This week...

has been one of Happiness, sadness, joy, lots of family, lots of tears.
Wednesday Tally and I attended a wedding ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple for this cute couple.

This is Angie and Jared. Tally has been friends with Angie and her family for a very long time. We were so fortunate to be in the Temple with them and enjoy their special day. We are so happy for you two. While they were taking pictures we were trying to kill time before the luncheon. There was the 2 of us, Angie's brother and our next door neighbor Jared his wife Jill, their 2 1/2 month old baby girl Shelby and Leisha our other next door neighbor and babysitter for Shelby. (Leisha is 13) We were going to go to the new Church History Museum to take a tour. On our way out we passed the Relief Society building. We have a dear family friend that is the secretary to the Young Women's. I told Tally I wanted to go say hi to Kristen so we all went in. The sweet ladies made sure she was in and sent us upstairs. Jared didn't really want to go because they were working, but I finally talked him into going up and meeting her. She greeted us at the top with a huge smile on her face. Her office is right next to the General Young Women's President, Sister Dalton. She said Sister Dalton was in a meeting, but took us into her office. There was a round table in the office with 4 chairs. Kristen said that is where they hold their meetings. She pointed to the chair on the North side and said Sister Dalton always sits in that chair because of the view. She looks right out the window and sees the beautiful Temple. On our way out of the office in walks Sister Dalton.

She glowed. She was so sweet. Once she saw Leisha she had her in her arms and it was just about Leisha. You can tell that she loves the Young Women of the world and wants the best for them. She did not let go of Leisha the whole time we talked with her. It was such a neat experience. We are glad we had that opportunity.

Yesterday was a good, but sad day. It was the funeral for my very sweet cousin Anne. She was 33 years old and died of stage 4 Melanoma. She left behind the love of her life, her sweet husband Ward and 3 little girls. She will be greatly missed. The funeral services were absolutely beautiful and so uplifting. The spirit was very strong. I know that she is healthy again. No longer in pain. How grateful I am for our Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation. She lived and loved the gospel. She radiated with goodness and light. I was fortunate to see her in July at the family reunion. Some of us didn't realize that that would be the last time we would see her. She walked in with a huge smile on her face, just as beautiful as ever. I know that we will see her again. And I know that because she was married to her sweetheart Ward in the temple and kept her covenants to him and the Lord, they will one day be reunited with one another and those 3 beautiful daughters. What a joyous reunion that will be. Seeing the life she lived and listening to the stories told makes me want to be better. We love you Anne.

We got to see a lot of relatives at the funeral. It was so fun. I haven't seen a few of my cousins in a very long time and loved seeing them.

A few weeks ago we found out that the tumor in Natalie's head had grown again. There is also a tumor growing on her temple. Today she started a 5 day surgery. It is similar to radiation. I believe they use a laser and zap it. We are praying that this will get rid of it. In talking to my mom, she said that Ewing's Sarcoma's like to take up residence some place in the body. It will live there until forced to move (such as radiation or chemo) but it is hard to get rid of, it will just migrate to another place in the body. We hope for this to be gone. We know that it is in our Heavenly Father's hands. We are grateful for the time we get to spend with Natalie and feel her sweet spirit. We love you Nat.

All in all life is good. We are keeping busy. I am finally a stay at home mom and LOVE it. I love spending time with Colsten. He keeps me going and keeps me laughing. Colsten is in nursery now and is still trying to adjust to being left for 2 hours. He isn't very fond of it. I am serving as the 2nd counselor in Primary and Love it. I work with great women. Tally is the 1st counselor in Young Men's and really enjoys working with the youth. We are blessed to be apart of the gospel and to know families are forever.

Hogle Zoo

During the summers at work, we are able to work 4-10's so some of us can have Monday's off and some of us take Friday's, and if you feel like you want another day off during the week instead of one of those they are pretty cool about letting you do it. It is just fun to have a 3 day weekend. I chose Friday's because Tally gets every other Friday off and I thought it would be fun to have those Friday's with with him.

Today wasn't his Friday off so I was trying to think of what I could do fun with Colsten so we weren't sitting in the house all day long. Especially since today was supposed to be one of the only nice days (we have been getting tons of rain). So my sister Kristen, her husband Adam and daughter Brooklyn and the two of us decided to go to the zoo.

It was so much fun. Colsten loved it. We took him when he was about 5 months old and he was still too little to understand. There were tons of people and it was hot.

Anyway we had a great time and I am glad that we went. We went to a bird show and then just walked around and saw the animals.

He fell asleep as we were walking out of the park

p.s. My Dad, Mom, sister Natalie, and brother Tyler were able to go on a cruise to Italy. If you want to check out pics the blog is www.miabelloitalia.blogspot.com Enjoy.

