Remembering Grandpa Norr Weekend

On May 3 at 92 yrs young, grandpa passed away in his sleep in the recliner that he loved to sit and rock in. After a fun day of going to see the temple in Brigham City and a stop for ice cream after dinner he told the aide he was tired and was going to have a rest the next time they went to check on him, he had passed away. We received the call shortly after attending Kim's dental hygiene pinning. I was glad we were all able to be together, minus Nate that was away at youth conference. Nic really had a hard time seeing as it was also her birthday. Grandpa always had a special spot for Nic so it almost seemed fitting that he would want to be reunited with grandma on her special day. But on a positive note it ment that we would get to spend another weekend together. On Wednesday my dad and Maddi headed to Utah while my mom stayed behind until Nate was done with school on Friday. On Thursday Nic and I loaded up the kids and headed to Tremonton to help my dad go through grandpas stuff. As we went through his belonging I actually enjoyed seeing different "stuff" that jogged our memories of time with grandpa. After the 1st box I noticed that Maddi wanted to keep anything that none of the rest of us didn't want. After talking to her we realized that she didn't get to grow up with grandma and grandpa as her second parents and therefore doesn't have as many memories of them which then lead to the discussion that physical items wont make you miss them any less or create more memories. It was at that moment that I realized the best thing to do is to keep the memories close to your heart, talk about your lost loved one often until the day when you can then be reunited to make more memories. While cleaning out the boxes grandma was so good to watch the kids. I am so glad my kids are getting to know the grandma that never existed when I was little. She has become a more patient, loving and thoughtful person. She is great with the kids. Saturday was the funeral. We got up early and headed to Deweyville. We had a great turn out and I couldn't get over how beautiful the flowers were. Since grandpa was in the military he was buried with military honors....which was way cool.

Trumpet player and riffle shots

Folding the flag to present to family

 Presenting shell casings to family

Saluting the family after flag presentation

 Pallbearers placing boutineers on casket

     

I really enjoyed the funeral once we got the girls to fall asleep. It was a mostly happy memory filled talks. Most of my memories of grandpa were ones that grandma would tell him to leave us girls alone and he would go out to his wood shop to get away from us or sit on the back patio rocking with a pepsi in hand. After grandma passed away all that changed he became the loving nurturing one. He came to all of our special events(volleyball games, graduations, baby blessings, ect). I am happy that my girls at least got to meet and spend sometime with the grandpa that helped raise me. He and my grandma are in most if not all of my wonderful childhood memories. Although Im selfishly sad I am really very happy that grandpa has now been reunited with my grandma that he has missed very much for a long time. At times like these the only comfort we have are the promises the gospel gives us now and in the life to come. It was a great day to honor a great man. See ya later grandpa!

Gracie-4 Months

I really can't believe it has already been 4 months someone asked me the other day if I had started her on solids after letting the question sink in a minute I realized that I guess she could start having solids anytime now...she really is old enough to do that! I think once they hit about 3-4 months they start to change so much. She loves to suck on her fingers usually 2 of them but sometimes 3. She gagged herself once that I have seen(she didn't like that) and hasn't done it since. I guess I found it funny how young we can be when we learn cause and effect and change our behavior so it doesn't happen again. She is such a good baby and still rarely if ever cries. I often find her in her crib cooing and playing these days to let me know she is awake. Just last week I changed her to size 2 diapers. I think she is going through a growth spurt she has been eating a lot. She had her 1st stuffy nose the last couple days but nothing some saline and a bulb syringe can't fix but oh sometimes what I would give to have a suction canister and a BBG for those boogers I can't quite get. Our front room have turned into what appears to be a baby circus. With her play mat, exersaucer, bumbo, and bouncer/swing, Hallie thinks the toys are cooler now then when she was at the age to play with them. Gracie has now become very good at grabbing toys/blankie/burprags and shoving them in her face to suck on. The bumbleball "thingy" toy is a favorite as well as a rattle with multiple little places for her to hold on to. I think the bumbo and exersaucer are her favorite the last couple days because she is able to be up and see whats going on. She has been sleeping between 10-12 hrs at night and then eats, plays for about an hour to an hour and a half, then back to sleep til I wake her up at her 4 hr mark again. This girl sleeps a lot! She has really started to pay attention when I read to her, she seems to like the pictures and actually focuses on them while I read. She is a very smiley/giggling baby. She actually laughs the best when you gently startle her(we found this out because we have had to teach Hallie to surprise her a little more gently:) She likes to watch basketball on Matt's lap(which he is very proud of). All and all God has given us 2 very happy and good kids(so thankful for this). We feel very blessed.

