Our first white Christmas

...partly because we are never home on Christmas Day.
(Please note that since Jared is out numbered 3 to 1, all of his presents were wrapped in bright pink Hannah Montana and baby blue Disney Princess wrapping paper. Poor guy. He needs a son.)

We finally got one! It might have been January 4th, but it was still a White Christmas for us! Since we weren't sure how long we were going to be in the Valley with Marlene, we decided to leave all of our presents at home and just celebrate when we returned. I am so glad we did it that way! My girls deserved it! They were such troopers over the 3 weeks we were there that they deserved a reward. I have to admit that it wasn't easy trying to tell Addie that Santa would be coming once more (he always stops at Grandma Hatch's house, too) since she was so good while we were away. I had a really hard time putting all of the presents under the tree and trying to tell myself that it would be fun to do it all over again. But when Addie came in my room to wake me up and let me know that Santa came and put a bunch of presents under the tree, it was totally worth it. She got some new hair clips in her stocking and when she opened them she screamed "ahhhh! clips!" And it was like that with every present. Even Kimber got excited. She loved her new jammies and had to try them on right away.

This picture makes me laugh. She got a set of twins and was so excited! But if you know Kimber at all, you know she isn't very gentle. Here she is beating them with Addie's rolling pin from the cooking set she got.

Here are our stockings. Marlene made them and kept them at her house, but requested that we take them home after this Christmas. Each year she fills them for every person in the family (that does not including the presents she buys for each person that won't fit inside). She made around 30 of these! They are done completely by hand and each one takes between 80-100 hours to complete. In 2002 she had four to complete. That was huge year for her, 2 new grandkids, 2 new daughters in law, a new high school to move into (she was the registar at Queen Creek High School for 12 years) and so much more. I don't know how she did it!

Each son or daughter in law got to pick their own and then each mom picks one out for their new baby. Now it's all up to us girls to keep the tradition going.

Addie's was done while Marlene was undergoing Chemo. Many times she would take it with her and work on it while the Chemo was being administered.

Kimber's was done while Marlene was undergoing Chemo as well. One of the side effects that came with that round was neuropathy, meaning she had no feeling in her fingertips.

Take a closer look at the detail. Every single peice is cut out of felt and sewn on. It is truly a labor of love!

Our first white Christmas

...partly because we are never home on Christmas Day.
(Please note that since Jared is out numbered 3 to 1, all of his presents were wrapped in bright pink Hannah Montana and baby blue Disney Princess wrapping paper. Poor guy. He needs a son.)

We finally got one! It might have been January 4th, but it was still a White Christmas for us! Since we weren't sure how long we were going to be in the Valley with Marlene, we decided to leave all of our presents at home and just celebrate when we returned. I am so glad we did it that way! My girls deserved it! They were such troopers over the 3 weeks we were there that they deserved a reward. I have to admit that it wasn't easy trying to tell Addie that Santa would be coming once more (he always stops at Grandma Hatch's house, too) since she was so good while we were away. I had a really hard time putting all of the presents under the tree and trying to tell myself that it would be fun to do it all over again. But when Addie came in my room to wake me up and let me know that Santa came and put a bunch of presents under the tree, it was totally worth it. She got some new hair clips in her stocking and when she opened them she screamed "ahhhh! clips!" And it was like that with every present. Even Kimber got excited. She loved her new jammies and had to try them on right away.

This picture makes me laugh. She got a set of twins and was so excited! But if you know Kimber at all, you know she isn't very gentle. Here she is beating them with Addie's rolling pin from the cooking set she got.

Here are our stockings. Marlene made them and kept them at her house, but requested that we take them home after this Christmas. Each year she fills them for every person in the family (that does not including the presents she buys for each person that won't fit inside). She made around 30 of these! They are done completely by hand and each one takes between 80-100 hours to complete. In 2002 she had four to complete. That was huge year for her, 2 new grandkids, 2 new daughters in law, a new high school to move into (she was the registar at Queen Creek High School for 12 years) and so much more. I don't know how she did it!

Each son or daughter in law got to pick their own and then each mom picks one out for their new baby. Now it's all up to us girls to keep the tradition going.

Addie's was done while Marlene was undergoing Chemo. Many times she would take it with her and work on it while the Chemo was being administered.

Kimber's was done while Marlene was undergoing Chemo as well. One of the side effects that came with that round was neuropathy, meaning she had no feeling in her fingertips.

