What a week!

Whew.....last week was a whirlwind!



**This post is long, sorry! We had alot that went on that I don't want to forget and this has become my journal!**



Saturday (the 12th) the kids and I were scheduled to fly to Memphis at 6:00am. Long story short (I know this post is going to be long enough!) Bryce was super nervous and thought he was going to get sick. We all drove home and ended up flying on the 6:00pm flight. His nerves had calmed down and we had a wonderful flight. The kids loved it and were perfectly behaved the whole time!



Sunday we woke up to nice weather in Memphis so we headed to the zoo. We had a great time there. That afternoon I was able to go to the hospital to see one of my best friends, Holly, who had just had her second son the day before. Very special for me since I'm not up there that often to be able to do that! Baby Brooks is a doll!!



Monday I woke up to bad news....my Grandmother (Mom's Mom) who has been in a nursing home for 3 years was very sick with flu and pneumonia. They didn't know if she was going to recover. Also Monday is the day my uncle (Mom's brother) had the biopsy done on his brain cancer. At 2:45 the phone rang and it was the nursing home calling my mom to tell her that Grandmother had passed away. Her body was so weak she couldn't fight anymore. We had to plan a good bit of the funeral and arrangements from Memphis. My aunt and uncle live in Montgomery where my grandparents are but they were in the recovery room at the hospital all day. Remember my uncle had a biopsy done? Yes, he woke up from that to find out that his mother died. I bet he would say that was one of the worst days of his life.



Tuesday we packed up and drove to my familys' lake house near Montgomery so my parents could meet with the funeral home, cemetery, and ministers Wednesday. Uncle Charles came home from the hospital after finding out his cancer is Stage 4.



Wednesday the kids and I stayed at the lake while my parents went into Montgomery. Wednesday night Blakeley, Hunter, Jude, Jasper and Anthony all got there.



Thursday was the funeral. It was wonderful. Or as wonderful as these things can be. The weather was beautiful. My Grandpa was there and seemed to be feeling great (his health seems to be declining too). I know he enjoyed seeing so many people come show their respect for Grandmother. Grandpa was so pleased with how everything turned out. I wrote the obituary and he mentioned over and over how much he liked it. It meant alot to me! After the service we went to Uncle Charles and Aunt Sandra's house for dinner. Their neighbors had made delicious food and the kids played outside. Uncle Charles was telling Bryce about his new radiation mask that looks like a Spiderman mask!



Friday we drove to West Point to spend the weekend with Kiki and Papaw Duke. We had tickets to the Mississippi State/Ole Miss basketball game for Saturday. We left CeCe in West Point and drove to Starkville for the game with Bryce. He had a great time at the game and so did we! We had a wonderful time in West Point too. The weather was great and we played outside all weekend! Bryce had fun 'playing' basketball. He and Anthony would run out on the 'court' and he would jump around doing basketball moves. So funny!! We drove home Sunday morning and have enjoyed Anthony being off work today. Bryce had school so he took CeCe downtown to walk by the bay while I cleaned the house. This afternoon we all went to the park and had a great time.

This is my favorite picture of Grandmother and Bryce. It was taken one week after we came home from the hospital after Bryce's major surgery. They walked the halls of the retirement home with their walkers that day!!!

bike and rice

About 2 weeks ago I was telling Bryce that his friend Liam (who lives in England) can ride his bike without training wheels now. Bryce didn't even realize this was an option I think! He decided to try it out one afternoon (much to our shock! I assumed we would have to make him try around age 6, we do not have a risk taker here!) He was scared and didn't love it, but he tried and did pretty good! We haven't tried anymore though, it has been pretty cold here and he said my hands aren't big enough to help him so we will have to wait until a warmer weekend.
You can see the nervousness on his face here....

CeCe was following them with her baby

I can't remember where I saw this, but I filed it away for a rainy day. I got a 10lb bag of rice from Publix and stored it in a big tubberware container. One cold rainy afternoon we got it out and the kids LOVED it! I gave them measuring spoons and cups and little toys. CeCe cooked with hers and Bryce did experiments and buried treasure with his. It was great fun and wasn't that bad to clean up. The dustbuster and vacuum cleaner cleaned up the spilled rice in no time. We have done it two more times since this and they still love it!

Uncle Charles

I was going to wait until we knew a little more but why not go ahead and ask for prayers now, and then I'll just update y'all as we learn where this is going. My mom's brother Charles is in the hospital in Montgomery with cancer in his trachea, lung and brain. He has been battling sinus infections (or so they thought) since Christmas. Monday at work he became very dizzy and by Wed and Thurs. his head was hurting so bad he coudn't move. My Aunt Sandra took him to the ER Thurs. afternoon where they learned about the cancer in his brain. This type of cancer rarely is the only cancer apparantly and they had no idea where the 'real' stuff was. Friday they did all sorts of scans and finally found the cancer in his lung and trachea. Today they biopsied the trachea and will hopefully know more in a day or two. We do know he will have radiation and chemo for the brain. He is in a regular room now and now that the swelling is down in his brain he is sitting up, eating and actually walked my Aunt to the elevator tonight. This is going to be a very long roller coaster for them. I would be very appreciative if you could add them both (and my Grandparents and mom) to your prayer list. Bryce reminds Anthony every night about praying for Uncle Charles, made me boohoo the first night he did it!

Fun times with Kiki and Papaw Duke

Kiki and Papaw Duke came in town Friday afternoon. They had to drive in rain the whole way from West Point so it took them longer than usual. We grilled hotdogs and hamburgers that night mainly so they could watch CeCe eat a hotdog. That girl will eat a whole hot dog (cut up in tiny pieces of course) in the time it takes me to walk away from the table, dress my dog and sit back down! It is hilarious!! Saturday the girls went shopping while the boys stayed home to work on some projects. I broke the kids little wooden table while vacuuming the other day so they fixed that. They also built us a corn hole game for the backyard! Bryce and CeCe both love playing this game at Lulu's so we thought it would be fun to have one here. Bryce had fun helping Anthony and Papaw Duke build it. Papaw brought Bryce 2 small hammers for him to use and he is great at hammering already!

CeCe helped out after shopping and napping

Today the weather is BEAUTIFUL! Sunny, no wind and high 50s. Perfect! We played outside all morning.

The last project of the weekend was putting together Bryce and CeCe's new seesaw that Kiki and Papaw Duke got them for Christmas. The box was too big for us to fit in the Yukon so they brought it down this weekend and the boys put it together this morning.

"A Hundred Bryces"

We had a parent/teacher conference with Bryce's teacher yesterday. It went great! She had nothing but wonderful things to say about our almost kindergartener. He scored great on all of his skills. She also had wonderful things to say about his personality, that he is a good friend to everyone and is always willing to help when asked. She said once he knows the rules he does not break them and stays away from trouble on the playground. I'm so proud of him! I knew it would be a good meeting with her because he has loved school so much this year, but hearing all of those wonderful things being said was awesome!