Time....

     Time is a funny thing..... sometimes it feels like it goes by so fast yet sometimes it feels like the clock stands still.  It's coming up on 3 months since our sweet baby girl  Emery Lynn Crookston was born sleeping.  Most days it feels like a  bad dream but it's not, it is reality and a reality that is sometimes hard to swallow.
 
 We've been so touched and over whelmed by the love and support we have felt from so many in these past few months.  The word I would use to describe Emery's service was perfect. For how little time we had to put everything together and while I was trying to recover from a c -section, it turned out perfect. At the viewing when I walked up and saw her for the first time in her tiny white casket she took my breath away.  She looked like a perfect angel in her white dress lying there. I could feel the spirit so strong  radiating from her tiny little body. It's a feeling I will never forget.  I'm forever grateful to my sister in laws for the time and thought that was put into making her headband, socks, and bracelet. I would have never been able to make them myself. They were perfect and made with such love for our sweet little angel. It's hard to explain the peace and comfort I had while holding her that day. It was so hard to say that final goodbye to her, and know  that was the last time I would hold her in my arms for a very long time. I could have sat in that chair and held her in my arms forever. We are so grateful for the family and friends who came that day and saw our little baby girl whom they never met but loved so dearly.
 
  The graveside service was beautiful in every way.  It was such a nice spring day, we couldn't have asked for better weather. I love where we chose to bury her, it's so pretty and I feel such peace there. Our bishop and Matt's father spoke beautiful words and we sang "I am of A child of God" and "Families can be together Forever".  Her tiny white casket looked so beautiful with her pink and white roses on top.  We ended the service by sending 70 pink balloons up to heaven to our sweet Emery. I loved how our bishop said that Emery needed some pink balloons so we were going to send her some..... and we did and it was such a wonderful way to end the service. We all stood there and watched them go up higher and higher into the sky to our sweet Emery.  I'm so thankful for the love and support that was given us that day. The luncheon at the church was put together with such love for our family. The food was so delicious and they had it decorated   so pretty.  I have felt such love and comfort  from our ward and I know it's where we're suppose to be right now.
 
 One of the hardest things for me is knowing that I'll never hear her call me mommy or see her start her first day of school and watch her look back and wave goodbye.......not in this life but I will someday. We are so grateful for our knowledge that we have and that we'll see our sweet baby girl again. It's heart breaking to imagine this life without her but I know this separation from her now is just temporary and that she is doing great things right now.  We take great comfort and peace in knowing that she is with a loving heavenly father, and that we will  be together with her someday. Oh what a joyous reunion that will be. We love you sweet angel.
                                                   
            
                                    My sweet eternal family

Back to School

It felt a little strange at first  when I would drop the kids off for school and I would come home and it was just Harrison and I. My babies are all grown up and off to school.  I'm loving this time I get to spend with  Harrison in the morning. He is just so darn sweet! I think he's going to have a hard time with a new baby in the house in a couple of months.  He won't be getting all the attention anymore,  he may actually like not getting mauled to death or at least by Ellie anyway.....

The girls LOVE school so much and we are so thankful that they do.  Matt and I were talking the other night about how we are so glad our kids love school it just makes things a lot easier. 

Addie and Ellie

Love these girls!

And yes they even had to dress Molly up and take pictures of her before school... Addie

kept calling her "fashion dog"..... silly girl

In front of the school all ready to start the year.

My cute little kindergartner! She was so excited.

Ellie hanging up her backpack.

Birthday fun...

Ellie turned 5 in June!!!!Yes I know I'm a little behind it's now November..but better late than never...right????

The Birthday Girl

Birthday girl at Grandma Sue's and the awesome cake that Paula and Aunt Jenn made.

It was ADORABLE and she loved it! 

Pretty in pink! She loved all the sparkly diamond rings they had 

put on the cake! Love that girl!

Present time!!

Birthday girl with that darn sun in her eyes!

getting ready...

She was so funny!! A little different from the reaction of Lexi when she got

her ears pierced.

piercing the other ear!

So brave!!!

ALL DONE!

And now her poor little ear is SO infected. We've put her original earrings in and used ear care

solution and put neosporin on it and it just won't stop bleeding and getting infected.  She was in so much pain and would cry if anyone would even touch it or look at it wrong. So Matt told her to just to give her ear a rest and she could get them pierced again. 

She also went to Arctic Circle with a couple of her friends and had a little party. They played on they toys

while the moms visited. It was fun! She got some fun toys and we had cupcakes! 

Opening presents again!

She was so excited to finally turn 5. She had a fun fun birthday!!  We love you Ellie!!

Another school year finished....

Now on to Addie's graduation. She had her kindergarten graduation in June.  They did a little  program which was really cute. And yes, I got teary eyed again  because she is growing up too fast for me and for some reason after they finish kindergarten it just seems to go so fast. And yes I will fully admit that  I'm a big bawl baby when it comes to stuff like this.....I wonder what I'm going to be like at high school gradution or even their wedding day??. I can't think about that it makes me too sad. Sometimes you just want to hold them forever and never let them grow but at the same time it's so fun to see them grow and have these experiences. It's a little bitter sweet!

