We had a birthday party for my dad yesterday. We made some of his favorite things for dinner (roast beef, potatoes and gravy and corn, and for dessert apple pie and ice cream) and sat around and told some of our favorite memories of him.
JARED: his moustache, grin and laugh
JOANN: how he wrapped everything in newspaper. He didn't want to waste wrapping paper when he had newspaper at his fingertips. I remember several Christmas' where he went out and tried to suprise everyone with a gift that even my mom didn't know about. One year he gave me a poinsetta plant with a neclace inside. Even though that poinsetta plant is looking a little bedragled now it is still one of my favorite Christmas decorations pull out every year. We were all pretty surprised when we opened up a present from him one year that had a toilet seat wrapped up for the family. (Yes, we needed a new toilet seat and he just decided to wrap it up for a surprise.) My mom was pretty surprised (I mean mortified) when she found out that one time he decided to surprise her with some new clothes. He thought that he was being so smart by taking a pair of her pants in with him so that the sales gal could just get the same size. Let me just say that the pair of pants that he chose was a dirty pair that had been worn out in the corrals with the cows...you get the picture!
JESSICA: remembers how he always use to question her about if she knew when her birthday was. Of course she didn't know. He always told her then that we didn't have to celebrate her birthday if she didn't know when it was. She used to think that was so funny.
JOCELYN: she was only 4 years old when he passed away so she doesn't have a lot of memories, but she remembers him playing with her.
JACOB & JAYDEN: have no earthly memories of grandpa except all the stories that we tell them. I like to think that if the boys didn't have the veil around them that they would be able to tell all their stories about him from up in Heaven. I still think that my dad thought that it would be a great big joke to have the twins and my sister's little girl (Olivia) all be born on the same day. 3 grandkids in one day! My mom was pretty stressed out that day, but it makes for a pretty great story now.
My favorite thing this weekend was finding the classic country station on tv. I had the music cranked up on Saturday while I was doing chores. It brought back many memories of growing up, and suprisingly enough I remembered many of the songs. The greatest part for me was when the girls told me how much they liked that kind of music and I got to watch Jacob bobbing his head back and forth to the music when he didn't think anyone was watching.
I added some of my favorite pictures because of his twinkling eyes and his grin. I love that in most of the pictures he looks like he is getting ready to tell a story or some joke. Good times.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!
