Family Day 2011

Every year we celebrate our very own holiday, Family Day.  We celebrate the day Anson's adoption was finalized and we were sealed in our temple here in Chicago.  We all were blessed in abundance that day we all were made an eternal family.  Our church believes if we are sealed as families we can be together even after we die.  This year we found out the DuPage Children's Museum was having a special Insect Zoo the same day as Family Day.  Anson is a bug lover, much more so than the rest of us, so we went.  

Here is Anson holding one of the HUGE bugs they brought.

Here we all our enjoying the night together!

Here is the room of mirrors.  I loved seeing them see each other forever and ever in the mirrors on this day especially.  We love all of our children and are so glad we all will be together forever!

Aaron's 6th birthday

We celebrated Aaron's 6th birthday last month.  He waits very IMPATIENTLY for the 6 months between when Anson has a birthday and he does so they are the same age.  Every year he wants a similar cake with cars on it.  This year was no exception.  It was a spy cake with cars. 

 

He also got last minute tickets with Dad, Grandpa Blackham and Anson to go to the Cubs game the day after his birthday. 

He is such a friendly and patient boy.  He tries so hard to make good choices and make friends.  He has started Kindergarten this year and loves it.  He loves cars, obviously, legos, and learning to read.  He is a great older and younger brother and son!  We love our Aaron.

Oh what a month!

So the past 2 years our beloved Grandma Somers has been on dialysis and waiting for a new kidney.  In those past years all of her children have been tested and have not been matches.  She has other siblings and family members who have been tested also without success.  It has been a trial for their family to have her live almost a half life as she is in dialysis for 3 days a week and wiped out those days after she gets home.  She is a very hard match due to the number of babies she has had as well as other factors.  A couple weeks ago she was informed there may be a match for her in a triangle exchange.  Dennis is willing to give someone his kidney if they are willing to give her a kidney.  There are many people in this triangle so it's more of a circle but it boils down to that.  She was just informed last week that the operation will be October 20th and she will have chemo 2 weeks prior to that so she won't reject the kidney.  So great news for her; we're all very excited and a little nervous for them both.  

 Dennis, Diane and Alex on his 21st birthday

The hard part of that news is Rick's youngest brother Alex is engaged and his fiance is coming from Peru on October 17th.  She will be living with them as will their 6 month old daughter.  They wanted to be married October 29th but they have since pushed back the date, for sanity reasons, to November 5th.  This is a new engagement so not much planning has been done previous.  Oh, and did I mention the wedding is in my home.  So as we are getting ready for both grandparents to undergo surgery on the same day, we're planning a wedding, in our home.  Basically everything for the wedding needs to be done prior to October 6th, that is when Diane starts chemo.  After that we really don't think she is going to be up to doing much. 

Both of these are very exciting events that we've been praying for a long time.  It is hard to have them both a couple weeks apart.  Luckily she has a very supportive church ward and we live close by.  Luckily also my mom lives close by and can help with my kids so I can prepare for these major events.  Oh, and one more thing, it's Rick's fiscal year end at the end of October, hooray!  So yesterday I painted the front room where the ceremony will be and in the next month I will have to deep clean my main floor and go back and forth to the hospital.  We hope and pray everything goes smoothly.  All of the kids have altered their prayers to not just get grandma a new kidney but that she and grandpa will stay healthy this next month and their surgeries will go well.  It makes my heart swell every time to hear them pray to God for their grandparents.  I honestly wonder if those family members who refused to be tested heard these prayers on a hourly basis, how they would feel.  It isn't a perfect match like a family member could be but hopefully it will hold for a couple years.  So between a lot of hard work and all our prayers we will get through this next month, hopefully in one piece (or in Dennis's case 2 pieces :).) 

Blackham Family Pictures

So how do you get 12 kids under 8 to stay still and smile for a family picture?  BRIBES and be quick about it.  While up in Heber City Mom and Dad hired a photographer to get a family picture taken.  We took these snap shots with our own camera while waiting around.

  

 How many babies did we all have this year?  How many arms do our grandparents have?

Aunt Kristen loves all her nieces.  

Rachel LOVED having other girls around to twirl her pretty blue dress.

Like I said...BRIBERY!

We took the opportunity to get some additional shots of our kids dressed up but Andrew wouldn't cooperate in a kid picture so here they are separate.

We had a great time on our trip and loved being with our whole family. 

Trip to Utah

We just returned from a great trip to Utah.  We drove out with Grandma Blackham and back with Rick.  It was a long trip but we had a great time visiting all our cousins and family we have not seen in awhile.   Rick was also fortunate enough to work at the Salt Lake office for his firm a few days so he could keep up with his work load.

We visited Temple Square and saw the beautiful Salt Lake Temple with the Jones.

Jonah, Jacob, Anson, Sarah, Rachel and Aaron all loved the many pools and fountains around Temple Square.

We also saw the Visitor's Center and all of the kids loved seeing the statue of Christ.

We all enjoyed seeing the fountains over the Conference Center where we hear words from the Lord through our Prophet Pres. Monson.

Saturday we went up to Bear Lake for the Allred reunion.  Andrew Keith finally got to meet his namesake Grandpa Keith Allred. 

 

The kids loved the watergun fight with cousins but most importantly loved the chance to get Grandpa!

Sunday we drove down to Pleasant Grove to see Uncle Justin and Aunt Amy's new baby, Caleb's baby blessing.  After church we had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed time together at the club house.

After the blessing we drove up to the mountains by Heber City where Mom and Dad had rented a beautiful cabin for all of us to be together in.  We loved the relaxed atmosphere and kids loved being together.  We also had a rare treat to have Dad's Mission president Pres. Olsen and his wife with us for Family Home Evening.

 

 

The cabin was a great fit for all of our family with beds for everyone, a game room, 2 kitchens, 2 dining rooms, 2 family rooms and a jacuzzi!

The older grand kids made use of the jacuzzi the last night they were together.  We also had a tough Ping Pong tournament, which Rick won, while we were there.  Mom and Dad spoiled all of us with Giordano's pizza, crafts, and lots of food and fun.  It was a blast!  Thanks so much Mom and Dad for a great Chicago styled reunion.

 We had a lot of fun in Utah being with our family.  Hopefully it won't take several years before we can do it again.

Andrew's 1st Birthday

So as my first blog I thought I'd show off the chubbiest of the clan as he turns 1.  We celebrated Andrew's 1st birthday on May 23rd with nearby family.  What do you get the 3rd boy in the last 6 years?  We opted for a Cozy Coupe.  Here he is all smiles with his Coupe!

 

He loves vehicles of all kinds so his cake was cute in thanks to a friend and her supply of cake pans.

We had a lot of fun celebrating.  We've had a difficult first year with this cutey but we got through it and now love enjoying his great sense of humor, love of fun, and his willingness to accept all our kisses and hugs.