The circle of life is bitter sweet......

This past winter and spring about 3 weeks after Evie was born we lost Grandma Sommer. This was Andy's grandmother and she was 93. I remember her as such a strong woman. She was a mother of 7 amazing kids....one set of twins in the mix...(Andy's dad is one of them:)

One of my most favorite memories of her was when Andy and I had been dating for over a year and she asked him "so....when's the next wedding?" (I of course was wondering when he'd be proposing too) She loved getting to see so many of her 19 grandchildren get married over the years. Here is one of my favorite pictures of her. (I didn't take it :( It's from my sis-in-law's wedding a few years ago.



Here is the amazing family she leaves behind. (The Sommer family are some of the most genuine people I know and I'm so happy to be part of this family)



About one week before we lost Grandma Sommer, my Grandma Shirley went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with acute lukemia. In true Grandma Shirley form...she put up a really good fight for about six weeks.and beat the lukemia....the only problem was that her white blood cells never came back. I think selfishly I thought she'd always be with us partly because her mother lived to be 100. My uncle called me (after her condition worsened) to remind me that Evie completed the circle of life with grandma...and trying to keep that mindset has helped with the pain of loosing her. I have so many amazing and warm memories of her. She was 87 and very dear to my heart.

Here is a portrait I took of her just a couple years ago.