My Little Pianists

Gillian's first piano recital! She did fantastic!


Ginger is an old pro with recitals now since she's performed in at least four or five of them. (Doesn't mean she still doesn't get nervous, though!) Her songs were beautiful.


We finally found a piano teacher after moving to Texas and my girls love her! They are really doing well and I hope they go a lot farther in piano than I did!

Dr. Grampa

This is what happens when you have an orthodontist for a father and grandfather! My girls were thrilled to have Grampa work on their teeth and get new retainers to come home with...that is, until it made their teeth sore and became very hard to eat!


With 36 grandchildren for my dad, he is going to be "treating" kids clear into his 90's! You're the BEST, Dad!

Los Angeles Temple with Wendy

Part of our trip to CA for the beach house included getting to see my youngest sister, Wendy go through the temple for the first time! It was a wonderful thing to be gathered in this special place with so many of my family members. And we knew our sister, Ginger, didn't miss it.




Cute pix of my Dad and Wendy.

Annual "Z" Family Beach House Reunion

As my sister, Ginger told each one of us..."We are all part of something amazing." I look at this picture and think it really is an amazing sight. This is a picture of my parents, brothers and sisters, their spouses and children. (Summer and her family were missing and of course, Ginger.) Each year we all gather and stay at one huge beach house and have the most amazing time together. We all took hundreds of pictures, but I only posted a few of my favorites.


We always get to enjoy plenty of "Girl Time". Although I have to admit, there was a huge void this year.

Wendy and sweet little Holly (Ginger's youngest)

Don and Gillian

We all gathered together for our traditional Family Home Evening Talent Show which is always a complete riot!

Just a "few" of the kids ready to jump in the ocean. What a dream to have this many cousins your age! They love it!

My girls

And just a few more of my favorites....

Until next year......

From my Ryan Jane

"Mom's are the best."
"Mom's rock."
"Mom's are awesome."
A sweet little note from my little 6 year old. These are the joys of motherhood.

Ginger's 1st Trip to the Temple

What a special treat it was for me to get to tag along with Ginger and all the other youth in our ward to attend the temple and perform Baptisms for the Dead. We believe that being baptized by the proper authority is an essential ordinance for every individual. So, these youth get to go to the temple and be baptized for people who have died without having the opportunity to be baptized while they were on the earth. I still can't believe that I have a daughter that is old enough to go! There was a very sweet spirit there and I know it was a wonderful experience for Ginger.

Easter: Hope of the Resurrection

I have to admit, the Easter season took on a whole new meaning for me this year. I always love Easter time with the changing of winter to spring, the blossoms all around, the pastel colors, the egg coloring, the Easter Egg Hunts, the candy, and most importantly...the reminder that Jesus Christ was Resurrected, making it possible for all of us to be resurrected. But, this year, it became so much more real for me. To lose someone you love is the hardest thing in the world, but knowing that we will both be resurrected one day and be able to be with each other forever and ever makes it so much more bearable. How grateful I am for the atonement of Jesus Christ and His death and miraculous Resurrection.

Ethan was invited to an Easter Egg Hunt with a special guest appearance from the Easter Bunny! Too bad he was terrified of her! He refused to talk to her, or even take a picture with her.


Finding eggs all over the house on Easter morning. Thank goodness church didn't start 'til 11:00.



It was a wonderful day to spend together as a family. It made us miss getting together with all of our extended family like we do every year. But, thankfully our good friends invited us for dinner and we had a delicious ham dinner with all the fixings!

The Great Race continued....

