My Angels

These cards are only 1 3/4 inches by 2 3/4 inches, smaller than a business card. Jameson's footprint is about 1 5/8 inch and Bryson's is just under 1 inch.

This is similar to what Bryson was wearing, he was so tiny!

I only have a hat and blanket for Jameson. His gown was also white, but larger than Bryson's. If they would have needed diapers that is how small they were! His head filled his hat very well. He was much bigger than Bryson but still so tiny! I am so glad I got to hold them and hug and kiss them. It was very difficult, but helped tremendously for closure. It made me feel validated that they were real babies with real full, but tiny bodies. Life is such a miracle. It is amazing to me how a baby grows. I have no doubt in mind that my little guys were real and not just some strange creation in me that couldn't be considered real until full term. They were perfect in their own way, and perfect to me.

Margie gave this to me as a Mother's Day gift in 2006. It is such a beautiful picture and I am so thankful for her making it for me. They truly are my little angels watching down on us from Heaven. Thank you Margie for your thoughtfulness! This is a treasure to me!




My Aunt Angie made this for me the year after it happened. She had this poem just come to her one day and hurried and wrote it down. She then made the frame, cross stitched the poem and had it matted. I think it is so beautiful! It also made me cry when I saw it! Thanks Angie, I love you!

July, 8 2005

Four years ago today I lost my sweet baby boy twins, Bryson Wayne and Jameson Reed, during my sixth month of pregnancy. It is amazing how time can heal pain and loss, but at the same time, how fresh and sad the memories are. I think I am a little more sensitive right now because of my current pregnancy and especially because it is a boy. I am thankful for the gospel and the peace and comfort it brought and continues to bring to our family with their loss. I am thankful for the little angels they are! They are buried in a beautiful cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska on a hill with many other babies and children which is appropriately named Lullaby Land. It is such a peaceful and sacred place. Adam and I went there every Sunday after church the whole last year of Law School. It brought great peace to me to go there. I hope to be able to make it out there to see their grave again and I know Ammon and Lily want to go too. Ammon talks often about his brothers that are gone. It is really sweet. He is so happy to be getting a new one soon! I am thankful for eternal families.

Father's Day

So, I am a little late in making this post. but I just had to let Adam know what a great father I think he is! He is so good to our kids and they absolutely adore him. As soon as they hear the garage door open when he gets home from work they all yell, "Daddy!" and run to the garage to greet him. When we get to church on Sunday Anna always shouts an enthusiastic Daddy, as soon as she sees him too! He is always there early for meetings and I usually show up right when church is starting. So her shout out to daddy is always heard by everyone in the chapel and is met with a sweet and loving smiles. I hope you know how much we all love you Adam! He is the best at playing with the kids. He wrestles with them, jumps on the tramp with them, spins them, plays in the yard with them, rides bikes with them, chases them, and does all the fun daddy things. I always tell him that if it were up to me to provide the kids with that then they would certainly be deprived. He does his job as dad so well.

We celebrated a week early because we were going to be away from home on Father's Day. The kids all made him sweet cards and drew him a picture of why they loved him. Ammon's was about fishing with dad and Lily's was about boating. We bought him chocolate covered raisins, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Golden Grahams, new sponges to clean the cars and boat with, and some drinking glasses. I have managed to break almost every single one of our glass cups and all we had in the house was plastic and Adam likes glass, so he finally got new glasses! Hope you like them! We had one of his favorite dinners, creamy chicken enchiladas, and then of course chocolate mousse pie! It was delicious! We had fun celebrating the special day and are so happy to have a reason to celebrate it! Thanks again for being the most most amazing Daddy ever!

Recipe for Chocolate Mousse Pie (You really should try this!) This is from Adam's Mom

graham cracker crust (I usually make mine, but you can buy one)

1 pkg chocolate chips (We prefer milk chocolate, but it is also good with semi-sweet)

8 oz Cream Cheese at room temp

1 can sweetened condensed milk

8 oz container of Cool Whip

Melt chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each until all melted. Add milk and blend well, then add cream cheese and blend until smooth. Pour into crust and let set up in fridge. When set, top with cool whip and if you want grate up a few of the chocolate chips and sprinkle them on top. Enjoy!

More Utah Pics

So thanks to my sweet husband, I now have more pictures to share! Thanks for doing that Adam! You're the best!

Happy Birthday Ammon!

My sweet little Ammon is now 7 years old! We celebrated his birthday by going boating and then having a friend's family over for dinner and cake and ice cream. His birthday was Saturday June 27th and I have to say a Saturday birthday is the best! We had raspberry waffles and grape juice for breakfast, Ammon's favorite. Then he opened his presents. He got two puzzles, a Cars lunch box, some glitter paint pens, and a used bike to repair his since it got run over last month, oops! He was very excited to ride his bike again!

