Thanksgiving 2010

So my desktop computer finally decided to leave me hanging... which has my editing program on it. Oh how I miss it.. Hopefully Santa will bring me a new computer if I am a really good girl!!

We had a great week in Idaho spending time with my family for Thanksgiving.. There was only one thing missing and that was Grandma Judy!! I think we all felt a little lost without her there. Just isn't the same without her.

We started to Idaho on Sunday, Nate in his truck pulling the trailer and me in my car following behind. We made it just past Beaver when we hit a huge snow storm.. The road was covered in ice topped with a few inches of snow.. and it was slick!! Even though everyone was going extremely slow the semi trucks in the right lane started sliding into our lane and I thought they were going to hit me so I pulled to the side of Nate.. and to make a long story short... my left tire went off the pavement enough that my car kept sliding deeper and deeper into the median..and I was stuck in about a foot of mud... topped with snow!!! Glad Nate was in a different car and we were able to just get in with him and finish driving to Salt Lake...(Left my car with the hazards on and a note letting them know to tow it to the nearest town. *$240 later*) The roads were so scary off and on and it took forever to get to Grandma Karen's.. but we finally made it! Gracie was suppose to have some Dr. appointments at primary childrens on Monday but we ended up cancelling those because of the storm that was suppose to hit... Thanks to Dutch and Karen for letting me take there car so I could beat the storm and for going to Beaver to pick up my car!!

Got to Oakley on Monday evening and that is when the real fun started...cooking, cleaning, eating, sledding, 4 wheeling, shopping, dentist appointments... the list could go on forever. It was a full house when everyone was there totalling 13 adults..21 kids.. and 4 dogs! I am so grateful I got spend Thanksgiving with the coolest people ever.

Lucy hates walking in the snow and begs to be carried when she is outside

Nice hat hair after a long day of playing in the snow

Nice pink pants and purple snow boots..(wasn't about to buy new snow clothes for him to play in the snow for a few days, just glad that faiths snow stuff fit him this year... besides real men wear pink!)

Thrilled to get their picture taken

Good girl eating all your dinner

TROUBLE

Analise always happy to get her picture taken.. Quincey being snotty!

a step back in time....

tonight I was just looking at old pic.... these are some of my favorite ones..

I do have to say.... {"that is a pretty dang good wheelie for a 3 year old"}

This afternoon ended up being just PERFECT to take a family bike ride... in the most PERFECT weather, in the middle of November...with the most PERFECT kids... Its seem like all of our bikes are never working at the same time... one usually has a flat tire or a bent rim.. while one or two might have taken a trip to the DI for discipline reason..{that's a whole other story.} Well I got news for ya all... They All Worked PERFECTLY Today! Thanks to Nate for being such an awesome bike repairman! You know..life is just PERFECT! (even more PERFECT.. cuz most of us were still in our pj's)

Missing You...

My mom has been on my mind a lot today... miss her like crazy!!

Halloween 2010

The kids had a great time walking around the neighborhood to trick or treat... FAITH: was always the first one to a door to trick or treat and the first one to head to the next house.. (don't think she stopped running the whole time and came home with a blister on her foot from her shoes.) COOP: was always lagging behind checking out his candy in his bag and untwisting his handles to his bag that kept getting tangled... QUINCEY: kept saying "I wish some kids my age were out trick or treating"... most the night she was embarrassed that she was dressed up and out trick or treating with her little brother and sisters... and GRACIE: lets just say she was just being Grace, chilling and having a good time... oh wait she did pull a graceful move and twisted both her ankles just as we were getting started...

I am thinking this picture pretty much expresses how everyone is feeling at the time this photo was being taken.... good thing I was taking the picture and not in it cuz none of us were feeling the love!! Glad the kids had a great Halloween!! It was always so much fun being young and carefree, eating all the candy you wanted without having to worry where you were going to carry it the next day (butt, thighs, tummy, maybe your muffin top... )






Now my real thoughts on Halloween.... I might sound like the Grinch of Halloween but I am starting to hate it more and more every year!! This is why: trunk or treat on Tuesday...candy candy candy.... school parties...more candy candy candy... day care at the gym... even more candy...don't forget the school carnivals... usually a waste of time and money... and more candy again...then the real Halloween day comes and we trick or treat to get more candy.... SHEESH none of this makes sense... Why do we even have Halloween?? I really seriously don't know why we do... Anyways I will get off my soap box...

