Our Special Tyce Day

August 19 was Tyce's birthday... and it marked 1 year ago that he passed away. I have dreaded this day for an entire year. I wasn't quite sure how to be- or how it would be. I have felt a lot of peace surrounding his death and where he is and why he is not here. Nonetheless... even with the hope and blessings the Gospel brings into our lives, there is still pain in "missing" Tyce now, on earth. Especially now, as I am hugely pregnant, I am asked everyday how many kids I have, what number this baby is, and told repeatedly, "oh- you have 3 boys and now you will have a girl!" It's almost a constant reminder that Tyce is not here. I do not feel anger towards anyone, just a small yearning or sadness to have all of my kids here. Yes- it is something that I deal with on a daily basis. I'm not sure how it will be in 5 years, but today it is hard.

I also know that it will get better. I do feel incredibly blessed to know that Tyce is sealed to us and will be ours forever.

On our "Family Day," as we have decided to call Tyce's birthday, we were so blessed to feel love and strength from so many people. We were even given a new tree to plant in his honor.

We headed out to Hobby Lobby to each pick out a new flower for his headstone. We couldn't have asked for better weather... overcast with a breeze- LUCKY for August in Texas. We went and split a dozen donuts at Krispy Kremes which is down the street from the cemetery. Then we headed over and started by cleaning the headstone up a bit.

After the visit there we went over and fed the ducks. It had been raining the few days before his birthday, and so I don't think the fish had been fed for a while. It was the best feeding we'd had in a long time! The ducks, fish, and turtles were hungry and boy did they love our nasty bread.
After the cemetery visit we headed home to eat lunch. My visiting teachers had brought us over a basket of delicious food that morning. It was so thoughtful- and perfect! We feasted... and ate so much we really needed to take a nap. After about a 30 minute snooze we took the kids over to the bowling alley and enjoyed a game of bowling.

After the bowling alley we went to "Red Robinson" as Justin likes to call it. I wasn't that hungry from our yummy lunch, but I did manage to treat myself to a strawberry lemonade- hey it was a very special occasion!
So- I am glad these few days are over- and life can get back to "normal" again- whatever that is. It was hard in some ways, and very peaceful in other ways. Here's a few pictures of some beautiful flowers we got.