Katelyn's Birthday with CAKE!

My "little" sister turned 22 this year. (That should make my parents feel pretty old..haha!) We celebrated the day before with a yummy dinner at my Grandma Nelson's house and ate some delicious funfetti cake.

Katelyn LOVES funfetti cake. When she was making wedding plans and my sister Ashlee was going to make her wedding cake (which turned out AWESOME bytheway) and Ashlee wanted to know what kind of cake Katelyn wanted, she said FUNFETTI. She may be the only person in the history of weddings who had a funfetti wedding cake. :) That's why we love her. Here's some pictures of the blessed event:

Mommy lighting the cake--22 candles! Whew!


"Happy Birthday, dear Katelyn! Happy Birthday to you!"


"Make a wish!!!"


Ashlee feeding Emily some yummy cake!


Mmmmm...cake... (as Emily would say.)


Katelyn just moved to Atlanta to start a new adventure with her husband Nelson (or Melthon as Emily calls him!) I will miss being able to see her when we go to St. George. Love you Katie!

Emily's Photo Shoot

Emily has an awesome photographer--his name is Terral Fox. (Or Tewwo as Emily call him!) He is not really her photographer, but she is somewhat of a "poster child" for him. She has been featured on his website, his advertising flyers, and his facebook ads. I can't really blame him though. She is the cutest kid in Cedar City--and the world! (okay, no bias mom here...) He does a fantastic job, is easy to work with, and retouches all of the pictures that you like. (You can view more of his work on his website www.terralfox.com .)

Here are some of my favorites from the photo shoot:

Emily's adorable smile...


Coloring...which is what she does EVERYDAY!


She did this pose completely on her own..she's a natural.


Kind of a fun and funky angle.



Our future artist. :)


I love the background for this...and her concentration in coloring. :)


This is artsy and fun. I love it.



She holds her coloring book up with her leg. Smart girl.


This is our little Miss Independent.


I like this one because it looks "old fashioned"-ish...


Different angle...still coloring though. :)


And more coloring...it gets her to hold still.


She LOVES her "bunny bear"...


...and coloring...


Happy face! :)


Pretty Emily..


She kept climbing back and forth over the tracks..


There are more...if you want to see ALL of them go to my facebook page. :)

They turned out really cute though, and Terral did such a fantastic job retouching them all. He is a fabulous photographer... I definitely recommend him. www.terralfox.com

Which one is your favorite??!

Grandpa's Tribute

It has been almost six weeks since my last post. I was actually doing pretty good for a while, and then life got turned upside down with the completely unexpected passing of my dear Grandpa Nelson. He was riding his bike in a mini-triathlon that he organized for his ward Scouts and hit a puddle of water--breaking his femur. He passed away 4 days later from complications from the surgery. He was very healthy and was doing what he loved the most (besides my Grandma!) --racing and Scouting at the same time. He is missed very VERY much.

What I will miss the most about Grandpa:

He loved my singing and called me "Songbird". I knew that I wanted to sing for him one last time before he passed away and so my little sis Katelyn and I went into his ICU room on Wednesday (the day before he passed away) and we sang some hymns for him. It was extremely difficult, knowing that it would be the last time he would hear me sing in this mortal existence. *okay, now I'm crying again!* But, I am so glad that I did it. I did sing at his funeral with my sisters and it was a very sweet experience too.

I will miss how how he was so sweet to my little Emily. He was always so delighted to see her. We did get a picture with him the last time we were down in Hurricane, not too long before his accident. It is now (and always will be) a priceless picture for Emily.

I will miss his zest for life! He was a go-er and a do-er. With so many years of Scouting in his life, he helped 102 Scouts make it to the rank of Eagle. 102!! In his journal there was a list of them all with the title: "Eagle Scouts (My Heroes)" . He literally changed the lives of so many young men and will have a legacy that will live on for a very long time. (The last 2 Eagle Scouts just had their ceremony a week or two before he passed away.)

I will miss his quest for learning and expanding the learning of others. At the time of his accident he had just started teaching an Electronic Circuits class at Dixie State. He had been preparing for 2 years to teach this class and was very excited about it. He was a very caring professor and even called his students when they forgot to show up for a test! He was a very hard worker and loved to help his students in his Physics classes too.

I will miss his love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He read the book Jesus the Christ every December and served 2 missions with my Grandma for the Church--one to Mongolia (where he helped organize the first ever Scout troop there!) and the other to the Phillippines. He has a Book of Mormon that he has written in the back of each time he has read it, and from his recording it, he has read the Book of Mormon every year since 1963. Interestingly enough, he read it four times this last year...finishing it for the last time in April. His testimony was evident in the way he lived his life, loved his family, the way he treated his dear sweet "mouse", and how he testified of Christ.

I miss him very much and hope that he knows how much we all love him.

Here is a video that my dad put together for the funeral. It really gives you a good glimpse into the life of my Grandpa: