tHe BoY's...

Whenever we go to SLC one of Jace and Kai's favorite things to do is to just hang out with my three crazy brothers...

Chase, Breck, Brandon, Jace, Beano (Bryant), Kai

Kai, Beano, Spiderman (Jace)

Breck, Jace, dad, Kai, Ashlyn

Jace, Brittany, Chase, Kai

Most of you know that at any point during the day you can find my kids in some sort of costume. Yes, we even pack costumes whenever we travel:)

Nanny's Day

This past weekend has been a busy one. We were supposed to be in Sea World this weekend but found ourselves in Utah for the second time in three weeks. This time was especially special because we went up for Nanny's funeral.

Early Friday morning we left our house at 5:30am to catch a flight to SLC. Before the viewing we went to Chuck-O-Rama for dinner (the kids wanted Sweet Tomatoes..this was the closest thing to it.) The viewing was so incredibly peaceful. Jace understood what was going on and placed his letter with Nanny. Kai on the other hand got extremely emotional when he realized Nanny was not going to get up. The entire weekend was emotionally hard on him.

The funeral service was wonderful. The reason it was so wonderful was because Nanny was a wonderful person. Brandon had the chance to speak about his memories of her being a wonderful person. When Brandon was only six years old Nanny was in her eighties. She loved his angelic voice and made him promise to sing, "Did You Think To Pray" at her funeral. For the past twenty some odd years she has reminded him that he promised he would sing. This Saturday he did sing and it was so beautiful...just how she wanted it.

After the service we headed up to the cemetery in Farmington. So...here is part of our days pictures...The boys were so excited to be in the Limo without their car seats:)

It was so nice to spend the day with family...

Brandon, Brant, Michael

Michael our brother-in-law and Wendy, Brandon's sister

My in-laws Susan and Stephen

Wendy and Stephen

Alyssa, Brandon, Wendy, Michael, Susan, Stephen

Definitely, one of the highlights of the cemetery was that they had a playground. We sent the kids up there and had peace during the dedicatory prayer.

Don't they just look like they would have been loud?

We ended the day at Chili's restaurant. It was so nice to be together as family. It makes me realize how blessed our family is to have each other.

My little guy.....

Yesterday I was packing for Utah once again when Jace came up to me and asked me if we could mail something to Nanny in Heaven. I asked him what he wanted to mail to her and he handed me this letter that he wrote all by himself. I started to cry at his innocence. I told him I had a better idea. "Why don't we take it to Utah with us and give it to Nanny when we get there. She will keep it close to her always." He was jumping with excitement when I offered this suggestion. I love him so much and am in awe with him everyday. I love this little guy and all of the sweetness that comes with him.

Our Grandma and Great Grandma "Nanny"

Late this evening Brandon's grandma peacefully slipped away from this life. In recent months she had fallen and broken her pelvis. Two weeks ago we decided to travel to Utah to see our new little niece Emira. During this trip we were able to spend time with our "Nanny". As she continued to gain her strength and heal she fell once more this past week. Being almost 102 years old she finally let go after saying goodbye to her family. Wendy my sister-in-law and her family came down to the hospital to say their goodbyes along with Brandon's parents Stephen and Susan. Seconds before Nanny passed Brandon was able to shout I love you Grandma into the phone..almost like that was what she was waiting for.

We have been so blessed to have had Nanny as many years as we did. She is one of kind. She is the hardest worker I have ever met. She served a full time mission when she was 76 years old. When I met her in 1996 she had been blind for one year. This did not stop her. She continued to dance, bowl in tournaments, attend the temple weekly, and live on her own until October of 2005.

We are going to miss her sooo much but are truly grateful for our knowledge of Heavenly Fathers plan. We know that we will see her again and that she will finally be able to be reunited with her husband, her child that she lost at birth, parents, and siblings.

Nanny, we love you!!

Cousins

(Gabi, Jace, Grayson, Kai )

Recently we visited our cousins in Utah and had this picture taken:)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

sWiMmInG dAY aNd NiGht

My three fish....

When Jace was three and Kai was thirteen months I decided to start them in the infant aquatics program (http://www.infantaquatics.com/). I realized right off being around water day and night they needed to know how to swim and how to save themselves if needs be.

Jace caught on very quickly and loved being in the water!

Kai being younger grasped the float concept better than Jace did. Studies have shown that infants will adapt better to the roll flip technique than a toddler or an older child. Even though he developed the techniques more completely he did not like to swim.

Kai's version of floating

After a couple of years in the infant aquatic program they both have learned to love swimming, have advanced years beyond their age. If you ask them they say, "they love to race each other, dive, and just play around." For me I happy to know that if at any point they need to save themselves...they can!!

Kai-twenty three months

Jace three years old