Grandpa Heaton

Our Grandpa, Gilbert Verdon Heaton passed away last Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at the ripe old age of 80. I have many wonderful memories of my grandpa as a gentle, funny but dry humored, loving and quiet man. As we all met with our extended family in St. George this past week to celebrate his life, I learned a lot that I never knew about him.

He lived on the Arizona Strip at his family's ranch for most of his adult life, living out his dreams as a true blue cowboy. Because he lived out there, my mom, her two sisters, my cousins and I didn't get to see him as much as we would've liked. He lived out there full time and worked the range and ranch with his brother Tony's family (who lovingly call him Uncle Verdon.)

My second cousins, Gavin and Kelly and my Great Aunt Anna Laura told their stories of him at the funeral, and I was amazed at the man they knew him to be. They knew him to be the most thoughtful, generous, prayerful, interesting man. As I listened to their stories and added them to the bank of what I know and love about my Grandpa, I couldn't help but feel so proud of my heritage and want to know more and more about him.

Since he passed, I have thought of him constantly. And since the funeral, I have had the song Have I Done Any Good running through my head (we sang it as the opening hymn) and especially the lyrics "doing good is a pleasure...a joy beyond measure..." And I feel like this was a lesson for me to take away from my dear old granddad. He lived such a simple life. He lived it the way he wanted to, and yet he lived it out serving other people and making other people feel good and happy and most importantly, Loved. And this is where he found his "joy beyond measure"...from doing good for other people, quietly and without accolades. We knew he was full of love and stories, and of great recipes for old cowboy favorites like dutch oven cooking and the best beef jerky ever!! But the other side of the family taught us the stories of his prayerful demeanor, and generous spirit among all he came in contact with. Because we rarely saw him in his element, these were sides of him I didn't see.

I am so grateful that I was there for the services..they were the most perfect tribute for him. I am so grateful for my heritage, and for my family. I feel so blessed to be who I am and so excited to pass the stories of my Grandpa Heaton on to our little girl.

Already a Brewers Fan!!

We went to a Brewers game opening weekend...love baseball season! David and Russ were in town to see Addelyn, so they took us to the game, and Uncle David got Addie her first baseball cap! She has lots of time to grow into it, so she'll get a lot of use out of it! It's so much fun to live in a city with a team!!

A couple more pics

She is growing so fast! So much fun.

Addelyn Grace is here!

Addelyn Grace was born Tues March 18th at 5:45pm. She weighed in at 7lbs 6oz and was 20 1/2in long. She has a head full of dark hair (as you can see)...where did that come from?? We thought for sure we'd have a little toe-head on our hands since Bri and I both were. We were so surprised...it took a few days of looking at her thinking...I don't know if I believe she's mine!! It quickly grew on me and now I can't imagine her any other way. She has been so sweet...hardly ever cries, is sleeping pretty well and we can already see her spunk. We are madly in love with her and are so grateful for our beautiful little girl.

Holy SNOW!!!

It is now March 1st, the country is warming up and we have been getting the WARM weather reports from Vegas and Arizona for weeks now. We sit here, in envy, watching our weather report tell us yet another snow front is moving it's way in to visit us and leave it's mark. What I wouldn't give to see a tulip popping up right now!!

We're getting very close to our due date and I can appreciate being very pregnant in the cold weather. Most of the time I feel great in the 5 and 10 below cold...poor Brian though!!! It really sinks in for him when the dog needs to be walked every day and I'm too clumsy on the ice and snow to help with that!

We are inching toward new records with every snow, and I will never forget this, our first official (meaning as residents in our own home) Milwaukee winter. The first time it snowed, I was a few months pregnant, very sick and Brian was at a show in the evening. I went out to shovel our first 6 inches in our VERY LONG midwest driveway...(they are eternal here when we're talking shoveling!) It took about 45 minutes to get about half way down the drive when I see my neighbor across the street walk out and do 3 quick passes down his driveway and poof..done!! I was so prideful by that time...I said I'll be darned if I don't finish this shoveling myself, so I refused to ask him to use the blower. Call it my right of passage to the midwest winter! Shortly after that we got a snowblower of our own and thank goodness! This would have been the wrong winter to have been prideful the whole way through!

Christmas since October??!!

Well, it's about time, I think!! I've been harassed (in the most loving ways of course) about updating this thing, and I think that until I get the hang of it and can update in 5 minutes or less, I'll have to just keep sending people to Amanda's blog...she's on top of it for both of us!!

Our lives have been crazy busy for the past month or so. Brian and I have been in rehearsals for our Christmas shows since BEFORE HALLOWEEN!!! Yes, that means Christmas songs in October. Now, I know to some of you this may sound like bliss, but let me assure you...let's just say I think we'll both be glad when we actually hit December with the shows!! Brian is playing Fred (Scrooge's nephew) in A CHRISTMAS CAROL at The Rep, and I am playing Betty (the Rosemary Clooney role) in White Christmas at The Skylight. What a gift it has been to be acting in the same city so much!!

Also...I should put this in a different post just so it looks like I've done more updating than I have...We found out we're having a GIRL!! We are both so excited! I guess I always suspected pregnancy would be great, but had no idea how miraculous it is to go through it.

She is such a mover, and has been completely entertaining to me while in rehearsals. The music strikes up and she goes crazy!! I just think of her forming eyebrows and toenails to the tunes of Irving Berlin. She's going to come out a swingin'! Brian has also figured out that if he talks to her with his face on my tummy, she'll kick or punch him right where his face is...AMAZING!

So much to be thankful for this season!!

Suckered In!

Well, Amanda finally talked us into it, and I have to say that the thing that sold me in the end was seeing our little Neice's face everytime we checked up on the Swinns! What a cutie...I don't feel like we're so out of the loop because of it!

We're in Milwaukee now, having just moved in to our new house in April, and we're expecting a baby! Due March 13th..time's a tickin'!

I need to see how this will work..more in the next note!