Time Out For Women

Can I just say that I LOVE TOFW. I have never been before and now that I have gone I want to start going every year. The theme was Infinite Hope ~ We Hope All Things..." Article of Faith 13. It was AMAZING. I went with some of my very dear friends. Jill, Tiffany, Tiana, Leslie and Jayne. They are great and I loved being in their company for the weekend. I am blessed to live around these wonderful women.

For those of you who don't know about TOFW it is put on by Deseret Book. Women who are members of the church and non members meet together friday night and saturday morning/afternoon and are enlightened by speakers and musical numbers. It is wonderful. This is a picture of us with Sherri Dew. She is the CEO of Deseret Book and is such an amazing women.

This is Dallyn Bayles. (Below) He played Hyrum in the Joseph Smith Movie at Temple Square. He has also been traveling playing the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. His voice is amazing. He sang Friday night. I was so moved by this man. He talked about how the last year has been hard on his extended family. He talked about how he had lost a cousin who was 19 and a cousin who was a mom of 2 children. He said he sang at his 19 year old cousins funeral. Well being such a small world, his 19 year old cousin is named Chad. You see Chad and my sister Natalie were best friends. They met each other at Primary Children's Hospital during treatments. They became fast friends. My mom and Natalie went to visit Chad a lot in the last few months of his life. If you met Chad's mom and know my mom you might laugh because they could be sisters. (They joke about it, but they are so similar it is scary. :)) Natalie was able to meet Dallyn at Chad's funeral. When I talked to Dallyn he told me he remembered Natalie. He told me she was such a sweet girl, an angel. I was very blessed to have been able to listen to this man bear testimony through his music. I shed many tears. He sang a song "He's My Son" but I couldn't think about anything but my mom and Natalie. As a mother is pleading to Heavenly Father on behave of her child. Anyway he is a very neat man and I was privilaged to meet him.

I adore Hillary Weeks. Her music is wonderful and listening to her sing on Saturday was great. She has such a cute personality.

This lady (below) is named Mariama Kallon. She is from Sierra Leone in Africa. Her country was at war. She witnessed her parents being murdered along with serveral of her siblings. She fled to safety and came across a family that were LDS. They introduced her to the church. She came to Salt Lake City in 1999 to serve a mission and has been her ever since. She was sweet. She has seen a lot in her life. Her testimony is so strong.

This next picture is of Virginia Hinckley Pearce. She is the daughter of President Hinckley. She spoke to us on Friday night.

There were several other speakers that we didn't get pictures with. It was a great weekend and the spirit was strong. I am grateful to Tally that he kept both the boys so I could have a Time Out. Women need that once in a while. It was so worth it. I love the gospel. I am blessed to have such wonderful people surround me.

Halloween ~ Better late than never

I know that Halloween was almost a month ago, but here are the pictures. Colsten had a halloween party at preschool. It was fun. They played games and had a parade to show off their costumes.

Then my mom had a little halloween party at her house the morning of halloween. The kids decorated what we call in my family Roll Out Cookies aka Sugar Cookies. They were delish.

Then we took the boys trick or treating... Braylon was just along for the ride. He didn't go trick or treating. Colsten was a Monkey and Braylon was a Banana.

Madsen Cycles

Hey check out these cool bikes. I got the link from one of my friends so I thought I would post it. The link is on the right side of the screen. :)

Preschool

A lady in my ward owns a preschool close to our area. I was talking to her to get some info about enrolling little C next year when he turns 3. She said that we could start him now if we wanted. She told me there are several kids that are 2 1/2 that go to the preschool. So Tally and I took him in and tried it out to see if he liked it. He is enjoying it. It is 2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. I think it will be good for him. His class is all boys which is great. He is surrounded by all girls (cousins and neighbors) and although he is 100% boy he will always go for the color pink very first. So maybe being in an all boy class he can see what it is like to be with boys and not bossy, motherly little girls. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He makes me laugh every day. I love this boy.

I was talking to my sister Kristen the other day and we talked a little about how losing a sister has been hard. It is starting to get a little harder every day. I guess the reality is sinking in more and more that she is really gone. That saying it gets harder before it gets easier is oh so true. The tears come easily these days. Sometimes more often than I would like. I try to hide so that my sweet boys don't have to see me cry so much, but Colsten is usually there to wipe my tears as they fall or to run and get me a tissue and he just sits by me as a cry. I couldn't do this without my sweet family, hubby, boys, parents, and siblings. I am so blessed for my family. This is what helps me get through my days.

Sweet Natty

My sweet sister passed away yesterday morning August 14, 2010 about 2:00 am. It is a bitter-sweet feeling. I miss her so much and feel like my heart is broken, and yet I feel so much joy knowing she is whole again. I know that she is free. I am so blessed for the knowledge I have of the gospel and that I will see her again someday. I am truly blessed to have her for a sister. I love you Natty, with all of my heart.

Newspaper article and video

There is an article in the standard examiner on Natalie. Click here to read it. There is also an awesome video that they did on her. Click here to watch it.

We are so excited for the concert this friday. I hope everyone can come out and support both Brooke and Natalie. It is going to be great. :)

Benefit Concert Update...