It had been 8 months since I had been "home" to CA, and 8 months since I had been around my sister, Ginger's precious little family. The last time I was there was for her funeral. Don and I were able to leave our kids with our good friends and make a weekend trip to be there for the "Great Race". I was caught off guard with emotion when I walked into her home, being attacked by four sweet children wanting hugs and attention, and just being there....without her. I did the best I could to greet each one of my nieces and nephew, but eventually had to escape to a corner and allow the tears to flow. It was hard to embrace the fact that I was there for a visit, as I had done so many times before, but that this time, Ginger wouldn't be with us. Reality. Somehow, I pulled myself together and did my best to be strong for her children. It was wonderful to see them and be with them. They are amazingly strong and full of faith with an assurance that their Mom is in a good place and they will see her again. I loved that they talked about her all the time and still have very vivid memories as though they just saw her yesterday. Don and I stayed at their house and one morning, I poured myself a bowl of cold cereal in one of their huge mugs, instead of a regular bowl. Almost immediately, little 4 year old Brady said with a huge smile, "My mom always eats cold cereal in those mugs, too!" I could have burst into tears, but instead had to smile. She is still so close to them.

I love this picture with Ginger's girls, but I wish Brady would have been willing to be in the picture!



The Agoura Great Race was definitely a day of healing and tears, but also "happiness". In the weeks and months leading up to this run, I spent a lot of time running and trying to get back in shape after hurting my knee last year. During those runs, I found myself laughing and crying as I thought of my sister, her life, and our memories together. Sometimes I ran with my ipod and it seemed that every song would relate to her somehow. I shed many tears on those runs, but I felt that she was often right there running alongside of me. On the day of the run, it seemed all of that emotion came to a head and I bawled through most of the race. When I reached the finish line, I saw my brothers who had finished long before me. I couldn't help but think about my own finish line for this race we call "earth" and how happy I will be to be greeted by so many loved ones, including my little sister, Ginger! I embraced my brothers and Trevor immediately said to me, "What's wrong? Did you fall?" That made me laugh. Especially since he was really clueless as to why I was crying.


Don ran the 10K, Jason ran the half marathon, and the rest of us ran the 5k. What a blessing it was to be surrounded by my wonderful family.


There were so many people running in memory of Ginger, wearing the red "Happiness" T-shirts that represented her final blog entry (www.jasondgingerd.blogspot.com). It was really neat to see so many.
This is a picture of those in our family who were able to make it that day.



It was quite a treat to have so many adult siblings in town...without all the children! (Don't get me wrong...I LOVE my children and nieces and nephews, but it's nice every once in a while to have no interruptions!) It gave us many opportunites to go out together and just hang out and have that adult time. I love my family so much.

The Great Race....

Last year, my sister, Ginger, ran her first 5k in The Agoura Great Race and inspired coutless others to get in shape and start running, too. After she passed away last July, a group of her friends decided they would honor her by running this year and even created T-shirts in her memory. I don't think they realized how many would want to participate, but it has turned into a huge event. Don and I will be leaving for CA tomorrow to run with so many of our family and friends. I am anxious to be surrounded by so many loved ones, and know it will be an emotionally exhausting weekend, but healing at the same time. I don't know if I'll run or walk, but I do know that Ginger will be there with me, cheering me on!

My brother posted this comment on Ginger's blog a couple of months after she passed away. It made me cry. It was so inspired and it's interesting to think about how her run in the Great Race was similar to her time on earth. She was 30 years old when she past away, and ran the 5k in 30 minutes. He said, "Ginge, you ran a great race and you finished at 30 (at least this leg of the race). You didn't let anyone hold you back, but you definitely helped countless others along your way. You broke the tape first in our family and we look forward to seeing you when we cross the line and giving you a huge Ginger-style victory hug on the other side of the finish line. Until then, we know you will be watching us, cheering us on." She definitely is.

More visitors!

Who would have thought that even though our closest relatives are 11 hours away, that we'd have so many visitors when we moved to Texas?! Don's brother, Ryan, and his wife, Keri, came with their four children and stayed for almost a week! We hadn't seen them in 2 years, so it was wonderful to have that time to spend with them. The weather was perfect for them, and coming from COLD Nebraska, they loved being able to spend their days outside.



Don and I went out with Ryan and Keri while Ginger and Gillian watched all the kids....just what they do best. The kids enjoyed every minute with their long lost cousins and the adults had fun with some intense fusbol and Wii tournaments!

