For Pete's Sake

This is my dear Uncle Pete. 

He is one of a kind. 

I come from kind of a serious family. But Uncle Pete is fantastically funny. 

He brings joy and humor to our family gatherings. 

His jokes were always kind, never at someone's expense. 

But somehow, still funny.

He is sincere and loving. 

He's genuinely interested in others. 

He is a super talented guy too. 

He's a boss upright bass player...

amazing photographer (he photographed our wedding)...

and a gifted artist with a passion for the natural beauty of rare woods.

He's dad of three. 

New grandad to three with one in the oven. 

That's him there with baby Jude. 

He looked incredibly dapper (above) as he and his beautiful wife celebrated 

their youngest daughter's wedding just last month.

He is a gem. 

With a good, good heart. 

And a bad heart. 

He was born with a bicuspid aortic valve.

He had lots of fixes including a pace maker. 

It gave off a very loud tick that I found somehow soothing. 

It put babies to sleep on his chest without fail.

But last night...it went silent.

So tomorrow Hazel and I fly to her 2nd funeral in her 9 short weeks of life. 

We converge on Greenville S.C. with a sea of other Deckers who loved our Pete so much.

I hope some of his humor will be present in this serious bunch at this sad, sad time. 

Thanks for the laughs Uncle Pete. They live on.

Peek of the Week - October 28, 2011

Take a Peek:

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

So...I know. I know. This is the 3rd post about Hazel and her Halloween costumes. 
There was the mermaid.
Then the tutu with her brothers in their costumes.

But I think this is her for real costume. In fact, she's already worn it to a Halloween party.

That's one saucy Indian Princess.

As an added bonus to the plain old cuteness of the costume, it's got international flair. The two fabrics came from across the pond. Eric bought them for me at a stuffy fabric shop in jolly old England. The bindi came from real live India. I was there in 2004 to study art and architecture when I was in grad school. And the henna feet are compliments of my Crayola washables. How 'bout that?

Now you!
You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Embrace the Love Fest

Mornings are a big old snuggle fest around here. 

Everybody's sleepy and cuddly and in good moods. Especially on days where we have a loose schedule, we find we can just snuggle the morning away.

Dizzy missed out on this love fest since he was at church with Dad.

But Haze and Amos and I had a lovely time just gazing upon each other.

Hazel loves hand-me-down jammies from her big brothers. 

Love-a-love. 

Can't get enough.

Come back tomorrow for another fun Halloween Peek of the Week.

Linking up with the Anderson Crew for Embrace the Camera Thursday:

Just for fun.

Compliments of the Lazy Blogger.

Peek of the Week, October 21, 2011

Take a Peek: 

 Spoooooky, right?

Know what's spooky? Amos and Eli and their mirror image posing. Sup wit' dat?

Know what's spookier? They've done it before:

I digress.

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

So today...a Halloween Peek:

 Ok I confess. The reason they always have their hands like that is because 

I bribed every shot out of them with candy corn.

Amos' Very Hungry Caterpillar costume was the serendipitous discovery of the century. You see, that book has gotten him off the ledge at school at least 100 times. He had a rough couple of weeks starting school. He cried every day and the only thing that would calm him was when the assistant read him The Very Hungry Caterpillar. So when I came upon this costume at Pottery Barn Kids a few weeks ago I snatched it up and bought it as quickly as possible (along with a few other items). My total was pretty steep but I didn't worry about it. 

Anyhoo, I brought it home and gave it to him and he was beside himself with glee. That first day he wore it for over 30 hours. To sleep. To target. Wouldn't take it off. Only after a few days did I look at the receipt and saw what I paid for it. Probably thrice what I would have thought (or would have paid for a costume on purpose). Thank goodness I didn't look at the price tag before buying it because for the joy it brought him, it was totally worth it. 

Eli's astronaut costume was a super sweet find. He's been big into space since the shuttle launch and is so excited to be spacey for Halloween. My sister found the awesome personalized astronaut helmet in this etsy shop. Thanks Auntie Kel!

This is Hazel's 2nd Halloween ensem. Her 1st look, the wee mermaid, was peeked last week and is worth another look. There's one more in the works which I believe she'll actually wear to all her Halloween engagements. I smell next week's Peek of the Week!

Happy Halloween!

Now you!
You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Embrace the Hazey Laze

 This is one of my most fave shots of Hazey Mae and me. 

Thanks Shasta for shooting it at Eli's birthday party!

Now, onto the laze. Much of our time now is spent lazing about on the living room floor. 

There's so much fun to be had there with this crazy trio of kiddos to keep us entertained.

 Sitting on her own (for about an eighth of a second).

 That's one boss trio.

(Note that Amos is wearing his Very Hungry Caterpillar Costume. Won't. Take. It. Off.)

Miss Hazel is now two months old.

We could not be more delighted that she has joined our little slice of chaos. 

So. Much. Love.

Come back tomorrow for a very spoooooky Peek of the Week.

Sending this over to the hilarious Anderson Crew to Embrace the Camera. 

Not to be Outdone

Eli wishes to interject, lest he be outdone by yesterday's post touting Amos' love for Hazel.

He would like to point out that he's been her not-so-secret admirer since 2 months and 1 day ago, when he met her a mere hour after she was born.

Record...consider yourself set straight.