asking for some help

dear friends,

I tend to start most of my blog posts lately with a "sorry I haven't written in such a long time..." but, by now, you know that this has been the trend.  And, for whatever reason, you are still here.  So, thanks for sticking with us.  Updates to come... eventually.

But, today I heard some news from sad news from some of our most favorite friends.  We found out that their darling little 5 year old girl has a brain tumor.  They found out yesterday.  She goes in for surgery tomorrow morning.  They think it's cancerous.  My heart stopped when I heard the news.

We've known this little girl since she was just a few months old.  We've watched her grow up and spent time reading, singing, and playing with her.  She is so stinkin' smart.  She is a lover of all things "princess" :) She is a big sister to two.  She is strong.  Since we're so close with this family, we kind of claim her as our own.

The doctors will find out much more tomorrow when they go in and can take a look.  But, in the mean time, we're wigging out a little bit.

So, I don't think I've ever asked y'all to do this, but if you are a praying person, please send up your prayers in their behalf.

As Easter has come and gone this past weekend, and with the news this morning, I've had time to reflect.  I have a renewed sense of awareness and perspective.  With this season, I've come to the conclusion, again, that God is good.  He is aware of the the joys and the sorrows.  They happy times and the scary times.  I'm grateful that there is a plan for each of us.  And, ultimately, that He is in control and is intimately involved in the details of our lives.  I just hope that this scary time for our sweet friends can quickly turn into a happy time.

Anyway, thanks for letting me put this out there.

We're all in this together.
love, melis

Back in the saddle, again... at least for a minute.

It always takes us a few days to recover after big trips.  It's amazing how LITTLE I accomplish on these days.  Oh well.  At least we got some pictures to record the fun.  Here Til is showing off her new birthday threads.  She loves this new dress.

love the face on that one.

Tillie insisted that Cal needed to dress up too.  So, I found this weird striped number that I bought a few years back for ME, but after bringing it home, realized it would be much better for our costume box.  :)  Cal enjoyed it.  And, Tillie was very happy she had a "prince" to dance with her.

he's clueless as to what he's gotten himself into.  Oh, and his poor chin!  Still don't know how that happened. 

 

After chasing each other for a while, they both grabbed some books for themselves.  Too funny.  Here Tillie is getting her reading seat all ready. 

Good times.  Good times.

april's utah trip!

We went to Utah for a quick trip in April.  The big reason for the trip was for the big wedding!  Aaron's brother, Adam, got married to darling Kate.  It was such a great excuse to travel back to UTAH WE LOVE THEE (thanks, kemy).

Although, the wedding was the main event, we did squeeze in a few other fun delights---like the new park in Alpine!  What fun!?!  I can't tell you how happy I am to see all that land turned into something like this, instead of more houses!  So great.  So much green grass.  So many cool new toys at the playground.  Good times abound. See for yourself...

  

I love Tillie's legs in this one.

I might just get punished by my sister for posting this one, but I couldn't help it.  I did, however, choose the most flattering shot, so I can't imagine she'll be TOO upset...

 Even Papa got into the action.  So fun.

 Check out that landscape in the background.  Amazing.  And, yeah, check out that cool mom.  She MUST be rad b/c she's flashing a PEACE sign.  Double Amazing.

::: Next up on the agenda was to play... Utah Style.  Okay, I don't even know what that means, but we were able to have a ton of fun on the trampoline.

 

she always thinks it's so funny to get SUPER close to the camera.  Weird.  I wonder who taught her that?  Guilty.

love this pre-jump position.

Sing it with me: "I'm comin' out! I want the world to know, gonna let it show..."  Tell me you know that song and tell me that this dance move makes you think of it.

