Capturing the memories and things we didn't see

Taking photos has always been very important to me, but especially the last ten years.  I wanted to make sure I so many photos of Noah so I would never regret not taking enough after he passed away.

Whenever I imagined Noah's funeral, I always knew that I would want someone to take photos. I wondered for a little while what people would think about people taking photos there, but then didn't care because I knew it was important to me and Aaron to have the photos to look back on in years to come.

Weeks after Noah's funeral I sat down to really look closely at the photos, and was so glad that we had people taking them for us. There were so many things I had forgotten about or didn't see at all, because the day was so overwhelming.  We even saw people in the photos that we didn't realise were at the funeral, or had forgotten that they came.

If we didn't have photos taken at Noah's funeral,  I would never have these of Aaron with his Dad and sister Trudy.


It was nice to see him having some fun after a really hard and emotional day.


At Aaron's funeral I had even more people offer to take photos, and I took everyone up on their offer.  I knew I could never have enough photos, and the more people taking them the better.  Some of the photos are hard to look at now, but I'm so grateful that I have them as I'm sure it'll help me and the boys in years to come.

I especially love ones like this - a classic photo bomb from Gaz.  Something Aaron actually would've loved and done himself! :)

I like this photo as it has my stake president and bishop from church in it.  Two awesome men who helped me a lot straight after Aaron passed away.  They were at my home within hours of us getting back from St Helens (where Aaron passed away).

Jalen was so sad at Aaron's funeral, but then there were glimmers of the funny Jay that we know and love.  I didn't see any of this happen, but am so glad that others caught it on camera for me.  It's crazy to think he's leaning against the hearse with Aaron's body in the coffin in it, but he's able to have a joke with his friend Jackson at the same time.  He's definitely his father's son in that way. 

Thank you Chelsea, Fiona, Leona, Chrish, Alison, Donna (and even Jalen!) who took photos for me at the funerals.  I'm so glad that I can look back and be reminded of things that happened, things that I missed,  people that were there, even though they are days that I wish never had to happen. 

My Baby is Four

I can't believe my baby is four!  I have no idea where the last four years went, but Kobe definitely livened up our lives with his beautiful, cheeky, fun personality.  I have been thinking a lot today about when he was born and how happy we all were.  I will always treasure Kobe's birth post that Aaron posted for me after he was born. I think it was the only time Aaron ever blogged on here, and it still makes me smile with his funny jokes throughout it.   As Aaron said in the post - when Kobe came along 'life was good'.

We decided to celebrate Kobe's birthday a day early so his cousins and Uncles and Aunties could come along.  He knew his birthday wasn't until today, but he woke up yesterday morning and said 'is it my birthday today!?'. I told him it was his party day and that he could get up and open his presents. 
My Mum and Dad had stayed the night before so it was nice for them to be with us, while he opened up the presents.

He was so excited and loved them all.  We went to see The Muppets at the movies in January before Aaron passed away and we all loved it so much, so he was so excited to get the DVD.

He was especially excited to get a Kermit the Frog soft toy to go along with it. 

Grandma made him his favourite breakfast - pancakes.

He was also excited to get a package from a lovely family from the USA - thank you for being so kind!

He was also excited to get a visit from Alison who bought him some more muppet soft toys and other special things. 

I feel so blessed to have so many kind people want to do things to help us. I had a couple of offers of people wanting to help out by making the boys birthday cakes this year.  I felt bad that I had to say no, but was so grateful to know that I didn't have to worry about the cake, especially since Aaron was often the one who made them.

Nicole, the lovely Cupcake Fairy once again spoilt us and made Kobe a cake of his choice.  I thought he would go for the Wiggles like he did last year, but instead he asked for a Blues Clues cake as he loves watching the old DVDs.   The cake looked so cute and she even made him some special cupcakes to go with it.

He couldn't wait for his birthday tea to have one, and got into them as soon as he got home from church. 

It was nice having the family around, but we missed Nicki and Alex (who now live in Melbourne) and Chrish.

 Kobe loved having a talk to 'Uncle Pish' on the phone though. 

Kobe loves it so much when his cousins come around.  It's always noisy, but it's always so nice to have the family around.

Mum and Jared looking excited about the whole thing ;) 

Happy birthday Kobes.  It's hard to believe that you are now four and that means you get to start school next year! I know how much you will love that.  I wish you would stop growing right now though and stay just the way you are.

Hawks V Roos

Today we went to watch Hawthorn V North Melbourne at Aurora Stadium.  Mum came along too and we thought we should get a few photos before we left.  Dad was given my iPhone and these photos were the result!   I guess almost 60 year olds and iPhones don't mix :)

Then he couldn't work out which button to press to take the photo.

So I come in to help him.

and then he finally gets a half decent one except for Harri being a muppet! :)

Mum then attempted to get one, but instead of looking like a muppet, Harri looks drunk instead!

I was wondering how Kobe would go at the footy as he hadn't been for a while, and usually gets bored by the end of the first quarter, but he was so good the whole time and was really into the game.  Jalen is shocked that I didn't take my camera and was just using my phone to take photos! 

Aaron's Dad, Roxley came along with us.  He came to a great game as Buddy kicked 13 goals and they won by 115 points.  Aaron would've been going crazy if he were there.  I'm sure he was there in spirit. 

 

Kobe refusing to have his photo taken for the fiftieth time.

Instead he wanted to take photos of himself with Pa.

It was a fun afternoon and the best thing was that Jay actually really seemed to enjoy himself and had a smile on his face most of the afternoon.  Just as the game was ending there was an incredible sunset.  This isn't even edited and was just taken on my phone. I'm sure that Aaron and Noah had something to do with it.