My family

Maggie and I love this photo and wanted to share...

 This was taken at the airport when Rob got home from Taiwan. The girls missed him BIG TIME!

Hannah

Hannah Marie Huckfeldt passed peacefully in the arms of her devoted parents on April 23, 2011. Born Aug. 2, 2005, the little girl with a tenacious spirit gave a lifetime of love in her short five years.

She is the daughter of Michelle “Shelly” and JC Huckfeldt of Chandler, Az., and sister of two-year-old Dylan.

During her short but full life, she enjoyed playing princess, coloring, the beach, swimming, the color pink, pre-school and dance class.

Hannah fought clear cell sarcoma of the kidney that spread to the brain for four years with courage of steel, opting always for faith over fear. Her courage survives her death, her spirit inspires us all.

She is survived by maternal grandparents, Gary and Nancy Byrne of North Platte, Neb.; paternal grandfather Norman Huckfeldt of Twin Falls, ID.; aunts Kristy Vonwalburg (Jeff), Katy McCaffrey (Chris) and Monica Byrne; cousins Samantha and Stella Vonwalburg.

Rosary will be held 7 tonight at Messenger Mortuary, 7601 E. Indian School Road, Scottsdale, AZ. Funeral services will be held 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Andrews the Apostle Catholic Church, 3450 W. Ray Road, Chandler.

Funny Story

This afternoon while brushing the hair of her Rapunzel doll, Lilly said to me, "Mom, does Jesus have long hair?" I looked at her and said, "Well, yes, I believe some people think so." She looked down at her doll and said very matter-of-fact, "We should ask Hannah. She would know."

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter 2011 with much fanfare... a wonderful church service, a visit from the Easter bunny, our very own egg hunt and dinner with great friends. Rob barbecued a brisket, I made potatoes, strawberry pie, a colorful salad and grilled corn on the cob. Delish!

Maggie even received a basket of treats from the Easter bunny.

 The Easter bunny was kind enough to bring a replacement of Claire's favorite lost DVD; she was VERY excited.

Hooray for Barbie in a Mermaid Tale... just can't wait to watch it again and again and again.

Though many think peeps are disgusting, including me, Claire wanted to give peeps a try. Guess what? She liked them. Not surprised.

Even Belle had an Easter treat when a huge carrott fell to the kitchen floor.

Rob and his girls...

Just the girls...

 Happy Easter!

Forever in our hearts

This past weekend, our dear friend Hannah passed away after a long battle with cancer. Hannah was our neighbor, Lilly's best friend, and at times it felt as if Hannah was our fourth child. She was always over playing with the girls, mostly playing dress-up. She will be greatly missed, but her memory will live forever. We feel honored to have known her for the 5 1/2 years she was on this earth.

Lilly says Hannah is "in my heart, right next to Jesus." Lilly also says that when Lilly gets to heaven some day, Hannah will be waiting for her, "right by the trampoline with some cotton candy."

Here are a few of my favorite photos I have taken of Hannah through the years.

Lilly and Hannah were always riding Hannah's Escalade around the culdesac. People used to ask if they were twins.

Silly girls. This was so typical...

Our photo shoot with their Fancy Nancy dresses...

They LOVED to swim together in Hannah's pool...

My favorite photo of them...

 Hugs!

 Peace is now yours, sweet Hannah. Heaven is now your playground and what a glorious playground that must be.  We will miss you, sweet girl.

Home from Taiwan

He's back from Taiwan! Lilly and Claire were super excited to pick up Dad from the airport, and they were even more excited to see the treasures he brought with him. Besides some neat jade treasures, Dad bought these dresses for the girls. They liked them so much they wore them to church this morning.

 

Huntin' time

Each spring, Easter time brings a massive egg hunt sponsored by our church. Of course we took part and were more eager than ever to hunt for eggs.

Claire was all smiles before the big event!