We played at Pyramid Lake for most of the day and Ammon had a great time driving the boat. He does a really good job at it! He doesn't want to do anything but drive. He is so cute! Grandma Margie came up and joined us at the lake and gave Ammon his presents there. Thanks for the new clothes! Grandma also got up and slalomed on her ancient, but awesome ski! Way to go!

After a great day of playing and getting sunburned, we headed home for some dragon (tri-tip) which is Ammon's most favorite dinner. We call it dragon and i think he really thinks it is dragon! It is the kind you can get from Costco that is already prepared. We like the traditional flavor. He loved his dinner, all but the shrimp. He has been begging for it for quite some time, but then he said he didn't like it. I don't know when he has had it before, but he no longer likes it, good to know. He was happy to have his friend, Brayden and his family over to enjoy dinner and cake and ice cream. He designed his cake all by himself. Well, I did it, but only exactly what he told me he wanted. It turned out really cute. He loved his lego helicopter from his friend. boy, Legos are the best toy for boys! He has built and rebuilt that thing probably five times since Sunday!

I can't believe my sweet Ammon is getting so big! I love him so much and feel so blessed to have him in our family. He is such a good boy. He is so affectionate and loving and really amazing. Thanks for being such a great boy buddy! I love you!

Boating at Folsom

We went to Sacramento a few weeks ago for a family reunion and spent five days at Folsom Lake. The kids were able to play their hearts out with their cousins. They had so much fun. Our schedule was pretty much, get up, go to the lake, play all day, come home when it got dark, eat dinner and then the kids would play in the pool and hottub. You'd think they would have been sick of the water! They wore themselves right out. They all three came down with fevers and stomach aches and sore throats by the last day, but they had already done all their playing so it was good timing. It was so fun to visit with everyone and enjoy the beautiful lake. We love boating and we love our family!

Oh, on the way down, the windshield on the boat shattered before we even got out of Reno. We made several calls to Sacramento and Reno while driving to find one and ended up turning around and coming back to Rfeno to get it replaced. It was a super-expensive fix, almost $600, but atleast we got it done and no one was hurt. Thankfully that was the most drama all week.

Busy Busy Summer!

I have more pictures on my phone but havne't taken the time to figure out how to get them on to my computer yet. My camera battery was dead for the first part of my trip so most of pics are on my phone from that. I'll add more later.
We have had a wonderful and busy summer so far! I was able to make a trip to Vegas, St. George and Utah County to see most of my friends and family! We had a great time and the kids were the best travelers ever! Our total travel time was about 23 hours spread out over 11 days and they were angels! We had no DVD's, just books and toys and they were so good! Thanks kids for being so happy so mommy could make the trip! It was real nice to see old friends and catch up, to let the kids play with their cousins and friends who they love and miss so much and to see our grandmas and grandpas! I love my family and am so thankful to them all. Thanks to everyone who let us stay in their homes and for feeding us! We all love you and miss you!
We started our trip in Vegas with a visit at Gilcrease Park, where Ammon broke his arm in November and which I don't think we had been back to since it happened, and were able to see some of our friends from our old ward. The kids had so much fun playing there. We stayed at my Aunt Margene and Uncle Bob's house while we were there and it was so nice to visit with them! I got to see Emily's new baby, Grace, and she is beautiful! Even though our visit was short, I am so glad I got see you! I hope you are all feeling better by now! Her whole family was sick with Tonsillitis so we said hi from the front porch and talked for only a few minutes. We were able to go to Ammon's old school and see his first grade class. They were all so excited when he walked into the classroom. They all yelled "Ammon," in unison. I think it made Ammon feel special. We also stopped by to see our awesome neighbors that lived across the street from us. It was fun for Lily to play with Olivia. The next morning we headed up to St. George and played in the pool at Hidden Valley where we used to live. We had some friends meet us there to play. We stayed with Keri who is the most amazing friend ever! Part of the reason I wanted to go there was to see her because they are moving away to the East Coast for five years and I don't know when I will see her again. She is such an amazing person! A quick story about her. When we moved to St. George, it was on a Wednesday and about a week before Christmas. Adam unloaded the whole truck almost by himself, we had a neighbor come over when he got home from work and helped Adam finish, thanks Dave. It took him about 12 hours. Keri came over around 5:30 and asked us if we wanted to come over for dinner. We went to her house and there were still boxes sitting around and the kitchen table wasn't even up. They had just moved in on Saturday and weren't even settled yet, but she still fed us dinner! That was the beginning of our friendship that will last forever! Keri thanks for all you did for us! We are really going to miss you guys! Friday we went to a park and met more friends from our ward there. It was really fun to play and visit. That afternoon we drove up to my mom's and enjoyed a fun weekend with her and my grandparents and some of the cousins. My mom cooked us a yummy dinner Sunday and all my siblings came over with their kids. I think that is the first time that we ever had all of us together as a family. It was great to talk about old stories and laugh and let the kids enjoy their cousins. Thanks mom for all you did!
On Monday another one of my most amazing friends drove all the way down from Price to see us. She was my neighbor in Omaha during law school. Her Sam and my Ammon are only two weeks apart and were the very best of friends. People called them Sammon. They picked right up where they had left off! Those boys are so cute! Lily, Anna and Lizzy also played well together. Aubrie thank you so much for coming all the way down to see us! You are amazing! I miss you tons!
Tuesday I went to see my sister's new home and to swim with her and her boys. Thanks for a fun day Adrienne! Your house is beautiful! I was also able to see my sweet friend from High School and college roommate, Sabrina. Thanks for letting me come by and your baby is so beautiful! I spent the next two and half days at my Grandparents and Dad's. I was able to see my aunts and cousins and spend some good time with all of my family. My dad came home with us to help me out on the drive. It was nice to have company on the ride and the kids were crazy excited about having Grandpa Wayne stay at our house for a few days. It was great to have him visit. My kids wore him out! They jumped on the tramp, played Pac Man on the Ipod, built castles, wresteled and Ammon and Grandpa had a slumber party every night. The only time Ammon sleeps in his room is when Grandpa Wayne comes to visit. They had a T-ball game the night we got back and it was freezing cold! Saturday we drove up to Tahoe in the rain and it was beautiful up there. It was actually snowing! We also took Grandpa to Scheels to ride the Ferris wheel and see all the animals. That is a fun store. On Monday night we were able to take Grandpa out on our boat up to Pyramid Lake. He and Adam wake boarded. It was a pretty night and thankfully we didn't get stuck in the storm on the lake. There was thunder and lightening and tons of rain on the drive home, but it was gorgeous at the lake! We were so happy to have you come out dad! Thanks for your help!
All in all it was a wonderful trip. The only bad thing was how much we missed Adam. It is always nice to go visit, but truly there is no place like home! The kids were so happy to be at home in their own beds and have their own toys. It was funny to see how happy Anna was to be home!

