Ending of the Pascual 'dynasty' at the Clement's!

Each day Pops and I mourn a little more as it gets closer to the time that our little Pascual brothers move to Texas. After all, little Emmett has lived more of his life WITH us than without us! And Alex has melted his Pops' heart. Case in point: It was NOT all right for Abby to dig in the dirt in the backyard where Pops was trying to grow grass, but it WAS all right for Alex to dig in the dirt to make monster truck ramps and tracks in the exact same location where Pops was trying to grow grass! ;^) There are nothing like grandkids to soften our hearts! I remember seeing that in my own Dad. Things that we would have NEVER gotten away with when we were growing up were perfectly FINE if done by his grandchildren!

Some of the Alex-isms that we never want to forget: Pops' "Monster Truck"-the red ford ranger pickup truck, and Nana's "Race Car"-the baby blue Subaru Legacy. Alex's version of mashed potato, "mash-a tomato". Alex telling his Pops: "Open the tongue...more open the tongue" as he opens his mouth so that Pops can spray whipped cream from the can directly into his mouth. Another one: Us: "Alex, what's your name?" Alex: "Alex Pawc-lows" (unfortunately now he actually says Pascual!). And then there's his good friend Enur (better know to the rest of the world as Ernie on Sesame Street). This kid can be obstinate, but fortunately reverse psychology works very well. When you want a hug and a kiss from him sometimes he'll say, "No tank you". But if you REALLY want a hug and kiss when he does that then you have to play the "I DON'T want a hug and a kiss from Alex oh no, nO, No, NO, NO Nana does NOT want a hug and kiss from Alex". Invariably this will make him feel sad until you give him a great big hug and kiss! Crazy boy!! And just so you know that he really is a very good and sweet boy, when I ask him before we eat if we need to say a prayer, he always responds by telling WHO he wants to offer the prayer at that meal. I especially like it when HE wants to give the prayer. He starts off himself and without intervention we get something like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, name of Jesus Christ, AHHH-MEN!" But when we provide assistance he's very willing to bless the food AND his family AND thank Heavenly Father for all the blessings in his life.

Alex has become best friends forever with his good friend Mason Middleton. He and Mason were MEANT to be buddies. These two little guys are two peas in a pod, they both LOVE playing with monster trucks and rough housing and playing in the dirt and sand, etc. I worry how they will both do once they're separated. I worry about Alex, but he'll be blessed to live within about 30 minutes of his cousin Jackson. When we were all together for Pops' surprise birthday party Alex and Jackson had a DANDY time together, so I think Alex will have his cousin as a new buddy. But poor little Mason doesn't have any such replacement. Hopefully we can help him find a new buddy too. And hopefully Alex and Mason can enjoy Skype 'play dates'...

And then there's sweet little Emmett. It's interesting how God blesses us with children with different personalities. I'm absolutely SURE it's so that we'll be willing to have more! Where Alex is full of CRAZY, all boy energy, Emmett is the serious,calm, smiley, laid back little man. He has these huge blue eyes that just light up when he smiles his great big, two tooth smile! He's the one that loves to lay on the love seat snuggling with his Pops. He's happy to enjoy the company of anyone and everyone. Funny how Alex and Mason are buddies, and their little brothers Emmett and Evan are also buddies. It amazes me that babies under a year old can bond with each other and become friends, but there's no doubt in my mind that these two ARE friends. They'll hold hands and eat each other's faces and look at each other, etc. Sweet, sweet little boys...







The following pictures represent some of our fun times with the boys!Nothing like watching youtube Monster Truck races on Pops' Ipod!








He was actually playing some kind of monster truck game in the dog kennel! And no, he's not locked in, he just got mad because I was taking pictures!!














Story time with Nana!














Playing in the snow behind Grandpa Clement's house.

Our Carhart boys!










This kid is without a doubt HILARIOUS!!

What Happened to February?

Wow, what happened to February? I turn around and it's more than 1/2 over! So many things have already happened this year. Darvin's Uncle Heber (his Dad's brother) passed away, then his Mom passed away, and last week his Aunt Nione (his Dad's little sister) passed away. Around the beginning of the year Ivan got a new job here in Yakima as a car salesman at Bob Hall's Auto Dealership and then proceeded to get a new job as a salesman in Dallas, TX with ADP Software Company. We're very happy for him as it will be a great opportunity for Ivan, but very sad as their family (who've lived with us for the past 7 months) will be moving to Texas. We've had a daily 'fix' of sweet, rambunctious little boys and it's hard not to mourn their loss even before they've left, which incidentally begins this next Thursday. Ivan will pick up the moving truck on Wednesday. Family, friends and Elder's Quorum will help load Wednesday night and then he'll start driving down to Texas pulling their car behind the moving truck on Thursday. Briana was set to fly down to Texas with the boys the following week on the 29th. Pops and I thought it was pretty crazy for her to attempt to fly by herself with two little boys on a trip which included a connecting flight, so Nana volunteered to travel with them. And I figured if I was going down to Texas, I might as well take advantage and stay for a week to visit our other family down there!

