ISN'T IT GREAT TO BE EIGHT!!

A DAY TO REMEMBER....

Well it has happened my little girl is now eight years old and officially baptized. The day started out with a lot of fun. All of Jeremiah's family came up and we all met at the Bountiful Temple to be with his sister Shelly and her new husband Charly as they were sealed together. It was beautiful. Shelly is a wonderful person and it was so neat to see her so happy FINALLY, with her new wonderful husband Charly. He is a fabulous man and fits in so well with the craziness of all of us. It is exciting and an answer to many prayers. After the sealing we all went out to eat and to celebrate Abby's baptism and Shelly's sealing. It was so nice. Then everyone headed up to Perry. WE all met at the church and attended Abby's BEAUTIFUL baptism. She was GORGEOUS!! We had over 50 people there from our family alone. It was incredible. That is what you get when Jeremiah and I both come from big families. Abby's Grandpa Morrill (my dad) spoke about baptism and the importance of the ordinance. He did a fabulous job. Then Grandma Allen (Jeremiah's mom) gave the closing prayer. I have to share this wonderful experience though. Abby was ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED!! So she was about to cry the whole time but as she stepped into the water her whole countenance lit up and you could just see the fear subsiding and the spirit and knowledge of what she was doing take it's place. It was wonderful. Her confirmation was beautiful. Jeremiah did such a great job and when he told her to receive the Holy Ghost it was amazing....you could actually feel it. Abby told me after that when her daddy said that she suddenly felt so warm all over and was just so happy!! What a great experience for and for ALL of us. It was wonderful and I am so proud of her and the decision she made. I am also so proud of my husband! He is such a worthy priesthood holder and it is so neat to see him baptize and confirm our firstborn! This was truly a beautiful day.




At the temple..Eric, Abby, Megan



Cousins hanging out after the sealing...Daisy(cuz), Lucy(cuz), Abby, Joanna(cuz), Eric, Megan, William(cuz)



The happy couple with grandma and grandpa Allen....Charly, Shelly, Grandma A., Grandpa A.



My awesome nephew Justin...doing what he does best...being silly.



Justin and his gorgeous wife Julie....so cute!



My beautiful niece Emily(Justin's sister) and her darling little girl Brooklynn...so cute!!(Em had to borrow your pics...lol)



Abby's awesome cake for her baptism...made it myself...yeah right...lol



Abby's hairdo for the baptism. She was so worried cause she has such long thick hair, she was afraid that it would come up in the water. So you can't really see but we did a spider web and then the bun is twisted and pinned and it took an hour and a half and two packages of bobbypins to do, but it stayed in place and looked AWESOME!! So it was worth it.



This is Abby's invitation to her baptism. My good friend Britney Barker is a photogropher and this is her work. Here is here website if you want to see more of her fabulous work. http://britneybphotography.blogspot.com/

MORE FANTASTIC WORK BY BRITNEY!!!









ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!
HERE IS BRITNEY'S PAGE AGAIN--http://britneybphotography.blogspot.com/

Here are more pictures from the baptism!!



Abby and her daddy



Abby and Grandma and Grandpa Morrill (My parents)


Abby and her sweet 2nd cousins Karson and Kaiden(such handsome boys)




Abby's DARLING 2nd cousins..Karson, Logan, Kaiden(Justin and Julie's handsome little men) and Brooklynn (Emily's beautiful little girl)!

These pictures are of the rest of the family that were there but we didn't have a chance to get them on film. Older pictures but still you get the idea of who they are.



My brother Brett and his wife Steph and Sydney and Riley



My sister Jennie and her husband Curtis and Chloe and Isaac.



My sister Jodie and her husband Ned and Jared, Jason, and Natalie



My mom and dad and Ben, Jill and Julie



My brother Beau and his wife Jenn and Wade and Wyatt.

All-in-all we had an awesome turnout. Our family is so great. We had 52 people and it was crazy fun. This was definitely a day we will all remember. We are so grateful for everyone who came and supported Abby. We are also grateful to all those who helped make this day possible. Thanks again all our friends and family for all you do. We are so blessed and we loved sharing this day with you all.
PS--Thanks again Britney for the awesome pics. WE LOVE THEM!
http://britneybphotography.blogspot.com/

Christmas Fun?!?!

