Category Archives: 2 Mi Familia

All things family-related. My husband and me, the children we made, the grandbebes that thrill us now. Our whole great big, loud, messy family. Love! *sigh…

springstuff, the list

“Imperfection is beauty,

                                    madness is genius

and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous

                           than absolutely boring.” ~ whosaidthis?

 

And isn’t April ridiculously mad and delicious?

  

Elise-the-Niece, the very personification of spring, is here for a visit on her way from almost a year on the YWAM base in Hawaii back to Aberdeen, SD and her family.

Things of spring: MY LIST~

  

Hunter, Gavin and Guini; Guini and Averi ~ artwork on the patio

Sidewalk chalk and seed packets.

Salad greens and spring showers.

Blue skies and garden bunnies.

Family birthdays and family food daze.

Birdsong and backyard play.

Sugar snap peas and Cherry Belle radishes.

Grandbebe chatter and catching up with neighbors over the fence.

Home Depot then home work.

Sidewalk sweeping and wagon pulling.

Clean windows and fresh air.

The boys building forts and digging holes for buried treasure.

Perennials popping up around the pond.

Sprouts in the garden and sproutonline.com

Petunias and pansies.

Lilies and lilacs.

The lawnmower’s roar and squeak of the swing.

Azure-blue dusk and snow-capped mountain horizons.

The smell of hot soil and the intoxicating scent of wet cedar mulch.

Fertilizer and polished furniture.

The whoosh of kids swinging and the wind’s soft whisper.

The grill fired up and sweet girls dressed up.

Terra cotta pots and tomato seedlings.

Bright lights and short nights.

 

The Kelley kids at church one evening last week; Elise-the-niece with Amelie Belle, the newest of the grandbebes.

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. ~William Shakespeare

  

Stormie and Amelie; GemGem and her Aunt Tara; Stormie and Guinivere.  At Stormie’s family birthday dinner.

 

Celebrating with mi familia!  Happy Birthday, again, Stormie Dae Rhoades, spring baby and lovely girl!  The grandbebes eating. 

In springtime, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head. ~Terri Guillemets

  

Wrex and Stef with the birthday girl.  The cookbook holder Wrex made for Stormie with his own two, bare hands!  Same as the high-ticket model at Anthropologie.  But better!  Wrex practicing eating while holding a baby.  He vows a tiny human being will not interefere in this department!

If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets

  

The coconut cake for Stef and Elise, icing/filling kinda to die for.  Tara singing a song Stormie wrote for part of her birthday gift.  Fruit Pizza is ever-so-much-more-scrumptious the next morning.  Approximately 3872 calories.  And I HOPE I am only kidding!

  

Outside after dark: the boys building their fort.  Averi and GemGem, best cousins…just before the tragic accident.  Gemma “ran right into” Hunter’s construction site and got quite the owie on her face.  But a band-aid and a kiss makes everything better.  That and getting some attention.

“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.” ~ Rainer Marie Rilke

{sigh}

I love spring.  And I LOVE lists!

My Little Stormiekins

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Stormie Dae!

And I never thought I’d feel this way

And as far as I’m concerned

I’m glad I got the chance to say

That I do believe I love you

 Stormie with Grandma Moslander, early 1987, almost 1

She’s the baby-gotta love her!

My little Stormiekins.  How I love you, chica!  Can you even imagine how much?  Can you comprehend what I see when I look at you?  Me, with a million words, yet, unable to fully express how brightly you shine in my universe, how fully you fill my heart with joy, how rich you have made our family?

The last of 5 children (all born in less than 7 years!), you came along and became the opus, the grand total of us all.  I was only 26 when you arrived, barely understanding adulthood and living in the happy chaos that is toddler-world.  With three “big,” (and I use that term loosely) sisters and one big brother already here, who will she be, we wondered?  And we couldn’t have planned it, nor even asked for such a perfect fit.  But God knew.

