"In Remembrance"

This week we have the wonderful opportunity to celebrate the life of my sweet son Caleb. I am amazed at how quickly these past two years have flown by. As I sit here thinking about my little "peanut" I am so overwhelmed and so grateful for the blessing that he was to our family. When I think of my little man, I truly believe that he represented everything that is good and pure in this world. His sense of humor, joy in all things, unconditional love, and endless strength is still such an example to me today. It is always so amazing to me how healing time is. As I think about him now I can't help but feel so much gratitude that our little family was given such a tremendous gift. So my sweet son, here's to you little man! We adore you!

The following is the video that we played at his funeral. We still love watching it and seeing his tender little smile:)

" A Beautiful Gift From A Beautiful Person, Thank you Kam"

Our family has been given another very special gift from my sweet friend Kam. We met Kam when we very first moved to Idaho a little over two years ago. I actually heard about her and her incredible photographs from a nurse that was taking care of my sweet son, one of the times that we were in the Emergency Room. The nurse had told me about this amazing photographer that took stunningly beautiful photos and had a program for families with terminally ill children or terminally ill parents who had children. The first time I met her was when she came over to do Calebs' pictures with our family and I just feel in love with her. Kam is one of the warmest, most giving and most compassionate people that I have ever met. With all of the many reminders of the struggles that exist in our world today, I am truly grateful for small acts of kindness that remind us that there are so many good people doing good and kind acts of service for others. She is a constant reminder to me that so much good does indeed exist in our world today. So thank you my sweet friend. Thank you for your beautiful gift, and thank you for being the person that you are. Your kindness has truly touched us all, and will be such a wonderful blessing to our family in the years to come. We love you!

If you would like to see some more of her beautiful pictures check her out at Photography By Kam at www.photographybykam.com. You won't be sorry, her pictures really are so very tender!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

" A Special Memory From Build-A-Bear"

Yesterday was a really special day for our family. Build-A-Bear has a special program for children who have terminally ill parents or siblings. So, the wonderful people at Build-A-Bear paid for my sweet little ladies to have new bears with my voice inside of it. It was so fun to be able to record a little song that I have sung to them since they were tiny. We were also able to do the same thing for my ladies shortly before Caleb passed with his little laugh in it, and it has been one of the greatest blessings for them. It is so special to be able to snuggle something so tight when you are feeling so sad. Build-A-Bear was so good to us, and made the experience so sweet. I was so touched by how sensitive they were to my situation and to my sweet girls.



My little Sassy got a bear that she said had my same hair color, in fact she named it Apes The Bear.



Hannah also got a sweet little bear that she named April. I LOVE that we get the chance to kiss a tiny heart and that it will always be close to their heart. So Sweet!



So thank you to Build-A-Bear, and thank you to my sweet little ladies and husband for such a special memory, I love you!

"A Day In The Life Of Our Little SUPERhero"

My little nephew Logan is my very special SUPERhero. You see....being a full-time SUPERhero really is quite the difficult job, and one that must be taken VERY seriously at all times! Not everyone can take on such a remarkable job, and do it so well. In order to be a true SUPERhero you must be willing to wear your costume at ALL times so that others will recognize you for the HERO that you truly are!





















You MUST be willing to flex those muscles, ESPECIALLY the elbow muscles, so that they are in fine working order at ALL times. (You may never know when you will need them!)



You MUST be willing to comfort those that stand in need of comforting, and always have COMPASSION for those that you serve and rescue.





















And as tender as this little SUPERhero is, there are those times when you must show your enemies (or brothers, for a better word) just how much you mean BUSINESS!



A good SUPERhero will always "Lift" another and yet he will ALWAYS make it look so easy and effortless:)





















This little SUPERhero will always make sure that he keeps up his SUPERhero strength, and will always SAMPLE everyone's food, you know.....just in case there just might be something wrong with it. Such a selfless little hero!!!!!!
(Wait a minute.....I DO THAT! LOL!)



And as the day winds down, a true SUPERhero knows when he has done a great job, and knows EXACTLY how to wind down after a VERY busy day. I love you little man, thank you for being my little SUPERhero!~

Braces and Head Gear and Wonderful Friends, OH MY!!!!

This Friday was a big day for my little ladies! I know that this may sound odd but my daughters absolutely LOVE going to the Orthodontist! Well, and how could they not! We go to Dr. Payne (isn't that an AWESOME name for an Orthodontist, lol) at Orthodontics at Bridgetower, and both he and his staff are absolutely amazing! You would think that we were going to Disneyland with how excited my little ladies are every time that we go, LOL! (If you are ever in need of any Orthodontics, YOU HAVE to go and see these great people! They have become such wonderful friends, and we really do love them all!)

Emee was so excited that she was finally getting on her own braces, and my cute Hannah was absolutely ECSTATIC about getting her brand new head gear!!!! LOL! (I love their enthusiasm!)