Well I have to admit that I am glad that Christmas is all over...does that make me a Scrooge. Anyways, we had a little bit of a scare this Christmas and so I had a really hard time getting into the spirit. You know the whole, "poor poor pitiful me" routine. About three weeks I found a lump in my left breast (IS that a bad thing to post??) and it was quite painful. I am all about denial and so I thought if I ignored it, it would magically disappear. Unfortunately not the case. So I made an appointment and went to talk to my doc. He was quite concerned and then proceeded to find one on the other side as well. So he immediately ordered a mammogram and an ultrasound...that's right I got squished...OUCH!!! Much better than breast cancer though. So much to my relief the tests all came back clean...it is left over scar tissue from my breast reduction. Talk about scary. It made me realize a couple of things though, I will be VERY faithful in breast exams and mammograms and that I am TRULY, TRULY blessed. The night before my mammogram Jeremiah gave me a blessing and told me that I would be protected and be around a long time to see my children grow, my grandchildren grow and maybe even some greats also. It was so comforting. That is one thing I will always be grateful for is the power of the priesthood. I have ALWAYS loved the feeling of having a WORTHY priesthood holder put his hands on you head and bless you. My dad, my grandad, my uncles, my brothers, my father-in-law and most importantly my HUSBAND!! I am SOOOO SOOOO BLESSED. SO the message of this post is....I have not a clue but I seriously needed to ramble and let you all know how grateful I am!! So there it is...am I crazy? Feel free to comment ;) It is the season to feel and to be happy and I am both but I am also glad it is DONE!!! LOL

A perfect end to a REALLY bad day!!

I have to tell you today was a horrid day. I was up all night with Abby cause she had a really bad earache. Then Megan and Eric woke up at 6:45 and I was dying cause I wanted to sleep in a little since Abby couldn't go to school. Not happening!! Then I looked outside and saw the snow and I just about panicked. I have not driven in snow since my accident and I was so NOT excited to start today of all days. I called Jeremiah like I always do when I panic, or whatever, and I was telling him how I was so nervous and Abby of course, listened to me. SO we go out to the car to take Eric to school and she says, "Mom I will pray for you to drive in the snow and Heavenly Father will protect us." Out of the mouth of babes. Anyways, the day just got worse and worse. But then came the ray of sunshine when Jeremiah walked in at 8:30 plus he brought me pink roses and a wonderful strawberry shortcake. I don't know WHAT I did to deserve such a wonderful husband. But I am so extremely blessed. I love him so much and I am so lucky. Definitely a perfect ending.

Christmas pictures

Every year we buy the kids a new Christmas outfit and take our annual Christmas picture to send out. Here was our attempt this year. I tell you what, trying to get a good picture with three little kids is nearly impossible. 100 pictures later, no lie, here is what we ended up with.

Our little man

Princess Megan

Princess Abby




Here is their silly picture. Trying to figure out a pose.

Another silly one.

Eric wanted to give the christmas tree arms and legs so here is our attempt at that.

And finally the winner. What do you think?

I have to tell a funny story. We couldn't get the lighting to work in the front room where we have our tree. Jeremiah wanted to help me out and so he moved the whole tree, FAKE thank heaven, into the kitchen in front of our french doors. Well we got all the pictures and finished up and so he took it back into the front room. We hurry and headed to church and then came home and adjusted it so it was in the right spot. Well we messed with it TOO MUCH!! The next thing we know the stand breaks and the whole thing comes crashing down. Of course we all freaked out. The kids were crying cause they thought we couldn't have a tree, Jeremiah was laughing cause it almost landed on him (kind of did part of it), and there I was in shocked silence. It made for a good laugh for all of us. Thank heaven for a very inventive husband. He rigged us up another stand and we RE-DECORATED the tree. It made for an interesting night. Where is the video camera when you need it? Needless to say this year we will be buying a new tree. Gotta love it. LOL

Weekend of fun!!

