Family

On Sunday, March 4th, very early in the morning, Sean's grandma passed away from this life. She was an amazing woman that was very loved by her family & was very loving to her family.
Here she is with Sean & Sam, holding Joey.


That next weekend, Friday the 9th, there was a funeral service held for her in Mesa, & all of Sean's cousins, aunts & uncles came to remember their mother & grandmother. Sean was asked to give the plan of salvation talk during the service & he did a wonderful job. He expressed the way that his grandma lived as an example to her family & shared his thoughts that she would want all of her family to perform their labors in living the gospel properly to return to be with our Father in Heaven. After the service, the relief society arranged a nice luncheon & their family were able to be with each other & reminisce on memories they shared.

Tiffany & Bethany

Tiffany & Thomas watching a video of pictures of their grandma's life.


Sean's aunt Elaine, mom, & aunt Kathy


Justin, Tiffany, Shannon, Thomas, Sean & Ben


the luncheon


Uncle Jeff with the kids
Joey & uncle Jeff
David & Sam
Hannah & Lyla


Joey was exhausted & pooped out on the way back from the service.




I've always thought it is kind of sad that it takes a big event, like death, to bring families together. Lives are busy & too often, we aren't able to get together like we wish we could. It was very nice to spend time with family for a few days.

Goodbye

This will be brief, because I am tired, but had to write a few thoughts.
Today we celebrated Sean's grandmas life by paying her tribute as her life has just ended. So many emotions and thoughts ran through my head today. I saw Grandma laying there, her spirit gone to be with the Father again, and thought of my own life & what I am doing with it. It was a sad day, remembering what was. But a glorious day also, thinking of how I can make my life the best I can, to make sure I am with the ones I love forever. I felt small today when thinking of the eternities, but big too when thinking of God's love for me. I am truly grateful for a knowledge of my Savior Jesus Christ, & a sure knowledge that I can be with him, & my loved ones through the atonement & repentance.

Day trip

Last Saturday, we hopped in the car in the late morning & decided to take a drive. We packed in a few minutes & were out the door! Driving towards Globe & kept going on towards the Salt River Canyon. There is a spot just a bit before the canyon begins that has an amazing beauty. There are views right down the canyon into the river & the river trickles along in spots before it joins up down the canyon. Everytime we go there I just can't believe how beautiful it is!!!



It is down in a little rougher terrain, so we parked the car & hiked down. It was not a difficult hike, but with a 3 1/2 year old & 18 month old, its another story!! They were definitely worn out when we were done!
Sam found some leaves on the ground & we watched some still drifting down from some pretty beautiful trees :)
There is a small area where there is a damn & a bit of water that, of course, needs many rocks thrown into!








On the hike in, Sam ran up to with a "cactus banana". Very shortly thereafter, he realized the prickers in his hand were not too pleasant & we had to explain that cactus give off flowers, not bananas.. & the do not touch rule still applies.

and every single picture came from my new phone. We were about into Gold Canyon when I realized that I left my memory card in the computer & that my camera was useless for the day. I was pretty unhappy. Sean reminded me I had a camera on my phone.. but it dosn't take pictures like mine does. Oh well.. I still have some memories now!
It was a great & relaxing day to play around as a family & I'm grateful for days like that.

I was at work this week when I saw a young 12-ish year old patient. She comes in every 3 months because she is in braces & has HORRIBLE brushing habits. Her gums are so fire red & horrible. No matter how many times I lecture her, she comes back every 3 months the same. When I took her up to the waiting room afterwards, I called her mom in to talk to her about the visit & what needs to be worked on. The mom proceeded to tell me how she just can't be responsible for her kids anymore! To an extent, I understand that children need to learn lessons on their own, BUT- she continued on about how she has been gone the past 3 weeks with work & dosn't even have time to talk to the kids on the phone because of the time difference & then told me how she just dosn't have time to make sure they are doing their homework, or brushing their teeth. Hmm... I was actually listening to her in the beginning, but then I couldn't even hear what she was saying, I was just thinking about how badly I felt for her & her family. How could you just NOT have time for the most important things to you? Apparently work was more important. Is that what really is going to matter in the end? If you installed that networking system properly for that facility, or if you spend time with your family & actually be a mom. I always feel badly that I work & am not always home for the boys, but until Sean is done with school, this is just us for now...
Last night we watched a dateline special on foster children & children who are "aged out" of the system. They said they account for 30% of the nations homeless. It broke my heart. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a mom.. & a good one too. Sometimes I beat myself up for not being that perfect woman, but I'm trying my hardest & I know my boys will grown up to be amazing men! I always find comfort in these words...