A fun weekend in Park City

Tally works with a guy who has a cousin that owns some Penthouses in Park City. He gave us a great deal on 2 of them that are joined together. So we got a couple of friends (unfortunately we could not take more because of limited space so hopefully next time) and we went up there for a couple of nights. Friends that came were Kevin and Leslie and their 4 kids, Jared and Jill and their 4 almost 5 kids (we thought she might go into a labor a couple of times while we were up there), James and Tiana and their 4 kids, JR and Karyn and their 2 girls and us.
We got up there Thursday night and got settled in. We had dinner then just played games and watched movies. The condo's were separated by a door that we left open so it was pretty much a mirrored image on both sides. The kids ran from one side to the other and usually whatever side they were on the adults could be found on the opposite. There were two pool tables and two hot tubs. Kevin and Jared playing Pool The kids in the hot tub Colsten Dancing on the table... people pay big bucks. :)

More Dancing.

The second day there we went over to the Olympic Park. That was neat we just looked around. Then the men took the children home to get into the hot tub and they also went across the parking lot to the swimming pool while the women went to the outlet stores and did some shopping.

That night we pretty much did the same thing that we did the night before. Just talked and had a good time. The Gerard's a family in our ward (the husband is actually in the bishopric) happened to be up there with her family at their condo so they came over and hung out with us for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun.

Sitting around visiting

Saturday was check out day so we packed everything up. Cleaned the condos then headed back over to Olympic Park. There were athletes that were going to be there doing the practice jumps into the swimming pool. So we sat there and waited a while. They finally came and were just jumping on the little jump. The big jumps were going to happen a lot later that afternoon so we just left and came home.

All of us waiting for some fun jumps...

This is what we waited for!

We were exhausted and glad to be home, but glad that we were able to do this. It was so much fun.

On our way home.

Why we love our neighborhood...

We have great neighbors that get along great with each other and are always finding fun things to do together. The last few weeks have been no different.

A few weekends ago was Memorial weekend. We were together with our neighbors the whole weekend. There is a field behind our house where we have a community garden. It is great fun. There is nothing next to were the garden is. So our next door neighbor Jared mowed the weeds down and a couple of them made a fire pit. The guys in the cul-de-sac set up tents back there and planned on camping out the Sunday night before Memorial day. That night we all went out and made a huge fire and just sat around and talked. The kids were able to play as well. That was the best camping I think I have ever experienced. We had the campfire, stayed up late, had our friends, walked through our back door and went to sleep in our own beds. It was great. :) The next morning we got up and had breakfast out there as well. Everyone brought something to share.

Then that afternoon we all went to a park in Riverdale called Rohmer Park. It has a HUGE hill there. Last year a couple of our neighbors (I am not sure who's idea it was) bought two 100 ft long tarps and attached them together. There is a hose hookup at the park and it becomes a giant water slide. It was a little over cast and chilly at first, but it did warm up and it was pretty fun. Colsten went down once and that was enough for him. Tally and I went down a couple of times.

That evening we went over to Tally's parents house and had a cook out there. Tally's dad made a wiffle ball score board and we divided into teams. The two teams were the Thomas' and You's Guys. Tally's brother Trevor and his wife Erma, and our nephew Koy and Tally and I were all on the Thomas' team. Tally's sister Kathryn and her fiance Thom, his brother Derrick and his wife Meggan and our niece Brook were all on You's Guys team. Of course the Thomas' kicked butt. It was a lot of fun to spend with our friends and family. We are so fortunate to have all of them in our lives.

O Canada...

This last week was so fun. Tally's grandma Edmiston and aunt Cathy flew in from Canada. I met aunt Cathy 2 years ago when her and her husband Mike came down to go to Montana with all of us, but I have never met anyone else on that side of the family. I have wanted to meet grandpa and grandma Edmiston for a long time and the rest of the family, but have not had the opportunity. We were very excited when we found out that the two of them were coming down to visit for Mother's Day. They are both very sweet. We are hoping to go to Canada this fall to visit. Tally has not been up there for many years and I think it would be great for him to see his family and for me and Colsten to meet them. We didn't get any pictures of aunt Cathy. I feel bad about that. When we took pictures she was at a ball game for our niece Brook. But we did get some of grandma. We love all of you in Canada.

Grandma, Mel, Mom T (don't they look like mother and daughter?)

Mom T, Tally, Colsten, Grandma

Mom T, Mel, Colsten, Grandma

Mom T., Tally, Colsten, Mel, Grandma

I am such a slacker...

I don't keep this up to date like I should. Well back in February we celebrated Tally's, Natalie's, and Kristen's birthday. Tally and Natalie share the same birthday and then Kristen's birthday is the next day. I planned to have a little get together the Saturday before Tally's birthday and I didn't mention anything to him. His family came over for cake and ice cream. I ordered him a baseball cake. He told me it looked like a little kids cake, that may be true, but I thought it was cute. Then we went down to the E-Center in Salt Lake and went to the Utah Grizzlies Hockey game. It was a lot of fun. Our friends Cal and Gena met us down there and then Tally's siblings and their kids where there. On his actual birthday we got together with my family and went to Maddox for dinner and spent the time with them. It was Natalie's 21 birthday.

Last week my mom and sisters and Nat's friend DaNean went to Good Things Utah. It was a lot of fun to spend time with all of them.

Life is good. We are just keeping busy. Colsten is so fun. He keeps us laughing. He doesn't ever stop. He is very busy.