Superhero Princess

  People who knew Audrey knew how much she loved princesses.  It was her thing. Today was royalty day for Hannah at school.  Hannah never was much of a girly girl.  She loved animals like horses, then dinosaurs, then dragons, then cats.  Because of Hannah's interests, we often did things she liked, like read dragon books, ride horses, and got to dinosaur expos.  Audrey did activities at things that we did for Hannah.  But she always tagged along while Hannah got to do her interests. But in November of 2022, we went to the Fairytale Ball for Audrey.  It was her jam.  She met princesses, danced, and followed directions from princesses.  It really was her jam.  Hannah was the one tagging along. So on Thursday, Hannah dressed up as a princess on royalty day.  It is one of those small things that remind me of Audrey.  Because when Princess Audrey was in her element, she showed more attention, more patience and was her true self...

Yesterday, Hannah, Mandy and I helped bring out all the furniture at Grandma's pool.  Hannah took a brief swim yesterday.   Today, she swam with her cousins. Audrey loved swimming.  She swam at the Y, at Peak, with friends, in the Dells and many other swimming areas.  She loved swimming at Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Mike's pool.  Audrey would express her interest in swimming as we were packing up as she would approximate pool. She loved going down the water slide.  She messed with us (me mostly) by climbing the waterslide and then standing at the top.  I had to tell her to sit down and she would giggle. I was a bit puzzled when I didn't have any pictures of Audrey going down the water slide.  But then it hit me, I was mostly catching her, when someone else was up top trying to get her to sit down and slide.  Everyone was all hands on deck to make sure she was safe.  But she sure did love sliding and messing with us. Audrey loved eat...

Hannah is such an amazing big sister.  One thing that she does every evening is around 5:10, she will look to a clock and say "It's 19 minutes until Dree's Birthday."  We are usually in the kitchen, preparing food, or eating at this time. More recently, we have been in the car on the way to Hannah's soccer practice or game. We are 10 days away from our princess' 6th birthday, her first heavenly birthday, and it is a tough time.  But still, it is nice that Hannah remembers her sister every day.  I struggled with what to feel on my birthday.  I am not sure Audrey's birthday will be for us, but I do know we will remember. Some days, she will say "Audrey's Birthday was 10 minutes ago."  But there hasn't been a day (that I remember) that she hasn't acknowledged Audrey's birthday (5:29).  As I publish this, there is about 18 minutes until "Happy Birthday Dree."

 Hannah ran the Huskie Hustle with Mandy and I today.  We added it up.  It was her 6th 5k she has run/walked in. I looked up all of her results and this is what I found: 2021 Turkey Trot- Atwood Park, Rockford 11/25/21  1:05:00 2022 Turkey Trot- Atwood Park, Rockford 11/24/22 50:00.0 2023 Superhero Sprint- Doty Park, Belvidere 4/29/23     45:32:10  2023 Huskie Hustle- Harlem HS, Machesney Park  5/20/23 50:29:4 2023 Epilepsy Fall Fest 5k- Cantigny Park, Wheaton 9/23/23 Fun Run- no official results  44:47 2024 Huskie Hustle- Harlem HS, Machesney Park 5/18/24  51:05.3 Here are my memories of Hannah's 5ks and how Audrey was a part of them. 2021 Turkey Trot- Atwood Park, Rockford 11/25/21  1:05:00 This was Hannah's first 5k.  She ran it in 1:05.  We ran it on Thanksgiving 2021.  Hannah ran the first mile pretty fast and then pooped out. She kept going though.  This was the only 5k that Audrey was not there to che...

  This morning as I opened up my phone, Facebook reminded me of Hannah's Baptism 8 years ago on May 15, 2016.  Hannah was such a cute baby.  It reminded me of Audrey's Baptism as well. Audrey's Baptism was September 29, 2019.  She was a year and a half old.  She had been diagnosed with epilepsy in June of that year.  When she was younger, our church had visiting pastors.  When Pastor Brandon arrived in June of 2019, we waited for Audrey to be baptized because of the treatments she was on and she was immunocompromised.  Both girls were so cute at their baptism.  Hannah was a baby, and Audrey was a toddler.  Hannah couldn't yet crawl, and Audrey was walking.  Both of our girls are different and we love them both for the gifts god blessed them with. God Bless Audrey

  Today was my birthday.  I didn't know what to think about it.  It was probably the best it could have been.  My parents picked up Hannah and made taco Tuesday for dinner  We went to Hannah's soccer game.  She played goalie in the 2nd half.  She showed a lot of growth and made some good saves for her first time playing goalie.  When we got home for desert, 2 things stuck out at me.  There was 2 pies with candles that spelled out "Yay" and a gift bag with "yay" on it.  "Yay" was Audrey's exclamation for when she got somewhere she was excited about.   Hearing "Yay" in my head always makes me think of Audrey.  But this memory was a little deeper.  Hannah was eating a home made Choco Taco that my mom and sister made.  She got brain freeze from it, and had to drink some hot chocolate to erase it. It reminded me of Audrey.  Audrey loved cold deserts like ice cream, McFlurries, and Slurpees. But she didn't seem to...

  Two years ago on May 15, my family surprised me with a trip to a Sox game for my birthday.  It was a family Sunday.  It was Hannah and Audrey's first White Sox game. I was all excited to be with my girls at their first Sox game.   My first ever Sox game was a spring training game in Bradenton, Florida. Steve Lyons hit a foul ball, and Ron Kittle threw me the ball.  My dad, grandpa and great uncle took me to that game. Long story short, I was wearing his jersey at a Sox game 20 years later and he tapped me on the back and said he always buys the first guy he sees wearing his jersey a drink.  Now it was time for me to make memories with my girls and my dad.  We took some cool pictures. We made our way up to first base side upper deck.  We got concessions and went to our seats.  Audrey sat down for like 2 pitches, then she was ready to move on. Mandy and my mom took Hannah and Audrey to the FUNdamentals section.  The Sox started stro...