colorado: uncle jim's funeral.

my uncle jim passed away a few weeks ago.

technically, we're not even blood related to uncle jim. he was adopted by my dad's mom after his father passed away when he was a young boy (my grandma and his dad were married at the time). and uncle jim has always lived in a different state than us and honestly, we rarely got to see him. but uncle jim has never felt like anything but a very real uncle to me.

every birthday. every christmas. presents, gifts, cards. i always got something from him in the mail.
ALWAYS.
in fact, one of my most cherished gifts - a giant stuffed bear. maybe 3 feet tall or so? he sent it to me for christmas when i was 7. i still have that bear, and now gracie plays with it. i love that bear.

he had major heart surgery last year, after a very active and outdoorsy lifestyle. his love, my aunt hilda, passed away many years ago. it's just been him and my cousin shari for awhile. they've spent their time traveling in their monster motor home, fishing and camping and exploring their days away. since his heart surgery, he just didn't ever quite get back to normal.

this is one of those times in life when you wish you had done more. wish you had visited more, called or written or emailed more. made more of an effort. and for that reason, i am sad. i knew, for that reason alone, i had to make the trek to be at his funeral in colorado. sisters susan and jamie and my pop made the trek with me and lola. it was a long two days and 20+ hours of driving for only one full day there. but i am so glad we did it.

there was a small service at a presbyterian church, and it was really nice. simple. i stood in the back for most of it, rocking lola girl to sleep. at the end, we sang 'how great thou art' and it was just a perfect, teary moment.

i am happy he's reunited with his wife after so many years apart.
and i would bet he's fishing again right this very minute.

**i don't know how many times i said it on this trip, but the scenery was BEAUTIFUL. i am not a fan of snow or cold, but the snow on those evergreen covered mountains was just more than i could take. if it weren't so dang cold and snowy more than half the year, i'd probably pick up and move there. so so gorgeous.

setting out!

she had no idea what she was in for, poor thing.

found this bench at the cemetery. i'll be honest, i was a little creeped out.

the sunshine and those snowy, green mountains. i couldn't get enough.

had to try to have a little fun and take advantage of a swimming pool! except it was too cold for her to swim anyway. so she just looked cute in her suit :)

(second) cousin nate, cousin shari, susan, jamie, me & lola, dad, nate's wife sara
you can kind of tell in the picture, but shari has prosthetic arms. she has a prosthetic leg too. she is amazing. you can't find much nicer people than these. 

wish i could've gotten better pictures. these don't do it justice.

the cemetery had the coolest old barn building with stained glass windows in front. 

and then back to the red rock of utah.

total trip! 

baby animal farm day

gracie's cousins have been on spring break this week, so as one last fun day before they go back next week, we all headed up to logan for baby animal days. tons of baby animals to see and pet and hold! what's cuter than baby animals?! even though i worked late the night before, i knew gracie would have so much fun seeing the animals and playing with her cousins, so we went. i'm so glad we did!

she was a little hesitant and a little anxious about the crowds and crowds of people, but i think she had fun and i know she loved petting the animals!

the horses were definitely her favorite (not even the baby ones, the big huge horses she couldn't get enough of! she wasn't scared at all and they were RIGHT up next to us.) there were also baby chicks, ducks, cows, goats, bears, pigs. oh and a choo choo train to ride. so fun.

(did i mention it was coooold? thank goodness for that sun because otherwise, that wind and chilly cache valley temps were enough to send me back to the car. brrr)

 i don't have all the pictures, since some were taken on my moms camera, but here are a few phone pics.

labor day weekend 2013.

here's a bit of how our weekend went:
(yes - all iphone photos, so not the greatest. also, a lot more work was done by jae and other family members, which was AWESOME...i just didn't get pictures of it all. i'll have to show you later exactly what they did.)

date night! we're really good at good pictures.

 

jae's favorite: mo bettah's (ekolu special)

 

my favorite: coldstone (cake batter ice cream, brownies, fudge)

 

you can't really tell, but it was an awesome stormy sky sunset with sun rays shining down through

we actually went to see a movie! first time in months.

{ps - since when did movies cost $9.25?? good grief.}

 

somehow convinced my family to come spend their labor day at our house - laboring on our behalf.

 

pup was super helpful with putting together a bookshelf.

the big pregnant lady & the dog working together - you can imagine how quickly that work got done.

 

the finished product! bookshelf for baby girls room :)

i absolutely love it.

 

finished off labor day with this absolutely delectable brownie.

it was soooo good.

so long, sweet summer!

family baby shower.

my cute sisters, mom, and nieces planned a joint Frederickson/Horrocks family baby shower. it was pink and yellow themed (and yes - even my sister's walls are a light pink color so it's a good thing it wasn't a boy's baby shower!). everyone did such a cute job putting everything together. it was all so dang cute!

{sidenote: please disregard my chubs face....thankss. oh and i wanted to add - extra thanks to my sis Kellie for putting a lot of the shower together and for her awesome present of a lot of the little things but the things we'll definitely need! i didn't get a picture of it, but wanted to make sure it's in here :) thanks again, Kel!}

thanks again family!!! 

 now for the goods:

chair made just for me :)

fruit baby! kind of creepy, but kind of awesome, no??!

we played a "break the water and get the baby out" game. i'm sure that's not an official title, but that's essentially what it was - they froze tiny plastic babies in ice cubes and we had a break the 'water' to get the baby out contest (using nothing but yourself...aka no tools or anything to help). i'd never seen this before! pretty funny.

crib mattress from my parents

hat for baby girl - not mom. right.

an elephant bum. sooo cute!

little pj pants with ducky feet. Hattie thought those were a crack-up ;)

fun baby quote block from Winney the Pooh (from Jae's mom)

this was a handmade bib from Jae's great grandma (so baby girl's great great grandma!). Jae's mom has had it saved for this long! how sweet is that? definitely frame-and-put-on-wall worthy.

clippies for baby girl's hair. seriously, they almost made me cry they were so adorable.

Jae's grandma Watson has a history of making quilts for new babies in the family. she passed away earlier this year, so she's not here to make one for our little girl, so Jae's mom was so sweet and got this quilt to give in her place. love the purple, it's perfect.

pink and stripes and ruffles!!

teeny tiny little cropped sweater. hard to believe we'll have something that will fit into these things!

i'd been eyeing this little love at target for awhile, but used my best skills to refrain from buying it. sis-in-law Audree somehow just knew i wanted it so bad! and she got it. can't wait til next summer to put baby girl in it!

an amazing silk dress with little matching bloomers all the way from the source - China. so sweet!

and of course - some diapers! yahoo!!