October

Jessie and Scarlet at the fire house.
Having so much fun together!

Bedtime for the little sweeties!

What cute kids!

October

Having fun at the hay maze!

Ginger loves her duckie bath!


Just hangin around...

Helping out in the garage.

Ginger's blessing

We had Ginger blessed on July 25, which happened to also be our 7th year wedding anniversary. I decided sometime this past Winter that I would be especially awesome and make her dress as well as matching one for Scarlet. Ginger's dress was amazing. I said a lot of prayers that I wouldn't mess it up and that it would be something she would want to keep forever.

After many long days and nights, I was finally finished with all of the sewing at 3:30am the morning of the blessing.

She looked angelic. I beamed everytime I saw her. I'm so grateful for my sweet little Ginger. I have such a blessed life because I have my two daughters and my amazing husband, Charlie.

On our way to church, I think we were almost late getting there! It was so nice having so much family for the blessing. My parents, My sister Tori and her family from Utah, Davi & Carly, Anni, Randy, Erik & his family, Michael, Sonny, Debbie & Papa, Amy & Dorian, and Grandma Daisy. The blessing was given by Charlie and it was so sweet. I remember really feeling the spirit and my favorite part of the blessing was about Ginger's smile. She smiles so much; it's so awesome. I love having a smiley baby.

I was so grateful that Aunt Kellie brought her the white headband and I found this clip-on flower at Jo-Ann's for super cheap. It looked awesome with her dress.

Erik Burns took more pictures of Ginger that I'll post when he puts them online. We went to Rocky Reach Dam (where Charlie and I were married) that evening and he came out and took pics. of the girls.

Getting Ginger into her blessing dress.

Scarlet in her dress with her Papa John. She looked very sweet, too. I wish I wasn't the one who made the dress because I was constantly evaluating it. The material we used was very difficult to work with. I wouldn't use it again for a dress. But I absolutely loved it for Ginger's dress, so I would do that again. I wouldn't ever make a matching dress again until I get better at sewing.

Too expensive to make and too many mistakes made.

I love this girl's hair. People used to comment on my hair when I was little and say how much they liked it, blah, blah. I never believed it, but looking at Scarlet's hair, I believe it now. It's so pretty.

Ginger's dress in the works.

This is how I spent many days and nights. Not usually smiling, but grungy with no make-up.

I'm soooo glad this is over!!

4th of July!

The 4th was a lot of fun this year. We had a lot of friends and our family at the house to celebrate. You can't beat having fun people over and great food! (Scarlet thought the fireworks were too loud and spent most of the evening like this...

And this. Thanks to Jessie for holding her ears for her! :)

I did mention the food was great, right? Here's the delicious strawberry pie right next to Athena's amazing cheesecake that stole the show! My stars are a little off but you get the idea, right?

There's a great dad for ya!

Scarlet loved the turtle firework. She and Jessie both had one to play with.

What a big girl! It was a little difficult for me to stand by and watch her do this on her own. She did good for awhile but then chickened out later anyway, so I really didn't need to worry too much, she's like me and does it on her own.

We had the West and Macauley families over for the 4th. It was so much fun!

Luckily Charlie remembered to get some fireworks Saturday night so we had a few things for the kids to light-off.

Ginger and Pa. What a sweet little girl!

Meeting Scarlet's Bone Marrow Donor

Scarlet had her BMT on September 18, 2007; She was just 5 1/2 months old. It really doesn't seem that long ago that we were together at Children's awaiting the life-saving marrow. It's amazing what our bodies can do...but, it's even more amazing what our Father in Heaven can do. We owe the life of our little girl to Him and Ralf, our German hero, and of course all the doctors and nurses who cared and continue to care for Scarlet.

It was an exciting weekend when Ralf came to visit. It was kind of funny because somehow I thought he was coming on the 23rd and when that weekend came and went with no-show we were worried. We finally made contact and he told me that he was actually coming memorial day weekend. Kind of funny now. We ended up having 2 barbeques, 2 weekends in a row; we really broke in the BBQ for this summer.

Scarlet took to Ralf almost immediately. We'd been talking to her about him for sometime before he came, trying to explain to her who he was and what he did for her and our family. I would tell her that Ralf made it so she wasn't "sickie" anymore and now she gets to be here with her family and do lots of fun things. By the time he came she understood that, "Ralf made me sickie."

(Scarlet on Uncle Dan's 442 getting prepped for Apple Blossom. I think Ked's and a princess dress will definitely be in when she's old enough. )

I was anxious to learn exactly how Ralf had become a donor. I had been told by someone that all German's were required to be registered donors. Not true. Ralf is a rescue helicopter pilot in the German Navy and a soldier needed a BMT and he and others decided to register to see if they were a match. He unfortunately wasn't able to help his friend, but because of him he was able to help Scarlet.

