Christmas 08

Christmas morning came way to early! Mike put together the kitchen Santa brought Izzy ( so nice of him to leave it for us to assemble!). Mike's family left after the progressive dinner about midnight so we started and finally at 2 am we were done. At 7:30 am on the dot Isabel comes in our room, it took Mike a full 5 minutes to wake up with Isabel saying "Daddy it's open present time! Daddy wake up!" We learned an important lesson, open big presents last, she saw her kitchen under the blanket and was so excited to see it that nothing else was quite as exciting but we got her distracted enough to open her other presents.
I realized that there are no pics from Mike or I opening presents but many from Isabel. THe first is her joy in the kitchen then her sharing a drink from it. And of course our family picture... you can see the bags on our faces, but it was a great morning. We topped it off with homemade cinnabon rolls from a recipe Jeni sent me. They were very good (if a little undercooked!). Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

For my sister

This post is for my sister. She came to visit us for a week this month and we had so much fun! We went shopping, looked at wedding stuff, she tried on wedding dresses ( you should have seen the excitement on her face... oh wait...), took Isabel to the play ground, watch her get stuck on the equipment and I had to climb up to get her off. We made sugar cookies, well Leslie and Isabel made most of them. We made chocolate candies for Christmas and liked our fingers all day from yummy dark chocolate, she wrapped and wrapped presents and had Isabel bring them to the tree. Oh and I spend hours online looking for red wedding dresses. All in all it was a ton of fun! OH and I forgot the best part. Neither Mike nor I had to clean the kitchen for a week!!! Man I miss my sister.




By the way my child is SO unphotogenic....

more pictures needed

I have all these great pictures from when my sister was in town and I can't find the cord to download.... again. So later I'll post pics from her visit and Christmas. But we had a great visit and Isabel is still asking about her Auntie Weswy. We shopped, made cookes, played and played and made candies. We loved having her here and can't wait until we see her in June for her wedding!!!

WOOO HOOO

So my sister's on town, so much fun! Lots of pics to post after she leaves tomorrow.

Another Sunday

I really enjoyed today. This morning was very calming, relaxing, and just plain peaceful. Church was good as usual, I was able to sub for the first our of nursery and see how stinkin cute the kids are as they are singing their songs. Then after the meetings I went and met with Bishop. He had mentioned to me on Thursday that he had something for me. I went to his office and he handed me a piece of paper. It was Brooklyn's certificate from her blessing. It was so great to receive it and truthfully at first I didn't look at the name and figured it was something for Isabel and it took me a second to register why he had a slight look of sorrow on his face. When we left church and I read the words on the page it hit me. That blessing was the very last experience that she had in her mortal existence. The second that blessing was completed she returned home to Heavenly Father. The memory brought tears to my eyes then and still is now. As simple as that certificate is, most all who read this have a one for each of their children, it is the tangible evidence of the very last moments I had with her. I do wish that I had written down or been able to record the amazing words that came out of my husbands mouth direct from Heavenly Father but also know that there was no way I would have been able to write at that time.
Although the tears keep coming, it is a sweet reminder, painful, sorrowful but sweet as well. I have something to remind me of the words, the emotions and the peace that came with those few seconds. I can only hope that memory will last forever.

It's here

Today is Dec. 11. While this date may not seem like anything, today is my daughter's due date. It's weird to think that after all that has happened, most of it wasn't "supposed" too. Silly Heavenly Father! I am so thankful for HIm, His plan, His love, His mercy. We have been blessed beyond measure and have been closer to Him thru this whole thing.
On a lighter note, I FINALLY have pictures of Isabel's room, all done, a little messy but done. She loves her flowers and shows everyone, and I mean everyone her flowers, she's so proud. **** I forgot to give credit to Cheyenne for helping me with the flowers! Sorry Cheyenne!****







This past week we also took Isabel to see Santa, she didn't like him much but she enjoyed the crafts that they made. Snowmen on a paint stirring stick that you put in the ground to measure snow fall, playdoh galore, and the pool filled with cotton. She also learned something new....


We also made cinnamon rolls for some friends and she is a little helper, when she can stay focused.




And lastly we went to a remembrance service at the funeral home and Katie babysat Isabel. They played piano, Isabel did a light show since she can reach all the light switches in their house and made graham cracker houses. This is Isabel's after the ride home, the roof fell in, but she loves it and still talks daily about it.


Last night our cousin Chelsea came over and had dinner with us. She is awesome and I loved having her come! We talked and talked all night. I have picture but this is getting long and there are SO many pictures to run thru. We did a 20 min photo shoot because it would be torture for Isabel to actually look at the camera and smile. So I'll post those in a day or so!

I do like Sugar

I am very proud of my Crimson Tide this year. Although we didn't get to beat Florida this year, it was a hard fought game. I am tired of seeing.. "Florida swamps the Tide" on headlines... it was not a blowout, it was very evenly matched until the last 5 minutes of the game. Stupid sports writers. I am glad to be at the Sugar Bowl where we have had some amazing games and we are playing another undefeated team. It should turn out to be a great game. However all those silly Utah fans... look out! Tides' coming!

Highs and Lows

Today was a great day, in part. I went to the Holiday party my (old) work put on and I got to visit with some great co-workers and thank people for their contributions to our family trust fund, they raised a lot of money for us and we were able, with all total donations from everyone who gave, pay for all of my daughters medical bills as well as her memorial costs. It was a HUGE relief. Since I know some of them read this blog THANK YOU again! Then right as it was ending I won a $100 gift card! I was so giddy the rest of the night.
After the party I went to my church for a candy making class which was great.. such yummy food! But then end of the class was very sad. A friend from church has a little girl who was just diagnosed with a VERY aggressive cancer. She'd had emergency surgery on Thanksgiving to remove some tumors and they just received the call tonight on the biopsy. They have to start treatment right away. My heart breaks for this family. FOr those of you who are in my ward that didn't get an email for phone call, we are having a special fast on Sunday even though it's Stake Conference.

My hopes and prayers are with this family and the road that lies ahead. It's so hard not know ing HEavenly Fathers plan and just trusting in it when tragedy strikes within your family. Somedays, some moments, knowing that he loves us and looks out for His children and will carry them and us home just isn't enough, but with His help we can get thru it.

a journey in to my mind

I was decorating today and found my favorite lil' red trees. Now I'm moving things from where they normally go so I was looking for a home for our lil' nativity also. I put them together on the table and it looked a bit bare, so I had the idea to try adding some fabric to it.





Then Mike helped me decide that it may not look the best but that I could add garland. I like they basic look of my table and told Mike that in all the pictures and depictions there were not forests of green during Christ's birth. Then the next thought was that there probably wasn't a white ground with red and green polka dots. THEN the light turned on! My fabulous fabric was foretelling the story of Christ's life. The white was His purity, the red and green represent the Atonement in the garden of Gethsemane. I am so good it's scary!

In case you are wondering... I did remove the fabric.

Not much new

Here I am looking at friends blogs and feeling the need to post but I don't have much to say. Today has been a lazy day, Isabel had a fever yesterday and took a 5 hr nap, woke up for 2 hrs then back down for 10. I just laid her back down. All this morning has been cartoons and movies. But she needs it and is super cute when she's a little sick. I guess I'll decorate my house today. I made Izzy's stocking this morning so I want to get the three of them hung. Happy decorating everyone!