Choir of Angels

Tyler and Alyssa are both members of the Utah Children's Choir this year. They had their Christmas concert the other night and they were AMAZING! My sister Erika was in this same choir 15 years ago and I have never forgotten those beautiful, angelic voices, and now my own children are singing with them! I was so impressed by how beautifully the children sang. The director has an amazing way of teaching them to sing with so much expression.

Tyler is in the older group and they were invited to sing with several other children's choirs with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in their Christmas Concert this year. He is sooo excited! It is defenatly a once in a lifetime experience! His first rehearsal is this morning. He had to wake up at 5:45 AM to carpool up to the practice but he was excited! I can't wait to see the concert next week!

Alyssa is a natural when it comes to singing and performing. She was absolutely adorable singing in the concert. She sang with such passion and expression! She brought smiles to everyones faces! She just loves it so much and you can tell by watching her. I told her that night, as I was putting her to bed, that the best performers are the ones that bring joy to those who are watching. She was definately doing that! She was beautiful!

It was a wonderful night. The perfect night to experience the spirit of the Christmas season!

Two Years!!!

Today is Jared's two year transplant anniversay!

Amazed

Grateful

Humbled

Blessed

Awed

These are some of the feelings that I have felt on this miraculous day. There is not a way of truly expressing all that I am feeling. I am so very grateful for the gift that our family recieved on this night two years ago. It felt surreal then, and it still feels surreal that an angel's kidney is working perfectly in my little sons' body allowing him to run and play and live! My heart aches for the family of Jared's donor. I can't imagine what they are feeling tonight. I hope and pray that the thought of someone living because of their sacrifice and loss, will help ease their heartache just a little. I look at Jared running and laughing, teasing and talking and I am in awe of the miracle that he is. I love you my Jared! Happy Anniversay!!!

What a difference two years can make!!!

He Needed Just One

Tyler wrote a beautiful poem about Jared and his donor for his school's arts festival. The theme for the year was The Power of One. His teacher was so touched by it, that he sent a copy of it to Intermountain Donor Services. They liked it so much that they asked us for permission to use it. They posted it on their blog tonight! Check it out at http://blog.yesutah.org/ . He is so excited that people have liked it so much and I am so proud of what a wonderful job that he did. He won in his age group at school and will be going on to the district level.

I have tried so hard to help Tyler and Alyssa understand what an incredible gift Jared and our family has received from Jared's donor. I think that Tyler is starting to understand. I hope that his poem helps others consider being a donor because the gift of an organ is truly a blessing!

He Needed Just One

I saw him suffering and could see the tears in his eyes,
My brother, Jared, sick and needing a transplant to save his life.
He is suffering, yet such a strong, little boy.
He has to go through so much.
Still so sweet, even when everything is tough.

He needed just one,
One person, to survive.
That person, who needed, just one part to provide.
Jared was given, that one part, just one
From a person who passed away
To give Jared his freedom.

Now after that event, my brother is free.
And knows more things, is as happy as can be.
Of course he is still that little boy that I know,
But he now has the strength to run
Because of love and the power of one.


We are off to San Diego tomorrow! We are crossing our fingers that nothing happens between now and tomorrow so that we can actually go on this trip! We are planning on Thanksgiving at Lego Land! The kids are so excited, they are having a hard time getting to sleep tonight! :)

September

Alyssa's Baptism

Our September started off beautifully with Alyssa's baptism. It was a perfect day. She was the only baptism from our ward on this day so we had a perfect, intimate family program. Tyler and I gave the prayers. Grandma S. spoke on baptism and Grandma C. spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost. Alyssa sang the Baptism song for a little musical number and her sweet voice left very few of us without tears in our eyes! Uncle Nate played his violin while Alyssa and Jeff changed clothes and Grandpa C. and Grandpa S. were the witnesses. Jeff, of course, baptised and confirmed her. It was a Beautiful morning!

Alyssa was so prepared to make the decision of being baptised. I went up to her room one night to talk to her about her baptism and she was in bed reading through her baptism booklet. She told me she was all ready and new all of the answers and asked me to quiz her! She was ready and prepared to make this decision. After her interview with the bishop I asked her how it had gone and she said that she knew every answer to every question that he asked her. I then asked her if he had asked her any questions that surprised her and she said, " Yes! He asked me if I wanted to get baptised. And I thought to myself, 'that is a very good question!' and so I said 'Yes! I do!' She was ready!!! Alyssa has such a beautiful, sweet, generous spirit and I am so grateful for all that she teaches me! I Love You Alyssa!

Tyler's 11th Birthday!

We were actually up at Kidney Camp on Tyler's birthday! We had a great time at camp and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him at breakfast. He even won the first bingo prize of the day! What a birthday present! Kidney camp was wonderful. We always have such a nice time spending time with others who share this journey with us. Thank you Kidney Foundation for a wonderful time!

Tyler is a HUGE fan of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books so that was the theme of his party this year. It ended up being sooo much fun! It was a smaller group so that made it a little easier. Tyler doesn't have a ton of friends like his sister does, but the ones that he has are AWESOME! I'll have to describe this party through pictures!

All half bloods were required to appear at Camp Halfblood for further training. Training exercises consisted of archery, dodging Fire of the Gods (running up a slope while avoiding spraying water), and trident throwing (Jeff made two six foot tall tridents out of sprinkler pipes).

They were quick and they were agile, but the Fire of the Gods was merciless!

All campers were then required to design and decorate their own shields.