On another subject I sure am missing my mom today...Really would have enjoyed either hanging out at her house after trick or treating.. or even just a phone call would be nice. She always made the best orange popcorn balls for Halloween...

Faith's Funny For the Day:

{her}"hey mom??" {me}"What Faith?" {her}"Why do we have plastic on our toes?" {me}"you mean our toenails?" {her}"ya why are they plastic?" {me}"sweetie they aren't made out of plastic you silly girl" {her}"OH..."

then she was off to play again.....

Just for Fun...

Such a bittersweet day... so happy for Gracie to get baptized.. heartbroken that Grandma Judy couldn't be there. Although we all know she really was.. She wouldn't have it any other way. We Love You Gracie

In my sisters words.... {thanks Lib for writing this}

I found out Wednesday morning that mom had passed away. Mom has been living with some major health issues and has been tied down to a lot of bed time this past 6 months. My siblings and I have had a few conversations where we knew there was a good chance that her time could be coming soon. No matter how much time I had to prepare for that phone call, I wasn't ready. After I got the phone call, life started feeling a bit surreal. My mind knew it was real, but my heart couldn't understand it. She mentioned to my dad a few weeks ago, that if she couldn't get better that she was ready to go. Not many people get their wishes so easily and peacefully. They must have needed her in heaven. I immediately started packing so I could go and be with my dad, who my heart was breaking for, and the rest of my family. Brad was such an incredible support through the whole thing, I couldn't have done it without him. It took me twice as long to get packed because I felt like this A.D.D. child that couldn't focus. All I wanted to do was get in the car and drive to my Dad and be with my family. Again, Brad saved me. We finally got home around 8 pm. Kell, Matt and Amy had a chance to get their first. Nate was able to be their when the Mortuary took her body away and be with my Dad. After the news traveled, which didn't take but a few minutes, the love and support just started pouring in. We had people over vacuuming, and cleaning getting the house ready for family to get there. We had tons of people bring us hot, yummy food and goodies. Which we ate almost all of it. There were a lot of us there. Many people sent money, flowers and plants, and many warm wishes. We didn't have to worry one time what we were going to eat, and who was going to fix it. Plus we had wonderful ladies volunteer to help watch the kids when it was time to let us adult kids have some time with our Dad and Mom.
KayDee made it in on Thursday. She met us at the Mortuary to help start the planning. It was me, KayDee, KellyRae, and Amy that were present at the mortuary, helping Dad plan. Not the funnest of planning meetings, but one that will be in my memory forever. Our first thing on our to-do list was the Obituary. We only had one day to write it. How do you put one persons life into a couple of paragraphs? Then we had to figure out musical numbers. We all thought going into this that we would not sing, or be doing much of the speaking, but it turned out quite opposite. We were all involved and it was exactly how mom would have wanted it.
Amylee and Chris made it in Thursday..Linden came in on Friday, Greg made it on Saturday, and Dawn came in on Sunday. Saturday Kaydee decided to have Gracie baptised since everyone was in town. The spirit was so strong there. Between mom's death and the special spirit that Gracie has, it was a very moving baptism.
Through the weekend we practiced our musical numbers, did lots of talking about mom so we could get a life sketch written, and just did a lot of hanging out together. The husbands I think were getting a bit annoyed by the constant practicing of some sort of song because the piano is in the tv room. They never said anything but thank you guys for putting up with that.
Sunday my Dad went to church. He didn't do much sitting down the whole weekend. He just kept busy with yard work, answered every phone call, talked to everyone he saw, and just handled it with such grace. Anyways, we didn't want him sitting at church all alone, so we loaded everyone up and headed to church. It was testimony meeting. We were all surprised when my brother Greg got up there and shared his testimony. He has a beautiful testimony and it was wonderful to hear.
