Happy first Birthday Donivan

Mark and Tara's first child is turning one years old today. He is such a great joy in all of our lives. He was a big surprise to his parents but now I don't know if they could even begin to imagine life without him. I know that I couldn't. Van is all boy. He loves to be tossed about and especially bounced upon your knee. He loves music because his parents sing to him every day. He found Mark's guitars as soon as he could crawl. Even when I think that he is going to break the strings, he just loves the noise that he produces. I'm sure that before long Mark and Tara will be teaching him how to play both the guitar and piano. He isn't walking yet but he will be soon. He just needs to be more courageous and then he will be a hand full for his parents.

I was a little bit surprised when Tara said that she wanted a volcano cake for Van but I will do anything that they ask. I know that Van still loves to put things into his mouth. What better toy to go into the mouth than a dinosaur. So here is his cake.

I have the next two pictures switched so I will go to the end and then back. Paul was lucky enough to get this most marvelous picture of Van after eating his birthday cake. Mark tired several times afterwards to get him to smile again and it didn't happen. Oh, how we love this special little boy who looks so much like his daddy.

As we lite the candle and tried to get Van to blow it out, he instead reached out to touch the flame. I don't think that it burned him but with all of us yelling at him to not touch it, he was scared and began to cry. It took alot to get him even near the cake. Tara decided to get the dinosaur covered with frosting and the lava, which was very good, and have him try that first. After that first taste he was all over the cake. Hence the preceeding picture.

We all got a kick out of Tara. She really has a difficult time with Van getting dirty in any way. But she was the one to help him make a mess out of himself. But notice the apron. She didn't want to get anything on her.

Like I said even though he wasn't planned to come for another year I know that none of us would want to change anything. I don't get very many opportunites spent with this little boy but I'm praying that over the years it will change. He has such a cute personality coming out and I love every chance I get with him, like this upcoming weekend.

Happy Birthday again Van and we love you!!

They are growing up

Today was Josh's first day at Kindergarten. It is still hard to believe that he is old enough for this but then he is five. He has been going to pre-school for the past two years and even has been riding a bus. Even though he doesn't look to excited in this picture, from what I hear he was excited this morning. He said that his teacher didn't read a book to him because in Kindergarten they don't read. He did make a puppet though. Reading is highly over rated in the eyes of a five year old. I wish that I could have been there to hear his stories. I miss that, not having kids in school. Now that the grandkids have started going to school it is only going to become more difficult more me. They are growing up. I love you Josh.

Happy Birthday Kyler

Kyler turned Six on Saturday. He has changed so much during this past year. I blame kindergarten for that. He is a typical little boy who loves to ride bikes, play with his toys, loves watching TV and his super heros and play baseball. This year Lexie was able to play on the same team and Kyler had a hard time trying to understand why she didn't like to play like he does. He would request to be the last batter so he could clean up the bases. He is really getting pretty good. I can't wait to go to all the little league games in the future.

On the last game, on Wednesday, they gave the players trophies. The baseball on top has arms and legs that bend. Of course Kyler thinks it is the greatest.
For Kyler's birthday he received a new bike. He has worn out his old bike. It won't take long for these news tires to wear down to just rubber. He loves riding and can do several stunts, one hand, no legs, jumping off the curb and his favorite skidding and making black marks. He is quite the clown. Don't get in front of him or he just might run over you.
For his birthday cake he wanted Ben 10. If you don't know who that is, you are not up on your super heros. We record Ben 10 so he can watch them when he comes to visit. I think the kids have their grandma figured out. They don't get toys unless they are on the cake. I think they figured this out before I did. Ben 10 loves to save the world. So he is saving a city, a little bit to late though. Kyler had his party on Saturday in Riverton. All he wanted to do was see "Toy Story 3" in 3D. We loved the movie as did Kyler and I'm happy that he requested it. We had cake and ice cream at his Grandma Bradfield's.

We love Kyler very much and I told him that he can't get any older because that makes me older. He then just tells me that I am old all ready. He is very responsible. He loves school and is ready for the first grade. He is reading very well. He is my special little boy and I guess I need to stop calling him a little boy. He is taking very good care of his family and we don't know what we would do without him.
(Sorry about the extra picture)

Happy Birthday Josh

I'm getting really good about posting after the grandkids birthdays but I want to post the pictures of their special days. Josh's fifth birthday was on June 30. He was so excited about turning five and as I talked to him that morning, it seemed to me that he had grown up over night. Usually it is hard to talk to any of the kids on the phone but that morning Josh was different. It was a great conversation. He loves telling everyone that he is now five and that he is all grown up. All he wanted for his birthday was a bike. Of course it is a "JEEP" bike. He loves Grandpa and Grandma's Jeeps. He still has a ways to go with learning how to ride but I'm sure he is going to figure it out. Thank goodness he also received a helmet because I think he is going to need it. I hope that everyone in his neighborhood looks out for him.