 There were three egg hunts for three different age groups. Claire's group, the youngest group, went first. Instead of running around gathering eggs, Claire took a quiet approach; she sat down and patiently gathered all of the eggs around her. She was pleased once her bag was full.

Many of our friends came to the hunt, including our friend, Aleehah.

See all of the eggs in the background? This was the field just for Claire's age group. WOW!

Lilly enjoyed filling her basket... lots of chocolate inside which was quite melted on this warm day.

Through all the mayhem, Maggie slept and slept and slept.

We hope you get a chance to do a little egg hunting yourselves!

 

Quite the fans

The new favorite movie at our home is Tangled. In fact, everything Tangled is a hit. Good 'ol Disney is the master at merchandising, so everywhere we go, we see Rapunzel and her friends.

If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it. Claire received the DVD for her birthday, and the girls have asked to watch it daily, it seems.

While at Disneyland last fall, Grandpa bought Lilly a Rapunzel doll. She was the typical Barbie size yet came with 17 inches of hair. As you can imagine, the hair quickly became a giant dreadlock. And so, our Rapunzel now has a bob. When we cut her hair, it stayed blonde; Lilly and Claire were perplexed. You'll have to see the movie to know what I'm talking about.
Move over former favorite Enchanted, here comes Tangled.

Maggie, 3 months

Baby Maggie is three months already. She has started "talking" more by doing a little cough followed by a coo. Cute! As of today, her eyes are definitely hazel- not brown, not green, not blue. Her hair is lightening a bit, but it may stay some shade of brown. That would be a change. 

She is sitting in the bumbo and getting ready to begin eating grains. I have a box of baby rice cereal in the pantry waiting for its big introduction. During our photo shoot, Maggie wouldn't smile, of course. And, a bumble bee thought her strawberry dress looked a little tasty, so the shoot didn't last long.  It figures there would be a bee since we were out by our garden.  
No worries, no one was stung.

She was more interested in eating her hand than looking at the camera.

Hugs from Maggie!

Lilly's latest

Our little Lilly is growing fast; next year she will be in kindergarten- WOW! She continues to do well in preschool- can spell her first and last name, knows all of the letter sounds and is reading on a basic level. She is quite the little character and is lots of fun to be around. There were quite a few photos of her on the camera, so I thought she'd want to share a little of what she's been up to this month.

Hair... she likes to wear things in her hair. I think this is a new influence from the other girls at school who all seem to have outrageously long hair. I keep telling her short hair looks best, but I don't think she's convinced.

 Lilly has been asking for almost a year to fly her kite. It's just never windy enough here! So, one afternoon, thanks to a slight breeze, Lilly was able to sort-of fly her kite in the backyard. She ran 'round and 'round, but it never really took flight. Perhaps we should take the kite to Kansas! The picture is blurry, but you've got to love that smile! You earn an "A" for effort, Lilly!

 Lilly will be a flower girl in Aunt Coco's upcoming wedding, and boy is she excited!! I had the pleasure of taking her to the bridal store to try on the dress and shoes. Here she is just after we came home with the dress. She is taking this job seriously- she convinced Aunt Coco to let her wear gloves. And, of course, she picked the elbow length gloves. She wanted a veil too, but I nixed that.

Lilly is excited to begin practicing her role as a flower girl. Or, as this picture shows, a ballerina dancing down the aisle. Watch out Aunt Coco, Lilly just might steal the show.

 Lilly loves art. She will spend hours drawing, painting, cutting, molding and writing. So today, she painted this picture, and she wanted me to take a picture of it. Once it dries, she has plans to hang it in the backyard for decoration.

Lilly, you are so much fun! I love you dearly.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Claire!