The program

All graduated!!

Way to go!!

Cute little Addie!

proud mama!

And here is her friend Thomas that she talked about ALL THE TIME!!!! They went to each others houses 

and had play dates and had a lot of fun together. 

After the graduation we went to her class and she showed me what she had been working on all year and then they had punch and cookies for everyone.  Addie loved kindergarten. She made a lot of friends in this class. She learned so much and is such a good little reader. She loves to read and I love how  she pushes herself and gets harder books so she can read better.    Her teacher said she loved how determined she was in class.  If Addie wanted  to be perfect at something her teacher said  she would sit and work at her desk and figure it out until she got it right. She loves to learn and I love that about her. I'm glad you had such a fun year at school .I love you Addie bug!

Slowly catching up....

Yes, It's been a long time. I don't think I've ever gone this long without a post. I do wish I was better at updating and I'm going to try to be better, because I know someday I will be glad that I did  So Jenn keep on me!!! 

I was going to post the pictures of the kids going back to school, but as I was going through pictures I realized I hadn't post any of their graduations from June so I decided to start with that. 

So here is Ellie's graduation. She  had so much fun at  preschool. She loved her teacher. Her teacher has been teaching for over 30 years and you can tell she still enjoys every minute of it and really loves these kids! They put on an adorable program!

Ellie was Suzy the snowflake in the program . She loved wearing the princess dress.

She was in Heaven!

She sang her little heart out.

All graduated!! She is ready to go to kindergarten !

She loved her teacher. Mrs. Tammy.

Ellie with her friends Carson and Hunter. The teacher promised

them M&M's if they sang good!

I'm so proud of her. She learned so much at this preschool and really had a lot of fun while doing it! She is loving kindergarten and I love how excited she gets about homework. She loves to sit with me after school  and work on her homework.  She tells me about her day and I've been really enjoying this time with her.  I ran into her teacher tonight at the grocery store and she told me how well she was doing in school and how fun she is in class. Ellie was all embarrassed and hiding behind my leg and that kid never gets embarrassed. It was funny. We love you so much Ellie and love your  fun personality you bring into our family!

Baptism day and more birthday fun!

with dad on her special day!

so pretty in her dress!

4 generations... I thought this picture turned out

great  AND everyone is smiling including my husband. (That's about

the biggest smile we ever get from Matt)

 Grandma and Grandpa Crookston

Grandma and Grandpa Drown

It was kind of crazy at the house I was trying to get food ready so I had told Matt to get

pictures of everyone who came but this is all he got.....darn it!

 Lexi's Baptism day was such a beautiful day shared with family and friends.  She was so excited to be baptized and was so happy that day. She is such a sweet girl and always wants to do good.  I get compliments all the time on how well behaved she is and how sweet and kind she is to others. I'm so proud to be her mother.

I love Lexi's excitement to learn about the gospel and how she is always asking questions about it and reminding us as a family that it's time to read our scriptures or wanting to help with planning family home evening. She keeps me on my toes and I'm grateful that my heavenly father sent me such a sweet spirit.

That night of her baptism after everyone left she told me she didn't want to forget the feeling she had that day. So I told her to write it down in the journal that our  friends had given her earlier at her baptism. She went into her room and wrote in it and it was very sweet. We love you so much Lexi. You are such a beautiful girl and we are very proud of the sweet person you are and the great example you are to others.  Love you sweet girl.

After the baptism we did Lexi's family birthday party. She got spoiled by everyone. Here are a few pics of her little celebration!

This is the cute bow holder Aunt Jenn made for her. She also made her

a bunch of flowers for her hair.

YAY!! I-tunes gift card  from Uncle Jed and Aunt Lisa

 Opening her American girl doll from Grandma and Grandpa Crookston

She got a fun game for her ds from Paula and Josh's family and a nice case

to hold her ds and games from Aunt Heather.

!!!!!!!CAKE TIME!!!!!!

MAKE A WISH!!

It's great to be Eight!!

My Lexi Lou is finally 8. It seems like she has been talking about turning 8 forever. She is so excited to be getting baptized tomorrow. We are busy busy getting ready for her special day. She had her friend party last weekend.  This was our first time doing a Pinata at a party and the kids had fun and really seemed to like it. It was fun to see all her friends that she talks about at school. Her cousins and her friend Paige came up to the party and spent the night. They had fun staying up and giggling till all hours in the night.

cheeeese!!

silly kids!

her friend Zach getting ready to hit the Pinata!

eating pizza

YAY!! Justin Bieber!!

She was very excited to get the Justin Bieber cd  from her friend Paige. After opening presents some of the girls went up to Lexi's room and they turned on his cd and were singing at the top of their lungs and jumping on the bed.  The boys that she invited were downstairs saying how they hated Justin Bieber and  that he sings like a girl. It was pretty funny!