And if I should ever go away

Well, then close your eyes and try to feel

The way we do today

And then if you can remember

And, oh, what a treasure you are to us, to me.  Your are an honoring daughter which makes me happy because, girl?  I want it to ge WELL! with you!  So keep it up!  And your faithfulness to the things you have committed yourself to and the things God has called you to inspires me so.  I love your sweet voice and willingness, quiet and reserved as you are (and never afraid to work quietly behind the scenes), to leadworship – to raise your song in praise and invite the youngones to follow along.  Yeah, Stormie!

You are loyal to a fault and so creatively, over-the-top, abundantly, self-sacrificingly, Holy-Spirit-empowered in your giving.  Your generosity has touched people around the world and I know why God has blessed you monetarily at such a young age: because He has anointed you to give and He trusts you with the job!

I have wept over you when I have watched the enemy come to steal your heart and your hope and I have been comforted by you when the same craphead has tried to take mine.  We haveprayed together and sangtogether and you’re the best driver of all my kids and I am not just saying that because I was the one who taught you.  Or maybe I am.  But you are sooooo special to me, Stormie Dae.

Keep smilin’, keep shinin’

Knowin’ you can always count on me, for sure

That’s what friends are for

For good times and bad times

I’ll be on your side forever more

That’s what friends are for

As a baby, you were a delight (and the first girl who could handle Rocky’s antics) and as a woman, you are my beloved daughter and trusted friend.  Which is why I have included Carol Bayer Sager’s amazing song, which just happened to be Billboard’s #1 hit of the year when you were born in 1986, That’s What Friends are For.

For the song epitomizes the kind of person you havebecome, the kind who will, in good or bad times, be on a person’s side.  You are a person who can be counted on and I thank God for you.  I thank Him for knowingwhat this family needed when He surprised us with you!  I am so glad He gifted me with you even when I didn’t think I had it in me.  Thank-you for living out God’s call so beautifully, Stormkins.

Well, you came and opened me

And now there’s so much more I see

And so by the way I thank you

And then for the times when we’re apart

Well, then close your eyes and know

These words are comin’ from my heart

And then if you can remember

Keep smiling, keep shining

Knowing you can always count on me, for sure

That’s what friends are for

I am so pleased with you, Stormie Dae.  I am so thankful for you and delighted with the way you have turned out.  Happy Birthday, sweetie-pie.  Your mama adores you.  There’s so much great stuff ahead. 

In good times, in bad times

I’ll be on your side forever more

Oh, that’s what friends are for

 

Stormie being silly and Stormie with her sister and www.MayDae.com partner, Stephanie

Keep smilin’, keep shinin’

Knowin’ you can always count on me, for sure

That’s what friends are for

For good times and bad times

I’ll be on your side forever more

That’s what friends are for

Keep smiling, keep shining

Happy Birthday to the baby. I will be on your side for ever and for always.

Love,

mom

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOE!

J o e- theBROTHER…49 years in 10 minutes flat!

 

 QUICK CLICK for full, crazy, sentimental effect: The mood music



  

My little brother, Joe, turns 49 today.  When we were little, when we were “Jeanie and Joey” way back when, he was my best friend and confidante.  I was bossy and he needed to be bossed.  I was forthright and opinionated and he was the gentle listener who appreciated my opinions.  I talked.  He listened and drew pictures.  He became an accomplished artist and I, a talker.

One time he quietly saved me from drowning and another time he saved me from something much worse.  He risked a lot to be in my corner during a really hard time…or two.  He has spent his life teasing me, tormenting me, aggravating me and protecting me.  I have spent mine acting like I am always right and challenging him to boxing matches (which I win, of course, because gentle Joe would never hurt a girl). 

For a lot of years, marriage and raising kids and careers and life made what we once shared so closely (he was my first nap and room-mate) a sweet, but distant memory.  But then the melancholy of years and a deep, abiding love reminded us to reset our priorities and to be not only a brother and his big sister (he now calls me his “little sister” which is all the more reason to love him), but to be friends – the kind who are God-sent and will never let you go.  For that is what I have in Joe.

During those interim, busy-life years, I once almost lost Joe permanently and I didn’t even know.  I was living my  own life and he was dying, coding repeatedly one night after he collapsed doing police work at the airport.  Thinking now about what I’d have missed if he hadn’t made it makes me nag him and check his pacemaker for malfunction when I see him.  His strong, steady heartbeat is very important to me.