Sunday night was a viewing in Burley at the Funeral home. I woke up Sunday morning with extra large butterflies and couldn't get rid of them all day. I swear I was going to have an anxiety attack. I was trying to get my violin piece ready, did I mention before that I was the one that got to write and deliver the life sketch, and us girls had to sing a song. Plus it was the day that I had to see my mother in a casket. When we got there and I saw her lying there, looking so beautiful and peaceful and rested, with the beautiful flowers, all my nerves disappeared. It was this incredible feeling that washed over me. When I saw her about 2 weeks ago, she looked so tired and weak and it took everything in her to make it to dinner that night at the Uppercrust there in Burley. That would be the last time I saw her. That place will hold a special place in my heart. Anyways, the rest of the viewing went so good. There was a non-stop line from 6pm to about 8:30 pm. Lots of friends and family. My Dad really set the mood with this positive, peaceful feeling. We still shed a few tears with some special people, but it felt so good to be at peace with it.
It was fun to watch everyone in line pointing and trying to figure out which kid was what. There were 8 of us in line, and some of these people hadn't seen us in 15 years so it was like a little reunion with a lot of these people.
After, we were all starving so we stopped at Dairy Queen. We were in line ordering. My Dad gets up to order right before he turns around and says, "What does mom want?" And he just smiled and laughed between a few tears.
Monday morning was finally here. We got up and got everyone ready for the funeral. We got their early to run through all our songs. Their was a viewing for an hour before. Again, lots of friends and more family. We all had our chance to say our last good-byes. The funeral went wonderful. I kept asking mom if she could please get us through the musical numbers without crying our heads off. I know she was there, because we got through all of them. I just couldn't believe how flawless things went. A funny is we decided to have pork roasts for the luncheon after, and they had started cooking them that morning. When we were getting ready to start the funeral this overwhelming smell of Sunday dinner came through. It was like it was choreographed into it all because in the life sketch I talked about how coming home from church on Sunday the house would smell so good. After the funeral, we headed to the cemetery where we buried her by Cherrilyn, my older sister. Greg gave a thoughtful prayer and we said goodbye. It had been raining in the morning, but when we got out to go to the cemetery it was just beautiful and sun shining. We then went back to the church and have a wonderful Dinner of Pork Roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, jello, green salad, rolls, and yummy cookies and brownies. The rest of the day was just so nice. We just rested and talked and ate and laughed.
The grandkids actually took the whole weekend so good. They were sad a bit at the funeral, but just loved being with each other and that is how mom loved it. It was a little weird to all be gathered there without her. I know she was there in spirit and was pain free and could enjoy the family reunion with such a happy heart. Amylee and Chris headed out Monday, and so did Brad. Tuesday Kell and I got up and did some major cleaning and went through a few things. I really could have stayed there for a few more weeks. It felt so safe there. It was like I didn't have to think about real life. It felt like there was this bubble around us and it was just about us. Kind of like old times. My husband was so good at just letting me have my time with my brothers and sisters and my kids were so incredibly understanding at letting me just be a daughter over the weekend, and let me check out of my mom duties for a few days. I can't believe the weekend has come and gone already. I love you mom and will miss you greatly and I am thankful I am at peace with where she is and how wonderful she is feeling.

Here is Mom's Obituary:

http://www.magicvalley.com/app/obituaries/?type=obit&id=78955

Full of 4 year old SASSINESS

Gracie's Baptism

Well I think we are finally settled enough to have this day finally happen... Between surgeries and the move who knew it would ever come. Gracie is really excited for the big day on Saturday to be baptized and become a member of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

Coop Dog wishing he was big enough to ride....(dang he's cute)

and some people do this for fun....

Nate and I and the kids took a trip to Moab this Labor day. Even though these Jeepin boys are cRaZy, and have to feed their addiction... We had tons of fun hanging out with friends and our little family..lots of good memories..and only one haunting memory of Coop and Grace in the waterhole.. but lets not talk about that!!!