With Love From Your One and Only Sweetheart Darling

January didn't turn out how we expected.  One evening late at night we received a phone call from one of my cousins informing us that my grandpa was going to be undergoing a very risky surgery to try to repair a thoracic aneurysm that he had suffered from earlier that day.  The chances of surviving the surgery were slim.

Amazingly he did make it through the surgery and started to make a miraculous recovery.  Much of the family was able to go visit him in the hospital and we began to think we would have him for a bit longer.  However, we only got to keep him for a few more days.  His body just wasn't able to recover and he had no desire to be on life support.

Fortunately, in spite of Brydon being in the middle of a very important inspection, we were able to attend the funeral as a whole family.  It was a beautiful funeral and it is always wonderful to see all the family together. 

 

I feel very lucky to have been extremely close with my grandparents.  I have been able to live next to them or with them for 13 years of my life.  They had a big influence on me and were always my biggest cheerleaders.

Grandpa loved to exercise (particularly cycling) and was able to convince grandma to ride with him after her accident.  They were always so cute on the tandem.

I would never had made it through college without their support and love.  I even worked for my grandpa for a 1 1/2 at BYU.  Some of my best memories of them are doing those 5 years.  Lots of late nights talking and Sunday dinners doing laundry.

It was a proud day for all of us when I earned my degree!

You do really cherish those moments when you can share your best moments in life with your grandparents.

My Grandparents were the first to visit us in the hospital after Caleb was born.  We loved living close to them in Utah and frequently had Sunday dinners together or fun shopping trips.  They were good sports to join us on some fun random adventures. 

They sure loved their grandchildren!

They came out to visit us in Philadelphia.  Caleb loved playing with Grandpa.

Many great memories at the beach and the zoo.

After my Grandmother passed away, Grandpa was able to find and old high school sweetheart and they were married shortly after.  He spent the last 2 1/2 years very happy.

Leonard & Joyce on their wedding day

I love technology that allows us to have these beautiful old pictures and share them with everyone.  They are true treasures. 

My mother is the only daughter in the family.

Priceless!

I am so grateful for all the lessons my Grandpa taught me and he will be greatly missed.

I love you Grandpa!

Feelin' a Bit Texan

 One of Brydon's hobbies is shooting.  It is something he loves to do with his Dad and they enjoy going out rifle and shotgun shooting.  Well in Texas rifles and shotguns are not as popular as handguns.  Handgun ranges are readily available but there are not very many places to shoot rifles.  So Brydon decided to try out some handguns to see if that was something we would be interesting in purchasing.  We have some dear friends that own a few handguns and property that we can shoot on.  We got a great lesson on handguns and found a couple guns we were interested in.  Handguns make us both a bit nervous so we were glad to find someone who could show us how they work safely.  Brydon and I both came from families that took gun safety very seriously and we very particular about the shooting situations we will be in. 

 

Caleb was a bit nervous around all the guns (not that I minded a bit) but did decide that he may like to try shooting a gun at the end of the day.  Brydon and I hadn't really discussed when we wanted to Caleb to handle a gun.  Again in our homes, you had to earn the privilege to shoot, be able to handle the gun on your own, and hunter safety courses were required before any hunting outings.  But we trusted our friend and he had a small 410 shotgun that Caleb could actually handle on his own.  So we let him try it out.  He loved it and was even able to shoot the can right off!

Can you see the dust cloud?

His trophy can!

I won't lie, it still makes me nervous to see him with a gun but I do want him to learn how to be safe around them. He is a good looking kid and did a very good job following all the rules!

He ended up cutting the can in half!

Another day we went out shooting, he got to aim at the targets.

 

A fun video of his shooting experience. 

And of course a day in the country wouldn't be complete without being able to drive the tractor on your own.

Fortunately he didn't crash and sure had a ball!  It reminded me of all the times I got to help my grandpa feed the cows in the morning at the family farm.

Winter Break

This Winter Break we just relaxed and didn't do anything too exciting.  It was wonderful!  A much needed rest from the busy school year, busy callings, and the Holiday hustle and bustle.  Everyone needs some jammie days!

 

Some good friends had their parents come visit Abilene for the first time over Christmas.  Brydon took them on the grand Air Force Base Tour and we got to hang out with them a few times.  It was a lot of fun!

Caleb did make a cute wish list of items to do over the break.  He had it hung in his room so we could remember to do everything.  I wish we could have done them all but we did pretty good.

Swimming, Dallas, Buffalo Wild Wings, Friends

 

We learned that the Base Pool was no longer available for family swim, so no swimming.  We did go to Buffalo Wild Wings (Caleb's personal favorite for some random reason), and we planned on a trip to Dallas after Winter Break when some friends would be there as well.  We of course spent lots of time with friends.  With an only child, close friends are a life saver!  The base bowling alley ran a fun special on cheap bowling for the kids so instead of swimming, we went bowling.

The kids had a blast and I bowled my best score (which isn't saying much)! 

 

Here's too relaxing breaks with friends and family!

Christmas Day in Texas

Nothing cuter than seeing your kid on Christmas morning.  I love getting to capture this on video!

So I have been experimenting with what to eat Christmas morning.  I really want to find something fun, but easy so I don't spend Christmas morning making breakfast.  I decided to try this Paula Deen's overnight French Toast with a fruit salad.  However although it looked great, it was not very good.  Extremely rich and actually soggy.  So next year we will have to try something else out.  Any good suggestions?

Showing off some of his fun Christmas gifts!

I actually didn't get any pictures of him opening gifts this years.  We were able to get on either Skype or FaceTime with family and Grandparents were able to watch the present opening festivities this year!  

Caleb made me this sweet present for Christmas.  It is a diorama of our hiking trip to Bryce Canyon.  Absolutely Priceless!

We did get a few snowflakes on Christmas Day.  Can you see them?  Well they were there for a few minutes!

Santa brought a family gift this year and surprised with our first gaming system.  We got an X-Box with the Kinect.  We also got the game Skylanders that Caleb had learned about and was dieing to get!  Christmas day was spent playing video games as a family.  The boys especially had fun!

We decided to give Caleb a fun homemade gift.  I got the idea from Pinterest and we have had a lot of creative moments with it.  We gave him a set of PVC pipe cut up with a bunch of connectors.  It makes a really cool fort!

Yummy Christmas dinner with family!

Even tried out some fancy place settings and of course lots of tasty food.  

I have to admit the Kinect is a LOT of FUN!!  We spent the evening trying out all the games.  Brydon and I like to play in the evening together and it has been a fun new toy to have.  We highly recommend the Kinect!

 

So grateful for the Christmas Season to remember the birth of our Savior and spend time with cherished family and friends!