Darvin and I just returned from a weekend trip to the Seattle area. For our anniversary in August I'd purchased a couples massage workshop in the Seattle area. We had finally scheduled to go in January and then the weather was so bad in Seattle that they weren't sure whether or not they would have to cancel it, so we rescheduled for yesterday. We headed over on Friday, had lunch at Willie's Taste of Soul BBQ with Mike. The food was OK, but nothing spectacular. The company was great. It was so nice to see Mike again and be able to chat with him for a while. As an added bonus he had Molly out in the car waiting to visit with us. We stayed at the La Quinta in Kirkland. Friday evening we did some window shopping and found a Bed, Bath and Beyond and exchanged the 7 opening frame that I'd bought broken in Yakima for one that wasn't broken (HOORAY!). I'm super excited to order the family picture prints for it and get it hung on the wall. We went to a french bakery and bought some desserts and then went back to the hotel and enjoyed our evening together. We got up relatively late yesterday morning. Got dressed, went to the movies (Ghost Rider 2-very dark movie) then out to lunch at the Kauai Family Restaurant. They have authentic hawaiian food. It's a little hole in the wall restaurant. Apparently they were short staffed that day and it took forever for the service. Fortunately the company was good and we weren't in a rush. The food was pretty good. We went back to the hotel for a little while and then got ready for our massage workshop. It was a GREAT experience. I would highly recommend it for any couple near Seattle. It's run by the Northwest School of Massage and Joe Lavin a massage therapist and his wife Wendy Lavin a physical therapist run the workshop. It's a great way to learn some massage techniques to use on your spouse. Darvin and I both felt that it was well worth our time and money and I'm currently looking for a deal on a massage table! It was great timing as we've had so much stress in our lives lately.

We had another 'sleep in' this morning, although we got up early enough to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the hotel, then we got ready and headed to Mike's to pick up the rest of Ashley's stuff that was still there. We loaded it in Darvin's pickup truck and headed for home. We stopped at Darvin's Dad's once we arrived back in Yakima and chatted with him for a while and I copied some documents to start working on for him. Then we headed for home. We were sorely disappointed when we arrived at home and the two little boys weren't waiting for us! When they finally did get home we had fun feeding them dinner, playing with them and getting them back up after their parents put them to bed!

Wendy Middleton and I are hosting a baby shower for Lindsey towards the end of March and so I've been busily looking for ideas for party themes, invitations, etc. I think I'm getting some ideas in my mind. Hopefully they'll all come together and it'll look good, food will taste good and we'll have a good party!

A Good Day!

Today was a good day. Yesterday was a hard one as I took Grandpa around to the local banks in town to take care of some of the financial business that comes with death. Actually, I should give myself a little credit for Friday (yesterday). I started the day by making the rest of the financial phone calls that I'd been postponing. Now we're just waiting for forms to be mailed to us and return phone calls. It was emotionally grueling to take Grandpa to the banks, he just seemed lost. As we were waiting at one of the banks and talking about the process he was so sweet, he said he wanted to figure out what he could do so we wouldn't have to go through the same thing when he passed away. It makes me feel so sad to see him so lonely. We make sure that each day at least one of us goes to visit him and bring him a meal, but a visit for an hour or two can't take the place of the loneliness for the other 22 or 23 hours of the day. Grandpa's neighbors have been tremendous! They shovel his driveway, bring him soups and chat with him, etc. I really appreciate their love for him and their support of him.

Today my 'to do' list was much more relaxed. Got Grandpa's medisets filled, picked up a cd at Karen Blair's for Seminary, went with the family for lunch at Costco, took a Costco dog and rootbeer float to Grandpa's for his lunch. Had a fun time at Grandpa's chit chatting and then Alex decided he needed to play outside. So he and Nana went outside. We quickly formulated the 'downhill race game'. "Gentlemen, start your engines". It started with the 2 wheel vehicle and quickly progressed to the little red wagon and sock monkey. When it was time to go home, Pops, Mommy and Grandpa came outside and when Pops saw our game he quickly decided that King Krunch monster truck was the correct vehicle for the race. Alex was at the top of the driveway and he'd start King Krunch down the 'track' and Pops was at the bottom of the 'track' to catch King Krunch and then race him back up the 'track' where Alex was waiting to catch him.



Then this evening we got a sneak peak at our own personal 'Evil Knievel'. I predict many future trips to the Emergency Room in the Pascual family future!!


Time with family helps us heal.