Our Blessings

Cheri and I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and kind words during this difficult time. We've been overwhelmed with the love we have felt both from family and friends, but more importantly from our Heavenly Father. Over the past few days, we can't help but think of the many blessings large and small that we have witnessed. The hospital room where we stayed literally became heaven on earth and we are eternally grateful for the choice experiences we had there. There are not enough words to describe nor list all that we are thankful for from wonderful nurses/doctors/volunteers at the hospital to Cheri's Mom dropping everything to come to our aid, to a loving Bishop and Relief Society President who have gone above and beyond, to our wonderful family all over the country pouring out their love and support. The most important blessing we feel thankful for is Macie choosing to be part of our Family. We are honored and humbled by her.

Macie really is our angel. She was so perfect in every way and we know that she will be always be with us. We will be having a graveside service for her on Thursday and although we know that will be a hard day for us, we know that our separation from her will be temporary. A few scriptures/quotes have given us comfort:

"But Jesus said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (JST, Matthew 19:14)

"The Lord takes away many, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man and the sorrows and evils of the world. They are too pure, too lovely, to live on earth. Therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning, we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil and we shall soon have them again." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 196-197).

"...that the mother who laid her little child, being deprived of the privilege and satisfaction of raising it up to manhood or womanhood would, after the resurrection, have all the joy, satisfaction, and pleasure, and even more that it would have been possible to have in mortality, in seeing her child grow to the full measure of the stature of [her] spirit..." (as quoted in Gospel Doctrine, p. 454).

Very fitting for us is that Macie will be buried in a cemetery called "Pioneer Cemetery" and will be with other little angels like herself who went before their families and like Pioneers of old paved the way for others to follow. Our family hopes and prays to live our life worthy to join our precious Macie in the highest degree of Celestial glory.

-Spencer

Please keep Cheri and me in your prayers

Hi everyone,

This is Spencer. Unfortunately, one of my only posts brings some sad news. We lost our little angel over the weekend. Macie was 7 lbs 4 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long with a beautiful full head of hair. Cheri is recovering in the hospital from c-section. Our only comfort comes from our knowledge of the gospel and eternal families and that we know that we will have little Macie with us forever.

Please keep us in your prayers during our time of mourning.

--Spencer

Friends

I truly have some amazing friends. I feel so honored to be surrounded by so many amazing women. At the RS Broadcast three years ago President Faust gave a wonderful talk. I remember talking with a friend about his words the next day; what stuck out to us was how he said we all need friends. I find this especially true for females. Husbands are great, but we thrive on friendships and time with other females:

"As President Hinckley has often said, we all need friends. Friendship fills us with warmth and love. It is not confined to the young or the old, the rich or the poor, the little known or the public figure. Whatever our circumstances, we all need someone who will listen to us with understanding, pat us on the back when we need encouragement, and nurture in us the desire to do better and to be better."

I've been thinking about this a lot the last few days. About a month ago, a good friend told me she'd be giving me a baby shower. I resisted (I already had a girl!), but she turned it into a double shower (the other girl is having a boy 4 weeks after me) and wouldn't take no for an answer. Realizing there wasn't much I could do, I gave in. Don't get me wrong - I was flattered. I just was a little embarrassed. Anyway, the shower was last week and I was so overwhelmed by the dear friends who came (or sent gifts) to show their support. There were young girls who came (Emma being the youngest), and the older ladies in the ward were also there, many of whom don't know me very well. It didn't matter - people came because I think other women feel the same way I do and love the chance to hang out with other women.

The gifts didn't really matter to me. Of course it was so nice to get new things for this baby (who will, by the way, be the best-dressed little girl ever. Think Paris Hilton, who never wears the same thing more than once. No joke.). Spencer said, "You've GOT to be kidding" at least 35 times when I brought the bags of stuff home. But more than that, I realized how lucky I am to live where I do and to have such a great group of friends - from the children all the way up to the grandmas. The fact that they all came and we got to eat chocolate and pumpkin pie and just be together was the best part.

Here are a couple of pictures from the shower/post-shower. This first one is Melanie and me - the shower was for both of us.

By the way...we found an AWESOME dresser/changing table for the baby (we're already giving our younger kids way more than our older ones ever had!) for dirt cheap - brand new - as well as a new glider for Spencer...er, for me. Haha, we'll see who really uses it.

Girl's weekend/Boy's weekend

The boys took off for Utah this weekend for some "recruiting" (I still can't believe a football game classifies as recruiting) so Emma and I got to have our girl's weekend! Too bad I'm such a lump and wasn't as fun as I might have been if I wasn't 8 months pregnant.