The weekend of Thanksgiving we spent some time in Salt Lake with Jeremiah's family also. His parents live in Kanab and so when they come to Salt Lake to see Jeremiah's brother and his family and his sister and her family, that live in Salt Lake, we run down to see them. This time we stayed in a hotel with them and it was so fun. Here is some of the fun stuff we did.

Fall Leaves

I love the fall time. It is so beautiful and such great weather. I hate to see it go by so fast. The best part of it is watching the kids enjoying it also. This was a great day we had in the fall leaves.

The Tree Is Up!!

Abby helping get things ready.

This is Megan's way of helping...posing and dressing up. lol

Dad and Eric doing there best with the tree.

Wahoo we have successfully put our tree up. IT is always pretty eventful with three little kids and everyone wanting to 'help'. But we managed it and is so beautiful.

Thanksgiving.

We had an awesome thanksgiving. It was my side of the family's turn and it was great. We had EVERYONE in my family there. That is a lot of people. My mom and dad have 8 kids and most of us are married and have kids. So we had 31 people there and 12 of them were grand kids all under the age of seven. It was chaotic but tons and tons of fun. We all had a great day. It was also the day of my accident a year ago (and my sister Julie's bday, hope it was a better one this year sis!! LOVE YA). I cannot BELIEVE it has been a year. It has been good for me to reflect on it and to realize of all trials do have positive repercussions. It is just hard sometimes to understand what they are. But I am SOOO thankful for family that is more than willing to come running whenever there are problems not matter what. I am so thankful that my three children and I survived a crash where they were expecting fatalities. I am so thankful for a husband that is there for me through it all, forever and ever. HE IS THE BEST!! There is so much to be grateful for and most of all I am grateful for my testimony and the gospel. What would I be without it? Not a whole lot. Thankful, thankful, thankful. It is the season to be thankful. I will post pictures with this when I get some from my sister. Happy turkey day!

Halloween

Wow did I mention that I am a TERRIBLE blogger. It is december and I am posting our Halloween pictures...arghhh;) At least I am doing it right? LOL

We did the annual trunk or treat (nice work as always Marissa) and it was loads of fun and candy. We took our little friends with us...Daxton and Hallie Allen (surprisingly no relation but great friends;)) They are the pirate and fairy. So cute. Abby was a rose maiden, Megan a snow princess and Eric was THEIR knight in shining armor. So fun. Here we all are. Fun times

