Kalasek Kiddos: Time with Family

Life has been a whirlwind lately...so busy. But we cant complain because most of the events involved quality time with family we dont often see. The week of Halloween Easton's Great Grandma Kalasek was in town from Ohio. We went out to dinner at Spezzia's with her, visited her on Halloween in our costume, and then the night before she flew back home we all gathered at Brian's parents house for homemade runza's! Easton LOVED the runzas and crawled all over the place. He gave his cousin Baylor a few snuggles in between playing and eating! It was so nice to see her and for her to meet Easton. As I was reminded this past week family is the most important thing and we must never take the time we have with them for granted!

Homemade Runza night with GG Herme

As I mentioned in the previous blog I lost my grandma French Halloween morning. The entire French clan flew back for her funeral. My cousins from Michigan, Idaho, Denver, Iowa, Hasting, and my brother and Halley from KC all game back for the weekend. Her funeral was Monday but we all gathered Saturday and Sunday to spend some serious quality time with one another. We usually are only all together on Christmas Day and even then my cousins from Denver and Michigan dont usually make the trip back. It was so nice to see them and be around everyone. It was French Family Chaos at its finest :) We have SO MUCH fun together and never want the visits to end. We just love eachother so deeply and the importance of family that Cece and Papoo (my grandma and grandpa French's nickname from us grandkids) instilled in us still holds strong today.

Saturday we all watched the Huskers play at my parents house. It was madness. We had a 4 year old, two 2 year olds, Easton (13 months) and a 10 month old. Kids everywhere!!!! Toys were scattered all over, kids were playing musical nap time in my parents pack 'n play upstairs, kids were able to run and play ball in the backyard; us cousins could hang out, have some cocktails and catch up.....all in all a wonderful gathering despite the sad event we were gearing up for on Monday.

Sunday my mom and I went through pictures and put together some photo boards of Cece. She was such a glamorous woman all her life and her and my grandpa had the most amazing relationship! It was fun to look back and remember certain events and see pictures of all of the cousins each Christmas when we would get together at Cece and Papoo's house in Lincoln. Sunday night ALL of us when to dinner at a BBQ restaurant btw Omaha and Lincoln called Parker's Smokehouse. It was very good food. There were 17 adults and 5 kids....it was crazy LOL! The French's pretty much took over that place from the moment we all walked in :)

Monday was the funeral. It was extremely nice and well done. The minister told great stories that really gave you the essence of my grandmother...she was the embodiment of Grace, Class, Style, and Unconditional Love. It was an extremely emotional day. Easton was the only child in the sanctuary during the service (everyone else had their spouses bring the kids to the "cry room" outside of the sanctuary). He sat on my dads lap the entire time and didnt make a noise. I think he knew my dad needed a little Easton love!!! What was so touching was all the love and support that was reached out not just to me personally but to my parents and entire family. There were so many flower arrangements sent to the church from my co-workers, my dads BBQ team, non-French family members, etc. It was incredible. My parents had friends who had never met Cece come to the funeral, or drop over food, etc. It just really opens your eyes to those people in your life who truly care about you....who take that extra step to show you you are in their thoughts. The love from our friends was overwhelming and meant so much...especially to my dad! The buriel was also beautiful and it was nice to be able to see and kiss my grandpa's headstone too! I didnt think it would hit me as hard as it did and still have very emotional moments but its very comforting to know that they are together again!!!

Below are some fun pictures of all of us cousins at family gatherings....and after those are some of the pictures we ATTEMPTED to get of our little ones together. As you can see in the first shots we were very well behaved children who listened to our parents and grandparents. Apparently it is true when they say that the younger generation these days has no fear of authority and just does whatever they want.....the evidence to prove that is below LOL!

Jason French(holding me) Ben Kohler, Jenna French and Carrie Kohler

Carrie-Ben-Jason-Me-and Jenna

Back:Me, Jenna, Cece, Carrie. Front:Tom, Jason, and Ben

Easton and Cameron playing nicely together

As you will see below this photo op. did not go well. Granted it was the end of the night and everyone was passed their bedtimes....it was a disaster but one of my favorite moments from the whole weekend. I was crying I was laughing so hard during this debocle.