Keri and I ventured out to Dallas one day to take the kids to the Observation Deck at the airport to watch the planes come and go. It was definitely a hit with the boys!

Mother/Daughter Luau

I got to go to my first Mother/Daughter Luau with Ginger, now that she is a young woman! We had so much fun. We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner, Ginger took 2nd place in the Limbo, and we played games that tested our knowledge about each other....and we did really well!

Boys and Girls

One of the Young Men in our ward that Don works with, had a swim meet in Austin (3 hours away) and he thought it would be fun to take our boys on a road trip to see it. They went out to eat, stayed in a hotel, went to the swim meet and did "boy stuff". The boys LOVED every minute of it. (It was all they could talk and think about in the weeks prior.)
And since the boys were having a special weekend, we planned our own special weekend for the girls at home!


We went out to dinner and to see the movie "Tale of Desperaux". We painted nails and had a sleepover in the family room watching another movie, eating junk, and staying up way too late. In the morning we did what girls do best.....we shopped 'til we dropped! It was a great time for all of us.

We LOVE visitors!

My sister, Summer, traveled 16 hours with her husband, Clint, and three children to come and stay with us for a week! Clint is in Medical School in VA right now and had a break , so they figured, why not take a road trip and visit family? We're so glad they did! We went out as couples to dinner and the temple while Ginger and Gillian watched all the kids. The weather was perfect and the kids loved having time to spend with their cousins outside all day.


They were here on Valentine's Day, so we spent the day making and decorating Valentine's cookies.


I even got adventurous and highlighted Summer's hair! In our family (my sisters) we are always doing each other's hair to save a dime, and have never had any real training. But, I have some seriously talented sisters when it comes to doing hair. We all cut our husband's and boy's hair and are always experimenting with highlighting. I didn't ever want to try highlighting, but Summer was confident I could do it, and obviously was willing to take the risk if I completely destroyed her hair! But, since I've seen it done a million times, and Summer was willing, I tried it out. I was so amazed how it turned out!


Doesn't her hair look amazing?! It was a wonderful thing to have a sister around for an entire week. We talked and laughed and cried and reminisced about our beloved sister, Ginger. How blessed I am to have five sisters that I can do that with, who know exactly what I am going through. I love my sisters!

Happy 12th, Ginger Dee!

Yes, I have a twelve year old daughter, and yes, that makes me feel very old. I cannot believe my little Ginger Dee is a young woman! Her two requests (besides the ear piercing, of course) were homemade potato soup in bread bowls....


.....and, a Bitty Baby. It's the baby doll from American Girl. Can I just say that it makes me very happy that my twelve year old still wanted a doll, a baby doll, for her birthday? No cell phone, no laptop, no Nintendo DS, just a doll. I love it. I love that she loves to babysit and practice her motherly role.
I love my Ginger Dee.

A trip to Claire's for Ginger's Birthday

In our family, you have to be 12 years old to get your ears pierced. I actually had mine pierced when I was 12, and also again about 10 years later, but both times they got infected and were so sensitive that I had to let them close up. As Ginger's birthday was getting closer, I considered trying again, but almost chickened out. Ginger basically forced me into it and I'm glad she did! It was a bonding experience for us. We had so much fun and I'm happy to report that three times a charm!

Our 1st Visitors the Day After Moving In!

The movers came and unloaded our truck on New Year's Eve and my sister, Brandi and her husband, Alan, arrived from Kentucky on New Year's Day. (Yes, they drove 16 hours each way to be with us for just a couple days!) Some people would think that would be hard to have company when everything is in disarray, but they're family and we were thrilled to have them here to celebrate with! We tried not to put them to work too much, except for making Brandi do all of our hair, and we enjoyed just hanging out and visiting. It was so nice to have my sister to laugh and cry with and I enjoyed getting to take Brandi to Babies 'R' Us to register for the birth of her first baby!