God's Tender Mercy

I've been wanting to write this post for a while,

I have a friend, her name is Sarah (name has been changed). Thanksgiving of 2006, before I knew her, her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I met her in December when my father in law had decided to take her and her family out on his boat for a cruise around the lake to try and take their minds off things for a while. I had only met them for a moment, but from that time on I couldn't stop thinking about them and praying for her father's recovery, it affected me so deeply even though I barely knew them. Her father passed away in March of 2007, only three months after I first met them.

I moved to Washington the very next month and I was in the same ward as Sarah and her family. I remember the first time I saw Sarah's mom after Sarah's dad had died. I thought to myself 'She's all alone now', then the Spirit very quickly said to me 'No she's not, her Savior is with her'.

Little did I know what a lesson this would be to me in just a few short months. In June Sarah was assigned to be my visiting teacher. Her and her companion came over to visit me and Sarah gave a lesson on righteous examples in the midst of trials and then asked me if I had an example that I would like to share. I immediately started sobbing and was barely able to speak, but tried very hard to explain to her what an amazing example of strength and steadfastness in trials her and her family had been to me this past year. What Sarah and her family were going through was affecting me so deeply, and I didn't know why, I thought about them all the time.

Sarah continued to visit teach me each month and we became good friends. Then came September 16, 2007. It was Sunday and also Stake conference. We went to the morning session and when I was driving home a voice kept coming into my head saying, go get your cell phone when you get home. I quickly pushed it away thinking it was to call Matt since he was away working in Texas. When I got home I started making the kids some lunch, but the voice kept coming back in my head to check my cell phone. Finally I walked upstairs and got my cell phone. I had eight missed calls. I immediately knew something was wrong. The majority of them were from my cousin Crystal so I called her to see what was going on. She wouldn't tell me anything except that she was coming over and to stay there and wait for her. I felt sick, I knew something was seriously wrong and I knew it had to do with my dad, he was the only one who hadn't tried to call me, and he's always first to call me. I tried not to panic, I put the kids down for their nap and asked my father in law for a blessing, then I paced the kitchen waiting for Crystal to show up. While I was waiting my cell phone rang. It was my sister Mandy, she asked if I had talked to anyone that day and I said no, but that Crystal was on her way over, she asked me if I wanted her to tell me or if I wanted to wait for Crystal. I told her to go ahead and tell me. She said dad had been in a car accident that morning and he didn't make it. I said "what" because I thought maybe I had just misunderstood her, but I had not, dad was gone, his earthly life was over just like that. My mother in law immediately contacted Sarah. Oh, how it all made sense now. The Lord sent me an angel, He sent me Sarah. She knew exactly what I was going through, she had just gone through it six months before. Some people had wondered why Sarah was assigned to be my visiting teacher, we didn't have much in common as far as where we were in life, I am a stay at home mom with two kids, and Sarah had just graduated from college and was starting a new career. But the Lord knew better, He knew who I needed as a visiting teacher. He knew the experiences that I needed to have that would prepare me and help me when I lost my own father. This has been such a great testament to me that my Heavenly Father knows me, He knows what I need, and He loves me, and will never leave me alone, or turn His back on me. It is actually quite the opposite, He prepares me and sends me angels, when I don't even know that I need them.

A.A.A. (All About Ava)

So I decided to start doing a recurrent post about Ava called AAA, so she can get a little more face time and we can keep you posted on the funny things she does everyday.


This is a picture of Ava asleep under the computer desk. Earlier this week when I was doing the post on our trip to Seattle Ava crawled under my chair while I was sitting at the computer desk and started to play with the tape (if you look closely you can see it wrapped around her). It was one of those times that I thought to myself 'I'm trying to finish my post and I'm just not going to worry about her playing with the tape right now.' Well by the time I was done with the post I looked down and this is what I saw. I guess she got all tuckered out playing with the tape, or maybe she was just trying to weave herself a blanket, I don't know, either way she was sound asleep and slept there for a while. She's so stinkin' cute.
Some of you may remember when Quinn wore this costume. He had much fatter cheeks at the time. Quinn and Ava both love to dress up in their costumes and parade around the house.
This is Ava just this morning getting upset at me because bath time was over. (Your not alone Nicci.) I couldn't resist posting this pic with her cute little white bum, and major tan lines.

Ava loves to sing and Aerial is her favorite, if she had it her way we would watch The Little Mermaid everyday, but basically her brother puts a stop to that, and that is what she is singing at the beginning of this clip. She's actually pretty good at getting the tune right. My cute little Ava, I love you.

Seattle

Well we finally returned from all our traveling this month, it was so much fun, but I'm exhausted. We got home about 10pm last night, we ate dinner at 10:30pm and went to bed about midnight, thankfully we were still on Seattle time so it was about two hours earlier for us. We have lots of pictures so I will get on with it.....
We went to Poulsbo and stayed the night there. It's such a cute little town, with a Scandinavian theme. The weather was great and there's lots of shopping and a super yummy bakery we love to go to.

Quinn and Ava climbing the big rock at Poulsbo.

This is at the Quinn reunion at Sunland Estates in eastern Washington. It's right on the Columbia river.
Quinn and Ava had so much fun playing on the beach, and the water was surprisingly warm.

This is a picture of my dad's mom, sisters, and brother (from left to right) Carrie, Grandma Willa, Connie, and Rollie.

I was a little chicken to jump in out in the middle of the river, it's much colder out there then by the shore.

But Quinn and Ava weren't, they loved it.

This is one of my favorite places on earth, I love it here, it's beautiful.

Ava cruisin' in the boat.

Riding in the boat does it every time, out like a light.

My sister Ericka, Ava, and my niece Lucia riding in the inner tube.

Izrael and Christian.

Quinn and Clayton. (Quinn was a little more leery of the inner tube then his sister, but he still loved it.)

After a day at the beach swimming and doing water sports we pig out with a big pot luck. (I made frog eyed salad, my favorite.)
This is on the back of the Quinn reunion shirt that my Aunt Connie designed.We all had so much fun and it was so fun to see everyone again.