Five Beautiful Blessings Between Heaven & Earth

"Aaron please sit down" "How did you know I wasn't sitting down???" "Because I'm a mommy." "Do you have eyes all over your head?" "Yep!" "I have 6 hundred eyes!" "Nope you only have two." "Then how come YOU have 6 hundred eyes?" "Because I'm a Mommy that's why." "Ahh." Already I can see the wheels spinning.

Since Heaven has become your home I sometimes feel I'm so alone; and though we now are far apart you hold a big piece of my heart. I never knew how much I'd grieve when it was time for you to leave, or just how much my heart would ache from that one fragment you would take. God lets this tender hole remain reminding me we'll meet again, and one day all the pain will cease when He restores this missing piece. He'll turn to joy my every tear and when I hold this token near, it will become my special way to treasure our Reunion Day.

This is Bridgett, This is Bridgett's new hat This is Bridgett giving the evil eye to anyone who tries to "touch" her new hat. A friend of mine made this darling hat for Bridgett and she LOVES it! We do have a little bit of drama when i make her take it off at night and for bath time. But then all is well when she gets to put it back on. Thanks Michelle! She love it!

Today Colette would have been 3 months old. Mom always says that its' just another day, that she is not anymore missed on this day than another other day, and while that is true, it's very hard to not think of the things Aaron and Bridgett were doing at three months and wonder if Colette would be doing those same things. I miss Colette so much but if someone were to ask me if I would rather it not have happened at all, I would have to say no!. Because then she would not be a part of our family. And I can't imagine our family without our Aaron and our Bridgett and our Colette. Though she was only with us for a short time she has taught us so much and blessed our lives in so many ways. We talk about her constantly. We love her and we are so proud of her. If only we can be as valiant in this life as she was in the pre-existence. The whole time I was pregnant with Colette I really felt that Colette should be her name. Before I got pregnant I thought for sure if it wa...

Colette's headstone is finally in place. As far as headstones go, I think we did pretty good. It would be better to not have needed one. But we didn't have much of a choice with that so I'm just grateful that it's there now, that everyone can see how much she is loved and missed and that we still consider her a part of our family.

Happy Birthday to my Aaron! Today He is 6 years old. I'm not sure how he got so old, It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital and Dusty was driving about 30 miles on the freeway, not wanted to go faster because of our new precious cargo! And now he's 6. I thought today I would write a few things down that make Aaron so special. Aaron is kind to everyone. He is loving, he notices and cares about people's feelings. He is the best big brother either of his two sisters could ask for. He plays with Bridgett all the time and has a great time with her. He is very patient with her and often ends up giving her what he wants just to make her happy. He is very wise. He says things all the time that end up teaching me, probably more then I actually teach him. Aaron give the best hugs you will ever get. He loves to play outside. He love Kindergarten, and playing games with his parents and grandparents. Some of his favorite games are Can...

Today was Aaron's Family Birthday Party, I think he had a great time, he told me later today that "it was a great party Mommy!" He of course had to have a batman decorations and cupcakes, He is really into batman these days. Wasn't it just yesterday he was so into Thomas the Train? Where does the time go? I was not really sure how to do batman cupcakes, so I did the best I could and this is what I came up with. He of course had a great time opening all his presents, And here is Bridgett showing off Aaron's new batman sheets Poor Bridgett it was not the best morning for her, I made the mistake of frosting the cupcakes this morning first before I cleaned the downstairs bathroom. From that point on I had to list to my little banshee wail and moan and scream about wanting a cupcake. She is my little sugar nymph and it was apparently not fair of me to frost them in front of her and then put them on the table and not give her one. You would have thought the ...

Today I took Aaron out of school and we took a vacation day, We meet some friends at Hee Haw Farm and I think everyone had a great day! We ended up being there for 4 hours, The kids had a great time. There were pony rides, hay rides, a petting zoo with the cutest baby lambs you ever did see. (they were the only thing that Bridgett would actually touch, probably because they were the only things that were smaller than her.) They had some great slides that Aaron loved but Bridgett was not quite brave enough to try (they were really steep) some swings and even some sandboxes. Oh and lest we forget the trampoline that was covered with hay. The children loved that as well. We had sun screen on but Bridgett and I still got a little to much sun. Guess she and I need to reapply more. Anyway we had a wonderful time, it was a beautiful day and it felt great to get out and play.

On Sunday we went for a walk to go visit Baby Colette, When we got home we had a message from Grandma Cindy, she was trying to get a hold of us before church and since we never got back before she had to leave for church she left us the message that Dad was the new Bishop of their ward. She knew that a lot of the people he worked with in the Stake were in our ward and would already know before we would and she didn't want us to have to find out from them. To my surprise my Aaron's little 5 year old ears were listening and as soon as the message was over he looked at me and said "Bishop Grandpa????" we all laughed and said well yes for you but for everyone else he will be just Bishop. Anyway we just want to wish Dad good luck! We know he will be a WONDERFUL Bishop, and will be able to help so many people :) And good luck to Mom too, your welcome to join us for dinner any night that Dad has meetings.

