Happy New Year

The last 7 weeks have been especially sad and difficult for our family due to my grandfather's terminal cancer diagnosis and then death 3 1/2 weeks later. I thought it might be beneficial for the children and me to find the funniest photos from the past year and then post them here for you to enjoy as well. Happy New Year! Here is the entire Bryant Bunch (for now anyway!) attempting to take our first picture as a family of 7. It definitely could have been worse. But as you may know, I am a pretty uptight mom and way too serious, so this is funny to me!

Shelby took the time to fix Lilly's hair, and it was SO cute. However, she only had enough hair in the back to put ponytails in so in order to see it, this is the pose that worked best. (You may recall that her poor head was shaved numerous times during her hospital stays in China!)

"My family homeschools, and this is my mom' s idea of an experiment for a toddler like me." (Note the magnifying glass in the bowl of teddy grahams.) Actually I had nothing to do with this. Lilly can thank her siblings for this one!

After the Christmas play at church, our little Ethan, a Wise Man, had decided he didn't want to be wise anymore. He prefers silly over wise on most days!

This was on Lilly's 2nd birthday. Can you tell that she was excited about Tickle Me Elmo?

We homeschool and had been studying about the nomads in world history. Shelby and Katie decided to dress the part and have fun pretending to roam (around the yard!). It was really cute, and I am so thankful that they use their imaginations and still have fun pretending.

This was the day of Lilly's baptism and we had taken LOTS of pictures. I guess this was her way of saying "Enough is enough!"

"Hey, Dad, I think I might need a bath now!"

This is Shelby in her swim cap that she purchased in China. Here she is obviously being very silly with her brother Fulton. (She just said "Mom, do NOT put that picture on there!" Sorry, too late. But my idea is working- we have been laughing SO hard!

This is shortly after her heart surgery. Lilly was SO tired that she fell asleep sitting up in her highchair at lunch! I just had to take a picture- t00 cute!

"This is the best sucker ever! Hey Dad, I think I might need another bath after this one!"

This isn't the normal way to eat a sucker, but both boys just thought this was funny I guess!!

"Hey Ethan, I thought I was the one who was suppossed to play with the doll!" I think Ethan was determined to take whatever it was that Lilly wanted. This was in the first month or so at home. Sibling rivalry was still at an all time high!

Last but not least in this year's funniest Bryant family photos:

This would be me on the way to China. I was determined to sleep and even took 2 Benadryl. My dear husband decided to be cute and snap this darling photograph!

In Loving Memory

This blog is dedicated to our loving grandfather and great-grandfather who died of cancer on December 5, 2007.

The above photo is of Granddaddy or GG on Father's Day of this year. He was an avid Gamecock fan and always wore a hat.




Thanksgiving Day- Lilly loving on GG who was so tired. He always had his glasses and a pen in his shirt pocket. Lilly always loved to get in his lap to play with them.

My grandparents had just celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary on November 14, 2007. That was 5 days after he was diagnosed with cancer that had spread to the liver. This picture was taken Thanksgiving Day- his last holiday with us.

November 18, 2007- Granddady with his only grandchild, his "Jannie -girl". I had almost forgotten that he used to call me that because he hadn't called me that nickname in years. I'm so thankful that he called me that just recently during his illness.

GG was always known as Granddaddy to me when I was a little girl. When his first great- granddaughter, Shelby could talk, she named him GG. He was such a special man and a wonderful grandfather. He would do anything for me and he always did it from his heart. When I lived with him and my grandmother during high school, he would have my car warmed up for me on cold winter mornings. He would bring me lunch to school and give our football team police escorts to the big rival game every year. He would always tell me not to speed- he was a police officer for 36 years! I could go on and on! He was simply all a grandfather could possibly be and yet so much more. I miss him so much already.

Lilly and GG- how grateful I am that they had almost 7 months together. I know that Lilly will not remember GG, but I also know that GG will never forget Lilly. Lilly had learned to say "GG" so well. She had even begun putting 2 words together. One of her first 2 word sentences was "bye-bye GG". He loved her so much, and she adored him as well.

We will always love you GG. We are happy that you are with Jesus and that you are not hurting anymore.