Grandma Grace

It doesn't seem real. 

I talked to my Grandma the day before Grant was born. 

She was so anxious to hear of his arrival. 

I called her after he was born but by that point she was feeling too sick to talk.

She passed away May 3. Just days later. 

We celebrated her life May 7. 

You can read her sweet obituary here. 

My grandma was my friend. She loved me so much, more than i deserved. I want to record as many memories i have with her from as early as i can remember. 

My Grandma Grace had three children; Trisha, Joy, and Neil.

My father is her only son and the baby.

I am her baby's baby. 

And being the baby grandchild i feel like i got special treatment. 

My grandma and grandpa served many missions. She would often bring me home a dress from where they served. One incident that she never let me forget was when they were in Mexico. She bought the most beautiful hand stitched dress. She had it in their luggage in the trunk. Something happened where that luggage fell out of the car and the dress was lost forever. She was heartbroken.

My grandma loved to see me happy. We often played skipbo. I found out when i got older that she always stacked the deck so that i could have the skipbo's and win the game. 

I remember wanting to be EXTRA excited when she gave me gifts because i could tell that made her so giddy.

My grandma loved making me mashed potatoes and gravy, my childhood favorite. I also loved eating spaghetti-O's when i visited.  

My grandma and I share a love of reading books. She bought me many books and shared many of her favorites with me. I love the connection that gave us. 

The two most important things to my grandma were The Gospel and Family. 

She had so much love for each one of us individually. She called and wrote letters.

I am going to miss my visits with her and the phone calls. 

Grandma Grace loved my children. She loved all her great grand children. 

I need to remember my Grandma Grace and her example of love. 

I realize that that is an area i am weak in and could use a lot of improvement.

Because of Grandma Grace I want to treasure my family more fully and deeply.  

My Family

We were all together celebrating my Grandpa Whitaker's life.

It's nice to be ALL together. Its a rare occasion when we are. 

Reggie, Linda, Neil, Jill

Martin, Brook, Robby, Keli, Blaire, Olive, Andy

Andrue, James, Audrie, Charlie, Cache

Colin, Cameron

We are missing 3 grand-kids. Lily and Julia were in Logan with their other grandparents and baby Kyle is in the background (in his stroller inside the church).

Memories of my Grandpa Whitaker

I love thinking about my grandpa. 

I have so many sweet memories. 

He often made me laugh with his silly jokes or by scarring me or startling me. 

He always gave tight warm hugs. 

He always had a kind smile and words of love as we greeted or departed. 

He told many stories from his past which I cherish. 

I loved playing games and watching him tease grandma. 

I loved hearing him pray. It was sincere and a true conversation with our father in heaven. 

I loved seeing how much he loved my grandma. He showed her by sweet gifts like roses and jewelry. But it also showed as he gently held her shoulders or put an arm around her or gave her a sweet kiss. 

I miss him dearly. My heart aches for my grandma! How hard it must be to have the person you have lived with for 67 years gone. Only temporarily of coarse, but still gone. It was an emotional day for me. A speaker at the funeral services said something like, "being sad doesn't lessen your testimony of the plan of salvation. It's painful because you love them and miss them." I know we will see him again. 

How exciting and glorious that day will be. I'm so grateful for the love my grandpa had for me. 

Sometimes I wonder how our Father in Heaven can love us all so completely. 

But my grandpa loved all us grandchildren in a similar way. 

I think it was my aunt Trisha who said our love never stops growing. 

As much love we pour out of our pitcher the pitcher continues to be full. 

I hope I can love like my grandpa loved. 

I hope I can work hard like he did. 

I hope I can serve like he served.

I hope I can continue to transform into the daughter of God I am meant to be like he transformed into the Son of God he was meant to be. 

I hope I can continue his legacy. 

How I love my grandpa and am grateful for the choices he made and life he lived! 

Pictures from a family party 2012

Grandpa probably joking around

Immediate love afterwards

Tickling toes was a common occurrence

My dad's funny family. My dad constantly provokes his sisters.

Pictures from the funeral.

Happy Fourth

It was a great fourth of July spent with Andy's family on the 3rd at the Eaglewood Course for there big celebration. James and his band, Rebel Zion, entertained people arriving. The kids loved rolling down the hills, dancing to music, snacking, and just enjoying the fun family atmosphere. This was Charlie's FIRST big night out. He has had a pretty strict bedtime of 7 o'clock but this was a special occasion. Charlie made it until 9 before he started looking pretty out of it so i took him home for bed. I was glad we could have a good time and enjoy the party as a family. 

The next morning we drove to Tremonton to my Aunt Trisha's house for our annual Whitaker Fourth of July breakfast. We ate breakfast, had a traditional flag raising and reciting the pledge of allegiance, and then sang Happy Birthday to my Grandpa, who will be turning 90 this year. I got a picture of my dad's sister, Joy's family and his other sister Trisha's family. We failed to get a whole group picture and one of my own family. But i am glad we got what we did. 

Also, the kids found some lost kittens and Lily couldn't let go of this one. She was pretty sad when the owner came looking for them. 

I love the Fourth of July! 

Its a fun holiday to celebrate and remember how blessed we are to live in this great country!

Platt Family Reunion

I spent a few days with my mom last week. Majority of our time was spent on Family History projects, which I loved! My mom has a plethora of pictures and I got to scan some of them onto her computer. I loved learning about my mom's family. I even found the talk my Grandma gave before she and my Grandpa left for their 18 month mission to Brazil. It was so sweet to hear her testimony, to see her handwriting, and read the words she personally wrote. I feel more eagerness to learn about her because we are using her name, Yvonne, as Olive's middle name. I want to teach Olive all about her Great-grandma Yvonne!

We had our Platt Family Reunion this last week. It was a nice gathering on a very hot day in Layton at a Park. My mom told stories and her brother Keith shared some jokes from (his) Grandpa Platt. He got everyone laughing. We then ate food, visited, and watched kids run around with squirt bottles. The squirt bottles were a brilliant idea! It was over 100*, luckily with a slight breeze. It is always nice to be gathered with family. One cousin I haven't seen for years, I didn't even recognize at first. Garrett is in the Military and just got home from Afghanistan a few months ago. It was good to catch up with him and also meet his wife for the first time.

Andy was the photographer. So here are some of the pictures from our event.

Colin was roasting, but still the cutest baby ever!
 She was so happy despite the very warm day.

We don't have any family gatherings without homemade root beer.

We had photos and old yearbooks laying out for everyone to
glance through. It's nice for those who are new to the family.

Carlee was stuck to her "brandma" cause her momma was busy
with a brand new baby.

Charlie was so busy with the squirt bottles and water that he never
ate any lunch. Before leaving he finally sat down for some pretzels.

This is Garrett being chased by the squirt bottle gang.

My cousin Aaron and his wife Lauren and their
son Dexter. We tried getting pictures of all the families
but we weren't very successful. I'm glad we got one
of them though. They are such a cute little family :)

This is my cousin Richard's daughter Boston. She was a cutie
playing with my mom.

Now this was a funny story! Andy snuck a good shot,
probably without permission. But this is my Uncle Keith
who accidently sat on a Chocolate Cupcake.

My mom tried getting a picture with all the kids. It's impossible
to get them to look at the same time.

Charlie's favorite spot by the water.

  I choose summer anytime over winter, even with the 100* weather.

 I'm glad our family gets together and look forward to the reunions to come!