Festival of Trees

I attended the Festival of Trees bid night tonight. Samuel's tree display was so wonderful. I loved it! I cried, of course. He probably never would have had a bedroom like that in real life. I spent the evening with Trissa Peleschka and her husband Wolfe, her daughter Rachel, and my good friend (Trissa's youngest daughter) Katie Nicholson. Katie and I met at Primary Children's when her baby spent 3 weeks there with RSV during the same time Sam was there. Trissa donated the tree, and she and Rachel put it all together. I am glad that Primary Children's Medical Center will benefit from this, so that they can continue to help children get better. I know they wanted to make Samuel well too. I saw my friend Rosann there with her mother also. I am still amazed at how Samuel's sweet face draws people to him. The woman who bought his tree burst into tears when I told her that Samuel passed away. People are so kind, and it means a lot to me that they care.

14 Years

I am so late getting this posted. November 18th was our 14th wedding anniversary. I was thinking back to that day and wishing my pictures were not in storage so that I could put some on this blog. We got married in the Jordan River Temple. It was FREEZING cold that day with a blizzard, and I was afraid the point of the mountain would be closed. I remember just feeling relieved that Roy showed up! :-) Instead of decorating our car, they buried it in snow. It was awesome! It was a great day!

14 Reasons I LOVE Roy:
1. He is patient and hardly ever gets mad (and even then it's not bad).
2. He is thoughtful.
3. He is still a boy at heart and likes to have fun.
4. He listens to me.
5. He holds me when I am sad.
6. He is a great father.
7. He works hard for our family.
8. He has a lot of faith.
9. He is intelligent.
10. He always remembers important dates.
11. He makes me smile and laugh. He has a great sense of humor.
12. He loves my family.
13. He is generous.
14. He loves me and wants to be with me forever.

Can you believe how young (and skinny) we were?!?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Twilight

The first vampire movie I ever liked!

GO COUGARS!!!

Another Passing

I have a friend who died this week under sad circumstances, and it has brought a lot of my other grief back to the surface again. Last October my Grandma Crane died. Then in December my friend Keith passed away. Then my precious little Samuel. A few weeks ago my Aunt Karen left us, and now my friend Kim (who was also Keith's good friend "back in the day"). All in one year's time. All deaths were different, as were the individuals and their lives and circumstances. And yet they all touched my life in a positive way, and I will miss them. I am happy to know that they are all in a good place with people who love them and with lots to do.

There is a quote from a book called Picking Up the Pieces: Healing Ourselves After Personal Loss that has been stuck in my head for the past few months and sort of represents a big part of what I am learning from Samuel's death. “Each of us is living on borrowed time; each of us is trembling tenaciously on the edge of eternity. By choosing to ignore the fact that we’re terminal, we fail to live in the Now. But a realization of life’s brevity brings an appreciation of its beauty. This brevity and beauty add a new dimension to the present moment. By cutting life into small slices and living one slice at a time, we discover that indeed the best time is Now.”

LOVED IT!!!

Next Tuesday is our 14th wedding anniversary, and on our honeymoon in 1994 we saw Golden Eye. It sort of became a tradition. Last year we went to Casino Royale (my favorite Bond movie so far). We couldn't wait for next week to see Quantum of Solace, so we went today. I thought it was great and a good sequel to Casino Royale...I don't care what the critics have to say. It was great! Our anniversary date is to be continued on Tuesday. And then Twilight comes out next Friday. :-)

8 IS GREAT!

We can't believe our little Elisabeth is 8 years old! She makes our world a better place, and we are so happy to have her in our family. Here are some pictures of her big day.

Opening presents from Dad, Mom, and Rebekah before school.
"Ooh-la-la"...High School Musical!Elisabeth's new best friend is an iDog she named Cutie.
Queen of the Classroom.The whole loot after opening more presents from both sets of grandparents. The rest of the birthday cake that we saved from Lissa's birthday party.8 of the Millions of Things We LOVE About Elisabeth:
1. She is beautiful! We love her big, brown eyes.
2. She is sensitive to others' feelings.
3. She always tries to do what's right, and she says she's sorry if she makes a mistake.
4. She is brave, even when it is really difficult.
5. She likes to have fun.
6. She is a good soccer player, skateboarder, piano player, artist...she's good at it all!
7. She is a great friend.
8. She is OURS!

WE LOVE YOU, ELISABETH!!!

Elisabeth's Birthday Party

On Friday night we had a birthday party for Elisabeth with tons of her friends (Tammie, Brooke, McKenzie, Aspen, Hannah, Alyssa, Jessica, Teisa, Keisha, Emree, Kierschte, and Rebekah). It was CRAZY! But a lot of fun too. We watched Tinker Bell and ate junk food, played musical chairs, and even threw in a little fighting at the end (and then I made them huddle and say nice things to each other). Whew! I think Elisabeth has some really great friends.

Halloween

These are the Halloween costumes the girls had this year. They are actually both Elizabeth Swan costumes from Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't know why the picture was sort of blurry. Maybe they were just too overwhelmingly cute for the camera to handle.