Sister Ashton's Farewell

I'm writing such a long and detailed post for a few reasons:

1. Neither Charles, nor I wrote about HIS farewell, and now we can barely remember it even happened.
2. Alli is such a good example to my boys about being a missionary and I want them to always remember her and the special events that they got to be a part of.
3. I know my other sisters who couldn't come out for her farewell will appreciate reading this.
4. Alli challenged us to talk openly about where she is and what she is doing. Kind of an unusual request when it comes to Alli, but she wants us to not feel embarrassed to tell others about her being a missionary... so this is how I can share... I blog.

My youngest sister, Alli, left on her mission today. Mom and Dad dropped her off at the Missionary Training Center at 12:45. When Charles left on his mission, I got to go inside with him and sit and listen to a video and someone speak before parting ways. When I took my friend Jessica to the MTC, they stopped allowing people to accompany the missionaries inside the MTC. I had to drop her off at a church parking lot where she was bussed to the Training Center. And now it's just curbside drop off. Maybe it's better that way? I don't know. I wasn't there.

Anyway, let's back up a few days to Alli's actual farewell. She gave a talk in church the Sunday before she left. Mom and Dad invited all their siblings and spouses, and some of our cousins and Alli's friends came too. Some Lancaster friends included David and Emily Collins, Brent Noriega and Troy Lieshman. There may have been others, but that's all I recognized. She also had some BYU buddies there as well. It was a full house. Alli wasn't a fan. She was nervous because she hadn't given a talk since High School. But you know what? You really wouldn't have known it. She gave a beautiful and witty speech. Everyone kept commenting on how much they love her dry sense of humor.

I don't remember all of her talk, but I'll write what I can. She started out by thanking all of her family and friends for coming to support her today and who will continue to support her throughout her mission. She apologized to the Aaronic priesthood for making them work so hard to pass the sacrament, that the big crowd was her fault. She started to get teary. She said that she had practiced her talk a million times, and never once did she cry. She kept going but was getting more and more choked up. So she stopped to wipe her eyes and kind of whispered to herself (but also into the microphone) "This. Is. Ridiculous!" It gave us all a heartfelt laugh.

She decided to tell everyone how she came to her decision to serve a mission. She said that she always wanted to, but that there were 2 things that may make it an impossibility for her.

First, her severe homesickness. She humored us with a few anecdotes. Like turning down her friends' offers for sleepovers because she didn't want to be away from her Mommy for so long. Or calling her Mom in the middle of a sleepover to come pick her up. Or faking a knee injury at a UCLA soccer camp so she wouldn't have to stay the whole week. Or flying to Baltimore for a school trip and then asking them to book her a flight right back. (Which they did.) Or how the only way she thought she could go away to college was if her mom and dad moved to Utah with her. (Which happened to be the case.) [Lots of laughs came from this first reason.] She said that she just always needs her mom. Even when living in Provo, it was hard to go even a single day without at least talking to her on the phone.

Second, she was going to BYU. And don't girls at BYU meet their eternal companion the first month of school, get married by the second semester, and have a baby their Sophomore year? Alli said, "But this ended up not being the case for me. Not even close." [More laughs.]

She said that when she graduated from college, she had a hard time finding a teaching job in this economy. She prayed that she would find a job. Well she found one, but it was less than ideal. So she started a graduate program at the same time. She was unhappy with her situation. The thought of serving a mission had been creeping in her mind, but she felt like she would be ungrateful for the blessings she had been given, if she just gave it all up. She said her own family had experienced job loss because of the economy, and that she just trying to be grateful for what she had. But even still, she was unhappy and the thought of serving a mission was still there.

So she decided that since General Conference was coming up (October 2nd), she would listen to conference with a prayer and question in her mind. "Should I serve a mission? Would I be ABLE to serve a mission?" She said that at the opening of the very first session on the first day of conference, Pres. Monson answered her question and prayer. He wasn't giving a talk, he was just opening the conference, welcoming everyone and reporting about new temples. But he also shared something out of the blue. Alli quoted these words in her talk:

"Now, before we hear from our speakers this morning, may I mention a matter close to my heart and which deserves our serious attention. I speak of missionary work.

First, to young men of the Aaronic Priesthood and to you young men who are becoming elders: I repeat what prophets have long taught—that every worthy, able young man should prepare to serve a mission. Missionary service is a priesthood duty—an obligation the Lord expects of us who have been given so very much. Young men, I admonish you to prepare for service as a missionary. Keep yourselves clean and pure and worthy to represent the Lord. Maintain your health and strength. Study the scriptures. Where such is available, participate in seminary or institute. Familiarize yourself with the missionary handbook Preach My Gospel.