A quest was then issued to the campers. They were to accomplish several tasks and decipher clues in order to find an important possession of Poseidon's that had been stolen. One of these tasks required them to face Medusa! (Alyssa made the awesome Medusa head!)

After accomplishing all of the tasks they found the stolen objects hanging in a tree. Poseidon's stolen Hawaiian shirt was retrieved and the makings for s'mores were awarded to the campers for their hard work. (Thank you Aunt Rachel for the awesome clues for the quest!)

Part of what added to the fun of this party was the weather. It got increasingly stormy as the quest was going on. It was thundering and we kept telling the kids that they couldn't give up because the "Gods" were angry! As they finished up the quest a rainbow appeared as if to thank them! :)

Tyler and Chelsie enjoying roasted hot dogs and smores!

Tyler's cake was blue with a skittle trident on it. (The color blue is significant in the books.)

The victorious Half Bloods!

Jared's 4th Birthday!

I can't believe that Jared is 4! It is just crazy how fast time flies. My children are growing up so quickly! Jared had a wonderful time. He is old enough now to understand that there are candles to blow out and presents to open. It was so much fun watching him experience everything. He has changed so much this past year. He's walking! Yeah! He was diagnosed with his hearing loss and got glasses. He started preschool and loves it! He is healthy and his kidney is awesome! It has been a good year for my Jer Bear!

We had family over for one of the last days of swimming for the year and then dinner. We enjoyed his birthday cake even if he didn't! It was a great afternoon!

After opening two presents he was done and wanted to get down and play!

It took all evening for him to open up all of his presents because he wanted to keep playing! He was so funny!

Singing our family birthday song and getting ready to blow out his candles.

Lounging with Grandpa in the pool! Life is good!

Catch Up

I have gotten behind the last few months, so I am trying to catch up. Thus, the August post! Expect September and October soon! :)

August

Our town always has its city celebration the first weekend in August. Our favorite part is the parade. The kids love it because they through out A LOT of candy!

Jared leaning on Jeff as they watch the parade. (I love this picture!)

Aunt Rachel and her kids came and watched with us!

Silly Tyler and Alyssa

Jared and Daddy


We spent a fun day at Lagoon! Some friends invited us last minute and we had a wonderful time! Jared LOVED all of the rides and it was nice to see old friends. Jeff even joined us later in the afternoon.

Alyssa turned 8! I can't believe it! She wanted a mermaid party so that we could use our new pool and it was great fun. She has so many sweet, little friends and her parties always end up with a lot of friends because she has sooo many!

Alyssa and her friends.

Alyssa blowing out the candles on her "Under the Sea" cake.

Diving for treasures!

Decorating t-shirt swim suit cover-ups.

They made seashell crowns.

We were up visiting Jeff's parents on Alyssa's actual birthday so we celebrated there too. They had ordered her a beautiful mermaid cake and we roasted hot dogs and made s'mores. It was a beautiful evening and we had a wonderful time celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa!

August was a fun month! We had a great summer and wish that it hadn't gone by so quickly! Here are a few pictures of the last few days in August.

We have a splash pad right next to our pool. Jared finally decided that it was FUN! Notice the socks on. He has "issues" with bare feet! :)

Tyler and Alyssa at their first baseball game!

Tyler received his Arrow of Light award!

Kidney Walk 2009!

Painting a Kidney Car!

Jared walked half of the way all by himself!

Thank you Donor for our little miracle boy!

The kids and I participated in the Kidney Walk last Saturday. It was Utah's first Kidney walk and it was so wonderful to be able to participate in it. Tyler, Alyssa and I walked in honor of Jared, and Jared walked in honor of his donor. We walked, we talked, we played, we painted, we flew kites, we ate good food. We did all of these things to support the Kidney Foundation. It was a beautiful day! We can't wait to do it again next year!

Strike 2!

Today is the first day of fall break and we are supposed to be in San Diego at Lego Land today. But we are home instead. Tyler has the Swine Flu! He is feeling much better today but not soon enough for us to be on vacation. Luckily we were able to get he and Jared on Tamiflu on Monday night. Hopefully the medicine will keep Jared from getting it. It seems like no matter how hard I try to keep germs at bay, they weasel in anyway. Luckily Tyler had a relatively mild case of it (I'm sure the Tamiflu helped with that) and he survived the forced quarantine in his room remarkably well. Now we are just crossing our fingers that the rest of us can escape it some how.

We had originally planned to go on this trip in the summer but Jeff's work was just too crazy for him to get away so we planned it for this week. Now we have postponed it to Thanksgiving. Hopefully we will not get a strike 3! We haven't been on a family vacation for sooooo long and we are all needing it.

On the bright side, because we were home, Jared and I were able to go on his first field trip! It was the school's fall field trip up in the canyon. It was cold and drizzly the whole time but the kids didn't care. They had a wonderful time! It was so fun to see Jared in the school environment. I am shocked at how independent he is coming. He has already make huge progress with this! He didn't want to hold my hand unless he was going up or down a step and was completely comfortable with his teachers and classmates. It is amazing to watch his little personality come out. And it is wonderful to see him with other cute, adorable kids with their hearing aids and implants. There is no explaining "what is in his ears" and they ALL had to wear hats and hoods to keep their aids from getting wet! It was a fun morning. I can't believe how big he is getting!

Jared and his class singing the ginger bread song with his teacher.

Jared loved running around with his class.

Kick that ball!

Checking out a puddle.