Grief.

I've been thinking a lot the past 4 days about life, death and grief. It's hard to put in to words the feelings you have when you lose someone close to you and your loved ones. Wednesday night, our dear friend, Mike Lee, had a heart attack and died.

Mike isn't just a friend of ours, he's a husband to one of the best people I know, Lori, and an uncle to one of my closest and dearest friends, Niki. He left behind two boys, Cade and Eric who are 10 and a beautiful daughter Samantha, who's 13.

My heart truly breaks for their family. I feel like the grief I've been feeling is mostly FOR his sweet family and not for my own personal loss. I'll miss Mike for many reasons: his ability to make me smile and giggle every time I saw him, his amazing love and care for his daughter who is severly handicapped, the way he always would drop whatever he was doing to play with kids and even act just like them and his strength and support he always provided for Lori. I've observed him as a husband, father and uncle.

What I'm mostly grieving for though, is the loss that his children, wife and family are going through. I know that their lives will never be the same and they'll have a long and hard road in front of them. Seeing my dear friends in such pain is so hard to watch, yet I'm grateful that they have many people surrounding them to show love and support.

I've been thinking a lot about my own family and relationships. It's interesting how death opens up your eyes and makes you focus more on the things in life that matter most. It's also a little sad that it takes the death of a loved one to remind us how short life can be and how grateful we ought to be on a daily basis for life itself and those who we love.

I'm very grateful today for the knowledge I have of eternity. For the knowledge that this life doesn't end at death and that someday we will see the ones who go before us. I love the gospel. I love my own eternal family. I love that at the end of the day, even a day as hard as this, I can have peace and comfort in my heart knowing that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and blesses me.

Cute Cousins and other stuff

I've been meaning to blog for over a week now, but it seems like we've just been so busy. Every time I get on the computer to blog, I end up getting sidetracked with work and then it's 11pm.....but hey, work is picking up and getting busy so that's good! The rush of people realizing the first time home buyer tax credit is expiring soon has begun! Yay for me :)

I'm very happy that we had some storms the past two weeks to clear out the awful inversion. We've had some pretty snow and blue skies....perfect for daddy and Addie to get out and wash my car! Addie loooves to be a "helper" these days, and really really loves being a helper when it involves being outside.



We got to watch Beckam for the day a couple of weeks ago and Addie liked having a buddy around..... One reason Aunt Jenny rocks- Sugar Cookies :)
The kids liked being able to put sprinkles on their cookies and then enjoyed eating them (well the frosting in Addie's case)

Our cousin Jen was in town for Christmas and she brought her cute little girl Mia over a couple days before they left to try and get some pictures of her with her cousins.....well taking pictures of a toddler and two infants is tricky, so here's the best we could do.




My sister-in-law Melissa, who's 32 weeks pregnant, had an emergency appendectomy on Saturday...no fun! Her cute little Deacon got to come over today while she recovers in the hospital. Addie likes having other little kids around and had fun playing with him....who wouldn't....isn't he a cutie?


One Reason Uncle Jed Rocks.


Deacon had a sleepover with us tonight. The kids had a bath then Deacon requested we all play on the stairs in jammies before bed.
Look at Addie adoring him :)

Well that's about all I can remember from the past couple of weeks. I can't believe how fast January has flown by! We still have a lot more winter to get through, so all you other cousins and friends out there who we haven't seen- bring on the play dates!

Addie's Birthday and Birthday Party

Addie turned the big 2 on Friday and we celebrated all weekend. The night before her birthday, we decorated the dining room with some balloons and princess paper. Daddy made sure to get her a special sprinkle birthday donut to have for breakfast. She was most excited about the donut....girl after her mommy's heart.


We really could have just gotten her a donut and balloons and she'd be set for the day.... and yes, yes my child IS wearing a little crown on her head. She wore it all day on her birthday and to her party. Hey, if it was socially acceptable, I'd wear one on my birthday ;)


Jed and I took her to the Treehouse Museum to play and then to lunch. She had fun playing and wore herself out, then took a nap (I SO want to have a 2-year-old birthday schedule...)

Jed left with his dad and brother later in the day to go to Vegas till the next night for CES, so we went out with Dawn and my sister-in-laws to celebrate. We went to Pizzaria and had some yummy pizza, and of course Addie's favorite part was the ice cream.




Me and my sweetie pie....note me looking happy to be there and her just focused on her ice cream. Ha ha

We went to Grammy Dawn's afterwards and had a sleepover. She opened some presents from Dawn and Ashley. She loved this cute vacuum! It cracked me up that she got all excited about new cute boots too. Most kids are like, oh grrreat clothes...., but Addie said "Oh boots! Cute!" Seriously love her. So my kid


Party Time!

Sunday, we had a party at Grammy and Grandpa Rees's house. She had a blast and got some fun gifts. I made some yummy cupcakes for the occasion (supposed to look like sundaes)


Addie loves a party and had sooo much fun.


We sure loved partying with this little princess of ours. She was ready to crash by the time we left....look at her zoned look in the car ride home. She jabbered the whole way home though about EVERYTHING. Who was there, what she did, about having a cupcake and opening presents.....kept asking herself questions that she'd answer. "Did you have a cupcake? Was it good?.... yes"


Thanks so much to everyone who celebrated with us and for all the love and support you've all given us and Addie the past two years. She is the joy of our lives and we are so blessed that she's got so many people who love her dearly in her life!

2 Years old, really?!

I'm not sure how we went from this


To this


To this


But yep- we've got a two year old girl! Happy Birthday Addie boo! We love you the most and are so happy that you've been in center of world for the past two years!

Out with '09....In with 2010

Well last year at this time I came up with the slogan, It's all gonna be fine in '09 Looking back, I'm just going to say, yup it was fine :) Fine isn't great and isn't horrible right? We've had a lot of trials and hard times this year, but also many blessings and much happiness in our little family. I'm amazed how much Addie has grown in a year and I can't believe she'll be two this week! I think 2010 is going to be a great year-- I feel like many people in our life have struggled the past couple of years, but I'm confident that if we all keep pluggin' away and keep positive things will get better. So here's to 2010!

We celebrated the new year by going to the New Year's Eve party at the Treehouse Museum with Emily, Grady and Taylor and my mom. Boy did I UNDERESTIMATE how many people would be there.... ummmm I've NEVER seen a line at all to get in there.

It was a cute idea though, just too crowded for it to be enjoyed very much. They counted down till noon, rather than midnight, and gave the kids all bags with noise makers and M&M's. We also made party hats whilst there....and yep no picture of the kids, because I really couldn't get any. Too. Many. People I think the kids still had fun....although Addie mostly just ran around and eventually just laid down in the middle of the floor with a look like, Um I'm done with this Haha, poor kid.

We celebrated that evening at Blake and Kacey's house with Jed's siblings. It was fun to hang out, put the kid to bed and play games. Jed made a delicious turkey too! I hope that you all have a great year and I'm saying that We'll all have zen in 2010! :)

Addie has decided that she LOVES playing in the snow. She got a new snow coat for Christmas from her papa and was so excited the other evening to go out and play with daddy after work. Her new snow-related obsession is making snow angels. This was one of her first attempts. She's got it down pretty well now and will also do them inside on the carpet at random. Oh I love her