Claire and Lilly have been looking forward to Claire's 3rd birthday for quite some time. We planned on having the party at the local bounce place- Claire's request. But, one week before Claire's party the bounce place called to tell me they were going out of business- HUGE bummer! So, on to plan B- rent a bounce house for the backyard. I found a great pink and purple castle bouncy online for a great price- one that was available on such short notice. Hooray! But... all week Rob monitored the forecast- rain was looming. On Friday night, the forecast called for an 80% chance for rain. Who would have figured! So, on to plan C- Have an old-fashioned birthday party in the basement complete with classic birthday games. And so, this morning, that is just what we did. Rob and I were up late last night running to the store and decorating the house. But, all in all, Claire seemed to have enjoyed her birthday party, and all her little friends did too.

This morning I rang the doorbell just to capture Claire opening the door with her new birthday sign. Rob was confused, and Belle was too.

 Here's the basement all decked out for Claire's Tinkerbell party...

Claire requested a Tinkerbell cake, so I ordered this cake which are actually cupcakes made to look like a big cake; this makes it super easy when serving little party goers.

We played pin-the-tail on the donkey, duck duck goose, pinata and also had a craft table where the kiddos decorated birthday hats and other things. Here we are playing pin-the-tail on the donkey.

Rob has become a pro at facilitating the pinata time; he's done this at almost every birthday party. It's amazing how much the little ones go ape crazy over candy falling from the sky. Claire chose a Dora pull-string pinata from the party store and didn't seem upset at all when Dora's head came off.

Claire received some super nice gifts. As Lilly learned, even if the birthday party isn't your own, it still means fun toys to play with at home. Lilly helped me shop and wrap all of Claire's gifts this year. And, yes, Lilly was able to keep a secret! WOW! She was very eager to see Claire open her gifts. Claire was excited to receive them.

Thank you for the Dora dress-up, Meg. I think Claire likes it. 

Our friend Mariah (Shawn and Amy's oldest) helped too... and is probably plotting her next play date to play with Claire's new toys. :)

Special thank you to Nana for Claire's new storage shelf/bench under Claire's window. Doesn't it look cute with the pink toy bins? And, it fits just perfectly in Claire's super cute room.

Happy Birthday, darling Claire.

We love you to the moon and back.

 

Sleeping Beauty

Maggie turned 3 months this past weekend. She continues to be a very happy baby- still loves to be held, talked to and loved. She has been sleeping more and more in her crib during the day. Here are a few snooze shots I captured on her 3-month birthday. 

I haven't quite figured out where these curls came from...

Maggie has the longest eyelashes. Don't mind the little scratch on her face... silly, sharp fingernails.

 She has long fingers... a future pianist.

April Fool- one day late

This morning Claire came to our room and shyly announced, "The eggs are on the floor." Rob and I looked at each other. Rob had just been in the kitchen helping Claire get yogurt from the fridge, but obviously Claire wanted eggs for breakfast.

We began locking the fridge after Claire's egg incident a few years ago, but this morning we missed the mark. I guess we didn't think she would pull this shenanigan after we were awake. Any other box of eggs could easily be replaced, but these aren't your ordinary grocery store eggs. We buy special pastured eggs from a farm in southern Arizona. Pastured eggs are much healthier than mass produced eggs; notice the yolks are bright orange. The farm delivers pastured beef, chicken and eggs to Phoenix once a month, and yesterday was the delivery day. So, we purchased, along with meat, five dozen eggs. Now we're down a dozen and out about 6 bucks. But, the situation could have been worse...  Claire had also visited our laundry room, where we have our spare fridge. The four extra dozen egg boxes were sitting on the laundry room floor, as if she had been inspecting them, probably looking for a blue egg. Luckily, only one egg was slightly cracked. Several months ago, one of the eggs in the carton was blue, and ever since then Claire has asked for blue eggs. 

Ho Hum... just another day at the Z house.

First Vegetable

Last night we harvested our first vegetable from the garden, a radish. Claire was the lucky one who pulled it from the ground- she was very proud!

We included it with our dinner, dividing the tiny radish four ways so everyone could have a taste.

Everyone liked it. Now we're just waiting for more. Maybe we'll have enough to make an entire salad sometime soon.