The Accident

We have had many questions about our "accident" and what happened so I thought I would explain it and let everyone know about what we call our MIRACLES!! It was after last Thanksgiving my kids and I were in a severe auto accident. It was pretty traumatizing for all of us. Luckily the kids were only bruised and scratches. Nothing serious...THANK HEAVEN!!! That was first of the major miracles though. Cause Megan should have technically been thrown from the car. She had undone her seat belt (now she is always making sure everyone has there's on) and I was trying to do it back up and rear ended a gravel truck with two trailers. Not a pretty sight. As for me it was a much, much different story. The steering column collapsed and slammed the steering wheel into my right leg breaking my femur bone. I broke a couple of my ribs and bruised my sternum. I had a severe concussion from hitting my head on the windshield...weeks later I was still digging glass out of my hair. Another MAJOR miracle was that about 30 seconds after the accident happened my mom and Jules (my sister) pulled up to the stop sign right by the accident. They were there the entire time to help us. My mom stayed with my kids and Julie went with me. They seriously were a godsend to us. I don't know how I would have done it cause my kids were in a different ambulance than me and I was so scared for them. SO it was wonderful that they were there. Julie helped me a ton cause I was in the worst pain I have EVER been in. A hundred times worse than labor and delivery. Another miracle was that my doc informed me if I had broken my bone and inch higher I would have hit the main artery right there and I would have bled out in seconds. Wow talk about a shock to us all. I thought I was going to die. The accident happened at 1pm and by 6 I still didn't have any pain meds cause they hadn't found a vein...the curse of red hair and fair skin. I was praying I could pass out but didn't happen. Finally at 6:30 the doc showed up, he had been waylaid because they had to have a special rod delivered because my femur was longer than any they have ever done....crazy!!! They finally put me under for surgery. I was never so grateful in my life for anesthesia as I was that moment. Needless to say I was in pretty rough shape. Six hours later I had a rod inserted inside my bone in my leg. They did a nice 6 inch incision through my hip muscles and hollowed out my bone and put a titanium rod inside and then screwed it into place with 4 screws. One of the screws stripped out while they were putting it in so they had to make a new hole...sounds like a construction project. But I guess they were reconstructing my leg. I was hospitalized for three days and then our family moved in with my mom and dad and Jill. We stayed with them for over two weeks until Jeremiah was done teaching for Christmas break. They were a Godsend again and always are. I would have never made it if we hadn't gone there. I was in SOOOO much pain and could not even lift my leg an inch. I couldn't even put weight on my leg for the first couple of days. Then I was only barely weight bearing. Me and my crutches were great friends. By the time I went home I was about 35% weight bearing. Jeremiah finished teaching on Dec. 17th and we were able to move back home. It was a challenge though cause my bedroom was up FOURTEEN stairs. We set up camp downstairs but I really missed my bed and so I moved back up. The exercise was good for me but quite a challenge. Christmas was a very humbling experience that year. Luckily I had already finished all my Christmas shopping before the accident. So that was a HUGE relief. But we realized how blessed we truly were. In reality we should not have lived through that but we did and I was so grateful that my kids were OK. We have had a lot to deal with the past twelve months. The kids and I had nightmares and a lot of emotional issues...but we learned that a lot of talking and a WHOLE lot of crying was very helpful. We had such wonderful friends and WONDERFUL family to help us through it all. This past summer I had to finally have my screws removed and that was quite fun. Then about a month and a half ago I found out that I had developed bursitis in my hip and I am now receiving steroid shots to help deal with that pain. We are actually handling it pretty good. It has been a long haul but definitely a learning and growing experience. Gotta love those. I am just so grateful we are all here and alive and well. My kids are fantastic now and I am actually walking. There is so much to be happy about. So that is my story...whew quite a long one sorry!!

Our story

So here is our family story. Jeremiah and I met while we were at USU going to school. It was a whirlwind romance...AHHH...Cheesy I know but so true. We met the last weekend of Nov. and we were engaged in Feb. But like they say, "when you know it is right why wait!" He has been WONDERFUL for me. We lived our first year in Salt Lake. He worked as a foreman for a construction company and I was a receptionist for an electrician. Then we decided we needed something more stable so we packed up and moved back to Logan to finish our schooling. We both were in the Secondary Ed program but I was in English and he was in Technology Education. A little while after our move Abby decided to join our family in 2001. Then Jeremiah received an internship teaching at North Davis Jr High. It was a perfect opportunity to do his student teaching and get paid for it. So we packed up again and moved to Brigham City. We wanted a small community but something close to his work. We have loved Box Elder ever since. In 2002 Eric made an appearance into our family yes they are 18 months apart crazy I know!! Then Jeremiah was offered a better job as West Point Jr High as the Technology teacher and head of the Technology dept there. He also is over the TSA club there and it has been awesome for us. I tease him cause I tell him it isn't really work for him cause he gets to do what he loves most teach and build. The ideal job....so that is great. Then in 2004 Megan made an appearance...just 18 months after Eric. Yes, I told you we are crazy. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Six months after Megan my health was failing and we had to have an emergency hysterectomy. It was a difficult thing since we both wanted a large family but very necessary. So we are happy and very grateful for our three HEALTHY children that are indeed a blessing and a miracle. Two years ago we had the opportunity to move and build a new home in Perry just down the road from Brigham and still in Box Elder. It has been a wonderful experience. We love it here and are so excited with our new friends and new experiences.

Starting again!!:)

Miracles of all miracles....I have started my BLOG...AGAIN!! This time hopefully, I can keep up with it. About as well as I keep up with my other things ;) Oh well it is worth a try. So here we go...wish me luck.