Aleah Grace

I have been praying and pondering for quite a while about this post. With permission from my dear sister-in-law I am going to share some of my thoughts.

My precious niece was born March 23, 2010 at 7:52 p.m. She weighed 1 lb 2 oz. In less than one hour she was able to change and bless our lives forever.

Jess wrote this about the affect she had on those who were lucky enough to meet her. "They marveled at her and how beautiful she was. They wondered at how someone so tiny could inspire such great love in all of us. That little girl taught everyone in that hospital room how to love. She was so small but she was so mighty! Isn't it like God to use someone so little and small to have such a big and powerful purpose."

Her life has caused a great change in mine. I don't want this to come across disrespectfully to any one. I have not experienced this loss first hand, and I can only imagine the turmoil of emotions for those who have. I only felt a piece of what Aleah's parents and many others in similar situations have felt, but I have experienced conflicting emotions. Guilt and gratitude. Aching and awe. Confusion and comfort. Loss and love.
Jason commented on how she was held and loved for almost every minute of her life. This hit me. How many times have I not told my family that I love them. I have taken the time I have had with my children for granted. Since then I have tried to do better and will keep trying.
I admire all those who go through life altering changes and become better people, rather than bitter people. I hope when these things happen those in the midst of it will feel surrounded by love from family and friends.
Easter this year was more meaningful for me than it has ever been. I felt that even though we were filled with sorrow, joy is possible. Jesus Christ has triumphed over the grave so that Aleah and each one of us can live again. It gave me peace to know that we can return to Him and He will welcome us happily with loving arms around us.

The meaning of Aleah's name is on her picture-to ascend. They chose her name before they knew the meaning of it. Jess said "When I found out the meaning of her name, God revealed to me that she was His all along. She was always destined to go be with Him. Heaven was her home." I believe that in the midst of dark times God gives us little reassurances and love. If we look for them we will find them.
I have felt helpless as I have watched Jason and Jess go through this and come out stronger than ever. But looking back, I know that in some small way my prayers and tears did help. I hope I have been able to share a small part of their burden with them. I am anxiously awaiting the time when I can meet her and let her know how much I love her; how much I have learned from her.

Jason and Jess-I am so grateful to be blessed by your example and influence. I continue to pray for you. Thank you for being such wonderful parents to this sweet girl. I want you to know that she has made me a better person and when that happens an impression is made that I will never forget. I will honor her memory by remembering.

Birthday outing

I wanted to do something to celebrate baby girl's birthday. First I thought we should go to dinner, but I decided she wouldn't enjoy that as much as I would. The sun peeked through long enough for head to the zoo. It was fun to have us all together.
Here are the boys "measuring up."

The tigers were really active. It was fun to see them and although this picture doesn't show it, their exhibit is beautifully landscaped.

Rachel had a hard time focusing, but she is still cute in her new sun hat :)

Getting a better look at the brine shrimp.

Playing at the playground. Her brother had more fun, but it's only because he can walk on his own.

Being fascinated by the . . . .

Introducing . . .

the laundry fairy!
Sorry about the poor picture, but she is a little difficult to catch.

A while ago I noticed that while the laundry room has clothes strewn about almost every day, none of them are ever my mom's. She takes the clothes out of the drier shortly after they are done and carries them in her arms (not in a basket) to her bed where she promptly folds them and puts them away. My dad refers to her as a "domestic goddess." I have no idea how she does this so well. It works for me in theory, but in practice not so much.
I hope she doesn't get mad and curse me with more laundry now that I have revealed her identity!

Apartment pics

Assuming everything goes as planned we will be signing a lease on an apartment next week.
The task of going through the storage unit will have begun.
Here are some pics.

The kitchen is pretty small, but I will make due. I was willing to compromise since these units have washers and dryers included.

The patio which will be big enough for bikes and also has a storage closet.

A cute little fire place :)

Stay tuned for the next post when I reveal the identity of the laundry fairy!!!!

Baby girl is 1!

Rachel is such a fun, strong-willed girl. I had some mother's intuition before she was born that she would have some strong personality traits and she does. She is a girl who knows what she wants. She is also the life of the party, a born entertainer. She is a cute little cuddler too.

At her one year check up she weighed 14 lbs. The doctor said she would never be called "big boned." I was talking to him out our difficulties with sleeping and he said he could tell by her personality that she is one of those kids that if you go to battle with them over something you will have to win otherwise they will learn to ignore you and get what they want.
He is definitely right about that.

Getting all of our family together is starting to turn into a scheduling nightmare so we celebrated her birthday on Mother's Day which was fun for me. I remember sitting in church the Sunday before she was born, also Mother's Day, and hoping that I would be sitting
there next week and I wasn't :)

Here we are opening presents. I love this picture because she isn't quite sure what's going on so she looks at me to see how she should react.

Still not sure what's going on, but very curious about it.

We need two cakes to have enough for the family so we made a butterfly and a ladybug.

She wasn't quite sure about the cake. I had to feed her for a while before she decided to try it out. She is interesting because sometimes she is so experimental and other times she isn't.
She finally got the hang of it though :)

This is the morning of her birthday. She makes dog noises and loves being outside. This morning the birds were chirping away. I couldn't get her away from the door without a lot of screaming and crying so I eventually blocked the door with the chair so she could look outside for the birdies and mommy could eat her breakfast.

On her birthday. I was feeling burned out (a little pathetic, I know) from the other cakes so we made a 1 with cupcakes. The boys decorated them.

She is signing "more" in this picture. She also does finished and eat. She is picking it up faster than her brother did. She likes her dessert just like her mommy!

The birthday girl with her sweet big brother.

May 13, 2010

May 13, 2011

Happy birthday Princess! We love you all the much!

Lots of Easter fun

In no particular order here is Easter 2011-
Egg hunt for the grandkids at grandma's.

Finished product-

Pretty flowers in mom's yard

The neighborhood egg hunt. One of these years we will have egg hunts
without jackets on, I just know it!

The Easter party at my work

Luv this picture :) Matthew with aunties.

Checking out the loot.

Easter this year was one of my best. We read out of the Friend magazine about the last week of the Savior's life and I was very touched by it. It was much more meaningful than previous years.

He lives!

Brought together by randomness

I have a couple of miscellaneous pictures that I wanted to post, but don't really go along with anything else-

I caught Brian helping with the dishes one day and wasn't able to get the picture before he put his crazy face on.

The flood that is my parent's backyard. I am sure in a few weeks we will be thankful that this is the worst of what we get because others will have more.

My sis and I have birthdays six days apart. We decided to watch the latest Harry Potter movie for our party. I was fairly ambitious and made some treats. We had butter beer, cauldron cakes (with a red handle because black licorice is icky) and pumpkin pasties.

New blog

I have started a new blog. Come check it out and start thinking about what you want to contribute :)

garnishingwithvirtue.blogspot.com

11 months

I'm going to quickly squeeze in baby girl's 11 month pictures before she turns one on Friday!
Social Slacker award goes to me. I am determined to get caught up on blogging
and thank you cards.

Birthdays

Birthdays just aren't as much fun when you're an adult; I'm just going to put that out there. Brian and I are both aries which supposedly means our marriage is going to fail. Take that!

Here is Brian with The Sound of Music. For a guy who doesn't like musicals
he sure is happy about it :)

This ice cream cake that I made was pretty delicious if I do say so myself.

Brian took me out to dinner and to the Blaze game, which the won. It was a nice evening and Rachel even cooperated!
Blowing out more candles. I made brownies with homemade mint ice cream. Yummy!

Seriously!?! Can she be any cuter?