Happy 58th Birthday, Mom!

Cute little 3 yr-old Mom, 1954.

Mom as a teenager with her Peterson family (I think she is 15 in this picture, so approx 1966.)

Freshman sweethearts at Glendale Community College's Winter Formal, 1969.Mom at BYU, 1970. She sent this pic to my Dad while he was a missionary in Pennsylvania. They married just 6 weeks after he completed his mission.

Roger & Sherrie Decker Family, Spring 1982.Still sweethearts, January 1998. Mom & I at Eric's MBA School Graduation Party, May 2001. Roger & Sherrie Decker Family, Summer 2002. I love this picture of my parents, 2004.

As, we do every year, we met at the cemetery with my siblings & Dad to have a birthday party for & to celebrate the life of my wonderful Mother. We missed Jono, who is in his final year of grad school at Auburn University, and Gram & Grandpa Burke, who couldn't travel down from Utah this year. My Mom loved making a huge deal out of our birthdays each year and so we love to be together as a family to celebrate her! We ate Barros pizza (Mom's fav), sang "Happy Birthday" & ate cake, but mostly spent time telling great stories about Mom. We have a box that we put treasures in that were hers, so that we can show our kids who their Grandy was. We want them to remember her (if they knew her) and know her (if they didn't), and that comes thru sharing and story-telling.

Each of the adults shared some things we loved about her & told some of our favorite stories about her. We then went around and told fun things that Grandy did with each of the grandkids that knew her in this life. The older ones chimed in with their memories, too. I loved this part of our day because I want these kids to remember her involvement in their lives and know how much she adored them! This is one of the hardest parts about her death. The main reason I love this tradition is that we can be together as my Mom's immediate family once a year to honor Her. Simply put, she really was something special!

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love and miss you.

You have to love the pile of flower petals that the grandkids placed in front of my Mom's picture. These are petals that are floating around the grounds due to the friendly cemetery lawn mower.

The Driggs Family The Scott Family The Adam Decker Family Every year we each write a message to Mom/Grandy on a balloon, sing Happy Birthday, and then send them off to the heavens.

Here's Dad cleaning off his side of the headstone. Adam's little one, Savannah, was standing while eating her cake and just happened to be standing right on my Dad's side of the headstone. Well, she spilled birthday cake on it and then stepped in it to smoosh it in! Dad had to make sure his "future resting place" was clean---it was so funny! Sometimes you gotta laugh so you don't cry! :D (As Summer wrote, "Don't worry Mom, no one spilled anything on your side...besides, Dad keeps your name SPOTLESS! You would be proud!")

Thought this was darling of Summer's little Claire. She crawled over on her own and just looked at my Mom's picture. So sweet!

I love you Dad, Adam, Summer, Shanon & Jono, (you were missed, spud-man)! Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Okay, this looks a little irreverent, but it's just us being our goofy selves! We did our jazz-hands in honor of our Mom---she loved music & dancing and we knew she would have joined right in! The day was filled with laughter AND tears, which I believe are both healthy to share! :D Mom was the funnest of us all! She is truly missed.