You are going to most likely be seeing a lot about this benefit concert. It is going to be great and I hope that everyone will try to come out. We are excited to have Brooke come and do this for Nat and would love to show as much support as possible.
If you would like to purchase tickets you can do so through North Ogden City during regular business hours. On Saturday July 17 (today) from 12:00-3:00 my sister Kristen and her husband Adam will be selling tickets and Lee's Market in North Ogden. I will also be selling tickets so you can purchase them through me if you would like. If you purchase tickets over the phone or through the mail, there will be a Will Call the night of the concert. There is also going to be a button on Natalie's blog that you can purchase tickets online. (click here for her blog)
If you cannot make it to the concert, but would still like to donate money you can mail a donation to America First Credit Union PO Box 9199, Ogden UT 84409. The account is "Natalie Jolley's Last Wish". If you write a check make it out to that account name.

Benefit concert

I want to start spreading the word. There is going to be a benefit concert for my sister Natalie on August 6 at Barker Park in North Ogden. Brooke White (former contestant on American Idol) is coming to perform. Tickets will be $10.00 and all proceeds go to Natalie. We are excited for this to happen. My mom will have more information by the end of the week. We would like the word to get out to everyone. They are going to put information on Facebook and Brooke also has Twitter. My mom has set up a blog for Nat that tells her story for anyone that wants to read it. Just go here. Please spread the word. As my mom gets information, I will pass it along.

Fourth of July weekend

This last weekend was wonderful for the most part. On Thursday I went and saw Eclipse with my mom and 2 sisters. It was fun to be able to spend that time with them. Friday was such a good and very emotional day. We were able to go to the Temple with Nat. She decided to go through the Mount Timpanogos Temple. It is a beautiful temple and I was so glad to be there with her and share this wonderful experience with her. It was very symbolic and very neat. I love her so much and I know that this time with her on this earth is coming to an end very soon, but the joy I feel knowing that I will see her again is incredible.
Sunday we blessed Braylon. It was a wonderful day. We had our family here and everything turned out great.
Tally's cousin and his wife and little girl flew in Wednesday night from Canada. I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them because I was busy with other stuff, but it was really fun to meet them.
On monday morning Braylon woke up at 3:30 crying. His cry sounded like a seal barking. It was not a good sound. We took him to the ER. He was diagnosed with croupe. The nurse we had in the ER said she had worked there for 16 years and never seen croupe in a baby as young as Braylon. (This happened on his 2 month mark) They decided to keep him because he was so little. We spent all of Monday in the hospital and then they decided to monitor him overnight. It was hard because he just wanted to be held and didn't want me to sit down. So I stood a lot and rocked him. Poor little guy still has a cough, but he is doing so much better. I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood and that Tally could give him a blessing. I love this gospel and have been able to witness so many miracles.

Memorial Weekend

This last weekend my family went up to a house at Bear Lake and were able to spend some time as a family. It was a lot of fun. We had 4 wheelers and Colsten had so much fun riding on them. He begged every day to go out for a ride. We also had a Luau which was fun. We played Rock Band/Guitar Hero and had a good time. Yesterday we went and watched Natalie and Tyler go skydiving. It is something Nat has wanted to do for a very long time and it is one of the things on her bucket list. It was neat to watch her fulfill that wish and be able to cross that off. She is so sweet and I love her smile and her postive attitude. I love my family!

2 Weeks Old

Braylon is now 4 weeks old, but my mom came over at his 2 week mark and took his pictures and some of Colsten and some family pictures. I think they turned out great. I am grateful for such a wonderful mom and that she is willing to share her talent with us.

Introducing...

Braylon Lamar Thomas. Born May 5, 2010. He weighed 7lbs 3 oz and was 19 in. We are so glad that he is here. He came 10 days early. My water started leaking tuesday night around 8. He was born early Wednesday morning. The delivery was fast and so much easier than Colsten's was. I am so grateful to have this sweet spirit here. Heavenly Father has certainly blessed me with my little family. I love them all.

Easter

We have had a great week with lots of family and friends. Last weekend we had a double baby blessing in my parents ward for both of my nephews (my brothers baby Ashton and my sisters baby Eli). So we had the WHOLE family together. It was fun that both of my brothers came into town with their sweet families. We had an easter egg hunt at my parents house, decorated sugar cookies, we watched my brother play Lacrosse, we ate lots and lots of sweets and spent lots and lots of time together. It was so much fun.

This last friday we went to Salt Lake and met up with the Marshall's from North Carolina. They had come to town for General Conference. Johnny and June were a family in my last area on my Mission and we (my companion and I) LOVED them so much. It has been about 6 years since I have seen them and so I was very excited for the opportunity to meet up with them. Angie (my companion I had while in that area) met up with us for a few minutes. It was fun to see her and her husband (who also served in our mission) and their new little baby. It was hard to say goodbye to all of them. But they had so many things, people and places to see.

Johnny Marshall, Angie Shoell, Me, June Marshall

On Saturday afternoon we had an easter egg hunt with Tally's side of the family. It was fun to get together with all of them. We are so blessed that Colsten has so many wonderful family members on both sides. Once again we ate lots of sweets.

That night after the men returned from the Priesthood session of conference we (the neighbors in our cul-de-sac) did a glow in the dark easter egg hunt. It was cold so after it was over we pulled out the big firepit into the middle of the cul-de-sac and had a fire and lots of yummy treats. It was a lot of fun.

We feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. Neighbors and family. We are so grateful for all that Heavenly Father has given us. It was fun to celebrate Easter and remember why we celebrate it. We hope everyone had a great Easter.