My Husband The Hero

I've always considered Lynn to be my hero, but yesterday he cemented that title in stone.
We decided to go to his mom and dad's for a little while. We pulled up in front of their house and noticed some kids playing in a front yard across the street. I was a little nervous because I noticed that there were two really young kids playing right by the ditch. So we sat in the truck and watched them for just a moment. Sure enough, the one child started walking right toward the ditch. Pretty soon she got right to the edge and toppled head first into it. We had no idea if there was water in the ditch or not, but Lynn immediately jumped out and ran towards the child. I was holding Hadley and so I felt helpless - all I could do was scream to the other kids to get the baby out. The aunt of the young child was at the side of the house and looked over at me wondering why I was screaming. I yelled to her that the baby had fallen in the ditch and she started running to the ditch too. (I'm starting to shake and my heart is pounding just typing this!)
I became even more panicked when I realized that Lynn did not stop at the point where the baby had fallen in - he was running farther down the ditch, downstream direction, so I knew there was water in the ditch. In a matter of seconds he was in the water and pulled the baby out. I was running towards them and couldn't tell if the baby was alive or not. He turned her over and patted her back and pretty soon she was coughing up water and started to cry. This is one of those moments when a child's cry is the most beautiful sound in the world. (Now I'm starting to cry thinking about all of it again.) Lynn had saved this precious child's life!
This all occurred within a matter of about 30 seconds. Those 30 seconds have replayed in my mind a thousand times. The more we have talked about it, the more we have realized the hand of the Lord in all of this.

• Lynn had a bishopric training meeting that he should have gone to that evening - but he was unable to go for other reasons.
  
• We had been at the house for about an hour before this happened, debating whether or not we wanted to go down there or go do something else. I finally said, "Let's go down to grandma and grandpa's for a little while."
  
• As we were getting ready to go out the door, I noticed some flower pots that I've been wanting Lynn to hang up for me, but I thought, "No, I can have him do that later."
• None of the other children playing in the yard even noticed that she had fallen in. There were no other people outside to see her fall in. Lynn and I were the only witnesses to this - and I am so grateful that we were there.

So many of these little things that caused us to be there at that exact moment. If we had been just two minutes earlier or two minutes later, that 18 month old little girl would have died in that ditch. Lynn said that when he found her she was laying in the very bottom of the two foot deep water, swiftly moving downstream towards the culvert.

When we went to bed last night I said a long prayer of thanks that I have such a wonderful husband who didn't even have to think, he immediately went to the rescue of this sweet young child and that the Lord let us be there to help.

So, because of this rescue and so many other reasons, Lynn is my hero.
I love you Lynn!

All-Star

Mason was so excited to find out he had made the all-star baseball team. I thought I'd post a picture of his full baseball team.

Front Row (lt to rt): Joey Willardson, Ryan Westwood, Tuff Robinson, Riter Robinson, Mason, Kesler Blood; Back Row: Coach Tim Westwood, Logan Dalton, Anthony Haaland, Tanner Gleave, Parker Dalton, Jaden Kennedy, Cole Payton, Coach Troy Robinson. (Not pictured: Beau Sylvester, Austin Trapp, Buddy Gardner)

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Wow! I can't believe that my last post was so long ago! Time really does fly - whether you're having fun or not! But, we have had a lot of fun. I thought I'd quickly post a few things that we've done lately.

On Memorial Day Weekend, we traveled to Heber to ride the Heber Creeper and spend a "Day Out With Thomas." Kyle is a big Thomas the Tank fan, so we thought it would be fun to go do this as a family. It did turn out fun. Kyle loved seeing Thomas in "real life" and we had fun together as a family.

Mason and Lynn were able to go to one of the Jazz playoff games against the Rockets. Mason is a HUGE Jazz fan and so as part of his birthday, we decided to surprise him with tickets. I was able to find some tickets on KSL. com for them to go. They were actually really awesome seats for not too bad a price. These pictures were taken with a cheap, disposable camera with no zoom - so yeah, they were pretty good seats (not so great pictures!). I must admit, I was a little jealous that I couldn't go (we could only get two tickets and I couldn't leave Hadley) but it was so fun to see how much fun Mason had. Maybe next year I can go!

Baseball...baseball...baseball. Mason and Kyle have both started playing baseball. This is Mason's first year in Babe Ruth Baseball and Kyle's first year playing T-ball. Boy has that kept us running! But I think the boys have fun.