Take a closer look at the detail. Every single peice is cut out of felt and sewn on. It is truly a labor of love!

The Greatest Blessing of all

Many of you know already and many of you will be surprised to find out that my mother in law was not a member of the Church. First of all, her last name was Hatch. Plus, she raised 3 sons that served missions and all four of her kids are married in the Temple. She fully supported every one of them in those decisions as well as each grandchild's choice to be baptized when they turned 8. It shocked most people when they heard that, whether they personally knew her or not. Most of her friends were LDS and she was so Christlike all her life.


On December 14, two weeks and two days before her death, she was finally baptized, having never taken the missionary discussions. Oddly enough, she knew more about the church than a lot of members do. She was very intelligent and well read.


Jared and I were actually on our way down to be with her when we got the news. We were in Heber and were talking about that very thing. I asked Jared, "do you think she will ever join? Wouldn't it be a miracle if she decided to be baptized right now?" I swear it wasn't 3 minutes later Jared's brother called and said that the Mission President was on his way to the house to see her. Since she never had the discussions and she literally didn't have enough time to go through them, he came to see her.


I didn't know what the phone call was about but knew it was serious when Jared pulled over and wiped a few tears from his eyes. I could only hear one side of the conversation and assumed it was too late and that she had died. Jared was saying things like "Are you serious? , right now?, tonight? On Monday? Okay, we'll be there in a little bit" What was I supposed to think? After he hung up he didn't say anything. I looked and him and said "is she gone?" He said "no. My mom is getting baptized." We were both speechless. Tears were flowing and we just sat there in silence for a few minutes. We finally offered a prayer and headed back out.


That was Friday night. On Sunday night she was baptized. It was just the immediate family, plus one cousin that is more like a son anyway. It was short and sweet because her fragile body couldn't take it. Earlier in the day my dad and his counselors had come to see her and she asked them for a blessing. She blessed to have the strength that she would need to be baptized and I can tell you that that blessing was fulfilled. It wasn't easy for her, but she was able to do it.


To see her in white was the most wonderful thing I have ever seen and probably ever will see. It was the sweetest, most spiritual experience of my life. Michael, Jared's older brother did the baptizing and Jared was able to confirm her. The blessing was very sweet. There are things that were promised to her that none of us will ever forget.


After the confirmation, a couple of the grand kids went and hugged her and a line started to form. Each person hugged her and she was able to tell them that she loved them and something special about them. It was so very, very sweet. We were also able to take one last family picture that included everyone.




And now we are one step closer to an eternal family.

The Greatest Blessing of all

Many of you know already and many of you will be surprised to find out that my mother in law was not a member of the Church. First of all, her last name was Hatch. Plus, she raised 3 sons that served missions and all four of her kids are married in the Temple. She fully supported every one of them in those decisions as well as each grandchild's choice to be baptized when they turned 8. It shocked most people when they heard that, whether they personally knew her or not. Most of her friends were LDS and she was so Christlike all her life.


On December 14, two weeks and two days before her death, she was finally baptized, having never taken the missionary discussions. Oddly enough, she knew more about the church than a lot of members do. She was very intelligent and well read.


Jared and I were actually on our way down to be with her when we got the news. We were in Heber and were talking about that very thing. I asked Jared, "do you think she will ever join? Wouldn't it be a miracle if she decided to be baptized right now?" I swear it wasn't 3 minutes later Jared's brother called and said that the Mission President was on his way to the house to see her. Since she never had the discussions and she literally didn't have enough time to go through them, he came to see her.


I didn't know what the phone call was about but knew it was serious when Jared pulled over and wiped a few tears from his eyes. I could only hear one side of the conversation and assumed it was too late and that she had died. Jared was saying things like "Are you serious? , right now?, tonight? On Monday? Okay, we'll be there in a little bit" What was I supposed to think? After he hung up he didn't say anything. I looked and him and said "is she gone?" He said "no. My mom is getting baptized." We were both speechless. Tears were flowing and we just sat there in silence for a few minutes. We finally offered a prayer and headed back out.


That was Friday night. On Sunday night she was baptized. It was just the immediate family, plus one cousin that is more like a son anyway. It was short and sweet because her fragile body couldn't take it. Earlier in the day my dad and his counselors had come to see her and she asked them for a blessing. She blessed to have the strength that she would need to be baptized and I can tell you that that blessing was fulfilled. It wasn't easy for her, but she was able to do it.


