There is a glorious reunion going on in Heaven

A grandmother holds
her grandchildren's hands
for a while...
Their hearts forever

Connie 'Rae' Cheney Dunsmoor was born April 2, 1934 and passed from this earth on May 16, 2010. She was married when she was 17 to my Grandpa Dunsmoor and was married for 17 years before he passed in 1968. She was alone for another 17 years before she married again to Ken Bell. They were married for 15 years (messed up her pattern of 17:) before he passed away. She then married her last husband Duane in 2001 and he just passed in January. She has had such a hard life. When my Grandpa died, he left her with five children to raise by herself. She was only 34 years old when she was widowed. I've always known that but it really hit me hard now that I have just turned 34 in April. I cannot even imagine how my Grandma did it! My Grandpa was only 42 years old when he died and it has been 42 years since he passed....(there goes those number patterns again:) I guess it was definitely her time and there truly is a glorious reunion going on in Heaven. She has been an amazing Grandma and we will miss her dearly!!

I had to do a talk at her funeral about all of her Grandchildren's memories. These are a few of mine......

When I think of my Grandma, I remember her beautiful roses that lined the front of her house to the raspberries that lined the stairs in the backyard and her popcorn apricot tree. I remember climbing the fig tree and feeding her turtles. When we were really young, we would go over to her house for Christmas and she would have different games for us to play with prizes to win which was always so fun. Thanksgiving would always have homemade place cards cut out like turkeys with all of our names on them and playing football out in front of her house. I also remember the lazy suzan type round thing her tv was on before her house was remodeled. You could turn the tv towards the living room or the kitchen and I thought that was the best thing ever! She also always had mints to share at church and every time I smell exhaust, I think of her orange el camino!!

I remember how thrilled she was when I named my first daughter Makenna "Rae" after her. She would call her her namesake over and over again and even signed her name Grandma “Rae” in the cards she sent us. It made her so happy.


But my fondest memory is my most recent one. I just gave birth to her last great grandchild born in her lifetime in April. I was planning on going over to Grandma’s house so that she could meet my son but was trying to get adjusted to having three kids. I started feeling like I really needed to get over there soon so I asked my mom when we were going to go visit Grandma. We decided to go that Friday which was May 7th. Grandma’s eyes lit up when she saw my little one and loved being able to hold him. I took some pictures of them and Aiden even smiled at her as they looked into each other’s eyes. That melted her heart and made her day. My girls played around us while we had a nice visit. I gave her a hug and kiss and told her I loved her and left her house for the last time while she was alive. The very next morning, she was taken to the hospital. I will forever be grateful for being able to introduce my son to my grandma and that she had the opportunity to hold him.

We love you and will miss you dearly Grandma Great!!

Visiting with Grandma Great

My sweet friend Sarah is going through a hard time right now. She just lost her Grandpa and it made me think of how we need to not waste a single minute and enjoy our family while we have them here. My Mom asked if I wanted to go with her to go visit my Grandma and I told her that I would love to. My girls and I love to visit with my Grandma.

The girls always have a great time. It was a beautiful day to play outside and then they decided to play with Grandma's walker:) Makenna kept walking across the room saying, "I'm old....I'm so so old!!" It was hilarious. I have no idea where she got that from:)

And then of course Jordyn does everything that Makenna does so she had to have a run with the walker:)

They also took turns doing sommer saults and showing Grandma what they do in their dance and gymnastics classes! I hope she enjoyed it. We did:)

Happy Birthday Papa/ belated Great Grandma

Happy birthday Daddy!! You are the best Dad and Papa! I love how sweet you are with my little girls and that they get to see you all the time. We love you.
He loves the babies;)

And I am very late in posting about my Grandma's birthday. I do have an excuse. I had to wait for pics since I didn't bring my camera;) She turned 75 at the beginning of April and we all got together for a surprise party for her at my cousin's home. A lot of us were able to make it (including family from Utah and the East coast) and it was nice to be able to spend her day with her.

We decided to take a family pic while we were all there. There are still lots that weren't able to make it. We are getting pretty big;) We love you Grandma!

Our Halloween

*edited to add more pics.....bummed that I didn't get any with the girls and great grandma. What was I thinking?

I was waiting to post about Halloween because my mom has better pictures than I do but I keep forgetting to ask her for them. So I will add more pics to this later;)
The first house we went to had three guys in scary costumes at the door and Makenna did a 180 and ran screaming back to Travis. The lady came out with a handful of candy to give to her but she didn't want to go up to any more houses after that. We convinced her that our neighbor across the street wouldn't be scary but it still took like five minutes for her to go up to the door. And then of course down the street, there were a couple of kids that dressed up in the "Scream" costumes and I don't think she wanted to do much after that. Since they are so young, we just went to a couple more houses. She had enough candy from the trunk or treat anyway. Jordyn was just chilling in the wagon, content to sit and watch her sister and all the people. There were tons of people walking our street. I've never seen that many. It must have been because it was so warm. I've lived here all my life and I don't remember a Halloween where we didn't even need at least a light sweater;) We then headed over to great grandma's house. She always makes homemade doughnuts every year and I am happy to say that I stuck to my diet (mostly) and only ate one little doughnut hole;) She has wood floors and both of them loved clicking their shoes back and forth on it to make as much sound as possible.
Our beautiful princess and adorable Minnie (I wish she would keep ears on her head because that would have been so cute but that girl will not put anything on) We at least got a nose on her.

I didn't get very good pics at all, especially of Jordyn so I will post more when I get them from my mom!

Grandma

Unfortunately, my grandma is in the hospital because of a stroke:( I hate seeing her like that but I'm making sure the girls and I see her as often as we can. We went up there today to see how she was doing and Makenna was so excited. I told her we weren't going to her house but that she was sick and in the hospital. She drew her a get well card picture on the way and couldn't wait to give it to her. I'm so glad that Makenna has grown close to her great grandma. I really feel that she just wants to go to the other side and be with her forever love but I hope that she fights for a little longer. We aren't ready for her to leave just yet. As we were going to her hospital room, Makenna looks in a room and yells, "That's not my Great Grandma"!!! It was so cute. I'm sure my grandma felt that love from this sweet little child of mine and I pray that she gets better soon.

Living Outside!!

It has been so beautiful lately and we have been outside constantly. I'm so glad that we didn't go straight from Winter to Summer like we usually do. It's actually been a gorgeous spring. Jordyn fell asleep on our bike ride yesterday and this is how I found them when we were done. Makenna is so sweet to her sister and they love each other so much. What a good big sister!!

We stopped by Great Grandma's for her birthday and to have lunch with her. Makenna loves going over there. We need to do it more often;)