Friday, August 27, 2010

Brycen part 2 . . .

This is the program from the funeral. They turned out really cute! He was all smiles all the time!

Here is their latest family picture. Brycen was having a hard time sitting still as usual. He was known for his energy. Never stopped running and getting into everything.
They had a huge print of this one at the funeral. J and A said this was the perfect picture of him because it showed his personality. Such a mischievious smile!
The ward was so helpful after the accident. From the minute the accident happen there were people there helping. Wed. morning they had ladies over cleaning the house, someone came and cleaned their carpets, did their laundry, a plumber came to fix their toilet they had been having trouble with. They had enogh food and gifts for the other kids to last for weeks.
Friday when we got back to their house we had to answer the door every 15 minutes literally, because there were so many people bringing flowers, hugs, cards you name it. Even some of the police officers who were there came and brought cards. It was amazing to see that their are still good people in the community that are willing to do any kind of service needed.
One of their neighbors was amazed at all the support they had and their strength that he now wants to take the missionary discussions. I guess there is usually some good that comes from a tragedy. We will miss Brycen but we all know that this was Heavenly Fathers plan for him and that he will be waiting in heaven for others to come so we need to do what we can to live with our Father again.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Brycen Paul Burrell

(I have a picture but it is in a different format so I can't dowload it. I will get another one soon so everyone will be able to see what a cutie he was.)

Last Tuuesday the 17th I was in my kitchen getting the girls some dinner when my phone rang. It was my sister calling to tell me that my brother Johnathan had just called and said that his sweet little 2 1/2 yr old boy Brycen had been ran over by a car and killed. I was in shock and just kept asking if she was serious. I couldn't believe her, I didn't want to believe her!

After being in shock for a day and a half I finally was able to call my brother and see how he was doing. I was fine untill he started talking. He was crying and just kept telling me to hug my girls. At this point I completely lost it and was a mess for the rest of the night. Randy was so nice, he brought pizza home for dinner and got a funny movie and some ice cream to try to make me feel better. It was a very nice jesture because he didn't really know what to do with me sitting their crying uncontrollably.

We left to go to Mesa on Thursday and I went to the funeral home with Johnathan and Alicia Fri. morn which was the hardest thing I have ever witnessed. Alicia (as you could expect) was basically like a zombie and just sat there staring and crying for most of the time.

The funeral was Saturday and it was beautiful but sad of course. Brycen's little casket was hard to see and Johnathan had to basically pick Alicia up to follow the casket to the chapel because she didn't want to go. It was very sad. There were lots of fun stories told about Brycen and a beautiful song that had everyone in tears again. The most amazing thing was as we were leaving J and A stopped and gave a long hug to the girl who ran over Brycen. It was a very nice funeral. The gravesite dedication was on Monday and it was beautiful as well. The funeral home did a dove release for them and they gave Alicia the first dove to release and when she let it go it jumped onto Johnathan's shoulder. After that it jumped onto the canapy until the other doves flew off then that one followed the rest. The releif society brought balloons and everyone wrote messages on them and we let them all go at the same time. It was pretty cool.

Johnathan and Alicia have been very strong through this whole ordeal and I have learned a lot from seeing the faith they have in Heavenly Father. They were able to go to the temple several times for comfort and were assured that they are loved and that Brycen was happy. I was also touched by their incredible forgiving hearts towards their neighbor and very good family friend, Heather, who was the one who accidentally ran over him. She felt completely aweful and it will probably take her longer to cope with the accident than J and A. They showed an incredibble amount of Christ like love which I admire them for. They grew a lot in a very short amount of time.

I am so glad to know the Lord's plan and that we have the opportunity to have eternal families. This was the only thing that got them through their ordeal. J and A got up in chuch and bore their testimonies and thanked the ward for all their help and they helped a lot! It was amazing the way they were just like an extended family and jumped in and helped in every way possible. Anyway, Johnathan said he was reading a talk and they said that some of us while in the pre-existance chose to come back early and he knew that Brycen was one of those people. It was an awesome testimony that they gave. I am forever amazed at their strength.

This is really long and if you made it through the whole thing good job. I just wanted to write down my feelings and memories of the weekend before they faded. This was an experience I would never want to have to go through again but there have actually been lots of amazing things come out of it. I will write them when I download the picture.

Moral of the story, hug your kids because you never know how long you will have with them. Trust the Lord and know that Jesus knows your pain because he took upon himself all of our sins and pain because he loves us.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

First Day of School. . . .

Well just like every other blogging mommy already or soon will have the infamous first day of school pics. This year was Macie's first day of kindergarten. I thought the 2nd child would be easier and I did fine till I had to leave her classroom but it wasn't easier!! I still wanted to cry but I held back the tears till I got in the car. I guess I am a weirdo! Oh well here are my cute girls. I only have Brylee home all day so we will have some good bonding time!


Tessa wanted to go with the peace out look!

Cutest little piggie tailed girl around!! They grow up way too fast!!