Mason had swimming lessons the first week after school got out. He's getting to be a pretty good swimmer and loves going off the diving board!

So, that's a little taste of our lives for the past month! Hopefully it won't take me so long to find time to share more!

Hadley's First Photo Shoot

Quite a while ago, I took Hadley to a friend's house for her first "photo shoot." (I'm just a little slow getting this post done!) Sundee takes pictures as a hobby, but I like her photos more than a professional. She had so many cute props and she was SO patient with us!! Here are a few of the HUNDREDS of photos she took. THANKS SUNDEE! YOU'RE GREAT!

This was the picture we used for her blessing announcement. This was Sundee's idea. Isn't it so cute!!! It only took us over an hour and about 100 snaps to get it! We really wanted her to be asleep for it, but the fuzzy rug kept tickling her nose and keeping her awake. Oh well, I think it turned out cute anyways.

This one is so adorable, if I do say so myself. The color photo is cute, but this black and white makes it perfect. The hat is actually pretty funny....it's a darling lime green and it was much too big on her, but it made it even more cute!



Gotta love the big orange flower!!!



Sundee did all the cute backgrounds/overlays on these pics. I can't tell if Hadley is too happy to be in this picture!!



Another darling overlay. Thanks again Sundee for the GREAT job you did on these pictures!!!

Whirlwind Week Part III: Baby Blessing

Isn't She Lovely!!

To add to the plethora of activities for the last week, we decided to bless Hadley this Sunday too! I had family come and stay during the weekend, which was so much fun. My brother John and his girlfriend Kae, my sister Nina and her husband Jon and daughter Maya, and my Mom all arrived on Friday and stayed through the weekend. It was great to spend time with them. I always have so much fun with all of them, they are so funny! They were a tremendous help preparing for Hadley's blessing and the dinner after church. Sunday arrived and it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be. Lynn did such a beautiful job blessing Hadley. He is the greatest dad any kid could have! He loves our children (and me!) so much, we are truly blessed to have him in our life! And as I said, Hadley's blessing was perfect. Lynn's dad swears he could see a glow come over Hadley as soon as Lynn gave her her name. It was such a special day for us!

My grandma DeLange made this blessing dress when I was in high school. I made a porcelain doll for a young women's project and she made the dress to go on the doll. It's been waiting a long time for an angel to wear it!


I was so glad that my Mom brought my Grandma to the blessing. It was special to have her there to see Hadley in the dress she had made more than 15 years before!



My beautiful little family. What a blessing in my life!!!




Here is my family! I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything you do for me!

P.S. I finally found time this week to do some scrapbooking (I think I was actually having withdrawals from not having time to do some pages!!!) and I posted the new pages on my slide shows on the side, so take a look! I know some of you have started doing the digital scrapbook thing, make sure you share! I always love new ideas!

Whirlwind Week Part II: Mason's Birthday

So the second reason for my crazy week is it was Mason's 9th birthday. We decided to have his friend birthday party last Thursday after school because with baseball and everything, we wouldn't have time any other day. He invited a group of his friends and we gathered up at the elementary school. Mason wanted to play basketball at his party but the weather was cold (surprising....) so we had the party at the school. That was a great idea! No mess at my house, no worrying about a dozen boys terrorizing my home, easy clean-up and return to my clean house!





Happy Birthday Mason!!!!

Whirlwind Week Part I

This past week (actually the past two weeks) have been CRAZY! I have several things I want to share, so I'll break it up into parts. It's been so crazy because Mason has started playing little league baseball. I'm so used to the lazy days of coach pitch....a game or two, here and there, no big deal. Well, those days are gone! Now I get to experience practices several nights a week, at least two games a week, traveling to Panguitch, Bryce Valley, Valley, Kanab and who knows where for games and tournaments....ugh! And I only have one kid involved! Those of you who have already experienced this or are experiencing this now, especially with more than one child, I sympathize!!!! Mason had been so busy with ballgames and chores that the other day I finally had to give him time to just play and be a kid - no chores, no baseball practice, nothing, just play. Mason is enjoying it though. His coach does a great job and teaches the boys a lot. I wish it would warm up so that I can sit outside and watch the games, rather than having to lock myself and the baby inside the car to stay out of the cold and ninety-mile-an-hour wind. I don't have any pictures yet, but we go to Valley today for a game, so hopefully I'll have some pictures to post soon!