Life at the Keever House

Here's a recent picture of my belly's progress...can't believe I have 8 more weeks of growth ahead of me!

Rea has finally gotten her turn to do sharing at preschool yesterday. She was beyond thrilled to take some special things to share with her friends. She, of course, took her beloved "Bunny" and also took some nesting dolls that my mom and dad brought her from Russia.  She picked out her outfit so that she "would look pretty" and also picked which bow to wear in her hair. Such a big girl!

Well I am now 30 weeks (and a few days) pregnant with our third child.  We found out in July that it is most definitely a little boy! At the end of the ultrasound, they even did a little 4D! It was pretty neat to be able to see his little face...although I'm sure he's changed a lot by now.


The pregnancy is going great, besides the normal aches and pains of growing a person inside your belly. We have a c-section scheduled for December 10th...so that will be the big day.  My doctor told me after a recent ultrasound that he is looking like a very big boy.  Not something I was excited to hear since I have 9 more weeks to carry him around.  I am thankful that he is perfectly healthy though.

After a lot of looking through name books and many discussions we have finally settled on his name. He will be Loyal James Frank Keever.  A mouthful, I know...but we had so many people we wanted to honor and we are pretty sure that this will be our last baby.  Loyal was Josh's maternal grandfather's name (also Josh's middle name), James is my father's name, Frank was my stepdad's name....so this baby has quite the heritage and legacy to live up to.

Stay tuned for more updates on Mr. Loyal and how he is progressing!

After we got home from the funeral, it was time for Miss Reagan to start preschool.  Again...and emotional day for mommy! Where is the time going???




She also had picture day shortly after...uugh, they're so stinking cute!


Since the start of school, we have also added ballet and soccer to our schedules.  Mommy is officially a chauffeur! It's so much fun watching these two discover new activities and things that they love. It doesn't hurt that these activities wear them out and make for much calmer evenings around here!





Tuesday October 8th, Rea had her first field trip with her class. We went to the pumpkin patch.  She was so excited to go without brother and just with her friends. We had a blast and she picked out a great pumpkin.  We're planning to go back as a family soon since Wyatt was very disappointed that he didn't get to go!










So that is where we've been! Sorry it's been so long! Hopefully I won't let it get that out of date again.  Although I can't promise anything...I am about to have another baby! :)

I have dreaded writing this part of my update.  As anyone close to my family knows, my wonderful stepfather, Frank, had been battling acute myeloid leukemia for almost two years.  He was diagnosed while Josh was on his last deployment but I have not blogged about it out of respect for Frank.  He was very private and didn't really like the whole world knowing what he was going through.  He never wanted any pity or sympathy, just to go about his life as normal.  He fought the cancer for a long time, even undergoing a bone marrow transplant.  The transplant failed and the leukemia became more and more aggressive as time went on.  He was receiving treatment at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas.  So it was a hard two years for him and my mom.  Mom traveled back and forth to be with him the whole time.

The weekend that we were in San Francisco, Frank traveled home to Birmingham to be with mom for a long weekend and a break from Houston.  While at home, he decided that he would stop treatment (because it was no longer effective and his quality of life was greatly diminished) and enter hospice care.  So on August 23rd, the hospice center got he and mom all set up at home in Birmingham.  I immediately flew home to visit.  I could only be there for a day, but I was so glad that I got to say goodbye to the man who I loved so much and loved me as if I was his own.  Frank had been in my life since I was 6 years old and there was no way I was letting my father leave without hugging his neck first.  Thankfully Trey was able to be there also, so we got one last weekend as a family. This is the last picture we took together.


One week, exactly, after he entered hospice Frank entered his eternal home and met Jesus face to face. He passed away early in the morning of August 31st.  While we were all so sad that he was gone, we were (and still are) so thrilled that he his no longer suffering or in any pain. And how wonderful that he is with Jesus forever.

Once he passed, the planning began for the memorial service. The DiCesare family plot is in Lakeland, Florida and Frank told mom that this is where he wanted to be buried.  So mom planned the burial in Florida for Thursday September 5th, followed by a true memorial service to honor his life in Birmingham on Saturday September 7th.  Reagan and I flew to Florida for the burial (so that Wyatt wouldn't miss too much school and Josh wouldn't miss work).  The graveside service was lovely and was exactly what Frank would have wanted.

During the service, a butterfly fluttered around the casket and the priest and just wouldn't leave.  After everyone had left the cemetery, this butterfly landed on my Rea and then on my sweet mother.  God gave us such a sweet reminder that Frank is with him and we need not worry.




After the burial, mom, Rea, me, Trey and Chelsea flew back to Birmingham for the memorial. Many more people joined us there (including Josh and Wyatt) to celebrate the life of such an amazing man.  The service in Alabama was perfect.  I'm not sure it could have gone better.  Frank truly was a blessing to all who knew him.  There were so many people there that many had to stand. After the memorial, everyone in the family went back to mom and Frank's house for a catered dinner.  It was so wonderful to feel so much support by so many people...and nice to have almost all of the people you love the most in one place.


Josh and Wyatt flew back to California the following Monday and everyone slowly started leaving and returning to normal life.  Rea and I stayed a couple of days to help mom get things back in order and just to be there in case she needed us.

While we were there, God granted me the great privilege of being in town when my very best friend, Taylor, gave birth to her third child Hannah Claire. It was so great to end such an emotional week on a positive note.

I would say that we are all doing okay.  I think we miss Frank in our own ways and we will continue to grieve for some time.  But we are rejoicing daily that he is healed and that he can look down on us and smile.

It has been a long, long while since I've updated this blog.  The end of our summer and beginning of our fall has been crazy--so much going on and so many big life changes.  I will attempt to catch you up here!

After we got back from our big trip back home to Georgia, Alabama and Ohio, we celebrated Wyatt's 5th birthday.  It is so hard to believe that this sweet boy is that big.  I say it every year, but I feel like I just gave birth to him...I remember the details of that day as if it happened yesterday.  He's no longer a baby, but a little boy.  For his birthday, he got to pick out his first big-boy bicycle.  Thankfully he chose a classic bike made by Radio Flyer (mommy and daddy aren't huge fans of character bikes).  He had no trouble learning to ride (with training wheels) and zooms around the neighborhood as fast as he can...although he's hard pressed to leave Reagan in the dirt.  She is quite speedy on that tricycle.






After the birthday celebrations ended, I signed the kids up for a Build and Grow workshop at our local Lowe's. They loved it! Lowe's gave them aprons, goggles and their own hammer--along with the materials necessary for the day's project.  That particular day, they were making "Dusty" the crop-duster from Disney's newest movie "Planes". It was a huge hit!  We are planning to do another workshop again soon.








Since we built "Dusty" at Lowe's, we figured we had better take the kids to see the movie! So the next day we went to the kids' very first movie at a movie theater. It was so much fun. We bought our tickets for "Planes", had popcorn, candy and soft drinks. The kids sat through the whole thing and have been begging to go back ever since!

The weekend of August 16th, we drove to San Francisco for a family weekend.  We met Josh's brother, Isaac, and his family there.  We toured the city, ate lots of good food, and saw the Cleveland Indians play the Oakland A's. It was such a great time and the kids are always excited to spend so much time with their cousins!