die until I do.  She was quick to tell
me that she doesn't want to live that long, but that's just her tough luck!

Here's Beau playing with our Evie Doll.
She loves to look at the world upside down.
Man, she's cute!

It's been a special time these past few weeks.  I tried to spend as much time as I could with my grandma before she passed away.  I tired to be with my mom as she went through the loss of her mom.  I've loved having my sister in town.  I've enjoyed spending time with my extended family.  I've enjoyed learning more about my grandma and I know I want to be more like her in so many ways.  I'm honored to be named after her!

What I truly know is that the best things in life . . . aren't things!

I love my people!

A Butterfly Dream

My good friend Kjirsten Howe gave me a Monarch chrysalis to take home and watch turn into a butterfly! It was SUPER cool & I loved every minute of it. I will DEFINITELY watch this miracle again in the future. Such a cool thing to do with kids. This butterfly TOTALLY made my day/week!

After awhile, the caterpillars attach themselves head down to a convenient twig (or in this case, the lid of a jar), they shed their outer skin and begin the transformation into a pupa (or chrysalis), a process which is completed in a matter of hours.  I love how the chrysalis has gold specks and a black/gold ring around the top.  Apparently this is how the Monarch get's it name as that ring resembles a gold crown.

The pupa resembles a waxy, jade vase and becomes increasingly transparent as the process progresses. The caterpillar completes the miraculous transformation into a beautiful adult butterfly in about two weeks.

Once it broke out of the chrysalis, I took the lid off the jar.

I let it crawl onto my hand.

I love how the light is captured in its wings.

I love this shot.  The wings have dried out and you can
really see the awesome texture of them.

It practiced moving its wings, and then eventually took
off in flight.  It was hard for me to get a good picture
of it flying because I wasn't really ready for it to fly
away.  I really had high hopes that it would love my yard
so much that it would just stay.  I loved my beautiful butterfly!

And, lastly!  Here's a picture of my other sweet little butterfly that I get to play with EVERY day!  She better not fly off to Mexico (like the Monarch Butterflies do) without me!

Daddy's Little Deer

Beau has a good friend who totally had Beau in mind when we got our little Evie.  Bret went straight to Cabela's and bought Beau & Evie these pj's.  Beau was thrilled (as I'm sure you can only imagine) and I must admit that Evie makes these jammies look cuter than ever.  I mean, it's Evie!  Would you expect any less?

All Is Well at Our 4-Month Wellness Check

Evie is still growing like a champ and checked out A-OK at her last wellness check-up.  She was weighed, measured, looked over from head-to-toe, and developmental tasks were reviewed.  The doctor said she's still perfect.  We think she is too!

Here are her stats.
Weight:  14 pounds, 12.5 ounces.  63.21 Percentile.
Length:   24.75 inches.  63.4 Percentile.
Head Circumference:  32.28 percentile.

While we waited for the doctor to come to the exam room, Evie had all sorts of fun with the other baby in the mirror!  She recently started to become interested about who is in the mirror.  It's super cute to watch.  While at the doctor's office, she tried to reach out and touch that baby, she smiled lots at the baby (and when the baby would smile back it made her smile even bigger), and she even touched toes with that other baby.  One day she'll figure out that the other baby is actually her.  Sooooo cute!

Evie - 4 Months

Another month has gone by.  Amazing, I tell you!  Evie just keeps emerging with personality and we cannot get enough of her (still!).  She's so much fun.  I snapped a few pictures of her today.  Codee even made it into a couple of them.  It was really hard for me to take these without someone there to help her smile (or, take the pictures so I could help her to smile).  But, you can still see how she's grown & what she looks like.  Next time I will be enlisting some smile help.

WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE OUR BABY GIRL!

What' Evie doing now? 

