We Let Her Do WHAT?!?

About two weeks ago, we were sitting at the table eating dinner. Ben was feeding Claire, as usual. All of a sudden, Claire literally grabbed the spoon out of Ben's hand and started feeding herself. We had been avoiding letting her feed herself for this reason:


















But, I guess we had to suck it up and let her do this at some point, right? A parental right of passage- dealing with the mess of allowing your kids to be independent!

WOO-HOO!!!

-

-

-

I couldn't wait to see it for myself: My dad healthy, happy, and unofficially cancer free!!! (They won't officially say he is cancer free for another 5 years, but the cancer did not spread at all, and the surgery to remove the tumor was successful, so I am calling him cancer free because it sounds OH SO GOOD!)

There were a couple of things that I wanted to say about this horrible chapter in our lives- a chapter that will never truly be over for my dad because in order to remove the tumor they did a rather horrible surgery that is a life changing surgery, but better than the alternatives.

Anyway, both of these things happened after we found out my dad had cancer, but before we knew how treatable it was.

The night my mom called me to tell me my dad had cancer, I was obviously devastated. But, I had a meeting to go to so I couldn't wallow. I went to the meeting and then came home and called my dad to see how he was doing. The FIRST thing he said to me- the day he found out he had cancer- was "how is your mom holding up?" She is the one who had called everyone and told everyone and he wanted to know how SHE was doing, even though he was the one with cancer. When I say my parents have the greatest love story, it is simply because it is true. I hope Ben and I can be as in love as these two are in 40 years and love each other so completely and unconditionally! What an example and legacy they have given their kids of true love!!!

The second thing is regarding the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us. This is my testimony here, so listen up:)

Before we found out what stage of cancer he was in, I needed to go and clear my head and I desparately needed to feel the Spirit of God in my heart. I made arrangements to attend the Temple- a place of worship and peace. I prayed harder than I had in a long time that the Lord would bless my father and help my mom be strong for the trial of cancer. I pleaded for my dad that he would be alright and that my children would have their Grandpa High to know and love and be a part of their lives.

I was overwhelmed with a feeling of peace- a feeling that whatever the outcome of this cancer would be, the Lord was watching over my parents and over my family and He was with us in this trial. Whatever happened, whatever the outcome was to be, I knew it was OK. Even if that meant he would die- I knew the Lord was in this. God is in the details of our lives- He cares about what happens, and He will lift us through any trial- even death. I felt that. In talking to my mom later, she said she had the same feelings of peace and assurance that the Lord was with them- with us.

Now, I am not going to lie. I am forever grateful that death was not the plan the Lord had for my dad. Our whole family has given fervent, tearful prayers of gratitude that my dad has had successful treatment. But if that was not the case, I know it still would have been OK. God is good. God is with us. Of that I am absolutely, 100% certain!

Carson and Barnes

No, Carson and Barnes are not ex-boyfriends!

-

Carson and Barnes is the name of the Circus we went to on Friday!

Audra's favorite part was the Sno-cone she got. You can kind of see the red remains around her mouth.

It was hard to take pictures because it was so dark, but we had SO MUCH FUN!!! Seriously, it was awesome! And, who liked it the most?

CLAIRE! Here she is pointing at the trapeze artists- she was pointing at them the entire time they were performing. I think she was figuring out how she could do that at home from our chandelier.

Here she is sitting on her own like a big girl. Notice how transfixed she is- she was like this throughout the whole show. It was so incredibly cute!

-

-

This is definitely going to become a yearly tradition!

Christian's Blogtion

I thought I would post real quick to advertise Christian's Blogtion (on-line auction). They have a lot of really great baby gift items that are perfect for baby showers (I go to A LOT of baby showers, so I like to be stocked up on these!), jewelery, homemade truffles, and even a Kindle! Of course, there are lots of other items as well. The prices are fantastic, too- I was very surprised they were not much higher. I ended up bidding on way more items than I originally intended- I couldn't pass the great items up!

Anyway, click HERE to check it out.

Christian has severe brain damage due to a drowning accident and I have been following his story. 100% of the sales will go to his treatments. For more about his story, go HERE.

Family Field Trip

It has taken awhile, but we are finally at a point where we feel like we can go to public places as a family- outside of the park or Chuck E. Cheese, of course.

-

One of our first family outings not to a kidzone:

-

BYU vs. Air Force Game in Colorado Springs

(also the furthest we have driven as a family since Claire was born).

The drive should have taken us an hour. So, we left 2 hours early- with it being Sept. 11 and the game at the Air Force Academy, I thought for sure they would have a really cool pre-game show and they would definitley have a fly-over and I didn't want to miss it.

-

I was right about the fly-over. It occured just before kickoff. While we were in our car.

-

It took us over TWO hours to get to the game! We were on the freeway literally going an average of 3 mph or less. We ended up being 15 minutes late to the game. It is definitely debateable if we will go again because of that torture.

-

So, we get to the game and Audra spotted it. Within 10 seconds she saw it. I have never known anybody sitting so high in the bleachers to see it so fast.

-

What did she?

-

This:

-

Down 100 stairs and in the furthest stretches, she spotted the kidzone. I should have known we would be dealing with bouncy rides even at a football game.

-

So, we went down and spent 45 minutes waiting in line for her to go on two rides. We missed the entire third quarter and all of the halftime show.

-

But, tell me honestly: could you have turned down this face? Well, we couldn't either.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

She made a new best friend on the swings while I stewed over missing my BYU game.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Finally, it was time to go back and watch the game.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Thankfully, we were armed with lots of illegal fishy crackers- don't tell anybody we snuck them in.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

In the end, it wasn't much of a game. BYU lost 35-14 in very unimpressive fashion. But, it was a successful family adventure- we might even do it again someday. Maybe.

-