A word to you young sisters: while you do not have the same priesthood responsibility as do the young men to serve as full-time missionaries, you also make a valuable contribution as missionaries, and we welcome your service."

Alli said that just as others may have felt like this, she felt that he was speaking directly to her. She felt that this was her answer, in no clearer words. At that moment, she knew it was what she should do and that yes, she will be able to do it. She felt such peace and reassurance. She said that since that day of Conference, she has heard that quote from Pres. Monson about 5 or 6 times. In sacrament meeting, in relief society, in Sunday School, in missionary prep class, when she was home taught and visit taught. Each time it reaffirmed her decision.

After the first session was over, she decided she needed to prepare Mom for what she was about to tell her. She said that in the past, she had brought up serving a mission, but that the idea was usually coupled with the idea of joining the army, or quitting school to become a bum. [More laughs.] She wanted Mom to know she was actually serious. So when the first session ended, Alli turned to Mom and said, "Mom, there's something very serious that I want to talk to you about." Mom said ok, and when Alli told her she wanted to serve a mission, mom just calmly looked at her and said, "Ok... What do we need to do?" She explained to the congregation that she is the youngest of 4 girls and we had never done this before, so they weren't quite sure where to start.

Since that day of General Conference, she has not wavered in her decision. She has not looked back. That week she made an appointment with her bishop, doctor appointments to get lots of shots, dentist appointments to have her wisdom teeth pulled, and she said she literally drove right from the oral surgeon's to the Stake President, with her mouth full of gauze, for her last interview. She filled out all her papers, turned them in and her mission call came just one month since the day she made her decision to go. It all happened so fast, that she said the hardest part, was just waiting to be able to go.

Then she got into the "bulk" of her talk. She chose to speak about loving one another. She talked about it being God's most important commandment. She said it was one that she has struggled with. She shared a story one of her BYU professors told her class one day. He said it was September 11th, the night the Twin Towers had fallen. He and his family were saying a prayer for the people and families who had been hurt or killed in the tragedy. When they finished, her professor's little daughter said, "But wait. We forgot to pray for the bad guys." Her professor was a little uncomfortable, but didn't want to squash his daughter's innocence. So he added to the prayer words like, "Please help the perpetrators to be caught and brought to justice." When he finished, his daughter said, "No. We need to ask Heavenly Father to bless the bad guys." Alli said that at that moment it would be easy to think, "Oh, poor, young and naive girl. You just don't do that." But it was that comment that helped her understand how much Christ loves each of us. No matter how bad we mess up. In the scriptures we are counseled to "be as little children," and this is the perfect example of that. Alli said, that if everyone could just love one another as unconditionally as Christ, and this little girl, then she is convinced that there would be no terror or problems in the world. It is a huge concept, yet so simple.

She bore her testimony and said she was very excited to serve the Lord and show the people of Sacramento her love. She said, "As cliche as this sound, 'No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.'"

Alli really gave an inspirational talk, and I feel so blessed to have gotten to hear it. Charles, unfortunately, was on a flight back from Springfield, MO for a graduate school interview, so he missed it. I asked my boys what their favorite part of her talk was, and they said, "Pray for the bad guys!" Surprise, surprise. At least I know they were listening. :)

After Sacrament meeting, we all went to Mom and Dad's house for a luncheon with everyone who came out to support Alli. Lots of family and friends filled the house. We ate sandwiches from Kneaders, chips, fruit, cookies, fudge and Divinity. Dad got creative and made a white chocolate fudge, and orange fudge to compliment the original chocolate fudge. The orange fudge was Jaden's favorite. It tasted just like an orange creamsicle. Kaleb kept creeping over to the chocolate fudge and sneaking his little hand up and over the counter to grab as much as he discreetly could. It reminded me of Ashton parties long, long ago, where I did the same thing with my Grandma's fudge. A kid after my own heart. :)

The lunch was nice. Everyone told Alli how much they loved hearing her speak and how they know she will be a great missionary. She also received a lot of advice and well wishes. Oh, and did I mention how pretty Alli looked? She was wearing the floral dress that you see in these pictures, along with the blue triple stranded necklace Julianne made, and the white flower in her long slightly curled hair that Kare and I made. And she looked genuinely happy. Usually these kinds of social gatherings make her uncomfortable, but she was sincerely happy and grateful to all those who came to support her. She smiled all day.

