Grandma Dalley, Easter, and Conference Weekend

The Viewing

Mark's Grandma Dalley passed away last week at the age of 96. She was amazing! Her obituary is HERE. Despite her age, she was still not only mentally sharp, but also witty. I cannot put her quick wit and sense of humor into words...she enjoyed the power of words and truly enjoyed people. She was still living in her own home (thanks to Mark's parents living nearby and hired help) and winning blue ribbons at the state fair up until a few months before her death. My kids were heartbroken, especially since they had a visit planned in just 2 more weeks. :( As with other emotions, we have done our best to support them as they process the grief and the surprise from her sudden passing.

The services were a beautiful celebration of her life! We enjoyed hearing the stories from her childhood almost 100 years ago and the ways she reached out to others no matter where she lived. I was particularly touched to meet a young man from her ward who claimed her as his best friend. As I spoke with his mother, I found out that he would help her with her walker into the building every Sunday. He would come visit her every Sunday. Even just a few weeks ago, he stayed all afternoon to help rotate ice packs after a recent surgery. I am reminded that I can do better and help my kids to do better to be more aware of others around us and to adopt grandparents here as others adopt our grandparents when we can't be with them.

The music was beautiful! In addition to Mark's brother and his family singing and his Aunt Carla's beautiful piano arrangement of, "How Great Thou Art," all of the great-grand children sang, "My Heavenly Father Loves Me." It was perfect! Grandma loved nature, especially her flowers and gardens. All of the grandchildren sang, "I Know that My Redeemer Lives." It was a double-treat for me to have the privilege to accompany this beautiful tribute to Grandma. The music was powerful, especially after Rob's talk highlighting The Plan of Salvation and our Savior's central role. I cannot think of a better way to teach our children about the power and wonder of Easter Sunday than to have a real-life experience with the death of a loved one!  <3 We love you, Grandma! We know that because of Jesus Christ, we will see this giant of a woman again. Easter was a beautiful and much more personal celebration this year because of the timing of these tender experiences.

Although we would have loved to be able to visit longer with the family members who gathered for the weekend (we had lots of little hands tugging on us), we are happy to have been able to catch up with so many cousins and extended family members.

Conference was incredible---at least what we caught of it with our kiddos and the family (thank goodness for online options to catch the rest and review it later!). :) Temples coming to India and Russia, big changes to minister more precisely and effectively, the sustaining of a new prophet and two new apostles, and a spiritual feast all weekend long! It was such a blessed weekend for our family!!!

Graveside

This selfie elicited a crazy laugh from Mark. This is Mark with his brother, Mike, and His dad making double chins.

Waiting for their turn with pictures: a small handful of the great-grandkids after the luncheon.

Gav, Mark, and Le...crazy boy selfie

Send catching up with her cousin

Easter egg hunt

About to head out for the egg hunt

Mark was able to meet up with two high school friends and catch up.

Grandpa. :)

Ship playing with the toys

Left to right: Mark's brother, Rob; nephew, Parker; dad; Mark; Mark's brother, Mike at the Priesthood session

The kids and I snuck away to Rexburg during the Priesthood session and had dinner with my family (but I didn't take any pictures! :( ) The food was awesome and we enjoyed our time visiting with family.

Send watching conference

Silly Ship and parents' selfie

Our primary presidency put together conference packets for every child in the primary. <3 We have the most amazing people and leaders in our ward! They care so much about our kids. They are making conference trail mix here.

Setting up the tramp for the weekend with Grandpa.

Mom's B-Day

Gavin and Shipton helping me put the demo boxes together.  It has been about a 6 months process start to finish, but we were given the go-ahead to assemble care packages for the women in our stake battling betrayal trauma from a spouse's sexual infidelity! Each item was clearly meant to be included (check out Mark's video HERE to see what they are like). I was expecting a request for maybe 20, but the bishops asked for 60 (so we did 70 to have a 10-box-buffer). My family could help me do a few of these, but 70!?! I quickly realized this was bigger than us, which is how it should be. As I considered possible dates, I realized my B-Day was coming...I cannot think of a better way to celebrate my life than by making others' lives brighter! With amazing connections that were truly God sent, everything arrived on time. As we made our final preparations for these, it has been a beautiful experience for me. There is healing in paying it forward, making the path smoother and clearer for others, and pointing others to Christ. It doesn't change what happened, but at the same time, it softens the experiences from the past and allows even more love into my own heart. I believe one reason we go through difficulty is that God can use us to reach His other children; we would be unable to do so without our experiences.

Sennika helping to carefully measure, cut, and heat seal-the ribbon. The care packages came together with our entire family working together on the prep work. I appreciate their love, support, and interest. I didn't remember to take a single picture or movie clip of my "B-Day party" (our care package assembly party), but it was incredible. It gave me goose bumps seeing all of the beautiful boxes lined up against the wall, knowing they represent women who will hopefully have a smoother healing process because of our efforts. I cannot fully articulate what it meant to me that night. As my life was completely shattered, I was alone and had no idea where to turn. We had already been working with therapists for about 6 months previously and things had only gotten worse. I felt like I was the only one in my situation and I had no idea where to start, let alone what to do. But to have an entire roomful of people coming together to support these packages plus easily double that who couldn't be in two places at once, did something to my heart. People care! They really do! These people were there because they care about me...but they also care about women facing betrayal trauma. I have no idea what the chances are that any of the women who receive one of these packages will see this post, but if they do, I want them to know that they are so loved. Complete strangers love you. Your friends, family, and leaders love you. God loves you. You are known, even in moments of darkness, despair, and darkness. I am kicking myself that I didn't film it for you so you could experience that, but know that you aren't alone!