::: We were able to go watch the Salt Lake Real Pro team play----oh wait, maybe they weren't QUITE to that level, but it was fun anyway.  We saw our nephew, Max, and one of my best friend's little boy, Blake, play at their first soccer game. It was so cute to watch them run around chasing the ball.  The experience was cut short by a certain 3 year old's plea to find a potty.  After running clear across the mega field we found a Port-A-Potty.  Such fun time had by all in that little jaunt.
Here are the pictures we got:

 

::: Onto the main event.  The wedding was lovely.  I have a TON more pictures I took of them right outside of the beautiful Mt. Timpanogos Temple, but alas, they are on my parent's computer.  Addendum to come eventually.  First off, I am SOOOO happy that Adam found Kate.  Another great home-town couple.  They grew up around the corner from each other but never really knew each other till college.  Sounds familiar, no?  (same thing with Aaron and I)  Anyway, I am SUCH a huge fan of darling Kate.  And, hello, our kids love her.  In fact, every time they twirl around, they laugh and yell, "Kate! Kate! Kate!" for some reason.  Even Cal does this.  Wow.  See, they love her too.

I was lucky enough to help out with their invitations.  I love doing these kind of things, so I was super excited when they asked. As per usual, I make up a ton of different mock ups for the "client" and then we narrow down in hopes of finding what makes them happiest.  Here are some of the early versions I was rather fond of...

In the end, they went with something simple and classic---and I loved it.  It totally reflects their personality.  I love how clean and simple it it is.  And, I love the blue they ended up choosing in the end.  Oh, and in case you were curious, the tree has everything to do with their relationship and that was an element they wanted included.  I love how it turned out.  We did little insert cards for the luncheon and temple in a soft salmony orange and green.  Pretty fun.

Anyway, enough of the paper goods---let's get onto the reason why we wanted to celebrate!  The marriage!  Again, I'll post pictures of them walking out of the temple + luncheon pictures later, but here's some we snapped right before the reception.  Sorry, the pictures aren't great, but that's why they hired a photographer!  :)

Kirstin had literally JUST had a baby like 3 days earlier!  We thought there was no way she'd be there for any of the wedding festivities, but she snuck away for a few minutes to get in some of the pictures!  It was such a fun and unexpected surprise!!

cute cousin Garrett!

gotta love these group shots where we try to have everyone "LOOK" happy!  :) hAA!

this picture is worth a thousand words.  I look about as happy as Calvin was in my arms.  He was trying to run around while we were needing him for the photos.  I'm very amused here.  :)  Thanks for capturing the moment, Aaron.  In the end, he eventually got to run free.  You can see proof in the next few pictures.

messing with door handles and locks.  nice.

stealth mode.

What a happy day it was!  We are so happy we got to be a part of it all!  Congratulations, Adam and Kate!

::: We left back to Texas on Easter Sunday AND Tillie's 3rd birthday.  They happened to be on the same day!
I totally stole some pictures from Saturday's Easter festivities from Kirstin's blog.  :)  You love me, Kirstin. We took the kiddos to the Cedar Hills hunt.  I'd never been to such an event, and it was nuts!  All the build up and then when they said "GO!" it was Pandemonium!  and then over in about 45 seconds.  Amazing.  We're gonna try our best to train the kiddos before hand, so Tillie and Cal will know what to do next time.  I think they ended up with one piece of candy each---only b/c cousin Maxer shared.  hA!

::: The next day we opened up some presents for Tillie before we left to the airport.  Her birthday was definitely LOW key this year.  We'll make up for it next year, I'm sure.  :)  Here I am dressing Cal for the day.  Random.  But, we're happy, so I'll add it.

I can't believe this is the only picture I have of Tillie in the skirt and shirt my mom made for her as an Easter dress from our Rainy Days and Mondays fabric.  Lovely.  I'll have to take note and get a true picture of her in it.  It's darling.

Even though Tillie was acting like a TOTAL STINKER, she loved her new princess dress that she got from Nana and Papa.  It is so cute on her! 

::: Like I said, many pictures are missing from this post (mind reels that there could be more).  So, I'll add them when I'm in front of my parent's computer.  Until then, long live UTAH WE LOVE THEE.