Nine Wonderful Years

Adam and I celebrated our ninth anniversary on Tuesday June 9th. I can't believe how quickly time has gone by. I am so blessed to have Adam as my husband. He is the most amazing father, husband and person. He is perfect in every way to me. I absolutely love him to pieces. I have been so amazed how love grows. I loved Adam when I married him but now I love him even more! I can't imagine how much more that love will grow over the next 10 or 30 or even 50 years. I almost cry sometimes when I think of how much I love him. Marriage is such a beautiful thing. So thank you Adam for being so wonderful and for making me so happy! I can't imagine life without you.

We celebrated the day by going to Scheel's and getting ice cream cones with the kids! It was a simple anniversary, but such a great day to remember! I am so happy to be in love with my best-friend!

Markers

Why does she insist on coloring herself?! I bought washables, but to be honest, they are not that washable. She may have blue and purple skin for a few days and some stained clothes, unless my Oxi-Clean gets it out, I love that stuff!

Build-a-dad

So, what does your five-year-old daughter do when her daddy has been out of town all week? My sweet sweet Lily built her daddy on the wall. She even traced his shoes to make it just right! She is such a thoughtful and loving little girl. We love her so much! She brings so much peace and joy into our home. Adam, we love you and miss you and can't wait for you to get back! Have a safe flight!

Spring Fun!

Drinking hot cocoa on the front porch in the snow on April 14th.

Freezing cold spring snowstorm!

The kids love to build a snowman!

Playing with the baby goats on Sunday at ward choir practice. Anna also fell out of a swing that day and landed flat on her belly, ouch! I am just glad it wasn't her head. Boy Adam and I got a laugh out of that after Anna was okay!

Jumping on our new tramp with daddy Saturday night after we finally got it set up! The kids were troopers. We bought it Friday and they couldn't wait to set it up, but we made them help us with the garage first. The garage looks great and now they have their tramp.

Anna at the kids T-ball game. She loves to mow the lawn. She kept running out into the field during the game!

Our beautiful tree! These line our whole street and they look lovely!

Anna playing in the sprinklers yesterday. Yes, only one week before they were out in the snow!

Lily decided it was too cold to get in.

We love water!

Our safety net is great! Anna can't get out or get hurt!

Jumping is so fun!

The kids play on the tramp all day!

Lily's hair is getting long enough to pull up again! Yeah! She said the other day she wished it were long again. That is the first time she has said that.

So fun!