A woman in my self-reliance group made me a birthday basket. It was so thoughtful!

Mark scheduled my B-day off, which was a nice surprise. We snuck away for lunch together.

My beautiful roses aren't as fresh today as they were when Mark gave them to me, but their fragrance has filled the house.

It was a wonderful celebration surrounded by those who love me. I appreciate family and friends who couldn't be with me in person, but still reached out on my special day.

13th Wedding Anniversary!!!

We celebrated the big 13!!!  We had family names we had found ourselves and done all of the work from baptisms to Initiatory to Endowment.  We were able to do proxy Sealings for an entire family!  It made the special day even sweeter.  There are many lies out there about what love "is" or "isn't."  Our love has been deepened through trials and difficulties as we have shoulder then side-by-side with God.  We cannot wait for more rounds of 13's as we continue our journey together hand-in-hand.

Christmas overload 2017

We had a unique set of circumstances this year.  Mark and Gavin had performances for Savior of the World Dec 20, 22, & 23 and have their last two performances the 27 & 29.  We decided to stay home and avoid a rushed tripped with family.  We are glad we did because we have had a rough week with sickness.  We were planning on having a houseful of guests to join in the celebration; however, we canceled our guests and our commitments and decided to hunker down as much as possible to speed along the healing process.  We had a shorter than usual church service Christmas Eve that we attended as a family (and lot of cough drops).  After church, the kids were ready for their jammies.

This year, the kids participated faithfully with us in the #lighthteworld invitation.  It was a beautiful experience to serve as Christ served and live as He lived.  We also placed a special ornament on the tree every morning with one of Christ's names and took a few minutes to discuss each of these 25 names.  These have been opportunities to remember Him and help our kids understand Him more fully and personally this year.

We are grateful for the birth of our Savior and testify as living witnesses to reality of His power, Atonement, and love!  Because of Jesus Christ, we have hope.  Because of Jesus Christ it is possible to change and be someone different that we have been in the past.  To us, Christmas represents the anticipated hope of centuries coming to fruition.  What a beautiful time of year to reflect on Christ and to seek to become more like Him!

Le lost his front tooth #2 just in time to rightfully be able to sing this for Christmas.

Gavin reading for our pageant

Of all the gifts we gave this year, Ship's reaction to his Super Cat upgrade was by far my favorite.  I think I have mentioned his normal cape: an old V-Day tablecloth tied around his neck.  He was ecstatic to have a real, life Super Cat cape.  It even has a letter S on it!  It cracked me up to watch how he suddenly could fly faster and was an even better super hero because of it...he jumped off furniture more frequently (and taller than normal)...haha.  Life as a boy mom is always exciting. :)

Dad with Ship and Senn

Senn has been one of our healthy kids this week.  She sang a solo in our ward last Sunday and did a fabulous job.  She was invited to sing again at the branch Sacrament meeting at a nursing home in our area.  She sang with her heart!

Mom with Ship (and "baby Jesus")---ready to start our Christmas pageant.

Mom with Senn and Ship in our Christmas jammies

We flipped our mattress sideways (not sure if that makes sense) to turn out queen into a large enough space to watch a snuggly movie with all 6 of us.

Leland was our wiseman for the pageant.  I love the ear muff. :)

I thought this was super cute.  We asked the kids if they would tell the part of the Christmas story that involved their "character."  Gavin immediately raced to grab his scriptures.  He was reciting the section in Luke 2 that he has memorized from his performances in Savior of the World. <3  I was able to show him where to find that passage in the scriptures.  We are so grateful he has had the opportunity to be part of the cast and for such amazing experiences.

Another Dad, Ship, and Senn pic.

and our wiseman again

Googlie-eyed shepherd

Present time...Gavin working away at his huge Lego set

Leland too.

Dad with Ship

Senn shot some pictures of me in the kitchen.  We make ham and funeral potatoes for Christmas Eve dinner.

Dad and his jammies...I was dying with the kids' reaction to his new jammies.  "He looks like a convict, Mom!"  Oh man!  Now I can't stop laughing when I catch a glimpse of him in them.

Dad about to slice the ham.

Senn playing with new Barbie accessories

The boys battling with new weapons: candy canes.

My parents gifted us the book by Charles Dickens where we wrote about the life and mission of Jesus Christ for his children.  We read it every year.  Because of my trip to MN and sick kiddos, we were behind schedule, but we finally finished it Christmas Eve.  For us, the celebration of Christmas would be incomplete to only teach about His birth.  We focus on His birth, but bring in His entire life, mission, death, and resurrection as well.  To us, THAT is the Christmas story: a story of hope.

Gavin playing with the marble run

Ship with "Baby Jesus"

Haha...yup...he really is picking his nose.

Ship zooming around the house so quickly with his new cape that he is a complete blur! :)

All Shipton consistently asked for was 4 boxes of blueberry candy canes.  Kinda cute!

Senn gave me love and kindness. <3

Le still building away.

Senn organizing Barbie accessories

Laaaaate night "It's a Wonderful Life."  I kept coughing whenever I laid down, so we came up with a better plan.

Dad with Le and Ship playing with the marble run.

It's a bird...it's a plane...no...it's SUPER CAT! :)