Goodbye Grandpa

Wednesday morning October 28th, I got a phone call around 3:15 in the morning. Of course a phone call that early can never be good. My first thought was that something had happened to Bryce who has been training with Ogden City Police down in Salt Lake for the last month. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was my sister Jennifer. The news was not good, as expected. Jennifer was calling to let me know that Grandpa Urry had passed away.

Grandpa went in to have surgery on his knee on Monday morning. The surgery went well, there were no complications, and all indications were that everything would be ok. Mom and Dad went to visit with him in the hospital on Tuesday and he was in some pain and very restless, but was fearful of taking any pain medication. When the nurses went into Grandpa's room just before 2 am to check on him they found he wasn't breathing.

Grandpa was such an amazing man. He suffered so much as a WWII POW for 13 months, met and married grandma after just three short days, raised eight children together, served two missions and so much more. You could tell that he loved Grandma so much as well as the rest of the family. I will never forget our yearly camping trips to perception park, going down to St George as a family when we were young and now with my sisters for our girls weekend away. I remember when my parents and Jennifer went to Mexico and Grandpa and Grandma came out to our house and stayed with us. Most recently I think of our last trip to St George all of us girls were sitting around talking and laughing and Grandpa who we thought was interested in a TV show would all of a sudden bust up laughing at us. I have so many fond memories of Grandpa.

Grandpa I appreciate the example you have always been in my life. I only hope I can be half the person you have been. Thank you for your words of wisdom and advice that you were so willing to give when I came to you for help and answers. I love you, and will miss you greatly.

(Yes I know the picture is sideways, it's the first picture I have found but I couldn't figure out how to change it)

We had a great time at our family reunion Saturday. My Aunt Shantel reserved a pool in Ogden for three hours. The kids had so much fun. On the way to the reunion I stopped at KFC to pick up some dinner for my family. I never have to ask the kids what they want when we go there, they get the same thing every time, so not thinking, I ordered six meals. It wasn't until I paid that I realized that I had purchased a meal for Bryce. Sometimes I forget he's gone. I talked to him on the phone today. He sounded really good. It's alway nice just to hear his voice.

April Fools

So I found this cute idea on the internet and decided to try it to see if the kids would like it.
For dinner tonight, we had chicken nuggets(waffer cookies spread with peanut butter and rolled in corn flake crumbs), peas (green M&M's), and chocolate cupcakes (meat loaf with mashed potato frosting). The kids absolutely loved it!!! They want to have chocolate cupcakes for dinner more often. They weren't as fond of the chicken nuggets as they were the rest, but it was fun.

Rocket Derby

Noland and Brenan just had their space derby. They did so good!!! Brenan's came in first place once, and they each got second everytime after that. Who says these things are for scouts and their dads. I think the three of us did great together. If you can't tell, Brenans is the yellow (fire) one, and Nolands in the flag one.

Here is a video of Brenan's winning race. His is in the middle lane.

Brenan's baptism & birthday party

Brenan was Baptized last Saturday March 21st. Bryce was able to get a weeks leave and come home and baptize him before leaving for Iraq. It turned out to be such a wonderful day. I was stressing. We usually do baptisms on a stake basis, but since we were doing it on an off Saturday, (not a normal Saturday before fast Sunday) I had to make all the arrangements and plan the whole day myself. That morning Bryce and I had to be at the Stake Center at 8:30 to fill the font ourselves. It took three hours to fill!:( I ended up going home and getting the kids ready and meeting Bryce up there with all of his stuff to get ready. It kind of made for a long day. Thanks everyone who helped on the program. We appreciate your support.

Brenan's birthday was actually on the 5th of March, but he refused to have his party until his dad was here to celebrate with him. We had a scavenger hunt where we found the pinata at the end of the hunt. The kids had a great time with that. We planned the pinata before we knew it was supposed to snow, so we had to improvise and hang the pinata from the kitchen railing and a stick that Bryce held. Each kid went home with an arm full of loot. He had a great day and received some fun gifts from his friends.

Vegas Baby!!

Bryce was able to get a weekend off the first of February, so the kids and I drove down to Vegas and met him for the weekend. It was a lot of fun. Kind of a whirl wind trip, but fun.

We took the kids to Circus Circus for the day. They loved it. Rashele is the only one that wouldn't go on any rides, so I didn't get pictures of her.(she gets motion sickness)

This cardboard Elvis was in the window of the Hotel liquor store. I went in and asked the person working if I could take it out of the window and use it to take my kids picture. We have a friend who loves Elvis so we had to take a picture to text to her.

Grandma's 80!!

For Grandma Taylor's 80th birthday Kristin and I gave her tickets to Weber State's basketball game. Grandma loves sports, specially when it comes to the Utah Jazz and Weber State. She and Grandpa used to have season tickets and go to every game until Grandpa got to sick to drive. Taking her brought back so many fun memories of going to the games with our grandparents and parents. I don't think we watched the game as much as we watched Grandma and reminisced about the old days. Good Times!! I bought Grandma a megaphone so she could cheer on the boys.

Kristin says "it was a nail biter of a game".

What's a Weber State game without Waldo?

Kristin decided to take a picture of us. We were both going to ham it up, but it looks like I'm the only one that did. Lovely!!!

NEW CEILING

I finally have a new ceiling!!!

Most of you know the story behind this, but for those of you who don't, here goes. A few years ago we had a leak from our upstairs bathroom. We decided to tear up and replace the whole bathroom floor, and redue it. While balancing on two beams, Bryce was trying to cut some of the old floor away from the wall, lost his balance and fell through the ceiling into our family room, taking a full sheet of sheet rock down with him.

The hole in the ceiling became kind of a fixture in our house and we didn't really notice it any more unless someone else brought it up to us. Anyway, two weeks ago a member of the bishopric and a member of the stake presidency stopped by for a visit. Noticing the hole, they offered to fix it for me. Four days later they were here ready to work. They were quick too. I think it only took them about an hour. Now I just need to find someone who knows how to do the spackle and texturize it for me. Maybe I'll wait a couple more years for that!!!!!kidding

Busy..Busy..Busy

Things have been crazy around our house during the last couple of months. As most of you know Bryce has been deployed to Iraq, and I have stayed very busy being a single mom. He has been gone for over two months now and it has gone by so fast. I am so proud of my kids, they are doing so well with him being gone. They miss him, but they are so supportive of him that they haven't complained at all. These are a couple pictures I took of him right before he left.

I don't like the one with no hair, he had such nice thick hair I can't get used to him being bald.

We had a great Christmas. I decided to take the kids to my parents house to spend Christmas morning with them. I figured it might make it easier on them with Bryce being gone if they could have thier grandparents instead.

The day after Christmas my sister Jen and I drove down to California, where Bryce is stationed for some training, to visit him for Christmas. I found out a couple days before Christmas that he was one of a few Marines that weren't taking leave to go home for Christmas, so my Dad offered to watch my kids so I could go be with Bryce for a few days. Of coarse driving was cheaper, but Bryce didn't like the idea of me driving alone so Jen volunteered to come with me. We had a lot of fun. We went to SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. We also stopped by the San Diego Temple which was beautiful.

Now that Bryce has been gone for a while I think we have finally found a routine that is working and hopefully things will get easier around here. I am still trying to figure out the single mom thing, but we're making it work. Bryce is doing great, he has already had one promotion since he has been gone and is staying busy. He sends everyone his love.