Little Rosey's Adventure

There are few things in life that are more overwhelming than trying to write a blog post after being absent for 2 months. (There definitely ARE things that are more overwhelming, just not many.)

This becomes exponentially more overwhelming when several of life's milestones have occurred in those two months. While fighting the urge of not wanting to miss a detail in this blog - here's to missing lots of details and catching you up to where we are now.

First, we got haircuts...all three of us! And that day, Rory aged about 2 years. And we can now admit that maybe we could've gotten his haircut a little sooner than we did...but we're just trying to hold on people!

Barry is our amazing hairdresser - we love him.

Then, we went to San Francisco...without Rory. Thanks to our wonderful Miss Shauna, we left Rory behind for two nights and went to San Francisco to celebrate Joe's birthday (oh, and to attend a work conference). We really missed Rory, but we knew he was in amazing hands. He did really great. We left on Thursday, and Friday morning I FaceTime'd (video chatted, for those of you without an iPhone) Rory in the morning. He was sitting in bed, took one look at the phone and started crying crocodile tears. I think my heart literally tore in half. Thirty seconds later he was totally fine, but it was precious (and heartbreaking) to see him love me like that. But Joe and I had a great time, and it was a memorable way to spend his birthday this year!

With our friends Kaley and Derek at an AMAZING brunch spot.

Quickly upon our return from San Francisco, something I've been dreading for many months now happened - and one of my very best friends was taken to a better place. My Grandma died on Tuesday, October 16th. We are so thankful that she had peace, that she avoided much suffering, and that she is now with Papa Bob and Matthew; however, for many of us here, our lives will never be the same. I'm still in the beginning stages of processing this loss. Though I still feel her with me, and often forget she is gone, I miss her terribly. I think I will always miss her.

I had a plane ticket to visit her for her birthday on the 26th of October. I think she had a different plan - because the timing of her services put us home for Rory's first birthday! I'm confident my grandma was more concerned with us celebrating Rory's birthday with our family than with us being with her on her birthday. So we did celebrate. Rory had a wonderful first birthday in St. Louis, surrounded by SO MUCH LOVE. It was really special for him to be with all of his family for his birthday.

His poop was green for days.

We are very thankful that we got so much time with my Grandma this year. Rory has made 6 trips to St. Louis! I wouldn't trade those visits for anything in the world, and I'm thankful to have the resources and opportunities to have made that happen.

So...

What do most people do when they have a lot going on in their life? Add more. I thought now was as good a time as any to pursue a new business venture. Thus, Tiny Superheroes was born! I'll let my Etsy store speak for itself...well, and a few pictures.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TinySuperHeroes

Then came Halloween. If you want to feel the shock we are in about how much kids grow in one year, just check this out:

We had a great Halloween with our little Superhero, and decided to get in on the fun:

Shauna took the boys trick-or-treating with us!

Then, last week we lost another close person in our lives, my Aunt Mary. It's actually hard to wrap my mind around all of this loss. I feel so heavy for her immediate family, because I know how much her extended family will miss her. I'm hopeful that my two Grandmas and Aunt Mary (who all passed away this year) are happy, peaceful, and at rest in Heaven.

We'll end this post on an uplifting note:

Meet Puddles! She is the newest member of our growing family! She is 9 weeks old today, and a Cockapoo! We picked her up last week and she's been great. Certainly her name speaks for itself, but she has been doing a great job of peeing outside at least as often as she pees inside! But the bright note is that she sleeps!!!!!! All night. It's amazing. Anyways, we love her and are working hard to nurture Rory & Puddles into being best friends. It may take time.