He was my first best-friend.   At times, moving around like we did as kids, he was my only friend.  Now?   Friends to the end!

Forgive my sentimentality, but I have put together 10 minutes (!!!) of pictures of me and ‘the Joey.’  And I added “mood music” because this is how I want to tell him how happy I am that he was born on April 14, 1961.  Plus I am all melancholy and sentimental. 

I know you are probably thoroughly embarrassed now, Joe-Joe, but I don’t care.  It is what I do.  You KNOW I’ve got the “Joey-Joey-Joey-Joey

down in my heart!”  And I love ya!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  So glad, so so glad you were born to be MY brother!

 

Now and Forever by Carole King

Now and forever
you are a part of me
And the memory cuts like a knife…

Now and forever
I'll remember all the promises still unbroken
And think about all the words between us
That never needed to be spoken
We had a moment
Just one moment
That will last beyond a dream,
Beyond a lifetime
We are the lucky ones
Some people never get to do
All we got to do
Now and forever
I will always think of you
Didn't we come together
Didn't we live together
Didn't we cry together
Didn't we play together
Didn't we love together
And together we lit up the world
I miss the tears
I miss the laughter
I miss the day we met
and all that followed after
Sometimes I wish I
could always be with you
The way we used to do
Now and forever
I will always think of you

Now and forever
I will always be with you

Happy Birthday, Joseph Allen Moslander

 

 

SIGNS OF SPRING

Love for the grandbebes at Easter

 

Amelie Belle was 10 days old on her first Easter.  See how good her mommy looks?

Thinking green

  

Guini at “school” with Nonna on a sunny day

  • Get the green light: get approval to move ahead or proceed with a project or task…like planting sugar snap peas, radishes, bibb lettuce, broccoli…etc!
  • Green thumb: an unusual ability to make plants grow.  Or maybe just knowing that if you put a seed in soil and water and provide the right environment, you will reap!
  • Green room: a room where performers can relax before or after appearances (as in – everyone wants to volunteer to work the green room for Heaven Fest).  www.heavenfest.com Go to site.  Sign up to volunteer somewhere other than the Green Room!
  • Greenback: a legal-tender note issued by the United States government (yes, please, I need some – issue away).
  • Greener pastures:– something newer or better (or perceived to be better), such as a new job or, hmmm….is the neighbor’s forsythia starting to bud before mine?
  • Green with envy:  jealous or envious.  I think the neighbor has already edged his front yard and mine is looking wobbly.
  • Greenhorn: novice, trainee, beginner.  The person who does their yard spring cleaning before the spring winds have had a chance to blow all of their neighbor’s leaves and debris into their yard.
  • Green around the gills: marked by a pale, sickly, or nauseated appearance.  Me, after that stinking heavy rain/snow thing broke the 4-foot growing top off the Austrian Pine that was finally giving a wall of privacy between my neighbor’s deck and my north-facing family room window..
  • Turn green: to look pale and ill as if you are going to vomit.  Me, upon closer inspection of my Austrian Pine.
  • Going green: when someone or something makes changes to help protect the environment, or reduce waste or pollution.  I have printed posters and will be involving the grandbebes in post-family-gathering recycling sessions!  Please note:  aluminum foil balls must be clean and at least 2″ in size.

But mainly?  The grass is green again!  The backyard is happy!  The front needs to catch up!

NOTE TO BRYAN:  Yes, I own colors other than green.  You know, there is orange.  {in ref to this post}  Bryan recently started the annual tomato wars with me on his blog.  Funny, but, whatev, Bry!

I love love love this orange bag Stephanie and Tristan got me for Christmas sooooo much – I may carry it ’til I die!

One Last Look at ANNIE

Performances~

The final curtain fell on Prairie Playhouse’s production of Annie 2 weeks ago now.  It was a great show.  Dave was amazing as Daddy Warbucks.  The cast had great chemistry.  The orphans were not only adorable, but very talented!  Director Shauna Dunlap did a great job of  putting the show together and getting the best out of everyone.  Don Dupree led the orchestra and did a great job.

