Grandma Rosemary O'Brien

It is with great sadness that I write that my Grandma Rosemary O'Brien has passed away. It was really quiet sudden. Even though she was 84, she was very active and seemingly healthy. In fact she had traveled here to the DFW area twice recently. Once in October to visit us and then again in December for our family Christmas Party. She had suffered most recently from bronchitis. She was hospitalized from complications with bronchitis and then slipped into a coma. During the coma, they discovered that she had sever liver issues, they had probably gone undetected for some time. She was moved to hospice and passed away only 3 hours after arriving. It is just another reminder to me how fragile life is.
I have beaten up on myself a lot over the past few weeks because I have been so bad about blogging. She was truly my blogs BIGGEST fan. She replied to every single post. I saved all of her emails. I read through all her responses the other day in tears. The very next blog post I was going to do was of her visit in October. We had a great visit and went to the Dallas Arboretum to see the pumpkins. I am sad she never got to see the pictures of our time together...



Grandma and Me 1 year ago when we were there in Las Cruces visiting her.

She loved my boys so much, Michael included. I loved seeing them together. Michael took great care of her and she loved it. In fact, she loved her whole family so much. Having a large family was not wasted on her, it suited her well. She had a great relationship with each of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She didn't forget a Birthday or Anniversary. She would always send a card and even a small gift. Lately she had sent my boys a Gift Card to Barnes and Noble on their Birthday. I loved that. She was always thinking of all of us. And now she will be greatly missed by all of us.  


Here is the link of her obituary. My aunts did an amazing job eulogizing her.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/elpasotimes/obituary.aspx?n=rosemary-obrien&pid=170042763&

The funeral was last week, Michael, the boys and I drove to Las Cruces for the service. I was incredibly hard to say good-bye to her and her home. But I was reminded once more how lucky I am to be in this family. I love all my cousins (and their spouses), my aunts and uncles. As we move on from here, I know that we will remain close.  

The O'Brien Cousins. (Minus Sean O'Brien, who could not attend because his wife was expecting their first child at the same time). I love them all!

Fall Soccer Season Recap

Jonathan played Soccer this past Fall 2013 and it was his BEST SEASON YET! We are so proud of him! He is dedicated and focused. While his is not the most aggressive player, he loves to run and be supportive to his teammates. He hasn't missed a single practice or game. The biggest news of this season was that he scored, not just one but TWO goals!! We have already registered for the Spring 2014 season and look forward to more fun Saturday mornings on the soccer fields!



After the first game of the season!

Great foot work!

Jacob became Jonathan's best bud this Fall! Not only were they on the same soccer team, but they are in the same Kindergarten class!

Running!

Brother cheering brother on!

Running!

I love this shot!

First Goal of the Season!

A little conga line before the game!

Brother giving the team high five!

Ben has no problems making friends with anyone. This is Jacob's older sister. They were buds this year too!

The team! Go Yellow Jackets! 

Last Game of the Season and Jonathan had scored his second goal!!!!!

Fun at Holly and Jim's



My aunt Holly and uncle Jim invited us over for fun, swimming and food! We had a great time, as usual! The cousins had fun playing together and it was great to visit with everyone!

 

Uncle Jim built a cool tire swing. The kids had so much fun, I couldn't pick a photo, so here are a few!

Ready to swim!!

Ben got snugly with Sarah!

Ben loves his Sarah!

 

The cousins - serious pose!

The cousins - smiling, kind of!

Scarlet's 4th Birthday

Back in September, Scarlet's Birthday party was at the Art Barn! A super fun party for boys and girls! The kids got to pick a wooden shape, paint it and then glue on fun trinkets. Everyone had a blast!

 

Jonathan and Scarlet with their finished pieces.

Jonathan, Ben, Will and Tyler are hard at work.

Ben is admiring Jonathan's work!

Cake time!

Benny likes! Amy made an artist palette out of fondant icing! pretty cool!

Random Fall Fun!

As I am trying to organize the very UN-organized pictures I have taken over the past few months, I found a few that were "random" pictures that I just like to call Fall Fun!


New School Shenanigans:

Benny's running towards me while waiting on J to get out of school.

Jonathan and Gage on Green Shirt Day.

J and Me eating lunch at his school!

Ben loves to play in the car while waiting on J at school.

Be is an official HEBISD volunteer! And he is pretty serious about it.  

Generations Day! Ben and I got to have lunch with J!

Just general randomness:


Sweet Brothers!

Jonathan pretending to have a Book Fair in his room. Please excuse the messy room.

Throwing leaves with friends.

Bad to the Bone.

Splashy!

 

A Fall Shower!



The boys made "soup" in the bird bath. Jonathan said, "Everyone in the whole world is welcome to come eat our soup. And maybe no one will be hungry any more."

Dirty!

The Fam!

Jonathan joined the children's choir and had many singing engagements over the Fall.

Muffin's with Mom at Ben's school.

Fire Station Open House!

One of my favorites from the a recent trip to the Zoo.





 

I got an new APP on my phone that I liked playing with:

We celebrated 8 years!!! Yay!