My wall in the Piano room is finally finished! So what do you think?

The other day I decided to get started on my new valances for the kitchen and dining room. Luckily I bought the material wile we were still pregnant with Colette. So now have a project to do that is free! :) I like free. Anyway this is the first time I have actually made a Valance, It took me a few hours just because I had to walk myself through each step several times to make sure I was doing it right and figure out the math right but one is done! And here we have the before and after picture. The old balances came with the house and once I took down the wall paper in the kitchen and repainted it the way I wanted it, they actually matched. But I didn't realize how much I didn't really like them until I put up the new one. I love that it add some darkness and green to my mostly yellow and white kitchen. I can't wait until they are all done.

Lately I have been filling some of my time with making blankets to donate to the bereavement councilor at AF Hospital. The blankets range in size the smallest being 20"x20" up to 45"x45". Imagine not only loosing your baby but then not having a warm blanket to snuggle them in one last time. And trust me when you loose your baby, that blanket means the world to you, and you treasure it forever. Some people don't ever even wash them because it's the one last connection they have to their baby. Colette's blankets are very special to me and I will treasure them forever. I can't stop someone else from loosing their baby, That is in the Lords hands, but I can offer some comfort when it does happen. So you can often find me these days, picking up flannel from this fabric store or that, and working on blankets in my time that I thought I would spend caring for and loving my Baby Colette. A few people have donated fabric, money, or a baby blanket...

Dusty and I found this darling newborn outfit in the Mall on one of our Date nights. It was a little pricy but I just had to buy it to donate it in Colette's Memory to AF hospital. I knew that if she was still alive she would look darling in it. And I hope that it will bring a little comfort to someone who looses a baby girl to have something beautiful to dress her in one last time.

A few days ago I joined the Pound for Pound challenge. It's a great way to loose a few lbs and help someone else in the process. For every pound you loose they give a lb of food to the nearest food bank. Our nearest is in Salt Lake. I signed up to commit to loose 50 Lbs. I will have to let you know how it goes, But there are a few more weeks left that you can sign up if your interested. Go to www.thebiggestloser.com and click on the lb for lb challenge. It's quick and easy and does some good for you and for others.

The Daisy will forever remind us of our Beautiful Colette. The flower just seemed to fit her. I found these two poems today and I loved them so much I thought I should share them both. The Legend of the Dasiy The Creator looked down. All over earth He saw parents whose hearts were heavy. they had lost the littlest of His creatures, their precious children. He saw their tears and heard their silent prayers. He sent to earth a special flower... a flower that would be just for them. He scattered this little flower far and wide... in gardens and in fields, along roads and paths, in bright sunlit pastures and into the darkest corners. The Creator sent these saddened parents the daisy, a little flower to be watered with their tears. The daisy symbolized the soul of their children. It's bright white petals represented their purity and innocence; the green of its leaves, the promise and hope for brighter days to come. The daisy thrived everywhere. It stretched its bright face toward Hea...

Today was Easter Sunday, It started very early since both the Children were very excited to find their Easter baskets and the little plastic eggs that the Easter bunny had hidden for them. Aaron got some seeds in his Easter basket, Some how the Easter bunny knew that he is so excited to plant the garden this year and watch it grow. And Bridgett got some rings and bracelets, here she is in the above photos showing off her new "bling bling" I love it when Conference is held on Easter Sunday. It does not happen very often but I love to hear all the wonderful talks on the Resurrection. This year it seemed like conference was written just for us, To help comfort our broken hearts and missing our Colette. A lot of the talks were about how to over come the death of a loved one and some even talked about loosing babies. It was beautiful. Just another blessing and testimony to us that Heavenly Father is so mindful of us and our grief. That while taking Colette back home...

We finally got Colette's headstone ordered, I'm so glad to have it done. Every time I go to visit her little grave it feels so unfinished without a headstone. So I'm happy to have that done. We had a little book we could choose from but none of them were really what we wanted so I ended up designing one for her. And the above is what I came up with. Hopefully it will be done in the next month. When it is I will of course take a photo.

Ok so I've been a bad Mommy and with everything that happened with the kids being so sick before Christmas and then the mad rush for Christmas and then Everything that happened with Colette. I just realized the other day that Bridgett is now 2 and a half and we had yet to get her 2 year photos done. And of course lately the last thing I have felt like doing is picking up my camera, setting up the lights and trying to get my 2 year old to cooperate and "smile" so I took her to get her photos done, and this is what we got. Pretty cute she is if I do say so myself!