Josh loves to play and his favorite activity is to play with his imaginary puppies. Bolt is the main one that always goes with him. He loves to feed them and sleep with them. Because of allergy's he will never be able to have a real puppy. When I asked him what he wanted on his cake he said puppies. So this is what I came up with. He had a hard time leaving them on the cake after he put them on it. He had to make sure that each puppy had food, M&M's. Because some times he has a cat involved we also got him a cat. These animals went to bed with him the night after his party and one remained in his hand all day Saturday.

Josh had a party with his friends on Tuesday, and then with the family on Friday night. His cousin Clara was able to come and together they had fun playing. It is hard to believe that he now will be going to kindergarten. In fact he starts in just a couple more weeks. I still can't wrap my brain around this concept.

We are so grateful for this special little boy. He adds so much to our lives. Every time we see him he greets us with a big hug but when we leave he begins to cry, he tries so hard not to. It rips the heart out and I pray that one of these days it will get better. We live for the visits with both him and Alex. We love you Josh.

Happy Birthday Bauer (even if it is late)

Bauer's fourth birthday was on June 3. I wanted to wait until they arrived here to post. Plus I found out that on the actual day and other days of celebrating he would say that he was still three because he wouldn't turn four until his party in Utah. The night that they arrived in Salt Lake we celebrated this special boy's birthday. We went to a splash park that is close to Mike and Kassy's home in Riverton. We were lucky enough to have the eight grandkids in attendance. Hunter was the only one missing.

Bauer is such a big boy, when he wants to be. He is so good with his little brother Emmett. He loves to play but his greatest joy is music. He told me that his Primary teachers tell him that he is the best singer in the Primary and I believe him. He loves to sing. He can calm Emmett with a song. He loved playing on my Piano and hearing Mark play the guitar while roasting marshmellows around the campfire. He was a big help to his Mom going through the airport and on the plane. One thing about his visit though, he was sick for four days of it. We worried about the rest of the kids getting sick but nothing happened. We still can't figure this one out. Thank goodness we had the party before he did get sick.

Bauer loves spiderman. He was spiderman for Halloween and when I asked him what cake he wanted, well of course, it was spiderman, with webs. It was an easy one for Grandma to make. How we love this little man. How grateful I am that they were able to visit and we were able to celebrate Bauer's fourth birthday. I miss him all ready and he hasn't even been gone twenty-four hours. Three months better go by quickly.

Happy Birthday David

Today is our second son's, David, birthday. It has been so long ago that he was with us. No, I can't say that because there have been several times over the years that I have felt him and I know that he still lives. Times when we have the whole family together, I feel him with us. He was with my Dad at his passing and the strongest time was in the temple as Mark received his endowments. He would have been thirty three today. I guess I will never stopped wondering what our lives would be like or his if he would have stayed here on earth. I know that he will have this earth life again and I eagerly look forward to that day when I pray I'm allowed to finish raising him.
Over the past month I have been working on his journal. I decided that for my ten hour project for Personal Progress in Faith I would retype his journal and then add all the pictures we have of him into the document. By doing this David's family will get a chance to learn about him and share in his short life. Les can only remember a very little about him, mostly about the day of the accident. I chose this for faith hoping that some day if some one else goes through this heartache maybe it will give them hope and peace. I did this for the rest of the kids a couple of years ago with only a select few pictures. I had forgotten a lot about my second son. Things that I promised myself that I would never forget. Even just going through the pictures, memories have flooded my mind and I'm looking forward to spending this day in celebrating his life. I know I have said this before but oh, how grateful I am for the journals that I kept. Memories are so hard to hold onto. They are like water that easily slips through our fingers. We must contain them and the only way to do that is to record them.

As I have done family history and gone over the family group sheets of my ancestors I have seen how many children died and I have often wondered how that impacted their lives. These are life changing events. Events that will either make or break you. Events that will draw us closer to our Father, to all our children really belong to, or we pull away blaming Him. I pray that no one else will feel the sting of losing a child but I also know that there isn't a greater feeling in the world knowing that one of your children is so perfect that they didn't need to endure this earth life and they have already earned their exaltation. Because of this knowledge it gives me greater encouragement to be better, to grow stronger, and to live my life better.

I love you David and I miss you.

In the pictures, the top one is the last one taken of David, two weeks before his death. The middle one is of Les, Nicholas, and David the first of September. We were getting ready to move into our new home. The last is of David close to his first and only birthday.

Happy Birthday Emmett

Today is our seventh grandson's first birthday. Has it really been a year since he came into our lives? It doesn't seem possible. I'm missing being with him today, helping him to celebrate this first birthday but I hope that he will understand.

He has come a long ways in just a year. I remember nights of rocking him, keeping him quiet so as to give his Mom a couple more hours of sleep. There is nothing to compare to rocking a newborn baby.
He is trying to walk and just a month ago he cut his first teeth. From what I hear he is crawling all over the house.
He is a little sweetheart and we miss him a great deal. We are grateful for the pictures Cyrena sends to us. We haven't seen him since last August but hopefully that will change in June.

We love you Emmett and again Happy Birthday!!!