OUR FRIEND TY

I guess this is more of a therapeutic blog entry for me. But I feel like I need to do something, while I am just sitting here at home thinking about my friend and brother Tyler.

I got a call from my mom on Friday night and I knew something was wrong when we started talking, and prepared myself for the worst. But nothing had prepared me for what she told me. My friend Tyler Graham had passed away earlier that day.

Ever since we have lived in Stayton, Oregon (1995) our lives have been intertwined with the Graham family. We all started out as friends and it grew from there into a family relationship. Tyler has always been like a little brother to me. He was so easy to like and love. If you saw Ty smile, there was no way that you couldn't smile. It was so infectious! He had the BIGGEST heart in the world. And had more love for animals than anyone I have ever met...I remember his baby skunk (that wasn't very nice), his ferret, his chinchilla, his 2 or 3 pugs, and probably a whole bunch more that I never had the pleasure of meeting.

Ty was one of a kind, and everyone who knew him knows what I mean. There just wasn't anyone like him. He always put a smile on your face and made you feel so good about yourself.

I have a lot of great memories of Ty, but ones that I will treasure the most came right after I came home from my mission. Him and Brolin were preparing to go on missions and I was trying to adjust back into everyday life. Many mornings we would meet and go out on the Graham's trampoline and have a morning scripture study. It was so fun telling them experiences I had and share with them my testimony of the Gospel and vice versa. Ty and Brolin really helped me to adjust back to normal life and I will be forever grateful for those times that we spent together laughing and just enjoying each others company. I'm so grateful that I have memories to look back on and remember Ty. He will be sorely missed by myself and so many other people.

Thank you Ty for always being yourself, and not being afraid to stand up for what you believe. Thank you for your testimony of the Gospel that brought the Spirit into so many people's lives. I love you and miss you so much!

http://tylermemorial.blogspot.com/ (here's a blog for Ty)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BERKLEY!!!

We have had nothing but 12 months of pure AWESOMENESS! I am SO incredibly grateful for my beautiful daughter Berkley and how much joy she has brought into our lives. She continues to surprise me each day with how smart she is and how sweet she is. It has been truly amazing to watch her grow and learn. I love everything about her! She makes us laugh on a daily basis, and she is loved by everyone around her. So Happy 1st Birthday Berkley! We love you so much!

Here is a look back at the last 12 months! Enjoy!

MY NEW LOVE...

So...I've always loved photography, but have recently decided to do it on a more professionsl level. Now...I have A LOT (A LOT) to learn, but I've been reading, practicing and will sometime in the near future shadow another photographer and learn a good deal more from her. I'm hoping to someday be able to do it full time and help contibute more to my family's income as well as do something that I love! I wanted to thank everyone who has encourgaged me and helped me. I did make a blog, so feel free to check it out once in a while...and if you know anyone who wants pictures taken...I don't charge very much! Lately I've just been doing couples and portraits, but am hoping to get better at family pictures. I just need a few willing subjects to practice on. :) Here's a link to my blog, but it is also over in the "blogs we dig" column.

http://valoryjeanphotography.blogspot.com/

PLEASE READ THIS FRIENDS!

Hey Everyone! Well I've been messing around with our blog layout and probably doing stuff I shouldn't with it...and in the process I lost nearly ALL of the blog of our friends and family. I have about 10 or so that I saved...So I need you to put your blog addresses in the comments for me so I can re-add them to our list! Thanks so much!!!

RUB-A-DUB-DUB

CHRISTMAS VACATION

Our Christmas vacation was anything but uneventful. We had an amazing time with our family! Right when we got there...within a span of about 20 minutes...we found out that my step-brother, Gregg, and his fiance, Morgan were going to have a baby...AND...they were getting married the next day. Putting together a small reception in the course of about 24 hours is a little tiring, but so much fun! Everything turned out great and everyone was really happy. The next day was Christmas Eve and we got some last minute shopping done and did a little cooking. Christmas day was pretty relaxed. I was able to take some pictures of Gregg and Morgan, which was so much fun. While we were there I also took pictures of Paul and Andrea. I've found that I really enjoy photography and hope to get a lot better at it.

We had an amazing time together. It's hard living so far away from family, but it really makes you enjoy and cherish the time that you do have together. I'm definitely grateful that we were able to go to California and spend time with our family. Of course I took some pictures while we were there...here are some.

