THE SAMPLE FAMILY...at Mel Sr's Birthday dinner at Babettas. We were all very grateful to be together as a family. Last December Mels dad had a heart attack and gave us all a huge scare and now here we all are celebrating his birthday! We all feel very fortunate to have each other and we all know how very special family is!♥

The Bowling Family









After our morning Easter brunch we went to my brother and sister-in-laws house later that afternoon. Tosha and CJ had a wonderful dinner with ham and all the fixins. It was delicious! We had a egg hunt for Chloe, Jesse and Paige. They had so much fun! Then we had an egg derby race...very fun! Loved having all the family together...still missed mom not being there but we all felt her spirit there with us. The food that was made, was food my mom would fix and the decorations all around reminded me of how much she would decorate. My brother CJ takes after my mom in that way...he loves to decorate the house for holidays...just like mom. I'm glad she was such a great example to all of us♥

The egg derby race.

Our Easter morning started off with a fabulous brunch at our son and daughter-in-law's house. Hanna made a awesome breakfast and then we hunted for eggs. Paige had her own egg hunt and then the big kids (us adults) had our own egg hunt. (I think I won!)

Our granddaughter, Chloe, had her 7th Birthday party at Flips for Kids and she had a Hannah Montana theme. She had a great time and lots of friends and family came. I made her a Hannah Montana guitar cake and it was so much fun

So just a few new pictures. Paige is walking now! Chloe just received an Academic Award at school! So I am a very proud Nana needless to say! Bret is receiving an award next week for his 4.0 grade point average...so I'm very proud of him also! He is graduating in June and is enrolled in College of the Redwoods. FIRST one to go to college (besides his mother of course...haha)! I'm planning a trip to England in May so I am very excited. I hope everything works out so that I'll be able to go.
Bret and I on the plane...Bret heading to Redding and I'm heading to Portland.
Kyle hard at work
Chloe receiving her Academic Award
Chloe and Paige

This is just a quick blog with some photos from Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas and we were very fortunate to even have a Christmas. We had a scare about 3 weeks before Christmas when Mels Dad had a heart attack. Luckily (thanks to some very Heroic people) he made it and after Open Heart surgery, made it home in time for us all to be very thankful we could all be together. We all felt so blessed to be be spending the holidays together because we all knew how different our holiday could have been. Mel Sr had just ran a dog on the dog agility course at Redwood Acres when he fell over from a Heart attack. Mels Dad was very fortunate to have a doctor and nurse there when he fell and they immediately started CPR and the fire department happened to be at Redwood Acres with their new machine that helped save Mels life! It was the first time they had used their new machine and it worked!! We are all so lucky...everything was in his favor. So these pictures reflect a very happy family that are very thankful for each other










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