Now until eternity

This last Thursday, my niece, Aspen, passed away. She was involved in a accident last year which required a tracheotomy. She had that removed on Tuesday and due to some complication, passed away during the night.

We are devastated. Our family cannot possibly imagine how my brother and his wife must be feeling. We can only imagine and even that cannot come close.

Aspen was a lively 10 year old with an incredible ability to bring a smile to all those around. She had beautiful red hair that any women would die for. She could light up a room. We will miss her.

I created a scrapbook for the funeral and I have relished my time spent with my memories of her. We are lucky, our family has many. We are grateful for the opportunity we had to know her and feel of her spirit for the short time she was on this earth.

We also know that this is not the end. We can be together again, the gospel of Jesus Christ tells us this. Death is not an end, but a beginning. We will certainly miss her, but we look forward to spending eternity with her.

Until we meet again - we love you Aspen.

Motherhood Moments

This month has been a busy one. Jaxon's birthday, family party, swim lessons, work, driving kids around everywhere, well, the typical mother's life! So there will be more posts to come and I try to update everything in our crazy lives. Not to take away anything from the fun things we've done - this one deserves it's own post.

We are driving up the hill going into Sardine Canyon...... my son, you can guess, says, "Dad, is this the butt crack?" At this point, all I do is look over at Jared. His comment is, "I can't believe that they're sponges." Nothing we do is without a 'story' this trip was no exception!

Apparently the last time that Jared took the kids up to Logan (I stayed home), they (the boys) are asking when they are going to get to Grandma's. Dad says that they have to go through the canyon and then they'll be there. No one is quite sure what a canyon is (comes from living in the flat desert) - so Jared says, "See over there (pointing to the canyon), where it looks like a butt." He's now demonstrating how exactly he was doing the 'M' shape........ he tells the boys, "We're going through the butt crack."

Can I just say - SERIOUSLY, as if they're not going to remember this ever again. I can't even respond to any of them. I just keep glaring at Jared. Really, was that the best way he could have described it. His response, "Well, it looks like a butt crack." The minds of boys! Of course, now every time we go through a canyon, which happened two more times - they comment about the butt crack.... this is probably never going away.

Okay, it is a little funny - as long as it's not your kids saying this. They're still young, what's going to happen when they're older . . . I either need a good set of ear plugs, or lots of drugs.... thinking Valium might be a good choice!!

Tiger Lilly

We've added a member to our family. She's adorable and A GIRL!! Monica and I are way out numbered!! Now if the kitten can survive Matches (the other super mean cat) and being mauled by the boys - we'll be in the money! Cannon has taken quite a liking to our new furry friend!! She's super friendly, eats food off the floor (macaroni and cheese), and loves to lay on her back to have her belly rubbed. My kind of cat! Now if I can just have a turn to hold her.........

Sucker Mishap

Confession time - I overcommit. No big surprise for anyone who knows me. This week was an exceptionaly challenging week and the sucker mishap was the end of the road...

Between two baseball games, t-ball party at my house, getting Jax ready for scout camp, sleepovers, lots of neighbor kids, parents coming to watch baseball games and have barbeque, cleaning off counter that seemed a mile high, scrapbook workshop, and a week from, well you know where, at work, I committed to make suckers - 200 - for a friend's daughters for the 4th of July park fundraiser. Yes, 200 homemade suckers.

Fast forward to tonight, I thought I was mostly done - lots of nights staying up to do 'just one more batch' of suckers. I pulled out the first batch in the kitchen and this is what I found . . .





Panic moment - are all of my suckers melted?? I frantically start pulling the containers out of the cabinet (secret hiding place). Luckily, it was only this one batch. But it was the icing on the cake. The only thing to do was laugh. Seriously, how did this happen? Now that I've watched Monica eat the entire 'sucker' - totally stuck together. You needed a hacksaw to pry them apart. I realized that this was the batch that I tripled, it boiled over probably ruining it, but I kept going, I figured, oh well, it was a triple batch...... apparently there is some 'secret' in keeping everything in the pan. :) Hind sight....

So, it's midnight, all 200 suckers are done, seven colors, seven flavors, all bagged and beautified. I hope every loves them and they bring in lots of money for the junior class!! And I WOULD do it all again! I don't always get a chance to truly thank the teachers who make the difference with my kids - but this teacher (aka mom of girls) has! She has been wonderful - she's survived two of my boys and I requested her again for another. (Hopefully not punishment). This is my one little way of saying, "thank you!"