Dad and Patty on the porch

Berkley and Lila in their Christmas dresses!

Abue and her girls

Dad and Oso

Gregg and Morgan

Gregg and Morgan

Paul and Andrea

Paul and Andrea

Berkley and her Auntie Andrea

The girls and their horses

Berkley and a doll that she just adored!

Berkley's first time around horses

Lila and the Berk in the field

Wedding cake and cookies

Gregg and Morgan right before the wedding ceremony

Tubby time!

OUR LITTLE PIGGY

Have you ever wished you had a 3rd hand? 2 hands not enough? Perhaps you have delightful cookie in your left hand, a tasty cracker in your right, but there are pieces of food still on the table. How can you control this problem? Well our child has figured out how to handle this situation. She is so smart...

10 + MONTHS= BERKLEY

It just seems like yesterday that we wrote about Berkley turning 9 months old. And I know I sound like a broken record when I say,"She is getting so big, so fast!" The last time we took her to the doctor she weighed a little over 20 lbs and she is still pretty tall.
For awhile, she wasn't sleeping through the night and not getting much sleep, but I think we have pretty much solved that problem. She still wakes up sometimes, but is pretty much asleep from 7:30pm-7:00am. We LOVE it! And so does she! She is so happy in the mornings! She is starting to make more sounds and it is ADORABLE! She has started saying what sounds like,"dadada" and sometimes "yeahyeahyeah". She still doesn't want to walk but that's ok. She gets around just fine by crawling. She is eating a lot more of the food that we do, and is loving it! She still loves fruit and pretty much anything sweet...and vegetables.

FUN FACTS ABOUT BERKLEY

Berkley and her new "OH" face

Having fun with Daddy

Looking pretty

In front of the fountain at the Ogden Temple

Another "OH" face

Berkley is just changing before our eyes and doing new tricks on a daily basis. She has officially discovered her tongue and is enjoying all the new sounds she is making with it. Aside from her new found growl, she is making an O shape with her lips and sometimes like to stick her tongue out at the same time. She is also licking everything that she can.

This isn't necessarily new, but whenever she wants more of something we have given her (ie. ice cream) she screams if she doesn't get it right away. It was sort of cute at first because she was expressing herself and I knew what it meant. It is sort of obnoxious now, especially if we are in public. Instead of this nice, sweet, quiet baby we have this nice, sweet, screaming if she doesn't get what she wants baby. We are working on the sign language action for "more". Hopefully she will get it down soon.

She is also OBSESSED with the outdoors. We now have to either sneak out of the house or leave very quickly, because she races toward the door if someone even looks like they are going out. The other day I left the door open and she was between the door and me, and she looks at me, and then turns on a dime and races to the door. I would just leave it open, but our screen door doesn't latch and she can just push it open to two cement steps.

One fun incident that happened yesterday. Matt was at his mom and dad's to drop Berkley off before work and decided she needed a diaper change. Well it's no secret that Berkley HATES getting her diaper changed. She tries to get out of it every time. So Matt let her roll onto her stomach and crawl around for a second.....Bad decision Daddy....Berkley started to pee. She got pee everywhere. And much to her enjoyment, got to have a second bath that day.

YAY for Halloween!

It's just cruel that we are given an opportunity to dress our kids up any way we want and they can't say anything about it...of course until they reach a certain age. I hope everyone found cute costumes that their kids won't be upset about in the years to come when they see what you dressed them up as...and that includes Berkley. I think being a ladybug was extremely adorable, but we will see what she thinks when she gets older. She was in her costume for quite a while and did wonderful in it. We took her to see our neighbors and let her rome around in the grass like a real ladybug. Then we went up to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a photoshoot. She spent a good chunk of it being her serious self, but we got some good ones of her smiling. After we came home we went to our other neighbor's house to say hi and she gave Berkley a pumkin cookie, which she destroyed before we got home. No more trick or treating for her this year. Next year we will probably go to a few more houses, but as for this year her bed time was before everyone was out trick or treating. Actually the doorbell rang twice while I was trying to put her to bed.

(OH! And her second tooth showed up today! Right next to the other one!)

Our flying ladybug

Trying to get up her tree

Enjoying a pumpkin and some sawdust

The Family