A Great Loss for sure

With no disrespect intended to the Jackson family, this sure does reveal the shallowness of our value system in this country.

While the focus today, tomorrow and for the next God-knows-how-many-days will be the death of a pop culture icon; while many will mourn, wail and quite literally make fools of themselves over it and while as many will speak endlessly about it, allow me, if only for a moment, to remind us all that others have died this month; others whose lives were cut short; others who leave behind loved ones and whose families will dearly miss them; families who'll suffer with much more dignity and honor than we'll be exposed to on the tube in the coming days.

Yes... it's true... we've suffered a great loss... but forgive me while I tell you that I'm not talking about the king of pop music.

These American military members died in Iraq this month:

Sergeant Justin J. Duffy
Specialist Christopher M. Kurth
Specialist Charles D. Parrish
Lance Corporal Robert D. Ulmer
Staff Sergeant Edmond L. Lo
Sergeant Joshua W. Soto
Captain Kafele H. Sims
Specialist Chancellor A. Keesling

And these members of our U.S. Armed Forces died in Afghanistan this month:

Sergeant Jones, Ricky D.
Specialist Munguia Rivas, Rodrigo A.
Command Master Chief Petty Officer Garber, Jeffrey J.
1st Sergeant Blair, John D.
Sergeant Smith, Paul G.
Staff Sergeant Melton, Joshua
Sergeant 1st Class Dupont, Kevin A.
Specialist O'Neill, Jonathan C.
Chief Warrant Officer Richardson Jr., Ricky L.
Specialist Silva, Eduardo S.
Lance Corporal Whittle, Joshua R.
Major Barnes, Rocco M.
Major Jenrette, Kevin M.
Staff Sergeant Beale, John C.
Specialist Jordan, Jeffrey W.
Specialist Griemel, Jarrett P.
Specialist Hernandez I, Roberto A.
Sergeant Obakrairur, Jasper K.
Staff Sergeant Hall, Jeffrey A.
Private 1st Class Ogden, Matthew D.
Private 1st Class Wilson, Matthew W.

Let's remember and honor this day those whose deaths are truly impacting

4th of July

We celebrated 4th of July with the our friends the Dunlaps and my adorable niece Coral.

The whole gang - Ethan, Coral, Madison, Sadie, Lola, Ruby, Tatiana and Casey

Just the girls - Lola, Tatiana, Coral and Madison

Our favorite family "toy"

Sitting pretty...

watching Traditions Fire work display

in comfort of our back yard. SWEET!!

BFF's - Tatiana and Madison

Sadie -

Coral-

Ethan-

Madison

And Casey all enjoyed the sparklers

Roasting Marsh mellows

Eating smores

Open wide

Mmmmmm Mmmmmm!

Next?!

Another happy kid...

Yep! It was indeed quite the night and many sweet memories were made.

Happy 7th Birthday Sadie (once more)

One thing about us Garcia's...we sure know how make a birthday LAST!!!

Tonight after gymnastics we had yet another cake and a few more presents for our aging beauty.

This cake was picked out by Sadie herself. :)

Daddy used sparkler style candles

Then we serenaded her

and she made her final birthday wish.

************

Dearest Sadie,

It is our prayer that all of your wishes and dreams come true. You are a treasure!!! You are kind, tender hearted, forgiving and you have an ability to do something I have never seen another human being do - love with an agape love. You are an amazing child of God. May you continue to grow into the person He has created you to be.

Our love always,

Your very proud and happy parents

Happy Birthday Sadie (and again)

This afternoon we all (Me, Sadie, Ethan, Madison, Aunt Stephanie, Coral, Canyon and Chason) journeyed to Nana & Pepe's for another birthday celebration.

Nana surprised Sadie with a few special gifts and this VERY cute and VERY YTUMMY m&m ice cream cake which had a ton of mini m&m's throughout. Oh it was SO SO good!!!

Happy Birthday Sadie (again)

Tonight (after all of the Father's Day festivities) we celebrated Sadie's birthday (again). This time with a tea party compliments of Aunt T. and Uncle Dave who blessed Sadie with a beautiful porcelain tea set....

Sadie set the table and Daddy served the freshly brewed tea.

Of course, Princess Madison was thrilled to partake

Even the boys enjoyed themselves

We were fresh out of "crumpets" so we settled for chocolate covered strawberries. Mmmmmm Mmmmm. :)

Father's Day

So today is Father's Day.

Want to know how we celebrated?

We let Daddy sleep until 11:00am!

Then we woke him with snuggles

Then we took him to his FAVORITE breakfast joint....

IHOP!

and enjoyed a fine breakfast!! :)

The kids and I "suited" up and "tried" to make stepping stones for daddy's yard...

But sadly we (*I*) were unsuccessful!

and daddy had to come and save the project.

Thank GOODNESS for Daddy's!!!!

We spent the afternoon with my parents - where my dad had ALL his children and grandchildren together for the 1st time EVER on Father's Day!!!

It was indeed a Happy Father's Day honoring the amazing men and daddy's in our life!!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the love of my life and the GREATEST Dad I know.