I'm sorry I didn't have my camera that day. No pictures from the farewell. :(

On Monday we came over to play and spend time with her and Tuesday she was set apart as a missionary. The Stake President and the Bishop came to Mom and Dad's house at 8:30 that night. We all got dressed in our Sunday clothes and took a few pictures before and after.






Jaden climbed up there and posed all by himself.


I love Kaleb's face in this one.


Playing one last game of catch or hide and seek with the boys.


Kaleb took this picture.


The rest were taken after the setting apart. Kaleb had zonked out and Charles was trying to change him out of his suit, but Kaleb kept on sleeping.


This is where Jaden crept off to hide in Mom's room so he could cry in private. After about 5 minutes or so, Alli went in to talk to him. They were in there for a while, I don't know what was said, I gave them their privacy.


When he came out he was red and puffy-eyed and just sat on Mom's lap and cried some more.


Alli is always the best at getting Bradley to make funny faces. I think those two really have a special bond. I love watching the two of them interact.




Here are the last hugs before we left, and she reported to the MTC the next morning. I can't look at them without tearing up.









We'll all miss her so much. But we are all so proud of her and happy for her too. Looking forward to July 2012!

Poor Sick Bradley

Bradley has had a cold. It's so sad when they are sick, but yet so nice when they fall asleep on your lap.




Just listen to his poor, sad, squeaky voice.

We moved Bradley out of the crib, and into the toddler bed. He loves to share a room with his older brothers. I was a little worried about making this transition while he's been sick, but I think it was good. He's been much too tired to stay up and cause trouble. I gave them each a book light and told them they could either go to sleep, or read until they were tired enough to sleep... but NO TALKING. For about a week now, there hasn't been any problems. (knock on wood!)

After I moved Bradley out of the baby room, I did a little rearranging with the furniture. To move the bookshelf, I had to pull out all the books first. The kids do this every time. Bradley was a little nervous at first to be on the top. :)

But these pictures remind me of the triple bunk beds that David built for his kids inside their closet. Those were so cool. What a way to save space!


Even when he isn't feeling well, Bradley still plays with his magnet blocks. I was particularly impressed with his latest stroke of ingenuity. He built a tunnel all by himself for his second favorite toy (Thomas the Train) to ride through. Charles helped him do this once before, but I think Bradley has worked out all the kinks and has made it even better. He says, "I made! I made dat! See?"



Here he is teaching Kaleb how to do build it.

Last Few Days with Aunt Alli

Alli leaves for the MTC soon. We've been trying to get our fill of Alli-time (without making her sick of us) as much as we can. The kids have been getting into puzzles lately, so here they are working on them with Alli.


They decided to have a race. Alli with the 2 big ones on the floor, Jaden with the 4 small ones, and Kaleb with the Circle ones.

After the boys won, they came down to the floor to help Alli finish hers.


And then celebrated by doing one of Kaleb's booty dances.

Alli read to them their new favorite book, Chicken Cheeks. We got this book from our good friends, the Holbrooks. It's a story all about different words for "bum." It cracks them up every single time. Hahaha!


Alli showed the boys a youtube video about a 4 year old who could stack, collapse and restack a couple pyramids in less than 10 seconds. So the boys wanted to try. Heh-heh!

Here they are shooting hoops with Alli. Kaleb's getting to be pretty good. :)



Then there was a snowball fight. This was when Kaleb threw one right into Jaden's ear. Jaden was NOT happy. After that, Alli had the idea to throw snowballs at shadows instead.

Then Bradley asked Alli in his sweet little voice if she would help him build a snowman. This kid is pretty hard to refuse, but nearly impossible for Alli. So she got some gloves and helped him build a few small ones. They did the best they could with how dry the snow was. What a nice Aunt.


We spent some time with Alli at Mom and Dad's house too. The kids brought their Chicken Cheeks book, and puzzles and got to work.


Kaleb kept saying, "We are good at figuring things out. We are puzzle-mans!"



Bradley's really good too. He can do the 2 circle ones without any help.


One of the kids' favorite things to do with Alli is a good old-fashioned Mad Lib. You know, where the kids come up with nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, etc... to insert to a story, and then they listen to how silly it is. With my boys, you can always expect the words, toilet, fart, toots, booty, stinky and poop to be included.


They crack themselves up, over and over. Bless Alli for putting up with it as long as she does!


