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I made the Sam for my sister for Christmas, Home I made for my mom for Christmas as well and the Valentines are for me! :)

Grandpa Anderson

Where do I even begin…I guess I will start from when I met these wonderful people! Six years ago before Ben and I were even dating, Ben took me over to his grandparents house in Holladay, UT to watch a BYU basketball game. When I met them I was instantly welcomed and felt of their love for me. After my visit with them I was very jealous of Ben being able to have grandparents as great as grandma and grandpa Anderson. In 2007 we moved in with them while looking for a place to live. Looking back I will treasure those few short months forever. They were the BEST! Grandma would cook three meals a day for us and if she didn't they would take us out to eat. Aidan was only several months old and he LOVED his great grandparents. He would help grandma with unloading the dishwasher and she would teach him how to go up and down the stairs. We would spend a lot of time outside in their amazing backyard. Ben would help Grandpa with the lawn care and Aidan and I loved picking the fruit from off the ground. Grandpa would have me spend some time with him and Grandma teaching them how to use their new computer that they had just bought and how to receive and send emails each day. On the weekends we would go out to Cafe Rio a lot and come back to watch a movie on their On Demand which they had me show them how to use! :) My most favorite thing was to watch their love for each other and how Grandma loved to take care of Grandpa. Grandpa was so proactive about helping us however he could. I swear he was always handing out money to Ben for the most ridiculous things. While living there he helped us find a place to live in Sandy and helped us purchase our second car. Having to move out of the basement of grandma and grandpa's was a sad day for me. I really missed having them around while Ben would be away at work. They were so good to me and treated me as one of their own grandkids. The following summer I was in a car accident and totaled one of our cars. Grandpa called up Ben and told him he was giving us his van. You can't be serious Grandpa! That was grandpa though, helping us out and all of his grandkids anyway he could. I made sure that I would go and visit often. I just really LOVED them so much! Every Halloween we would go over and visit them and see how Grandma had dressed up and had the house all decorated. We loved going over and watching any BYU game with them because they were true blue fans. In 2009 Grandma's health started to go and she became ill over time. The love that I had already witnessed living with them was even more evident now while Grandpa stayed by her side and took care of her the best he could. That November Grandma passed away. I was absolutely hysterical. I couldn't even think or talk about it without just sobbing. It was so emotional for me to see Grandpa sitting there at the gravesite so upset that he had lost his dear wife. My heart broke for him. Grandpa definitely persevered and went about his life. He continued to go to the temple every week as he and grandma would do. He continued to work out in his yard and maintain it. He would water ALL of Grandma's plants in the house. I remember being there one afternoon and he told me to not let him forget to water the plants because it would make Grandma so sad if he let any of them die! He continued to take care of his family. He would take me and the boys out to Arbys, and Ben and I out to Cafe Rio or the Golden Corral! I made sure to always pay him back by coming over and making dinner for him and watch movies and the news with him. We had some fun BBQ's with Grandpa on his back patio, visiting with him and playing Sequence with him. I enjoyed his company so much.



The week after New Years we heard that grandpa had pneumonia and that he was in the hospital. I immediately told Ben we needed to go see him. Thanks to my brother who came to watch the boys, Ben and I were able to go up to the hospital on Thursday the 6th and see him. We talked to him and he was very responsive and whitty as ever. We spent a little over an hour there and left. As we were leaving I looked at Ben and began to cry and told him when Grandpa left us I was going to be sooooo sad! I really didn't think though that this was going to be the last time we would talk to him and he would understand who we were. On Monday I had just arrived at the gym with a friend when Ben called me and told me that Grandpa was failing fast and we needed to get to the hospital quick to say our goodbyes. My friend Kelley was so sweet and drove me right back home so I could hop in the car with Ben and the boys. We got to the hospital and whispered in Grandpa's ear that we LOVED him. Ethan kept asking Grandpa, "Where are you going Grandpa?" We then told him, "Grandpa is going to heaven soon to be with Grandma!" Ethan followed with, "Grandpa I want to go with you!" Ben tried to explain to him that we will all be together again someday and that it wasn't his time to go with Grandpa yet. I sat there at the bedside and held his hand and cried. I knew that we were about to lose an amazing man and I was going to miss him immensely! I had a hard time leaving that night not knowing when he would leave us. Ben the next day went to work and I stayed at home with the boys. My sister Roxanne came up to relieve me at lunch time so I could go meet Ben at the hospital. That was the MOST spiritual experience for me. Witnessing the thinness of the veil and the line between life and death. I felt so blessed to be there by his side surrounded by all the family waiting for him to leave this world and reunite with his beloved wife.

Grandpa passed away that evening at 5:15pm on Tuesday January 11th. Ben immediately read that scripture in Alma where it says that as soon as we leave this mortal life we are brought back to that God that gave us life. It was so appropriate for how we were all feeling. I know I was shocked that I felt this peace come over me. Even though I missed him, I knew too how much he missed Grandma and I was SOO happy for him that he was finally reunited with his wife.

The funeral was this past Saturday and it was such a different funeral then Grandma's. I think it was because we didn't have a loving spouse that was left behind. It was a rejoice for the life he lead and all the fun memories everyone had of him.

Christmas

Christmas this year was in Reno. The drive there was probably really long for Ben because the weather was horrible but mostly because I was freaking out in the back of the car the whole 7-8 hours! Telling him to slow down, he was going too fast, it wasn't fair that the rest of our lives were dependent on how he drove and on and on and on. For about the last hour of the trip I kept my head low and watched Happy Feet! Sorry Ben!
We finally got to Reno late that night and it was just so nice to be out of the car and at home. Mom had homemade stew on the stove ready for us when we got there. EVERYONE of us was home and dad later informed us that this was going to be the last time we were all home for Christmas for a long time because of how a lot will change in the next year or two. It made me really sad but enjoy my time at home that much more.







That first week was great…we did a lot of shopping, went and saw The Chronicles of Narnia, went out to lunch with the girls, Ben and I went to Betos with Roxy (not the chain Betos, this is the real hole in the wall mexican food), more shopping, and more shopping. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve filled with seafood and a surprise visit from Santa himself…okay it may have been my Uncle Glen! :) Aidan says to Santa, "Santa take off your beard so I can see if you are Uncle Glen!" We all had a good laugh! Christmas morning was a blast. Santa got the boys an Escalade and they LOVED it! They immediately had Ben take them outside so they could ride it around the neighborhood. Christmas day was fun sitting around and visiting and playing games. Dinner was AMAZING! And like every year Christmas came and went so fast.



The second week we were there went by so fast. We celebrated my sister Carmen and Aidan's birthdays at Claim Jumper. Aidan loves that he shares a bday with his aunt. We did some more shopping that week and some more eating out. Everyone also went to see True Grit, I sat that one out at home with the boys! On New Year's Eve everyone except for me and the baby went sledding up at Galena. They all had so much fun! That night we all went out to eat at Siamese Hut for dinner, only the best Thai in Reno! At midnight it was pretty mellow. The boys were in the middle of watching A Team and I was watching Dateline. My mom passed out right before midnight, so you can only imagine how exciting ringing in 2011 was for us. :)







Sunday the 2nd, we sadly left Reno and headed home. We had a GREAT two weeks and we're so thankful for all our parents did for us. We LOVE you mom and dad!