Our entire family continues to sing Annie tunes when we are together…and even when we we’re not!

From backstage

  

If you are Dave’s friend on Facebook, you can see gazillions of pictures from the production.  Please note my antique desk, my chair, my Christmas tree, my dog and my husband.   I would like my contributions recognized.  : )

Friends and family and neighbors attended every single performance.  There was always a line of people waiting to get pictures with Daddy Warbucks and Annie!

 

Jovan’s nieces Mikhaila and Bella and their friends; Amy Anderson and Linda Timmerman came all the way from Nebraska!

 

Sister-in-law, Sharon from Eaton; Jared and Kristie A., Rocky, Marilyn and Corky

Dancing and singing  on stage

   

The final bows, a fond farewell

 

So, for Dave’s birthday a few days later, the girls whipped together a little Daddy Warbucks theme.

You can speed up or slow down the slides by clicking on the plus or minus symbols and to read the caption, just place the cursor on the picture as it goes by.

 

We did all don bald caps to surprise him, but I am not allowed to show that.  Or I won’t.  Whichever.

NOTE TO DAVE:  You were great, honey.  Seeing you jump on furniture and dance, watching you act,
seeing your have so much fun – was great!  Yet, no. 
I am not OK with you growing long-long hair for Peter Pan.  Huh-uh.  No.  I am not seeing that. 
It’s called a wig.  Check it out.
Portraits by Dani, the photos from the actual play

Gavin as the Big Billy Goat in the School Play

 

Hunter brought Sam and Moses to the play.  Averi and the Kelley girls were there along with parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles.  When the Garcia boys asked, “Where is Gavin?”  for the cafeteria was overflowing with 1st graders, teachers and family members.  Hunter informed them, “The orange hair!  Look for the orange hair. ”  Yep, that is our Gav-Gav!  The first grandson, the first grandchild we ever had…The “Big Billy-Goat” with the orange hair.  And sweetest heart ever!

NOTE:  Observe how well this firstborn kid makes sure the mic is where it should be!  Yes, I am very proud of him!

Six Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!……

AMELIE BELLE HAS ARRIVED!

 

Big sister Averi loves her new baby; Poppa with the tiny bundle.

A little after 3 pm, Amelie Belle was born to Rocky and Jovan Rhoades (and big sister, Averi) weighing in at 8 pounds, 13 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long.  She is absolutely gorgeous!  Gorgeous!  And her name is the French version of Emily, pronounced ah’-ma-lee, as in awwww….so cute! 

Amelie is about an hour old in this photo.  Cute family, yes?

I now have 6 grandbebes!  I am blessed!

Baby and mommy are doing well.  Daddy is tired, but happy and Averi seems unfazed by everything, just happy for the huge party going on at the hospital because between the Rhoades-Powers-Kelleys and the DiPerna-Carter-Roberson clans: Platte Valley Hospital thinks the Osmonds have descended!  Amelie was greatly anticipated and is loved by bunches of people.  With as many flashes going off as there were all afternoon, you’d have thought Brad and Angelina just showed up on the red carpet.  Good times!

 

See?  Lots of us!  I am mesmerized!

  

A little fun and frolic in the waiting room that we sort of took over.  Tea parties, bingo, Legos, video and computer games and snacks!

We L O V E  her!  This little Amelie Belle…

No bebe. Quite yet.

I was wrong.  We are so close, but no grandbebe, yet. 

Labor started,

then ceased.  Pooey.

IN OTHER FAMILY NEWS:  Last night at Chilis, where the Adams County Coroners were apparently convening, and I hope no one was “hanging around” in those shiny vans…if you know what I mean, as we were waiting to be seated, Dave was “recognized” by a group of about 6 or 7 young kids who all started smiling at him and waving, giggling and taking his picture.  He is famous in Brighton.  (Tredessa and Stormie had just taken him jeans shopping because he doesn’t know how to highlight his assets, so to speak).

And MayDae did 2 posts on the fundraiser decor they did for the WWM/Heaven Fest dinners the past couple of weeks.  Go look!  www.maydae.com (www.heavenfest.com)