(Aunt Amy holding baby Ginger at our Family BBQ to meet Ralf. Uncle Sonny looking very handsome in his Church clothes.)

Ralf has 3 kids: 2 boys and a girl. You could tell that he was a dad because he was very kind and gentle with Scarlet and even held Ginger for awhile when she was fussy. We got to learn a lot about him in a short time. He, unfortunately, came 4 weeks after Ginger was born and I was still half-zombie from lack of sleep but I tried very hard to stay awake and learn all about him.

(Charlie in his fab Spidey apron and his mom Debbie. We had a lot of family come over to meet Ralf that day, it was great!)

Ralf came to church with us that Sunday. We weren't really sure how he'd feel about us going and leaving for 3 hours while he was only there for such a short visit, but he said he'd go. He wore his "Blues", I'm not really sure what you call the nice pilot outfit of a German Navy officer.

Ralf sang a song for RockBand Saturday night and he made it pretty clear he doesn't like to sing, but he sang all the hymns in the sacrament meeting and even held Scarlet on his lap while they sang the closing song. It was so sweet. I was really impressed with his willingness to give anything a try even if it made him a little uncomfortable. Scarlet dragged him with her to nursery and then Charlie took him around with him for the rest of church.

My dad came over for the evening to meet Ralf. It was great because my dad flew helicopters in the Army and had a lot to talk with Ralf about that sort of stuff. Len, Charlie's dad, was a submariner and they had lots to talk about, too. It was really neat.

Just a cute picture of Charlie and Scarlet.

Ralf , Uncle Dan, and Scarlet in front of his 442.

I didn't realize how cold Ginger looked after her shower...

Playing RockBand, our family's favorite pastime.

Ralf and Scarlet watching "Strawberry Cake" and sitting on a giant Dolphin that Ralf brought back from Seaworld for Scarlet.

Scarlet loves trains and she and Ralf agreed to come with us to let her ride on a mini-train.

It was a good time followed by dinner at Red Robin, Scarlet's favorite place to eat.

Not looking too happy, this was her first meeting with Ralf and I think she was a little shy at first. It didn't last too long, she was grabbing him by the hand and yanking him around shortly after meeting.

Thanks for coming to visit us Ralf!! We had a great time!

This big girl loves riding her bike! Charlie cleared the garage so now she has enough space to ride seeing that we live on a busy street and it terrifies me to have her riding in the driveway. When we had our house painted a couple years ago the painter parked his car next to the sidewalk and it ended up totally getting slammed by a driver who wasn't paying attention to the road. So, you just never know. I think we'll start going over to the church parking lot and riding there this summer.

Debbie took Scarlet to the park and brought these pictures home. I got a little wide-eyed when I saw that my little 3 year old was going up the ladder without someone behind her. I guess it's a good thing that she went with grandma and was allowed a little room to grow up. I might be a tad too over protective sometimes...

How cute is this? Theses two are becoming good buddies and I think that's great. They kind of have a love-hate relationship, but they are mostly ok together. Hopefully Scarlet will start feeling more inclined to potty on the potty chair and get into pre-school with him.

Scarlet is starting to come around with Ginger. She doesn't kiss her very often though, so getting this picture was awesome!
This was Ginger's first Sunday at church (sacrament, anyway) May 23, 2010

We heard a lot of "I hate Ginger" or "I hate baby" and have been working really hard with her to show her how important she is in Ginger's life as well as our own. It was hard for the first few weeks but things are really starting to brighten and I think Scarlet is going to be an awesome big sis!

She's asking to hold her a lot now but if she cries it's all over and she wants to give her back.

Great Grandpa Larry and Grandma Shirley came over for a visit with the new babe.

Scarlet likes the swing more than the baby!

With her new bippity-boppity from Uncle Dan. I think that probably eased the pain of not getting to blow out the candles on Peyton's cupcake.

She loves blowing out the candles (what kid doesn't?), this must have been really difficult for her. I now understand why some parents re-light the candles for the other kids to blow out. This isn't the picture I meant to post, there was another one where she looks sooo sad! I would be like those re-lighting parents and totally give in to that sad little face. I wasn't there though, so I couldn't.

Ginger at about 2 weeks, 6lbs 8 oz. Still pretty skinny looking but she was 5lbs 11 oz. at birth and in 3 weeks has chunked to a whopping 8lbs 8oz! Crazy!!

What a pretty little face!! Just loving this baby!

Our modified carseat since Tori's didn't make it to me as planned. She's got a little bit of a booster and rolled blankies to keep up and steady. Sure wish we would have gotten Tori's carseat, I'm pretty sure it would be compatible with my stroller, too! Not sure how safe this was, but we tried to keep her home mostly anyway. The nurses at the hospital were very concerned for her and made her sit through an hour long breathing test in the carseat to make sure she got enough O2, she passed with the help of the blankies.