An Very Very Unbirthday, to You, to You!

So do you remember watching Alice in Wonderland (the Disney version) where Alice attends an un-birthday party? That is kind of what we had with my family on Saturday. My brother and his family are away, in Ohio, (where we lived when we were little) attending school, and so they came home for two weeks to visit. Their two sons (our nephews) both celebrate birthdays the first few days of August, so we planned a birthday-party/family BBQ/swim for the birthday party celebrations.

My sister Heather about to eat some un-birthday cake

Little Miss Suzie Mae

Well, my brother and two nephews got food poisoning, so we did the BBQ sans their family and my older sister (she was back in DC on a relaxation trip, lucky girl!) So you would think the party would have been ruined, but actually it turned out being very fun! Never knew I could have so much at an un-birthday party! With my younger brother away in Afghanistan this last year, it was just so nice to rest and relax and have a lot of fun. 

 Little Miss Khloe (Suzie and Khloe are both wearing a swimsuit I actually had bought

for our Pricess Lilly. I know she is smiling seeing her cloths being used!

 Khloe's silly Dad, my little brother Jamie

If you know my family, my mom is ALWAYS notorious for bringing way too much food, so that you never leave hungry. So with her cooking, my dad's really yummy BBQ skills, and the extras that the rest of the kids brought, well, we were certainly just very well fed. And after we ate, the pavilion my parents had rented was right next to a swimming pool, so we took the nieces and nephews

over to swim. 

 

We had a great time! The nieces and nephews had a blast playing with their uncle Jacob, and he had a great time teasing and playing with them. We even had birthday cake! What was pretty funny was the other two two year olds laying claim to the presents that were sitting out. We were eating and my sister started busting up laughing. We turned around and my funny little nephew and Collin were each opening a present. Since it was just a coloring book and puzzle book, we let them go to town (Ben and Erica, if you are reading this, we will have to ship you two replacement presents!)

 

Two of my sister in-laws, Lindsey and Amanda, and Jamie again, sitting in the pee-pool,

oops, I mean the kiddie pool!

 My brother Jacob playing with Khloe and Tatum

 Collin trying to swim

 Amanda again (isn't she gorgeous?) She spent the last year having her husband

(my brother Jacob) in Afghanistan.

 Collin and Tatum hugging it out.

  

Collin trying to fit into baby Jacob's hat

 Jake with Baby Jacob

 My brother Jacob really worried that his nieces and nephews would not remember him.

Fat chance of that, they all adore their uncle.

Collin was climbing the bars to the right, when we noticed and went running. Uncle Jacob got there first and moved Collin to a lower set of bars. He honestly just has no fear!

It was just actually really relaxing, and it was nice to just be together, to have my brother Jacob there after surviving the hells of Afghanistan. It makes me a little teary just thinking about what a great time we had all together. So despite our problems and funny stupid quirks, I truly could not have asked for a better family. I think what I learned from this is just accepting that we are all very different, but when there is a lot of love, that can overcome any boundaries we may have.

Blue Lily

Do you guys vaguely recall the awesome makeover I won? Remember how along with the makeover I also was given the opportunity to have Wendy from Blue Lilly photography to take some awesome family pictures? Well three weeks ago we ventured into a cute little orchard right at about dusk and took some really beautiful/stunning pictures. I do not have a way yet to show you the pictures, but I would just like to brag a little about two of the most handsome guys in our family and how photogenic they both are (me not so much, as many a family member will attest too!) Collin's eye's literally shine with every picture. They are just simply stunning. I mean really, how many almost 4 month olds do you know that go to a photo-shoot right at about bedtime and actually are happy and content the whole time while being moved and adjusted for different posted? For those of you who personally know us and would like to see the preview of pictures to come, shoot us an e-mail at littleforeverfamily@gmail.com and I will tell you how to view the pictures. But for the rest of you, I promise they really are stunning. To see some of Wendy's AMAZING work, click here to be connected to Blue Lily!!!

