Cousin Time {and an explanation}

 Kate, Shaelynn, Danica and Dylan horsing around in Grandma and Grandpa Sharp's living room.

November 2011

 Danica and Dylan.  Only five months apart, these two became cute little friends during our Idaho visits in November and December.

 These two pictures were taken of all the cousins (and second cousins and random children) at the luncheon following Ryan's funeral.  Naturally they had a lot of energy to burn after everything.

So, here's the deal with the blog: (And I'm pretty much writing to myself and to Mike, when he goes to turn this little blog into a book eventually)

The months of November and December are quite a blur to us.  After Halloween we started gearing up to move into a house, and travel west for Thanksgiving.  But just a few days before our trip we learned of Ryan's injury, which threw our already hectic schedule into a tailspin.

So over the next little while I'd like to blog about everything that we did, but it's all jumbled (because that's how it is in my mind too!)

So Mike, when you go to organize this mess into our blog book, um, good luck to you, sweetie! :)

But November and December in a nutshell went like this:

Ryan was injured on November 21st.

On November 23rd (I think) we flew to Cedar City to spend Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving morning, we learned that Ryan's condition was worsening, so we abandoned our plans to stay in Cedar and drove immediately to Idaho Falls to be with the family.

During our brief stay, Mike's parents flew to Germany to be at Ryan's side.  We stayed and visited with the siblings for a couple of days, then drove back to Cedar City.

We stayed a few days in Southern Utah, where we spent a lovely afternoon in Zion, just our little family.

On December 3rd, while still in Cedar, we learned that Ryan had passed away.

We flew home to Texas on our scheduled flight.

Three days later, we flew back to Idaho for the funeral.

We were in Idaho for about a week, I think (I honestly can't remember)

We flew back to Texas, and with the help of amazing family and friends, packed our whole house and moved in the next couple of days.

The remainder of December was spent getting settled into our new home and preparing for Christmas.

Mike's parents drove to Texas to spend Christmas with us.  We loved having them here!

A quiet Christmas at home was just what we needed after such a tumultuous and hectic time.  Then we kicked off the new year by traveling to Kansas for Ryan's memorial service at Fort Riley.

Thankfully we seem to be settling into a routine around here; as much as possible, since I'm a gazillion weeks pregnant (or so it seems).  In actuality, 4 weeks from today we welcome our little guy to the family!!!

So there it is-- a brief documentation of the last few months.  I'll post pictures as I get around to it!! :)