A couple of sweet gifts

I wanted to quickly post about a package I received in the mail yesterday. It really touched me deeply. My sweet niece Susie sent me one of the kindest most amazing letter. It will definitely be something I will always cherish. I'm not going to share what she wrote but I have to say it was some of the sweetest and most kind things anyone could say. Her letter will definitely be kept in a safe place and read many more times. She also sent me a few things with the letter. Some pictures of what she had done along with an ornament she had made for Wyatt's tree.

She told me about how she had given a talk about me and Wyatt for her Young women's and excellence night. She talked about faith and told about Wyatt and me. I don't even know how to express how much that meant to me that she would do this. She enclosed in her letter some of the sweet things she had said in her talk. Something I will always cherish. So, Susie. thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will be forever grateful to you for the kindness you have shown.

For me one of the greatest things someone can do is to remember my son. To hear about how what we have been through has helped someone else in some way is such a tender mercy for me. It always does my heart good when I hear how our story has affected someone for good. As a mother I also feel like I need to keep his memory alive so when someone else does that for me it's one of the greatest gifts I can be given.

After the Young women's and excellence night she wrote on a balloon and sent it up into the "starry night sky" in memory of Wyatt. What a sweet tender mercy for me. Here are a couple of the pictures she sent me. She also made an ornament for Wyatt's tree. On the package that had Wyatt's ornament on it she had attached a cute little butterfly that I put on his tree as well. They will be a sweet reminder of the kindness shown to me by a 14 year old young lady. An amazingly mature and sensitive young lady. Thanks again Susie. I think YOUR amazing and I'm so grateful that I get to be your Aunt. I continue to marvel at this new generation that is coming up. They seem to be more sensitive and understanding than most. I have other nieces and nephews and young women in my ward that have shown such kindnesses and sensitivity towards me. There is something extra special about this rising generation. I truly believe they have been saved for these last days because of the incredible valiant spirits that they are. I'm so blessed to have them in my life. What a tender mercy they have been to me. I have much to be grateful for. Thanks again Susie...I will always remember what you have done for me. I LOVE the ornament you made for his tree. It's just perfect!

Another tender mercy that I received this last week was the 12 days of Christmas from my kindred spirit. She sent me cards this week with the kindest most amazing words in them. They will also be something I will cherish all my life. I'm so grateful for my kindred spirit and all she has done for me. I don't know what I would have done without having someone that truly understood me, my heart and the ache that I feel. Thank you Jen!!

Merry Christmas!

(Not the best quality...a picture of a picture isn't the greatest)

Merry Christmas to everyone from us. Here is our Christmas card this year. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. We as a family continue to be beyond grateful to our Savior Jesus Christ. We are so grateful for the HOPE he gives us that we will be with our Wyatt someday and that we will get to hold and love him again. He truly is the reason for the season!

I have sooooo much to blog about but haven't had a chance because of a few factors. We have been busy enjoying the season and doing our bags. The kids have been extra busy with concerts, performances etc. Also, Tyler is working on a Christmas present for me of putting all our home videos on DVD including all the home video we have of Wyatt. I can't even express how grateful I am to him for doing this for me. We have spent a lot of time the past few days watching videos and laughing and crying. I can't watch any video of Wyatt without crying. We continue to miss him. I'm grateful for the memories I did capture on film and they will be cherished all our lives. So, needless to say the computer has been occupied with burning all these videos. Hopefully after Christmas I can catch up with my bogging. Until then I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

This is something I added to our Christmas decor and gave to a few friends this year.

You can download a copy here. All you do is print it up and put it in a frame. Love it! Merry Christmas!

Wyatt's tree..butterflies

Yesterday these two beautiful butterflies come in the mail from D's Mom and Dad. Love them. So grateful for each and every ornament for Wyatt's tree. These fit in so well with all the other amazing butterflies on Wyatt's tree. They are perfect. Thanks!!
I love how glittery and shiny they are.
Love his tree and what it means to each of us. Thank you again everyone!

Wyatt's tree

As I've said before Wyatt's tree is truly a tree of love and that love has come from so many of you. Every year now when we put up his tree we think of each person that has given us an ornament. It's always a very emotional thing for me. My heart is ALWAYS full of deep gratitude for so many wonderful people in our life. Some I have never even met in person but their kindness and thoughtfulness will always have a place in my heart.

