Maisey's Fairy Party

Maisey had her friends over for a fairy Birthday party. I told her I was going to try and catch some real fairies while she was at preschool. I think she actually believed me for a little bit but when she got home I had to tell her it was too cold and the fairies were hiding from me so we had to put fake fairies into the jars. The girls painted some houses for their fairies and we had a fairy flying contest. It was really fun! The day before we had cupcakes and ice cream after my nephew Drew's baby blessing with Kevin's family. Maisey got such cute presents. We got her some fairy stuff and a karaoke machine since she loves to sing.

Maisey is Five!

Maisey turns five today and Kevin and I can't believe that our baby is five! It seems like yesterday that the nurses were bringing my spunky little newborn to me in the middle of the night for a feeding. The nurses in the nursery told the pediatrician that she was a little spitfire and they were right. Maisey keeps us on our toes and makes our family complete. I saw the quote above and I thought about how much it goes along with the way I feel about my only daughter, She makes me happy every single day! We love you so much Maisey! Happy 5th Birthday! Maisey had a friend party and cupcakes and ice cream with Kevin's family and I will post on that later.

Volunteer

So a few months back I was on facebook and I am in a group called Chicks with cameras and I saw that a girl named Terra was asking that people sign up to volunteer for an organization called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. Its a non profit organization where professional photographers give there time to provide photography for families suffering a loss of a baby. I thought that is so sad and something that I could never do. Well after a couple of weeks of always having it on the back of my mind I decided to give it a go. Luckily I had ten auxillary light photos and ten natural light photos to send in and then waited for approval. A few weeks later I was approved and not a couple of days later got a text to go and take pictures of a little twin girl who was 32 weeks old. I was extremely nervous, like feeling like I was going to throw up as I drove down to the University of Utah hospital. Things went good and I was able to get some pictures in the NICU with the mom and the twins together. I thought I would be a wreck but I was completely surprised to find that not only did I not fall apart but I was able to take a step back and just get the job done. 
     I consider myself to be a people person and have such a love for all types of people but doing this has made me realize that I can also be very sympathetic and try my best to make these families feel loved and supported through this hard time in their life, even if I am only with them for a short time. I have been awakened to the fact that babies die all the time and that was hard for me at first. My phone gets text after text some days and it can be a little unsettling. 
     I have had some great experiences and others that were just very sad. I was taking pictures of a sweet baby boy who was just taken off life support and as soon as I wrapped that up I was asked if I could stay and take some for a family that would also like some. I knew I needed to stay and then the nurse led me to another room where the sweetest family was. The father immediately embraced me and told me how thankful he was that I was already at the hospital and could help them get some pictures of their beautiful baby boy. He was absolutely beautiful wrapped in his mothers arms. I could feel the love radiating from the mother to her child and the husband to his wife and baby. I am always thankful that I know about the Plan of Salvation. What I wreck I would be and probably could not do this if I didn't know what happens after death. The picture above is of this sweet baby and his parents loving hands holding his tiny little hand in their own. As you can see I will not mention names for their privacy. A week later I received this card from the parents.


Dear Heather,

Thank you so much for taking pictures of our baby. He was just with us just one short hour. Thank you for preserving the memory of that sweet time. It was awesome to feel his spirit and to love on him and hold him. The pictures are priceless treasures that can never be recreated. How can we thank you for that gift ? You did a beautiful job and we are forever grateful to you. God bless you! With thankful hearts .......


Life is full of experiences and sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zones to have rewarding experiences and things that make us stronger. This is definetely out of my comfort zone. I am nervous every time I am on my way to a hospital. There is no retakes or second chances which can make things pretty stressful. There is times that I don't want to do it anymore and times where the nightmares make me question what it is that I'm doing. For the record I have only had one but it was not fun. I hope that I can continue because if anything it makes me appreciate life and my wonderful family. Kevin has been so supportive of me and I am so grateful. If this is something that you could do, we always need volunteers so give me a call.

Snow Fun

The kids were outside playing in the snow today. We have gotten so much snow in the last couple of days and the kids have been having fun playing in it. They built some forts today and went sledding from all the snow the plows left us at the end of the street. They didn't have school today but not from the the snow but I did hear they shut down a lot of schools because of all the snow. Pepper didn't seem to mind the snow too much and was outside playing with the kids.

New Years Eve

Amanda had a New Years Eve party at her house this year. It was really fun! The kids had a blast. We all brought yummy appetizers and played games and visited.

Curlers

This could go into a pile of awkward family photos! Me and Katelynn and Brynlee had matching pajamas and since they were getting in curlers for the night we thought it would be funny to put some in my hair too. I love my nieces!!

Snow Fun

My nieces don't get to see snow often so when they come here they like to play in it as much as they can.  I felt bad because Trey wasn't feeling very well over the holidays and Wyatt and Tarrin were busy playing with their toys so it worked out well so we had enough snow clothes for all the girls.

Christmas 2012

Christmas was crazy to say the least! My brother and his family got to Utah the Friday before Christmas and stayed with us until New Years. We love having them and the kids have such a good time with their cousins! We had our adult Christmas party on the Saturday before Christmas at James and Kari's house. It was fun and we played some really fun games! Christmas morning the kids woke up way too early! Santa didn't wrap any gifts so Kevin told the kids that first needed to wake us up by singing Christmas carols before coming up stairs. It was about 5:30 I think when I was awoken by Jingle Bells. 

Maisey wanted the la la loopsy doll that's a mermaid and can go in the tub with her.

Trey was happy with all of his Lego's and his Minecraft shirt.

Tarrin was thrilled when he found out that Santa had brought a Wii U. We had told the kids that Santa would not be bringing any electronics but apparently he didn't listen. Tarrin got lots of Halo mega blocks and an art set.

Maisey and Ella were thrilled to get matching Dreamlites!

Maisey also got a Calico Critters house to take on the go.

Wyatt was thrilled when he got Minecraft Legos!

I
 bought all the kids pajama's from the pajama outlet in Logan. It was fun to see them with them all on.

had to get a picture of my front room. Eight kids means a lot of mess but it's all worth it! I love having my family around. We are hoping to be in a bigger house soon so we can accommodate everyone.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was a good time! We had a wonderful meal at Tara and Robs house and we even got a picture of all the grand kids together. Tiffany did a funny dance behind me and had all the kiddos smiling. I got to hold my nephew Drew most of the time I was there and loved every minute of it.