Here is my little lady right before the braces went on. (She brought her trusty bat, properly named ALICE, after her very favorite vampire, for support of course)


Here they come! Yipee! (This is by far Emee's most favorite picture)


Tah-Dah!!!!!! I love that little bit of extra sparkle, lol! (She choose her favorite color, GREEN, and her best friends favorite color, PURPLE, for her rubber bands. I think that the combination was just PERFECT)


And this is one of our favorite ladies there! She has helped us so many times and we absolutely adore her!


Introducing the world's CUTEST LITTLE LADIES!!! I LOVE that amazing head gear my love! You ladies are GORGEOUS!!!!

Our Vacation In Our OWN Home Town

This week was my little ladies Spring Break, HOORAY!!! (I absolutely LOVE it when my ladies are home, so we have really been looking forward to this vacation) We were all really wanting to go on a vacation, but felt like we needed to be close to our hospital. Sooooo... we did the next best thing! We booked a room at the Marriott in Boise for a few days, and had the FUNNEST time! Everyone of us has been really sick so we had to keep the partying to a minimum, but check out some of the fun things that we did!


We took our ladies to Build-A-Bear, thanks to our sweet friend Selina and our Grandma Auntie. My girls knew that we were planning on going, so both girls brought ALL their Build-A-Bears with them in order to introduce them to our newest family members:)

















I think that their favorite part though was the swimming. The girls SWAM, and swam, and swam, and did I mention that they SWAM! LOL! Oh my lands, they were in heaven!!!! Even as sick as they were, Eric had to DRAG them out every time! LOL!







They explored the hotel....


and we spent a TON of time reading together and watching movies! It was so much fun, and a great little adventure! Nothing like hanging out together in your own backyard, lol!

Sweet Moments

Lately, I have really come to appreciate how precious time is. It seems like just yesterday that both of my little ladies were brand new, and just coming home from the hospital. I used to think that it was so cliche when people would say how quickly time flies, but I have come to realize that it truly does. I realized the other night when I was snuggling with one of my sick little ladies, that the things I love the most about spending time with them are really the most mundane of things. Giving them baths with Popsicles when they are sick or just watching their faces light up when they have accomplished something that is difficult for them. Little things, I know, but precious nonetheless. Today, as I woke up from another day long nap, I looked out my front window and saw the sweetest sight.



My sweet husband works all day all the while taking care of me and all of my needs. He takes care of the house work (with the help of my sweet angel friends) cooks us dinner, does homework with the girls, and still finds time to have an after school picnic and card game......

He makes pancake Birthday Cakes for my little ladies stuffed animals' birthdays...

























And makes the coolest castles for our little Wickett:)













As I watch my sweet husband with my little girls, I can't help but feel grateful to have a husband that truly understands how precious these few moments are. I feel infinitely blessed that these sweet girls are so lucky to have the most amazing man as their father. I love you Eric.

Our Little Soloist

Our cute little Emee was chosen to be one of the soloists for her third grade singing program. (Emee is the one on the far left in the brown shirt, she is the last little soloist of the group)It has been something that she has been so excited for, and could hardly wait to do. She has never sung by herself before and I was so proud of her I could hardly stand it! Her song was so darn tender, and I think that I cried the entire time, lol. All of the kids were so darling and it was awesome to see her buddy Katie and Zach sing as well, their voices were so sweet! (Thanks so much for the video Beverly, you are AWESOME!)



Look at my little singer:)



Emee's cute class.



Emee and her bestest friend Anna.



Emee, Anna, and Katie's cheering section. Everyone at their school was so kind to us and had a little seating section reserved for us up close so that we could see Emee. In fact Mrs. Crawley the Principal was so kind to come over and grab our camera from us so that we could get a good picture of my little lady in action.



Emee's greatest fan! Can you feel the love?

Let the MATING Ceremony begin !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

My Little Ladies have always been TOTALLY and COMPLETELY obsessed with animals. In fact up until a couple of years ago if you asked Emee what she wanted to be when she grew up she would proudly tell you, "A Horse, of course". Both girls can rattle off the most obscure animal facts and can tell you just about anything about any animal at any given time. They absolutely love anything having to do with National Geographic, and the majority of the things that they play have to do with animals.

With that said, the other day I was walking down the hall past the toy room, and I heard Hannah yell (super loudly), "Let The MATING Ceremony Begin". LOL! So I VERY quickly went in the toy room to see what in the WORLD was going on, especially during a "Mating Ceremony". Luckily all the animals were just lined up in a row, with no "mating" actually happening, phewwwww, LOL!