We finished Tyler's Christmas shopping (Emma's is about done too!) and browsed through Costco. I let her sleep in my bed with me. While I did some Prop 8 work on Saturday morning, our Bishop and his wife watched her. Then we did lunch at Red Lobster, as Emma has been asking to eat there for a year but neither of us had ever been. And as much as she was hyped up about it, I think she might take after her dad in the seafood department. Broiled fish, what she wanted, isn't the yummiest pick. My crab linguine was all right, but I won't be going back there most likely! After that we were pretty wiped so we chilled and watched the chilly-looking football game. Tyler got spoiled by his aunt and her roomates and Spencer bought him lots of goodies to keep him happy at the game. BYU won, of course, but Tyler didn't last until the end of the game so they had to listen to some of it from the road.


I must admit, I had a hard time watching Tyler go on his first trip without me (I know he was with his dad, but he's still my baby for another month!). He called a couple times and talked to Emma, telling her how much he missed her. Those two are the best of friends and it's been cute for me to see their interaction from 800 miles apart on the phone. Spencer brought me a big can of Stephen's mint truffle hot chocolate and also bought a blessing dress for the little one (since I've had NO luck finding one here)! I love it, and now I'm torn because there are two I really like. I might save pictures and a poll for a very near-in-the-future post.

Finally, here is my LAST pregnant belly shot for this blog. This was taken last week, when I had about 5 weeks left. Black is slimming; there was method in my color selection... And I know I don't look very big here, but I had the option of this picture or of one where I looked huge. You would have done the same thing.

Girl's night no longer

When I was in college I took a really cool Folklore class as an elective my senior year. For my final project, I put together a folklorish compilation of what LDS women do during the Priesthood session of Conference. I suspected (and later proved) that most women/girls have girly traditions. Growing up, and even in college when my parents would come to Utah for conference, the girls would go shopping. It was fun for us, and part of me thought that maybe the boys (dad and brothers) were jealous that we were out having more fun (and spending money) than they were at Priesthood. I looked forward to this semi-annual tradition. I loved buying a new skirt and a new pair of flip flops at what used to be ZCMI.

I found that other females often got together for game night or spa night, or went out to eat in large groups. It's fun to have just one more excuse to get together with the girls. My in-law's always got Marie Callendars' pies and would often go out for Chinese. When we were in Boston and the session didn't start until 8 p.m., I had a few friends come over and put their kids down at my house. We would watch a movie and paint nails.

These days, I find the time during Priesthood getting increasingly boring...for me. Last night Spencer left even before dinnertime. I made dinner for the kids and bathed them, then we played and read books. The guys in our ward have a tradition of going out to eat after the session. They chose Texas Roadhouse, which has awesome food but isn't the most quick place to go. So he got home around 10, while I had twiddled my thumbs for a few hours after the kids went to bed. Really, I'm glad they all got to do this together. But then again...I'm so used to having girl nights, and those days seem to be gone, at least for now. I called my sister and she and my mom were at the Gateway (SL), looking for purses. Was I jealous? Heck yeah! I told Spencer that from now on, the men should go to Priesthood, then come home and get their wives and we can all go out together!! But then that sorta spoils their tradition. There's got to be a compromise somewhere in this. I don't want my Folklore project from 5+ years ago to die off so soon. Long live Girls' Night Out!

By the way, I thought Conference was so great. I was especially touched by the talks of Elder Wirthlin, Elder Eyring, and Elder Holland. Can't wait for my Ensign!

*I just found this article from the Daily Universe that substantiates my folklore project. :)

To Iron or not to Iron?

Do people really iron jeans? I mean, REALLY? Didn't jeans start out as crappy work clothes? Didn't women only start wearing them in the last 30 or so years? I know that I have a few pairs of trouser jeans that, when I bought them, were folded so they had that crease down the front. I even got so sucked in that I kept them folded this way. But once I washed them - bam - no more creasing, and DEFINITELY no ironing. I do have one friend who lived overseas and had to iron absolutely everything that came out of the laundry because the washer and dryer were one machine and things would come out in a rumpled mess. Can you even imagine??

So, some jeans may come out of the dryer with slight wrinkles. Fold them (normally...no creasing), put them away, and those wrinkles will disappear! If they don't, they surely will within 5 minutes of putting them on. I just see no point to this madness. Maybe that's because I'm anti-iron to begin with (if only you could see the STACK of Spencer's work shirts hanging next to the washer/dryer in the garage - probably a month's worth there, easily).

To those who do have creases in your jeans - do you put them/keep them there yourself or does someone else (your mom? grandma?) do your laundry? I'm just curious and would love to wrap my head around this. Is creasing/ironing the new proper thing, or totally nuts?