This year was extra emotional for me. The tears start to flow as soon as his little hat was put on top of the tree. Oh, how we miss him. I had Em and Hay help me with each and every ornament. I explained each ornament to them and where they came from. I cried through the whole thing.

I asked Hay if she knew why I had bought all the little stars for the tree and she didn't know. I told her about our shooting star moments especially this one that gave me the idea to do this tree in memory of Wyatt. We talked about how merciful Heavenly Father is to us if we are willing to look for those tender mercies in our lives. We talked about all our butterfly moments and how Wyatt loves us and is aware of our family. It was a very special morning with me and my girls. Next year I'm going to make sure D and Ty are there to help so they can enjoy the spirit of this tree a little bit more. It will definitely be a new family tradition we do together. Thank you to everyone that has given us ornaments for his tree. They will truly be cherished for the rest of our lives.

Here is the newest addition to his tree from a sweet neighbor. Love it...everything about it. Love that it's blue and that you can see a rainbow in it. Perfect! Thanks to everyone!

25 bags

I love surprising my kids. The other night after our nightly ritual of reading a Christmas book and prayer I said "go get in the car" instead of the usual "go get in bed." The look on their faces was priceless. They said "are you serious mom?" Yes, I am. So, we went and enjoyed the Christmas lights around our neighborhood. Love the house that has put their lights to music. It's like a firework show. LOVE IT!!

I started something new this year and I'm recording it here so I remember it for next year. I found this idea on the internet and thought I would give it a try. It's the count down to Christmas bags. You are suppose to open one bag a day until Christmas but since our life can be extra crazy on certain days, I decided that we will do the bags when we can and if it means we do 3 on a day that is fine. Most of them are things we already do at Christmas time like watch a movie together or make cookies but this has but a fun twist on it and I think the kids have enjoyed it. I decided to wait to put the bag together right before I give it to the kids so that it fits with the moment and time frame we have. I printed up all the ideas and bought the items for certain activities and just quickly slip them into the bag. Some of the things we have already done are making these cookies together.
They were delish!! We ended up taking some to a few friends.
Decorating a gingerbread house that our home teacher gave to Hayley for her birthday.
That was lots of fun. We also went and decorated Wyatt's grave with Christmas decorations. That is always a hard reality check. Wish so badly we were not doing that and that he was here with us enjoying all the things we do at this time of year. Wish we were thinking of what to get our 3 year old. Again reality is hard sometimes. Forgot my camera to take a picture but his grave is very decorated!

We have watched one of our favorite movies "The Muppet Christmas story." Such a fun movie! Some days it's just a small little treat or dinner by candle light with our Christmas drink. Just little things to create some memorable moments as a family. For me it has to be simple or it won't get done. The tags were on the internet and I just had to print them up and cut them out. Then I brainstormed for a minute and printed up the different activities. At the end of the season we will see if this is something the kids want to continue for next year or not. I think so far it's been a hit. They have asked each day when they can open a bag. Thought I would share this idea in case someone else out there wants to try it out. Click here for the 25 cards to print up. :) I also decided if we didn't get to all 25 things then that's ok. At least we have tried and have done some fun things together.

Happy Birthday Ty!

Happy Birthday to our 14 year old. Seriously can't believe he is that old. We are so grateful for him and the part he plays in our family. He is truly such and amazing young man and D and I feel so blessed to have this incredible teenager in our home. We love you Ty!!! It should be a good day. We have some fun stuff planned and for a teenage boy when food is involved that makes it even better. "Let's Celebrate!!!"

Thanksgiving 2010

I really love Thanksgiving. I feel there is great power in being grateful and I have learned that power and it's affects this past year but especially in the past 3 months. I will make a separate post about what I've learned later but wanted to post some pictures from our Thanksgiving day.

This is the first year we have ever done our own Thanksgiving dinner with just our little family. It ended up being a very special day. I set a place for Wyatt like I do at Christmas time. I enjoy being able to do that at least a few times a year. It helps remind us of our eternal family and that Wyatt is still apart of our family here. We just can't see him with our physical eyes but he IS with us. There is an empty chair at our table which is still very hard to accept but we look forward to the day when there will be no empty chairs. When we can finally sit down together around our eternal table with everyone there.

