January in Oregon

***WARNING*** This blog may contain an abundant amount of pictures...should I have made 2 blogs...probably, but I just don't have the time! In fact, my sister already did a blog about the funeral and edited all of the pictures for it, so if you want to see her blog click here. I will journal a little about the funeral a bit, but you can get the full scoop from Lora's blog. She is an amazing writer.
The reason that we went to Oregon in January was for Seth's funeral. There were about 400 pictures to sift through and edit from 3 different cameras, so that is why it has taken me so long! Anyway, it was a bitter sweet reunion. It was amazing to see how many people have been touched by Seth's life and it was overwhelming (in an great way) to feel all of the support of our family and friends. We saw family that we had not seen for a long time. the night before Seth's funeral we spent with our Aunt Rosie (aka Kosie) and her two daughters, our favorite cousins: Kristy and Katy. When we get together it is a lot of laughter and rambunctiousness aka FUN! It was WONDERFUL! We also had some scrumptious pizza too! (We basically ate out once a day in Oregon! No wonder I gained so much weight! YIKES!) 3 "F" words to sum our trip FOOD, FAMILY & FRIENDS!

Our best friends came all the way from Utah to come and give their support and keep us company. It was great to be with them to. We always have a good time. Well, as for the funeral, it went well and the spirit was so strong. After Lora and I made all of the flower arrangements for the funeral and visiting with relatives, we finally put the finishing touches on the Eulogy. Lora is my editor and she sure can make things sound great! It took me a few minutes to compose myself at the beginning, but I made it through!

Most of the time we were at home we hung out at the house entertaining friends and relatives. It was good to be with them. Brooke, of course, loved all of the attention! She was all smiles!

We allowed Brooke to participate in the overindulgence of food delights. She had all kinds of treats, including an oreo and her first black licorice!

Livy and Tori were best friends almost the whole time we were there. A LARGE improvement from our summer vacation! They watched every Princess movie, played games with each other, jumped on various surfaces, ran around the house playing tag, and filled Grandma Frann and Grandpa Lee's hug-o-meter to the brim! Livy was a great little babysitter too! She loves baby Brookie! There was a lot of snuggling to be had all around!

Grandma Frann bought all of the girls the cutest little matching outfit. Everyone "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed when we went out. We took some pictures at the temple. Here is little Miss Brookie's photo shoot. These were taken with my camera. Is she not the CUTEST?

Here is a montage of everyone. Of course, Lora was not in one picture...I didn't even notice until it was too late. These were also taken with my camera. We tried to get a picture of all of the girls together in their little outfits, but no such luck. We got some good pics though!

Here is Tori's photo shoot. she loves Grandpa Lee and never really left his side at the temple. I know that the bottom picture is a little weird, but if you blow up the picture you can really see the rainbow of color in Tori's eyes. It is awesome!

The rest of the pictures were taken by Lora. She even got a half way decent one of me. Ok, there were a 1/2 a dozen, but I didn't want to include all of them...I mean, I am not that conceited!

Isn't Livy ADORABLE?! After the temple we took the kids to lunch at Olive Garden. My parents had a whole bunch of gift certificates and free kids meals, that the meal only ended up being $8.10! Lora tried her hardest to get Tori to smile...but we ended up with a whole bunch of fun action pictures. I love the picture of my dad reading to the girls while they jumped on their bed. They both shared a queen air mattress in Seth's old room. It will soon be turned into a kids play room.

These pictures are GREAT! I really hope that Tori and Livy become really good friends! I LOVE the picture of the girls behind the bench...only their pink shoes showing!
Well it was great to be with my mom and dad. It was sad to leave them, because I know that they will need a lot of support. I am so glad that I can leave them because they have a great support group there with so many friends to love them while I am away. We miss you Grandma Frann and Grandpa Lee!