Hallie Update

Well this is more of a "I just realized I haven't posted the pics Brit took post." I have had these pics for about a month now I have printed them and have them hanging around the house but for some reason I overlooked posting them on the blog. Hallie is such a fun loving kid. She is very into pretending, loves to play in the water(no matter where it is), she is an awesome big sister and loves to help take care of Gracie(I don't think they come much better). We are getting excited for summer she is going to be doing swim lessons and some preschool "playdates" mostly because she just needs more social practice(sharing, playing well with others, ect) not really anything educational wise. She love spaghettios and regularly asks for them for breakfast(we don't eat them for breakfast). She says tons of funny things...last night after being tucked in for about 30 minutes she came and said she needed to go potty so I went in to take her potty I had Gracie with me and she just kept talking to her. I said pretty sternly "it is bedtime go potty so you can go back to bed. She looked at me and growled(this is new) I said what was that for and she replied well Im not allowed to yell and you are making me angry so I growled. I had to leave before I laughed. After that she went back to bed. She loves to be outside and I love that she likes to play in the dirt(minus trying to get her clothes clean). I really just want my kids to be well rounded...I feel that girls can do anything boys can do. My neighbors often stop when Hallie and I are out mowing the lawn and say, "why doesn't Matt do that?" I have 2 answers to that he works all day why can't I do that? and I have dozens of other things I want him to do once he gets home, including just spending time with us if there is something I can do to make his day easier I will. Also who ever said mowing the lawn was a guys job? Anyways so I just want Hallie to be able to experience life from all angles. Her favorite thing to do is probably still to read stories, I frequently find her down in her room reading stories and at this point we have read enough that she can pretty much tell all the stories that she is reading...its quite impressive. She likes when I will ask her questions about what her favorites are(they change daily), how she is doing, what she wants to do for the day, ect. She will say ask me some more questions mommy. She also loves to sing and loves to make up songs, my favorite is when she sings to Gracie and their faces both light up when Gracie smiles. At this point she still naps once a day for 2-3 hours and somedays I think that time is my saving grace. She is at this point, dare I say, completely potty trained!!!! I really don't even ask her anymore she will just jump up and say she needs to go, then asks for help getting wiped and clothes back on. She can completely dress herself which helps me a lot and she thinks it is so cool. When I first started having her dress/undress herself she got quite frustrated so I started breaking it down into simple steps I knew she could do. As she would accomplish one at a time she would get so excited and her confidence that she could do it would grow. I never realized how many steps it can take to take off a shirt for someone that has never done it before. I love to see her so happy once she has accomplished something that only days earlier was so frustrating to her.  I can never thank Brit enough for capturing my girls and their personality through pictures...to me they are priceless. Here are some of my favorites.

                                                 

Graduation

Thursday Matt worked a half day and then we headed to St George. After some yummy dinner we had cake and ice cream to celebrate Nic's birthday. She loved posing with her cake..not!

 Then we headed over to Kimber's dental hygiene pinning. After feeling momentarily like we were back in school they presented their pins. Each graduate got to choose someone to pin them...Kimber chose Ez.

Congrats Kimber you have worked and studied many hours to get to this point now just enjoy it.

Saturday morning before the graduations started we headed over to Kneaders for breakfast...it was yummy. Hallie loved the yogurt parfait. We enjoyed sitting outside in the warm sun and just having everyone together. Hallie was so funny and wanted her picture taken with everyone.