We're really gonna miss this girl. Alli, thanks for always being such an awesome sister and Aunt. These boys love you so much. Sacramento, California, you have no idea how lucky you are! We all love you, Alli. :) Good luck and you'll do amaaaazing things. :)

My AZ Trip

For Christmas, Charles surprised me with plane tickets to Arizona to see my sister, Kare. It was such a thoughtful gift. He took a week off of work to stay home with the kids while I had a week of fun and relaxation. Alli had also planned a trip out there as kind of a last visit before she leaves on her mission. My other sister, Julianne, tried to get tickets to go out there, even figured out babysitting for Ethan, but the flights were just ridiculously overpriced. :( It would have been fun to have all 4 of us, but at least we ended up with 3.

So! To begin this post, I must first tell the story of actually getting on to the blasted plane. So you're supposed to get there an hour early, right? Alli and I were exactly an hour early. I was bringing Kare a bunch of baby clothes, so we had a couple bags to check. The line was long. Not too bad, but when we noticed that there were like 3 out of 10 counters open, we understood why it was so long. It wasn't moving! We thought about using the Sky Cap to check our bags, there were no lines there. But you have to tip those guys, and the lowest bill I had on me was a 10. So, no. Not gonna do that. After about 30 minutes, we had our bags checked.

Next was the Security line. Holy crap that line was longer, and moved even slower! We both kind of stood there silently for a while. Both wondering, "are we were actually going to make our flight?" and probably, "why does Crissy have to be so cheap and not use the Sky Cap?" We watched the clock as we slowly made our way through the line. Finally, when we had 10 minutes before our plane was scheduled to leave, and one more switchback of line before getting to the security checkpoint, I broke the silence with,

"So... I usually try and wait to the last minute to panic, but I think we're pretty much there. We're gonna miss our flight, aren't we?"

Alli just laughed and said, "Yeah, I think so. But there are flights going to LAX all the time, so maybe we can just catch a later one."

I must say, Alli was a WHOLE lot calmer than I had expected her to be. Honestly I thought she would be mad at me for being such a cheapskate and making us miss our plane because of it. So we made it to the security podium where they check your ID right when our plane was supposed to depart. The attendant just looked at us and said, "Yeah you probably missed it. They close the airplane door 10 minutes before departure.

But we didn't give up hope.

We took our shoes, jackets and metal off, breezed through the checkpoint, and as I was grabbing my shoes, Alli said, "Should I run?"

I said, "Go!"

She took off toward our gate, which was the farthest Southwest gate possible. I, being 6 months pregnant, also took off running. I had to stop to catch my breath every so often, but I pretty much ran the whole way too. You should have seen the awkward stares I was getting. Here's this big pregnant woman running down the halls, sweat dripping off her face, rings of perspiration under her arms... pulling her carry-on luggage, purse falling off her shoulder, big coat swung over her arm... yet no golf cart to offer assistance! That's ok. I think I was faster anyway.

By the time I arrived at the gate (5 minutes after departure time), I was picturing the gate door closing. But it was open! There was no attendant. But I could see Alli at the end of the ramp-thing turning to board the plane. But there was no one to take my ticket!

Then I started picturing the airplane door being closed while I just stood there waiting for someone. I couldn't get this close and then miss it. So I looked around, scanned my own ticket, dropped it on the pile of other tickets and then took off running to the plane.

As I was rounding the corner my plane in sight, an attendant showed up and said... "do you have a ticket?"

I stopped and timidly answered, "Yyyes. I dropped it on top of the pile."

He then said, "well, come back with me, we need to scan it."

I was about to walk back with him, but I felt too weak. So I said, a little more sheepishly, "Yyyeah. I already did that."

He turned around on me like he was gonna scream, then looked down at my belly and noticed that I was preggo. "Just wait here then and I'll holler if there's a problem." He did whatever he had to do, yelled to me that I was good to go, and somehow... miraculously... I boarded my plane at 10 minutes past departure." I even had a seat next to Alli. I buckled up my seat just as we started backing out.

Alli and I were both sitting there, sweaty, dead, and unable to speak. Words really can't describe the amount of exhaustion we felt. When the attendant asked over the mic who was happy to be there, I couldn't help raise my hand and say, "YES!" Alli wasn't quite ready to share the enthusiasm. Apparently that attendant who took our tickets was a big raunch to her. He yelled at her for having a big bag and made her check it. Then, when she told him that she has a pregnant sister on the way, he yelled at her for that too. :( Sorry Alli...

Our connecting flight was obviously a lot smoother. Kare picked us up in Tucson where we went out to Rocco's (a pizza place) for dinner. We wanted to take a picture, but didn't want to ask anyone to do it. So Alli set the timer on the camera (2 seconds), put it on the napkin holder and rushed back for the photo. Haha! We tried it twice, and didn't get a good picture, but at least we can see Alli in this one!


