Cousin Bash is shopping…

Nana November 28, 2018 0Comments

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Dear Guillianna and Elijah:

We figured you would really enjoy seeing your cousin getting ready for Christmas!  So cute, right?  Actually this photo was taken for Christmas by Carlos 2, and yes it is a real tree on top of the car!  He is getting so big isn’t he?   It’s so hard to believe time is going by so fast.

I know you must miss him so much.   The two of you truly are good cousins to he and all of your cousins !  We know you must think about them all.   Just like we think about you two.   There have been a lot of changes for the two of you, and good things are hopefully happening for both of you.

Things generally in the Mitten are pretty much the same, and it is our hope,  or our true Christmas wish that your family will get to come visit.    We say that as a dream or our hope, since in reality I am sure you all have plans already, and like with Thanksgiving you may be making all kinds of new happy memories.  It will surely be a very different Christmas this year for everyone.   What matters most is that you are all healthy, happy and that you know you are loved so much.   We hope you will have gingerbread houses to build, elves, visits with Santa,  cookies to bake , stockings to hang and packages under the tree Christmas morning.   But before all of that, it is a very big day on Tuesday.

One week away, the oldest grandchild of ours turns TEN years old! We wonder how it is leaving behind the single digits and approaching 10.  Wishing I could make another cake like this one for you.  Do you think that a ten-year old thinks different from when  they were 3, 6, or 8 years old?  We hope that as you grow older, you learn more and are able fully understand the love Poppy and I have for our entire family. As you grow, and change,  it’s our hope that some details about you, like your personalities , in particular, the kindness and compassion within you –  won’t change.   As both of you get bigger we know you will also grow emotionally and learn so many things, most importantly we always hope you stay happy, be as kind and thoughtful as you always have been.  That you stay respectful of parents, teachers and others  in your lives.   Helpful, and enjoying life as you always did when you were with us.   One day we hope you will be able to tell us all about it, or if you’re so much older that you can’t remember your tenth birthday  – we will hope you will have photos of it, just as we hope there are photos of Eli’s birthday from this past September.    The good thing about photos, is that no matter when it is that we are able to see you both again, the photos are an image that remains for the rest of  time,  to help us all remember our “history”…. and to see everything and cherish the times of your lives,  as we all grow older.   Photos capture moment and can bring us all closer.  So do not worry, no matter what, we can hope to one day catch up on all of these things in this part of your life journey.   We will always keep on loving you, wishing you happiness always and we will be patient until that day comes.  Yes, we are always going to be your Grandparents, and we will always love you.   We don’t have all the answers about when  or if we will get to hug you again, or make you feel the joy you’ve always known around us,  or talk to you again, but we certainly can promise you that our love is true.  It is honest and  it is unchanging!  Our love, all of the fun and wonderful memories, will live inside you for your entire lives.  The pages of this site, will forever live and hold part of your history. They tell your story and there are pages that will tell the story of our lives, how it all began so long ago.  The story of a true love, and dedication, and how important it is for you to always look for truth.   Our wish, will always be,  that you have peace and happiness when you think of the Mitten, that any somehow, any potential issues, from the drastic, dramatic and sudden loss you’ve experienced will be softened with the warm memories and smiling faces that adorn these love letters.  The dream is that we can see you , and the hope is  we can see you soon.   Of course, we are always hopeful that we can be invited to your birthdays, to your school events, your sporting events,  or to weekend brunch, and a million other things.

I know that images keep popping up on our phones, from great memories and is these images that inspires the love letters we write today.  We have sent the special boxes for your special day, celebrating your birth, the day we became NANA AND POPPY and want very much for you to enjoy them.

Birthday gifts for Guillianna and a “little brother” gift for Elijah went out UPS so that in time for the big day, just like when we sent Elijah’s birthday gifts in September, and a “big sister” gift for Guillianna, you will smile again.

We hope you have had a great Wednesday, that you enjoyed seeing the Christmas tree shopping photo, and a few of the other old memories with us in the Mitten.

Love you both to the moon and back, forever and for always,

XOXOXOXOXOXO

❤️Nana and Poppy❤️?

Singing Christmas Carols…

Nana November 27, 2018 0Comments

Dear Guillianna and Elijah:

Today on my phone came up the photos of this time a year ago, and this time two years ago, and it goes on for so many years.   The first photo needs no explanation – and is a memory from last year.   Hope all has improved and know we hope you are both healthy and happy.   So many memories and they are so special to us.    The time we shared is so wonderful and such a big part of who you both are and who we are!    Always use these memories to feel brave, strong and happy as you grow bigger and find your way through all the things you face in life.    Love is the focal point of all things good, and love is the two of you, your family, our entire family.    No matter how confusing it all seems-  LOVE IS AND ALWAYS will win, it WAS our BEGINNING AND WILL STAY INSIDE OUR HEARTS FOREVER, no matter what decisions are made by any of our children, or our grandchildren,  our love for all of them,  is at it’s  beginning .  We hope that by choosing kindness and love, memories of laughter and the real joy that was always present,  in your lives in the Mitten, and hoping that if anyone should ever feel sad when they aren’t able to see us, or when we are sad we haven’t seen you,  that we find a way to focus on the good.   We can always hope life will be happy and exciting for you both everyday.    There are videos and photos of you both singing Christmas carols for all of Great Grandma Sally’s friends.  Christmas concerts and so much more!

