In Memory of Greg

We had a sad occurance recently that actually was not too unexpected, but sad, nontheless. Brian's dad (really step-dad who raised him from a very early age), passed away on Monday, July 28, 2008, in the wee hours of morning.

He had been quite ill for some time and his health had become extremely poor in the last months. Brian's stepbrother called on Sunday night, the 18th, and said that things weren't good. We managed to get a plane ticket for Brian for 2 days later. He flew out to California where he spent the next 6 days spending time with his dad, stepbrother, 2 uncles and a cousin...all boys. (Brian hasn't been around that much testosterone in quite some time!) Anyway, things were taken care of and the family was able to spend some time together.

Just less than a week after Brian returned home from CA, he got the call. In some ways we are relieved that he's not suffering from his horrible bout with cancer, but it is sad to have lost him. He will be missed!

Here are a few pictures that I could find of him. I may try to scan some more in later on. The first one is Brian, Greg, and Darien (Brian's step-brother)

Greg came from California, despite not feeling well, to attend Brian's medical school graduation in 2005. It was very sweet of him to do that, it meant a lot to all of us.

This is lunch after graduation with Brian's mom and family friend Ed.

I have only known Greg for about 14 years, and we, unfortunately, didn't get to spend a whole lot of time together, since he lived in various places, as did we. But we made some great memories when we were able to get together. The kids loved going to California to see Grandpa. We were able to visit him there about 3 times. One time we got to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific, which was grand fun. He also was able to travel to Arizona a number of times. One time we went some place like West World, (I think that's what it's called) with Grandpa and Uncle Darien. We went on a small train ride, rode ponies, and ate some BBQ, while meeting Darien's new wife Nana.

One big thing I'm grateful to Greg for: when Brian wanted to join the church, even though his parents didn't, they were completely supportive. His dad told him that if he was going to do it, he needed to do it all the way. They took him to his church meetings and scouts and even spoke at his missionary farewell. I'm grateful that Greg made sure that he did the thing that changed his life and mine! Greg, you will be missed! We love you!

Ally is a climber

Here is a video that was actually short enough to post here. Ally learned to climb up the ladder to the bunkbed a few months ago and we thought it was cool. Now she climbs all the way onto the top bed. We don't really like that since she gets very excited when she's up there, and could just topple over. But it is fun to see her do new things!

Spotlight on Jessica--3rd time's the charm

Okay, I tried to publish this post a couple other times in June. I finally finished it, but when I went to publish it, I couldn't put it as the most recent unless I started a new one from this date...if that makes sense. Anyway, here is Jessica's spotlight blog.

The above picture was taken in front of the Palmyra Temple on a recent family trip(minus Brian, sadly) to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant and some of the sites. (more about that later)

Jessica has become an AWESOME reader. Sadly, I have to admit that I did not read as much with her as I did with Courtney. (The first kid always gets the most one on one attention, right?...please say "right"...) Anyway, Jessica does not seem to have suffered very much for it. She has grown by leaps and bounds in her reading skills this year. She doesn't mind reading now, although she would much rather play. When we read scriptures, she sounds out words that I don't think I knew when I was her age. She continues to amaze us! She reads to Ally a lot and Ally loves it!

She is very active right now. She has a hula hoop that she uses for jumping with, like a jumprope. She's getting pretty good at it.

She just got her hair cut a few weeks ago. She likes to get it short when summer comes. I don't blame her, I like short hair in the summer better too. We all have such thick long hair that becomes a pain to deal with in the summer. It either gets put up in pony tails or cut. Here are some pictures...before and after. I wasn't happy with the way the Supercuts lady did her bangs and she pinned them back after cutting them, so the after picture is not right after. We waited until it looked a bit better. It doesn't look like a major haircut from the pictures but it was significant.


She is our little missionary. Since kindergarten she has talked about different things she can do to tell her friends about the church. She wanted to have one friend over for Family Home Evening. (I'm embarrassed to say we never got to that.) During the school year, she decided to start a "Missionary club" in her class and she said lots of kids were in it, but she hadn't really done much in it. Now, when she has friends over or goes to their house, she has a little "Mormon museum". One day she set all kinds of things in front of and on her dresser. When the two kids that I babysit came over 2 weeks ago, she invited them to come in to the "Mormon museum". The display consisted of her scriptures, the Primary songbook, many different pass-along cards, a picture of a temple, and a few other things I can't remember right now. The kids (ages 9 and 5) were so sweet to sit and listen, even Courtney played along. I don't know if anything will happen with these two kids and their mom as far as the church goes, but we are planting a seed. No....Jessica is planting seeds! All over the place! We are so proud of her and hope be as good as she is with our missionary work!
This sunflower picture was taken in Rochester, NY, when we stayed with cousin Rebecca for the pageant. We love sunflowers in our family.

I really had hoped another daughter, who shall remain nameless, would fall asleep during the Pageant that started at 9:15 pm. Jessica made it through all but the last 10 minutes or so.
We visited the Joseph Smith homes in Palmyra, this is the log home, a replica, and the room, where Moroni visited Joseph Smith that night.
We took a walk through the Sacred Grove in Palmyra...such a beautiful, peaceful place.

This summer Jessica is just trying to keep busy with swimming, playdates, trips to the library and the zoo, the AMC $1 movies, a book club with some friends, and playing with her sisters. She can't wait for the mail to come in late August to find out who her teacher for 2nd grade will be! She's excited to be a 2nd grader! WOW!

That's Jessica!