About that time....

Mom and Julia
Julia trying on the flower girl dress from my wedding.

Sophia all dressed up for mommy's 35th birthday.

Julia and Sophia watching Ethan play baseball.

Memorial and flowers at my dad's funeral luncheon.

Took an absence this summer.....after my dad died focus shifted on other things, different blog to try and help me deal, and lots of facebook to pass the time......

now that school is in session again, time to get back on track with updates. here are a few favorite pics from our summer....In spite of our loss, we were able to grow in love as a family...

1st Communion

Receiving the Wine from Deacon Tony.

And Communion From Monsignor Chido below.

Julia made her 1st Holy Communion this year in April. It was a great day. Julia looked amazing in the dress that was a gift from her Godmother, Aunt Rose. Also, my cousin Angela made her veil for her. We had a nice party with family after the mass. My friend Alexa sent her this Precious moments doll from PA :-) The doll was dressed and looks like Julia and has her name and the date embroidered on it.

Each receipient had to decorate a 1st Communion pillow with their family. Aunt Mary was nice enough to make our pillow, and Julia and I decorated it.

Happy Easter

The Hejkal's had a great Easter Celebration this year. Even though we emphasis the true meaning of Easter, we still make sure to have fun with all the traditional stuff! Julia and Sophia did a great job coloring eggs for our family egg hunt on Sunday.

Saturday night Mom and I went to the Easter Vigil Service. This was the 1st year that I participated by doing reading #5 and the Epistle. As a special treat at mass, the Knights of Columbus wore their full dress and swords. It was a unique and special event to share with my mom. She said I did a pretty good job too :-)

Easter morning the girls checked out their baskets.
Then we were off to brunch and the Perez Family Easter egg hunt at Aunt Rose's house. Sophia got a head start since she is the youngest......we had a hard time convincing her to actually open the plastic eggs to get the treats....and she definitely liked the football Easter basket....
We capped off the festivities with a private egg/candy hunt at home with the kids.

It's birthday time!

March.....what a wonderful month.....awaiting spring and celebrating the girls birthdays. Would you believe we never even planned it this way? March 5th and six years later, March 12th? It was literally a month full of celebrations. Starting with Julia's friend outing to the Iowa Energy basketball game. I highly recommend the IA Energy birthday package. For $14 we got seat under the basket, popcorn, pop, hotdog, and goodie bag FILLED with Iowa Energy stuff. The girls all got to stand on the court to slap hands with the players as they came on to the court, and Julia got an autographed ball, and to walk down the fan tunnel with Jefferies! He ended up with over 20 pts that game!!!

Julia with former Iowa State player Curtis Stintson

All the buddies enjoying the game

Sophia eating cupcakes at Julia's after the game party

The girls eating their cupcakes. Such good catholic girls! Some didn't have any because they gave up chocolate

On Julia's actual birthday, March 5th, we took the girls to Baratta's for dinner. We were going to give Julia her new guitar there, but Sophia had a meltdown, so went to my parents so Nana and papa could watch her open it. We went ahead and gave Sophia her toy guitar as well, to distract from Julia's real one. We went up to MN to visit dan's parents that weekend. They had a cake for the girls, and I forgot to take my camera, but imagine it was a good time!
Next came Miss Sophia's actual 2nd birthday. After the previous meltdown, we decided to get take out and eat in. She loved her cupcakes, and her new bike!!!And finally......the joint party for the family for both girls

I'm not sure how all of my family fit in that kitchen....lol. But it was a great day out and lots of fun.

The Sock Hop

Julia's school, St. Anthony's, had a sock hop on January 16th. I went down after work and helped get the gym ready to rock and roll. Dan wanted to leave Sophia with Nana, but I agreed to chase after her, so both girls got the poodle skirts rockin and we had a great time. Julia made me enter the hoola hoop contest....I had a record time for quickest elimination.... We had pizza, did the macarena, and the chicken dance. Sophia LOVED it and Julia had a great time with her friends.

Christmas 2008

Christmas eve at our house
Julia and Sophia at christmas mass at st. anthony's

Dustin, Ethan, Samantha and Julia at Richards

Dustin, Danielle, Megan, Sarah and Julia

The Nativity scene that Julia made for school.

We had a great christmas. Dan's parents came down from MN. We celebrated Christmas Eve with my brothers, my sister and the kids. Dan's parents stayed with us, so we did presents as a family that night. Christmas morning we opened presents from Santa, and went to mass. Sophia was a little nutty, so Dan ran her to my mom's during the service and we didn't even know it until he came back alone for communion...lol. After a brief visit at my parents, we all went out to my brother Richards for a wonderful Lasagna dinner. It was so nice to have brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, inlaws all in one place to celebrate a great day.