"It's Time...... To Par-Tay"

Summer is here, and I could not be more excited! Summertime to me means endless time with my little ladies, late nights, visiting on the grass, yummy BBQ's, warm breezes and TONS of PARTIES, PARTIES, PARTIES! We were so excited to have some of our good buddies come over and help us celebrate the new and exciting season! So thank you to all who came, and to everyone who was able to help:) What a wonderful way to start off the summer! Check out some of the most beautiful faces EVER.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

"Laughter Through Tears Is My Favorite Emotion"

A dear and incredibly kind friend of mine, Jennifer Ashby, recently gave such a beautiful gift to my friends and I. If you have not had an opportunity to see her stunningly classic photos, please check her out at www.jenniferashbyphotography.com Jennifer has such an amazing way of capturing every ones individual sparkle and keeps each photograph simple and well...just beautiful! We were all so touched that she wanted to give us such a tender gift. So thank you my wonderful friend. Thank you for giving us such a beautiful gift and for creating such a special and fun memory that we will all treasure. (And didn't Edward photograph "BEAUTIFULLY", lol! Good thing he showed up, lol)



My heart is so full as I look at the beautiful faces of these sweet ladies, and I cannot help but feel so blessed to know each of them. It has been said that a group of ladies who love each other and hang out together can often be a called a "clique", which I guess in my mind has a negative connotation. But when I look at these beautiful pictures, I guess what I would call them is a true "blessing". When Eric and I moved to Idaho a couple of years ago our purpose was to live in a state that would provide better health benefits for my little peanut. We had no idea at the time what path my health would take, nor that every day that passed would one day feel like a wonderful blessing. These amazing women, have held my hand as I watched my son pass away and participated in wonderful milestones with my children. They have shared their joy of the birth of their babies and mourned with us as they have lost their own family members. They have hugged me when I was too sick to do much else, and have been the Mothers to my little ladies when I could not. These woman have made me laugh so hard it hurt and have cleaned, cooked, and served more often than they have had time for. I have been blessed to watch as they weather their own trials with such quiet dignity and marvel at the compassion that they show to all around them. Their testimonies have been such a great strength to me when I myself have felt scared or discouraged. My sweet friend Selina recently made us all little signs that said, "Laughter Through Tears Is My Favorite Emotion". I am so grateful to have known what a gift that is in a great part because of these wonderful women. A "clique" you may say, no my friends, "a true gift".So to you sweet ladies, Thank You, from the bottom of my heart, I love you!

"The Joy Of Being The Mama"

"Hannah"

Today is such a special day when we have the opportunity to remember Mother's. What a beautiful opportunity it is for me to reflect on my own sweet children and how grateful I am to be their Mama. This post is a little harder for me to write, due only to the fact that I can barely talk about what a joy it is for me to be a mother, let alone write down my feelings without crying. I am not always very eloquent, and I wish that there were words beautiful enough, or strong enough to describe how I feel about my sweet children. I have felt truly blessed and honored to have had the chance to be a Mother, and to have been a Mother to such choice and precious little ones. My children have brought unmeasurable joy into my life, and I have often felt inadequate of such a tender calling. I cannot imagine my life without these special little ones, and I feel honored every time they call me Mama. I love you little ladies, and to all of you AMAZING Mother's out there, I hope that today is such a special day for you!

"Emee"

"Aubrey"

One of my most favorite quotes about Motherhood, was by Sheri Dew in the January 2002 Ensign. She said,

"As mothers in Israel, we are the Lord’s secret weapon. Our influence comes from a divine endowment that has been in place from the beginning. In the premortal world, when our Father described our role, I wonder if we didn’t stand in wide-eyed wonder that He would bless us with a sacred trust so central to His plan and that He would endow us with gifts so vital to the loving and leading of His children. I wonder if we shouted for joy at least in part because of the ennobling stature He gave us in His kingdom. The world won’t tell you that, but the Spirit will".

"Caleb"

"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!