"There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family. Many are able to be “full-time moms,” at least during the most formative years of their children’s lives, and many others would like to be. Some may have to work part-or full-time; some may work at home; some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else." Elder M. Russell Ballard.

Some days...

Ever have on of those days?
The kind of day where everything seems to go wrong & you feel like going to sleep for the night, but dinner still hasn't happened yet?
Today was one of those days. It's funny, cause it wasn't that bad for most of it, it just seemed to end that way. Even though when I got home, Sean had cleaned up (including mopping the floor) & the kids were semi-happy. Joey has had a fever the past 2 days & last night we didn't get to bed til 11:30ish. when he woke up with what seemed to be a hysterical nightmare at 3:30 & I didn't get back to bed til around 5 & had to wake up at 5:30 to get ready for work.. I had to understand by the end of the day that no-sleep was gonna catch up!! Poor Joey.. today his temperature was alot milder & it didn't require medication at all during the day. I've spent the last 2 days working & calling or texting home every spare minute about how my baby was doing.
Tonight Sean went to visit his family & saw the signs that I needed some alone time. I'm lucky to have such an amazing husband who looks out for me. I spent the night playing words with friends, watching tv, eating graham crackers with frosting, & taking a bath.
blessings counted.

In Case you didn't know...

I love to take pictures :) So much that I started a blog to make myself figure out new ways to use my camera. Take a peek... HERE :)

New Years

The boys got a big bucket of blocks from great grandma for Christmas & Sean has enjoyed playing with it probably as much as they have. There are blocks all over, all the time now!!!
New Years Eve we hung out at my sisters house a for awhile & then headed home. I ran to the store & then we watched the ball drop with the kids asleep on the couches. That night was pretty rough. Joe caught a nasty cold that kept him up several nights with a high temperature. That night was the beginning.
The next day we were all exhausted & pretty much sat around the house in & out of sleep.
Joe loves to pick at his brother as he sleeps...

and LOVES to "fix" things at the tool bench
and couldn't get enough of staring at himself in the mirror when we hadn't hung it yet.

Since our day had been lazy, we took a drive out into the dessert just to get out of the house a little. I started my New Years resolution of taking a picture every day and started posting them on a new BLOG.





when I met Sean I gained the appreciation of finding beauty in the desert that I never really had before.
We closed the night by hanging out with family. My sister who was visiting was leaving the next day & I wanted to see them one last time.
Here is Brig, who is the cutest, most chub baby ever that I want to squeeze!!!


jookies

Phily too

I desperately tried all night to get some pictures of Adam, Sam, Hyrum & Joe..not too successful!
I love this picture.. Sam being a troublemaker.. Adam looks like he is gonna lose it!
Joey tried all night to destroy Phil & Melissa's house, piece by piece.. ornament by ornament... have I ever mentioned how much they LOVE when we come over :)

Picture of the family together ( minus Tam & Wendi)

The holidays were fun... mostly. The past 2 nights with Sam have become repeats of Joe the week prior & I'm beginning to think our ward thinks we are inactive. Minus all the throw ups & colds that we've been dealing with- we had a good holiday season :)

Christmas

I had to put the cutest picture ever in here...
that little boy is a mini-Sean! This was Christmas Eve just as everyone was starting to get ready to settle down for the night.

We left cookies out for Santa because Sammy fell asleep before he could- but we couldn't forget since he spent the afternoon making them!
Mommy spent the night wrapping presents that should have been done a long time before that!

The next morning, Santa left the boys an awesome tool bench!!





It was complete with a measuring tape & a flashlight for each of the boys. They LOVED it :)

The boys also got a pretty absurd amount of guns for Christmas & I didn't realize it til the presents were opened & I was ambushed with lots of "bullets"
Only down side to Christmas... halfway through opening presents, while he was sitting in my lap, Joe started throwing up. Yuck!!! Not the best Christmas on record. Needless to say, church didn't happen that day.
Later on in the afternoon we went over to Sean's moms house to open presents. The boys got some great blocks & skates & cars & guns... everything boys love :)
that evening Sean's sister & brothers came & helped us eat an amazing prime rib that Sean smoked. It was sooo good! twice baked potatoes, rolls, sparkling cider.. perfect!!
We closed the day by seeing Sean's dad who gave the boys some little cars.
These boys made out like bandits!
It was a fun week. We got to spend lots of time with family & friends. Minus the sickness that then spread to Sam the very next day & the colds that are running their course now.. good times :)