Kids...

....They sure do have a way of making a very sad time, seem like a happy time.

But first I want to thank all of you who left such nice comments and for your prayers for our family. We could feel the love and appreciated all the sweet words.

I wasn't sure how the kids would do during my dad's funeral. Should I bring them? I asked myself. What if they start to act up? We talked a lot about being very quiet and respectful during Granddaddy's funeral. I really wanted my girls to go because I felt it was important for them to have some type of closure. We also had them attend my dad's military memorial because again, I wanted them to have the closure and felt it was important for them to watch the 21 gun salute and to somehow be proud of their granddaddy.

But before all of the services, we had mother's day to celebrate and it was such a peaceful and fun mother's day. We went to the local berry farm and picked strawberries, fed goats and the moms received free ice cream sundaes...it's a big deal in my mom's small town to come here for mother's day.

Bennett knows how to pose for the camera!

Loving on the ones that made me a mommy.

As far as the funeral went, I couldn't have been more proud of my kids and my sister's boys. Dad would have been proud too. They sat almost completely silent while the pastor as well as many others talked about my dad. During the military salute they sat in awe of the soldiers and watched them march and carefully fold the American flag that covered my dad's casket. When the loud guns went off, Bennett gave his pouty lip {naturally} and Harper of course asked "why did they shoot those guns?". The weather couldn't have been more perfect and everything about all of the services was beautiful. I'm so glad my kids were there to see it all.

Now, I will add that later, as we were saying good bye to those that came, a friend of my parents asked who our kids were and as I pointed and said "and this is my other daughter Harper", she had her dress pulled up to her arm pits, showing everyone that may have been looking, her underwear! She was hot and what else do you do when you're 4 and you need to get some air? It wasn't too funny when I saw it but thinking back now, I know my dad would have just laughed.

After things calmed down and all of the ceremonies were done, the kids found ways to keep themselves busy...
They made up their own band-Harper was the drummer and Ainsley played the guitar.We went to the beach and let the girls release some energy after behaving so nicely for two days. They didn't have bathing suits but we let them get wet and sandy anyway.

Bennett enjoyed playing with the shovels and buckets

and walking with my mom {Grammy} down the beach.

He became very tired and started signing "night-night" here. This is actually the sign for "bed" but I taught him to use it for "night-night" or "tired" because I think it's cute;)

Btw, my new fashion accessory is a fedora. I love them and can't get enough of them! I currently have 3 of them.

Bennett has an unusual way of getting around now....

I guess you could call it the bear crawl and he's quite efficient at it.

Yep, this face turned a lot of sad faces into happy ones. My dad just loved to see Bennett smile really big. He was so proud of him and I so wished he would have been able to watch Bennett grow and hit huge milestones. But even though he won't see Bennett do those things here, he will still be watching him and cheering him right along up in heaven.