These are a few of my favorite things:)

This past week, my sweet and very dear friends gave me the funnest and most special surprise that I think that I have ever had. We were all planning on going on a special road trip at the end of March to Vancouver, Canada (where they are filming the next installment of the Twilight series) to meet the cast of Twilight. It was supposed to a fun little road trip, and something that I have been so looking forward to since December. Unfortunately, my health has become so fragile lately that I am even more limited in where I can go or what I can do. So these AMAZING women brought Edward to me, lol:)



So my buddies had all come over and got set up on our front porch for the big surprise! Eric answered the door and got a wonderful SURPRISE, himself! (I am sure he was so overcome with joy when he saw Edward standing there,lol) Unfortunately, my sister and I had not yet gotten back from the store. So Eric, had all of them come into the Living Room and get set up there. Then they all left to park their cars down the street so I would not notice when we came home.



Look how cute my two favorite men are! LOL! The one on the left is by far my most handsome and favorite man. (Oh just as a funny side note, a couple weeks back Eric told me the funniest thing. He said, "Well you know, I am totally like Edward". "Oh yeah, how", I said, super curious what he was thinking. He said, "I love you more than anything, and I constantly have to restrain myself from killing you"! LOL!!!! Oh, Love At Home,lol~ )



Just another funny side note, before I continue on with my story, (I do have a tendency to get a little sidetracked don't I, lol) the other night my little ladies were feeling a little down, so as I was talking to them and painting their nails, rainbow colors of course, my little Sassy had the wonderful idea that Dad's toe nails needed a little extra "sparkle". Eric is so easy going that he said that was O.K. What was sad though, was that day he and my brother-in-law Marc were taking all the kids to go swimming at the YMCA. He wanted to take off the nail polish before they went swimming, but I told him that the chlorine in the water would probably take it off for him,no problem! Needless to say it has been over a week and his toes are as sparkly as ever! So the night that my buddies came over, they could not help taking a picture of those MARVELOUS toes! What that man won't do for us, lol!



O.K. moving on! So my sister and I got home, and Eric comes out and meets us in the garage. He tells me that a big package came for me and is waiting in the living room. So as I walked in all of my buddies yelled surprise!!!! It scared me to death, and then........(I am pausing for dramatic effect.....ahhhhhhh) there was Edward, full size and in all his glory!!!!! I was so surprised! (Look at my sweet husbands cute face) I was totally and completely overwhelmed and so excited! I LOVED IT!!!!!



So on top of meeting Edward for the first time, lol, they put together this amazing basket of a few of my favorite things, in fact the basket even came with a song, properly titled "A Few Of April's Favorite Things", lol, thanks Annie~ This basket had all the yummiest smelling lotions and bubblebath, my most favorite gossip magazines (I know pretty pathetic, but I just LOVE THEM), the most beautiful picture of our family and one of my sweet little ladies, my favorite Tic Tacs, a Twilight bracelet that says "I love boys who sparkle" (and with my husbands beautiful bald head, I truly do, lol), this awesome Unofficial guide of ALL things Twilight, a sweet picture of the Savior, butterfly gardens for my little ladies, Mama Mia DVD (a movie that we all loved and went to for a girls night out) the cutest earrings ever, oh my heavens, I could go on and on. It was amazing, and now for the very BEST part......( another pause for dramatic effect) my VERY OWN SNUGGIE, yup the one that is "as seen on T.V." I LOVE IT!



















And for all of you "Magical Snuggie" haters out there, I must say that this little snuggie is a wonderful piece of heaven! LOL! And........ look at how easy it is for me to use the phone now! LOL!


















So I just wanted to say thank you to these very special ladies that for the past two years have been such a blessing and support to my family and I. Thank you all for every amazing memory and for the joy of laughing so hard it hurts, lol! I love you!



My crazy partner in crime, and all things Edward, Chris.



My nutty buddy Selina, a.k.a. Rose.



Our most revered leader Annie, a.k.a. "The Chosen One", lol!



Two of the most beautiful and funny ladies, Natalie and Kelli. Can you believe that both of these ladies just had their fourth babies!!!!!!!!!! Yes I know, there really is no justice in this world:)



My sweet friend Angie, her sweet smile tells you everything about her~



My crazy buddy Kim, a.k.a. Kim Bo Slice, lol!



Our good buddy Pat, Selina's very own Brad Pitt, lol! He just could not stay away from so many beautiful ladies all gathered together in one spot, lol!



So in closing I have to tell you one more funny story! After everyone left, Eric quietly put our Edward in the corner of my room. (His reasoning was that it is what Edward does with Bella,he watches her sleep. Sound reasoning, if not a little bit freaky, lol) So, I had no idea that he was there. Off I went to wash my face, and I think that I had the biggest scare of my life. I screamed so loud that my sister and husband came running. I was faint and nauseous, the works! Now that I think about it, that really is an appropriate response to having a vampire in your room! LOL:) Thanks again ladies, love you!