• She still sleeps anywhere from 10-12 hours at once.  We've even tried letting her sleep without swaddling her, and she still does well (although those are usually 9-hour nights, but who's complaining?).
• She's consistently eating 5-6 full ounces at most feedings now.  
• Her tear duct is FINALLY open in her left eye!  No more constant wiping and trying to keep that clean.  I'm so happy for Evie because she hated having her eye cleaned all of the time.  
• She can TOTALLY reach her toes and can grab both feet at the same time.  She can even get those toes right into her mouth!  And, she loves to hold toys between her feet.  This girl is coordinated, I tell you!
• Along with the toes, she loves to reach out and grab lots of other objects with her hands.  
• She loves to giggle and has figured out how to actually do it now.  Beau and I will work so hard (looking SUPER silly while trying) to pull giggles out of our little Evie.  It's one of the happiest sounds in the world.
• All of a sudden, she is easily startled.  It doesn't take much to make Evie jump out of her skin and, unfortunately we have had several instances where she's been scared to tears.  
• She is much more interested in Codee (the dog) now.  She'll sit and watch her move.  It's super cute.  Codee loves her too and I like to refer to Codee as Evie's second mom because she's always so concerned that Evie is comfortable and happy (note pictures).
• She really loves to interact with us now.  She loves it when we talk to her, look at her, and smile at her.  I mean, she has always like this, but now she really responds back.  We have a blast.
• Her favorite songs are "Jump Jimmy Crow" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes."  

Go Aggies!

We had a chance to go to our first football game as a family, so we took it!  Beau said, "How fun!  It's Evie's first football game."  I then said, "Yeah.  And, it's our first football game together too."  Beau and I have never attended a college game together since we've been married.  That's kind of crazy for me to even type because I grew up going to college games.  However, when I married Beau he said that he didn't love the crowds and logically stated that he can see the game much clearer on his TV screen.  I suppose he has some very valid points, but there is definitely a feeling at the stadium that is not felt at home on the couch.  So, I was excited that we were actually going to go to a game!

And, as if it couldn't get any better, we were going to watch both of my collegiate teams play.  I got my undergraduate degree at Utah State University (Go Aggies!) and my Master's degree at the University of Utah (Go Utes!), so this game was definitely a thrill.  I have to say that I lean a little closer to the USU side because I'm an Aggie at heart and I love Logan . . . which is where the game was played.

However, Beau got both his undergraduate and Master's degrees at the U.  So, you can guess where his loyalty lies.  But, if it means anything to you (because it certainly does to me), he admitted that he's also at Aggie at heart . . . even though he didn't go to school there.  That makes my heart happy!

We tried to represent both teams well.  Beau wore red for the Utes, I wore blue for the Aggies, and Evie wore both colors. 

While Evie doesn't mind noise, she DEFINITELY doesn't like to be startled.  Going from a quiet crowd to an explosive crowd without warning put this adorable girl in tears.  She hated the loud, yelling fans as well.  So, Evie and I spent nearly the entire game up above the stands.  We could catch glimpses of the game on the game screen, and the fans made it obvious if there was something good or bad happening.  Best of all, there was a lot of people watching which both Evie and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Beau came up to see us at half time.  (He was sitting with some of his work clients and co-workers during the game.)  We had fun together while he was with us.  As you can see, Evie was ALL smiles while Beau bounced her on his knee.  And, I was all smiles because I ate Aggie ice cream while he was there.

Bronco, Jody, and HaLee met us in Logan to watch the game too.  Bronco & Jody are also Aggie fans (oh, and they fell in love while both attending USU).  Good news is that the Aggies pulled out the win in OT and we were all pretty thrilled!  We stayed the night in Logan, woke up, and all went to breakfast together.  

We had a super fun time and this will be a weekend we'll always remember!  

Evie's 3-Month Reivew

I finally got my pictures back from Josie Fox Photography, but I like to keep things in chronological order (sorry . . . It's the organizational side of me), so I threw the post back on the date that we actually took her pictures, which was on August 14.  You can find it here.  :)