So Much Going On

Well sorry I have not posted sooner. We have just been busy having fun! Chris arrived home from Brazil safely, and we are so happy to have him home! It was crazy at the airport, and there were many tears and laughs. One of the funniest moments was the balloons. You see, my in-laws got balloons representing each of the Grandkids. We explained this to Chris, and his sister Kat was holding two. She kept trying to point out to him that she was holding two, but he was not getting the picture. After a few minutes, he looked at her and said, "Kat, are you pregnant?" We all laughed.

He looked again at the balloons, and suddenly realized she was holding two. It all clicked than, and we were all busting and he was like, "okay, that's it, I'm going back to Brazil!" It was pretty funny and the look on his face explains the shock and delight!


The twins were so happy to see their baby brother. They of course were not the only ones. I wish I had a picture of my MIL waiting for Chris to come down. I think she was about to rush past the guards, so that she could hug her baby for the first time in two years! There was a lot that happened while Chris was gone. There were three new nephews and another niece born. That was another one of the funnier parts: the nieces and nephews meeting Chris for the first time.

Gracie just kind of looked at him. She was just intrigued who this new guy was. Though, it was a much warmer welcome than what Chris got from Caden and Morgan.

This was a whole second before Caden went leaping from his arms! It really had us laughing!

Morgan was very standoffish at first. This was the second attempt at trying to get Morgan to go to Uncle Chris. (Don't worry, a little while later he pulled out the stops with giving her some presents! She was his instant buddy after that!)

Although Chris never was able to meet Ryker, he was finally able to meet his newest nephew Collin. Collin just stared at him, not smiling but at least not crying! :)

This is a picture of the parentals and Chris. Sorry it is blurry ( I did not take 90% of these
pictures!)
Likewise, the siblings (and of course the in-laws) are tickled to have Chris home.



We had quite the party that night, with some yummy food at Wingers! We were all pretty tired at the end of the day. Gracie ended up back in the hospital shortly after but only had to be there for a few days with croup.

Collin is just growing so fast. He likes to stay nice and even with weight and height and sticks around the 50th percentile for everything. We just love him, and he is more and more smiley every day. I have finally caught him smiling on camera a few times. I do not think he is feeling very good right now. He has had a really runny nose and now has started to cough. All he wants is Momma or at least Dad to snuggle him. I even had to leave some training last night and ended up having to go and pick him up from my Sister's because he had been crying non-stop for two hours. I'm not sure what is up, because he also woke up during the night (which he really does not do) and just was really upset. Hopefully he gets feeling better soon. Our pediatrician thinks that he does have allergies, and maybe he just has something on top of that. Anyways, I think this is long enough of a post. I just wanted to let the families of heart angels know that we are thinking of you, and for those who are expecting new ones or have fairly new little ones, we are so very excited for you. And for those who are not, you are very near and dear to us and our thoughts. The pain is really hard, especially this time of year when you are thinking about all the things you could be doing or planning. This is the first summer we will be able to share it with a child of our own. A little update there: we are planning to finalize the adoption October 5th, and than have him sealed to us October 9th. We are than planning the baby blessing for the 11th, which really and honestly could not be a better birthday present for me than to be able to do see our baby given a name and blessing outside of the hospital. We will have a party or two intertwined in that mix, so it will be a fun week to look forward to!

Understanding.

I realized that I have not fed my soul lately. My sister was reading a talk from one of the sessions of our church's LDS General Conference last month, and reminded me of some words that I needed to read. You can read the talk here. It is food for the soul. I have been pretty down (as I have previously shared) and seriously needed a little lift. I also just wanted to say thank-you for all the comments. They buoy us up through these hard times and help us get out of bed every morning. We have so many wonderful friends and family that we care for and love and also care and love us. It was great to come home last night after a long day of work and my sister and brother-in-law were there. It meant a lot, and they even took us to go get some ice cream. It seems like I have been uplifted by so many. A wise woman put it perfectly:

"there is much to be learned about the Lord and the Atonement here.

"Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows."Isaiah 53:4

The Lord suffers with us. He is in the trenches of our despair and tears with us. He's not telling us to be patient, He wraps us in His arms and whispers, "I know. I know."
I love this and feel it. Thank-you to all those who buoy us.