We had the usually turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, veggies and pies and it was delicious. Before we ate our meal we had 5 M&M's next to our plates. We went around the table 5 times and we each told of the things we were most grateful for. By the end I had tears running down my face and I wasn't the only one teary eyed. Those few moments will always be a memory I will cherish. I have been blessed with an incredible husband! We all miss our little Wyatt so much but we are grateful for the knowledge we have that he will be ours again someday.

It was fun for me to make Thanksgiving name tags and to do cute napkins.

We got our turkey hats out. We haven't used them since the thanksgiving that Wyatt was with us. I decided this year it was time to bring them back.


An extra special part of our table setting are these goblets. This was the first time we have used them. They are my grandmas and are about 85 years old. It was fun to talk about them and where they came from during our dinner. Wyatt's middle name is Lewis after his great grandfather...where these goblets came from. They were a wedding gift from 85 years ago. It's going to be wonderful on each of these special dinners to have a part of them with us.

Aren't they just beautiful? There are two different designs. Grapes and leaves. I love them!

And to finish off our Thanksgiving post I just need to post a few of the pictures I took 3 years ago when Wyatt was just a few months old. Some of them are blurry but I love them because they show what JOY he brought into our life and how truly missed he is.

Oh how we miss that laugh and smile...

and those uncertain looks he would give as the flash would go off.

What a JOY!

I know I've said this before but I had no idea that day when I took these pictures of Wyatt in his cute little hat that they would be used just a few months later for his obituary. It's unbelievable...simply unbelievable. I remember very distinctively that morning getting him dressed and how cute he looked in his new little overalls and his cute hat. That's why I took these picture. Emily and I had picked this outfit out before he was born. It was still a little too big on him but we were both excited to be able to dress him in it.
We love our Wyatt. We miss our Wyatt. We are grateful for those 5 1/2 months we got to enjoy him.

Hayley's birthday

Hayley had a fun birthday. She woke up, got ready for the day and had her requested birthday breakfast..."birthday breakfast cake." She then got to open her presents from family and extended family. She was thrilled with everything she got. She is so blessed to have such wonderful people in her life. She then went to school where her dad came and read her favorite book...."Duck on a Bike." After school we took her out for her birthday lunch. She chose my favorite "Outback". She wished they would have sung happy birthday to her but they did give her a bowl of ice cream. She then wanted to go shopping and get a couple of things with her birthday money. We then came home and had a pizza party while watching a Barbie movie. To finish off her day she had and ice cream sundae and we sang happy birthday to her. I still can't believe my little ray of sunshine is 6 years old now. We as a family are so grateful she is a part of our forever family. We love you Hay bug!

Breakfast Cake
Waiting before she could open up her presents.

Present time...she was soooo beyond excited!

Gift from Wyatt. I found these two things a pillow and a ring and knew they were for her and that Wyatt would like her to have them.

Cooking set from an aunt and uncle.

Mermaid from aunt, uncle and cousins.

$$$$...she was so excited to go and pick out a Zhu, Zhu pet track and a play dough set. The rest went to pay tithing and into savings. Thanks everyone for the gifts!

Ice Cream Cone Party

Look who's turning 6 years old... and her mom let her have an "Ice Cream" birthday party. Can you see the shock in her face???
The invites



Off to deliver them. I scream, you scream we all scream for ice cream.
Party prep...
Learned how to make these festive balls here.
One excited birthday girl.



Ice cream cone cupcakes..directions found here.

Wrapped them up for a thank you favor for the girls to take home to eat.



Candy for the Sundae Bar

Ice cream cone sacks


Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream...CONE. (Duck, duck goose)
Pin the Cherry on top.
And of course there had to be a Sundae bar.
And a cupcake for the birthday girl.

All in all I think she had a wonderful birthday party. I posted lots of pictures and a few links just in case someone out there wants some ideas. Along with the above activities we had a screaming contest(and it was loud!) and we played a cake walk game. I also let them decorate cupcakes to eat and then they got to go through the sundae bar. They got some candy and a couple of ice cream cone erasers in the bags they decorated along with the chocolate covered cone and an ice cream bowl they ate their ice cream in. It was a fun day and hopefully a memorable one for our sweet Hayley. Tomorrow is her actual birthday. I'm still in shock that she could actually be 6 years old. It seems like yesterday when we she was born. What a joy she has been to us. A gift from heaven. It took us a long time and some heart ache before we got her here. So, we have enjoyed every minute we have had with her. What a blessing she is to us. We love you Hayley! We are so thankful you are in our life.