After breakfast we did a quick change and then headed to get seats for Ez graduation(BS in Biology)

 
It went fairly quickly. One thing they did that I liked was announce what everyone's plans were now that they graduated..everyone but Ez in biology were going on to dental school..haha. We had time for everyone to have a nap, get some lunch, and then head to Cedar City for graduation #3. Kyle received his Master's degree in accounting.

The girls were so good and Gracie napped pretty much on schedule...it went much better than I anticipated. Afterwards we went to dinner with everyone including Kyle's family then home to bed after we quickly stopped and bought a new movie to watch. Saturday morning we got cleaned up and headed back to Cedar for Nic's graduation(BA Elementary Education).

By this point everyone had had it. It was time for lunch and a nap!!!

We tried to get a picture on Nic jumping(my mom tried to get everyone to do it but Nic was the only one that would do it) but our cameras were to slow.

After we ate at a delicious BBQ place that we will probably be visiting again. Then we all headed our separate directions. The girls fell asleep quickly and slept pretty much til Fillmore when we stopped to feed Gracie and let Hallie play on the playground. We made it home in good time, got unpacked, and ready for bed. We got Hallie to bed about 7:30 and she slept til 9:30 then after some breakfast and clothes she went back to sleep til we went to Jim & Tamera blessed their baby @ 245. She went to bed about 8 last night and slept again til 9. We must have worn her out good but we had a great time. We are so proud of Kim, Nic, Kyle, and Ez for their hard work and accomplishments. I don't think there are many parents that have all their kids and their spouses graduate from college especially not with all bachelors degrees. Yeah for brighter futures and education.

How lucky are we?!?

We had an amazing and exhausting weekend full of fun and family. Friday morning Kim called to tell us her and Ez were on their way up so Ez could take his final at BYU and then they would be staying the whole weekend. They got here Friday night late and visited before heading to Nikki's to sleep(she was so excited to have her 1st overnight guests).

The girls love their aunt Kim and its not hard to figure out why she always sends them fun little things and will play with them a lot while she is here even when she is tired and not feeling good...she is going to make a great mommy!

Saturday morning after getting ready and some quick planning we met at Nic's and decided to head to City Creek so do some shopping and walking around. We decided to grab some lunch first and weren't disappointed by the selection at all...Hallie loved that we sat next to the window and she could watch the waterfall the entire time. She also got this balloon that as far as balloons go was awesome it had a plastic holder at the bottom so it couldn't float away and it was easy for her little hand to hold it.

They had the fountains on(there were even some crazy parents letting their kids run through them(it was 55 degrees))but they did have an awesome fountain show.

Then we headed to The Living Planet Aquarium with Kim and Ez while Nic and Kyle headed to a softball game for Kyle's sister. I think the otters were the coolest and we spent the most time watching them, they put on quite the show.

I think Hallie may have liked them equal to the sharks and sea turtles. They had a tank you could even touch the sting rays.

Kimber was so good to hold Hallie up or help her see things.

Poor Gracie was so tired she slept through the whole thing...not a peep all day, she is so good.

Kimber & Ez

The penguins were a bit of a let down..its a good thing we didn't go just for them.

Hallie loved the sea turtle...it was probably as big as she is

We finished our day with a little more shopping and some yummy dinner before heading home to hang out and watch some basketball. Sunday Kim & Ez headed to Tremonton to see grandpa. After church Joy came to have lunch with us, sometimes its nice to have her all to ourselves to visit and play with. We had missed doing pictures with her at Gracie's blessing and finally got some way cute pictures of them together.

Then after a quick nap we headed to Nic's house for dinner and games. After dinner and a few games we layered up and headed outside to play some baseball. Kimber got some good pictures and we decided that with Rig's hat Gracie looked like a glow worm(anyone remember those?)

So excited for more nights like this and the presence of summer. We are really looking forward to getting together for Sunday dinners and next month Kim & Ez will move up here too...we couldn't be more thrilled to have family closer.