Grandma Troyna

Brian's Grandma Troyna (Brian's mom's mom) lost her battle with cancer today...she was a very loving grandmother and great grandmother. Keziah loved her dearly as well as Austin. Austin is having a harder time then I realized he would. Death is such a confusing thing and he hadn't really experienced it at an older and more understanding age. The wake will be Friday evening and the funeral on Saturday. Thanks for any of you that prayed for her in the days past.

Great Grandma Troyna!

This afternoon we went to visit Brian's grandma. She is doing great these days aside from being really tired. Kezzie really enjoys seeing her and says 'date mima (great grandma)'. There is a cabinet full of collectibles that Kezzie adores and always wants to touch and play with. They aren't allowed out of the case so Kezzie just gets to look, but she is tempted every time!

Grandma Troyna went in to get some results of a recent CT scan and the doctor said that in comparison to a previous scan it shows that the chemo treatment is working. She had one mass that was 3.8 and it is now 1.9-great news. She got another treatment that day and won't need to be seen back for another month! Praise God for the time we get to spend with her! She is such a blessing in our lives! In the meantime Grandma has been spending her time goose hunting and fishing along with sewing!

Celebrating with the Uglums!

Wednesday we went and had pizza with Brian's parents. They just returned from Europe and hadn't had a chance to wish Austin a happy birthday so they suggested we get together. It also happened to be Riley's birthday! Austin received 20 Euros and some American money from Riley and Kathy along with some fun games they found in Germany. From great grandma Troyna he got some dominos. He was feeling very under the weather as he had a cold coming on and ate very little of one of his favorite foods, but we had a good evening. It was great to see grandma Troyna as she has been feeling sick lately. We are glad to say she has received another round of chemo. Has it really already been three weeks?! You can see in one of the pics that Kezzie is trying very hard to pop the bubbles on the bubble wrap. I was trying to teach her what to do! And Austin and Kez found the perfect nook to sit in. Kezzie liked it very much! I'm sure the restaurant was excited to see us leave! There is one home picture in there too. Austin ended up staying home from school the rest of the week and I snapped a picture of him playing with one of the german toys he got for his birthday. He has a nice stack of wooden rocks going!

Brian's grandma Troyna!

Please keep Brian's grandma in your prayers. She has been fighting a long battle of cancer and has recently started having hospice come into her home. Just pray for comfort for her family and strength and courage. Pray that she will continue to have minimal pain and that she will keep getting good rest.
I have to mention that every time we tell Keziah we are going to visit Great Grandma Troyna she automatically mentions 'duck'...let me explain! It started around Easter time when we visited her and she had a ceramic duck sitting out for decoration. If you know Kezzie you know that she ADORES anything with a beak, especially ducks. And this particular duck was pretty cool to her since we let her get close to it and touch it. Now every time we are going to see her she remembers the duck and looks in the very spot it was sitting to see if it is there. It has since been moved to a much higher location so we can't touch it but we can still see it! Not long ago grandma went on a trip to Missouri and she brought back Kezzie her very own duck. I think this only solidified her correlation between great grandma Troyna and ducks! It is amazing what kids can remember!
Here is our most recent pic of us visiting her while Mat and Steph were home yesterday. Of course it is always a challenge to get kids to cooperate so this is the best we could do...still a pretty good picture!
Later in the day, while playing over at Brian's parents, we got a couple shots of the kids when they were happy! Lately Kezzie has been sporting what we call 'her mad face' (as mentioned in her 20 month post). Here it is caught on camera. She will promptly show it off if someone requests. That is if she can keep a straight face!! She is barely managing to keep from smiling but you get the idea with the cruel eyebrows! I'm not sure what Brady is doing...it looks like he is creating his own break dance!