After that we went to see... a WICKED awesome musical! (Thank you, Mom!)


It was sooooooo good. I want to see it again. But when I'm not pregnant. Kare and I went to use the restroom before it started, and holy long line! There were easily over 100 women in line. Ridiculous. So we decided to hold it. Then halfway through the show, someone pulled the fire alarm and we were all evacuated to an open grassy area across the street from the building. All I have to say is... THANK GOODNESS. Did I find a couple dumpsters to pee behind during our 30 minute "break?" You bet I did. Did my husband call me 'white trash' for doing it? You bet he did.

After that, we sat on a stone bench in the freezing cold, waiting for the "ok" to return to the building. When we stood up to go inside, we had the craziest sensation on our butts. I guess because the bench was so much colder than the air, it felt like when we got up, we had heaters on our booties. It was so weird! But kinda nice... I'm not gonna lie.

Anyway, Wicked was awesome. I'm so glad I got to see it. Glinda is hilarious! Then we spent the rest of our time in Sierra Vista playing with Nathan. Here he is after an unfortunate barfing incident at the mall.


We played cars, and blocks, ate out everyday, rented movies, played games with Curtis, took naps and just had fun together. One day, Kare checked her mail and there was a surprise for all of us from Julianne. She makes jewelry. Awesome jewelry. She made us each a ring, bracelet and necklace. What a cute girl she is! (Thanks, Jules! We missed you!)

Alli didn't stay in Arizona as long as I did. So on Saturday, we took her back to the airport in Tucson. Kare and Alli said their goodbyes... sad, because they wouldn't see each other until after Alli's mission. Really weird that Nathan will have doubled in age when she gets back, and Kare's new little girl will be the age that Nathan is now now when she finally gets to meet her. Crazy. But I'm especially grateful for this trip because it allowed me to spend more time with Alli (without the distraction of my kids) before she leaves. I'm really gonna miss that girl. :(


After we dropped Alli off, we decided to do a little shopping in Tucson. We went to Michael's to buy flowers and jewels to make these: Interchangeable headbands for baby girl.


We have both made these before as gifts for our sisters-in-law. But this time, we got to make them for ourselves. :) While we were at Michael's we were talking to a lady who was giving us all kinds of great tips for making these. Then she said, "but my mind is so frazzled with what just happened. Have you heard the news?" Just then Kare got a text from Alli.

At that moment we learned about the shooting of Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords just a few miles away from us. We didn't know details, just that around 20 people had been shot at the local Safeway.

After that, we hurried to buy our stuff and just wanted to get the heck out of Tucson. We didn't know if the shooter had been caught, or how many there were, or if they were driving around shooting up any place else. So we hurried to the car, turned on the radio and listened to what little news they had for us at the time.

In our hour-long drive back to Sierra Vista, we learned that Gabrielle Giffords had died... was NOT dead, but in surgery... has died... was not dead, but has come out of surgery... has died, has NOT died, but is now responding. We didn't know what to believe. But I knew that whenever we passed a car that had a bumper sticker for the opponent she had barely just won the election over... I slouched a little lower in my seat.

Sunday we went to church and then lazed around, and Monday we made these. We made one for each of us.



But the most fun was playing with this little man. He loved to show me his little playroom under the stairs that Dad built for him, as well as show me all of his cool toys. We played cars, and blocks and he even played a little something for me on the piano. He dances all the time and has got a shoulder shimmy like you wouldn't believe! He liked my phone and my ipod a lot, but I'm pretty sure his favorite thing is...


... a Capri Sun.


This kid would drink all day if Kare let him. He goes to the pantry and picks one out and brings it to someone who will open it. Alli always did. :) Then he gulps and gulps until it is gone. Never stops. I have never seen a half empty Capri Sun of his. It's either unopened or empty. And when he's done, he goes back for another. If Kare puts them higher up on the shelf, he scoots a chair over to the pantry and climbs up to get one. If a box is unopened, he will carry the entire box in hopes that someone will pity him enough for carrying half his own weight and open him a drink. It usually works. :) This kid is the cutest. Thank you Nathan, for giving me your room for the week, even though you were sick!

The next day I went home. I was excited to see my family again. Just wish the feeling had been mutual! Lol! The boys had way too much fun having a 'boys week,' and seeing so much of their Daddy, that I think seeing me just meant the fun was over. Ouch. Oh well. Back to reality. :)