Ms. Hall would have been so proud,  I know it was absolutely beautiful to watch you two, together singing and showing kindness to the people who smiled and enjoyed it beyond words.  Again , for now I don’t want to upload the videos on the public site and I am having some slight  technical difficulty with a pixellated version  of the videos.  So I will ensure they are uploaded to the private site for you.  Good news, Aunt KiKi is going to visit us and she will deliver the special birthday packages so that we dont have to worry they will get lost or be left on a doorstep.  So nice of her.

We want you to know that every day you enjoy yourselves, and smile,  makes our heart happy.  Every day you give your best effort at school, we are so happy.   We feel so grateful for the days weeks months years we spent and look forward to a day where we can hear all about the amazing journey you have been having.

Love you to the moon and back,

forever and for always,

XOXOXOXOXOXO

❤️Nana and Poppy❤️?

Monday in the Mitten

Nana November 26, 2018 0Comments

Dear Guillianna and Elijah,

Today is Monday and it has been a busy day to be sure.  You’ve likely returned to school, and Poppy certainly returned to work.    We are thankful as always, for the family time we did get, and missed very much the family we could not see.   We are looking forward to the Christmas holidays.   This is such a fun time of year.

We know, it is almost birthday time.   We had sent Elijah’s birthday gift, and mom’s idea for the traditional big sister gift.    Now it is time to send Guillianna’s birthday gift with the little brother gift.   I will get it in the mail tomorrow so that it is there in plenty of time for the special day and will make sure it is sent full of hugs and kisses for you both.

Poppy are I are both hopeful that the Christmas holiday season will bring you both so much joy and happiness.   We also would love more than words could say to see your happy little faces, and share in your joy.   Until that day comes we will continue to remember fondly those smiles, and share with you our memories.   Poppy will be taking a little more time off and may get to travel a little bit more since he wont be working 6-7 days a week.   He will actually have some Saturday and Sundays off.   Perfect for visits to see family right?   Who knows, we will always hope, sometime soon everyone will be able to see your smiling faces.

For now we will wait, and hope all is well and you’re happy as can be.

Love and kisses, forever and for always,

our love is traveling to the moon and back for you both,

XOXOXOXOXOXO

❤️Nana and Poppy❤️?

Back to school/work time ?

Nana November 25, 2018 0Comments

Dear Guillianna and Elijah –

It’s that time of the evening – Sunday night after a nice weekend or the Thanksgiving holiday school break – where kids are on their way back to college after break or back to elementary, middle or high school after a nice little break. It’s the time of year where there is only s few weeks left before Christmas break and it makes getting your thoughts back to all the business of work or class time a little difficult since it is such an exciting time of year.  Glancing back into time, look how little you were….

In a little over a week someone will turn ten years old ! How amazing is that. Hopeful we will get to say HAPPY birthday, hear your voices – or see your faces. We have been wishing and hoping for that daily and surely will not ever stop.

Today we have had dinner with Great Grandma Sally, went to see Uncle David at the nursing home and got to see Aunt Kris there too!   Before that we went to Poppy’s work to take down all of the Thanksgiving decor and put up Christmas / holiday decor So as you can see we are trying to say super busy. we hope you too have stayed busy with all kinds of fun things.

We found ourselves getting messages about photos on this date through the years and while looking at the images we smile and remember the great times spent with you and all of the family.  It’s something that makes both of us happy and yet also makes us realize how much you must have changed in the past 11 months.   Can only imagine Elijah has lost and regrown new front teeth …?  Having seen you both learn to do all things children do as they grow – makes us especially close to you both.  Thing like – Learn to drink from a bottle and on to sippy cup and regular cups, roll, sit, crawl, walk and run. Sing ABC’s. Twinkle twinkle, draw, read and write …. there are so many videos and moments captured for you to have when you’re grown. Most of the videos are difficult for Nana to upload in any sort of pixellated format, and were working on this, getting all images pixellated takes some time since it am keeping the original format intact and replacing them with new photos that are less identifying.    If the videos won’t upload properly –  I will load them to a private file because they are so so precious and will one day be yours to treasure should you ever want them.

We used to write you letters at the end of every school year.  They were given to mom, for when you each graduated high school.   It would be a collection of letters written from us to show you of our love and continued support through the years.   Luckily,  I have the letters of older years on my computer hard drive and yes we will upload those for you too.  Yet since we have not heard anything about the second half of third grade and kindergarten, and while we have not heard anything  about fourth and first grade  thus far, we would  have a hard time writing letters about events or our shared knowledge of each of you in these grades.  Instead,  you will have these love letters to remind you how truly present we still are with you during these days weeks and months, that you’re in our thoughts and how we hope each day is bright,  full of wonder and happiness!   Physically in the same place attending grandparents day at your school, seeing your plays or music concerts, sharing life the way wo would like to , may not be allowed at this time but what is allowable and fair is the freedom to say what is just as real, just as important and just as needed- to send love and our support only at this time we can only do it with words.      Love and promises made will not be changed by location.    They cannot be changed by anyone else.    You’re feelings are yours.   We will support them.     Our feelings will not change due to any circumstances.   No one will ever be able to tell Nana and Poppy anything that is untrue about the two of you or the days in the Mitten.  We will always love you, we will always love our children.   What happens tomorrow and the next day or the next week, month or more – may be an unknown.   For all of this came as such a huge surprise.    What is clear and cannot change is the love that surrounded both you by all of your family – and that nothing can ever alter that.

here is to wishing you both an amazing return to school.    Keep your heads in the scholastic zone and try despite all the fun days ahead with birthday and potential parties,  Christmas break  and a new year coming !  Be sweet and kind as always,  listen to  and love on your mom and dad !     Know that every minute we are proud of you, and we love you forever and always, to the moon and back ,

XOXOXOXOXOXO

❤️Nana and Poppy❤️?