To see her in white was the most wonderful thing I have ever seen and probably ever will see. It was the sweetest, most spiritual experience of my life. Michael, Jared's older brother did the baptizing and Jared was able to confirm her. The blessing was very sweet. There are things that were promised to her that none of us will ever forget.


After the confirmation, a couple of the grand kids went and hugged her and a line started to form. Each person hugged her and she was able to tell them that she loved them and something special about them. It was so very, very sweet. We were also able to take one last family picture that included everyone.




And now we are one step closer to an eternal family.

Say a little prayer for me

Jared got me this little deal for Christmas- a FreeAgent Drive to store my 3,500+ pictures on. I was so excited! I got it all hooked up and put my pictures on it yesterday. (That is when we celebrated our Chrimstas.) After obsessively checking to make sure that they were really there and not going anywhere I hesitantly deleted them from my computer. Thankfully when I checked to make sure that they were on the FreeAgent, they were! Well, this morning when I went to put together some pictures for my 2 missionary brothers I went to my FreeAgent and saw that all of my pictures were gone! Gone! Gone!!! I was instantly sick but hurried and checked my Recycle Bin thinking I could restore them. No, they were gone from there too! As if the last few weeks haven't been emotional enough!

So now here I am. Waiting on hold for a customer support rep. I've been waiting for 26 minutes and have had to listen to the most horrible hold music ever- jazz. Ugh.

Say a little prayer that they can somehow be restored to my computer. I'm literally sick to my stomach.

Say a little prayer for me

Jared got me this little deal for Christmas- a FreeAgent Drive to store my 3,500+ pictures on. I was so excited! I got it all hooked up and put my pictures on it yesterday. (That is when we celebrated our Chrimstas.) After obsessively checking to make sure that they were really there and not going anywhere I hesitantly deleted them from my computer. Thankfully when I checked to make sure that they were on the FreeAgent, they were! Well, this morning when I went to put together some pictures for my 2 missionary brothers I went to my FreeAgent and saw that all of my pictures were gone! Gone! Gone!!! I was instantly sick but hurried and checked my Recycle Bin thinking I could restore them. No, they were gone from there too! As if the last few weeks haven't been emotional enough!

So now here I am. Waiting on hold for a customer support rep. I've been waiting for 26 minutes and have had to listen to the most horrible hold music ever- jazz. Ugh.

Say a little prayer that they can somehow be restored to my computer. I'm literally sick to my stomach.

The secret to being a good mom

I learned a great life lesson from Marlene before her passing. She was an wonderful person and an incredible Mother. She raised four kids on her own for the most part. Her kids are incredible parents themselves, they serve whenever and where ever possible, they are good citizens in the community and so much more. All things she taught them. She sacrificed so much to give them the very best- like Reebok Pumps for Jared when he was 10. She never had much money to work with but always made sure they had what they needed. So many times she would sacrifice money from her budget to buy their yearbooks, a cool shirt, school lunches (when they could have qualified for help) or whatever else she saw they wanted within reason.

Life gets pretty crazy for every mom. At the end of the day, around dinner time seems to be the hardest. The kids are hungry and restless while you try to get dinner on the table and take care of whatever chaos might be happening. For most of us our husband comes home and is just as ready to eat as the kids are and you might be at your wits end. What do you do? Me? Try and stay calm, try to tell my self that I really do love my kids- even when I want to pull my hair out. But not Marlene. For her the sunset was her saving grace. I've written about it before.

So back to my lesson.

One night, my sisters and law and I were sitting with Marlene asking her questions about life when my sister in law Tara asked her what her secret for being such a good mom is. She sort of chuckled and said "oh, there's no secret. I just looked forward to the sunset each day. I knew that if the sun was setting, then Heavenly Father was keeping his promises and everything was as it should be." It was a sign that he was still there. Instantly the thought came to me "the secret is in the sunset."

And it is. The world is going to go on no matter what kind of day it is, but it is a sign that you are being watched out for. I have taken it to heart and tried to apply it in every possible way over the last few weeks. And the truth is, it does apply.

So for Christmas I gave each of my sisters in law this picture.

It's not as fancy as I wish it was, but I wanted to make it small enough that they could put it in their kitchen window or some where that it would gently remind them that not only is Heavenly Father watching out for us, but so is our dear Mom.