Dear Angels,

I used to pray for you constantly while Loumy was in Haiti. I prayed that you would watch over him and talk to him and help him in every way until he could get home to me. You answered my prayers and then some. I recently discovered that you must have liked him so much that you didn't feel like leaving him once he got home. Well, I've actually had indications of that before but the event in my parent's backyard a couple of weeks ago truly confirmed it.

Thank you for paying attention to Loumy while he rode his first 4-wheeler by himself. I thought he was doing just fine, zipping around the yard like all the other little kids had been doing for the past couple hours. I was just up on the deck talking and paying very little attention at all. Chris and Mike were watching him, too, so I thought all was fine.

Luckily you knew better. Suddenly Nancy cried, "Oh my gosh!!! Loumy just drove off the edge!!!" You see, my parents live on the edge of a canyon and there are steep drop-offs all along the north edge of their property.

I don't remember what I said but I think I let out some expletives (saved for only those times you think your child has been killed) as I ran down the stairs and out to the edge of the lawn. I also saw Mike and Chris running towards where Loumy must have driven over--the steepest valley-like area of the gully. My heart was racing and a thousand thoughts went through my mind. I knew my baby was in bad shape. It was impossible for him not to be. The drop is extremely steep and there are dead trees and branches every where. I seriously thought he might be dead. At the very least he had been impaled, had broken bones, and was bleeding to death.

As I got to the edge I saw the 4-wheeler down about 40 feet but I couldn't see Loumy. I began to panic. I heard branches crunching and breaking as Chris called to me, "I've got him, he's all right." I didn't really think he was okay, but assumed at least he was alive if Chris had him. As I got to the spot where Chris was, he handed Loumy up to me and I held him tightly to me and started back towards the house. I held Loumy out for a minute and could see nothing but some leaves and grass in his hair and dirt. I held him close again and began sobbing, which suddenly stopped Loumy's crying. I took him in the house and began to examine him more closely. I got a wet washcloth and began wiping away the dirt. A small scratch on his forehead. A tiny scratch on his back. Mud caked into his toenails. A few scratches on his shins. None of the scratches were even dark or bleeding.

It was then that I realized what had happened. As Loumy flew over the edge, you grabbed him off the ATV and gently set him onto a pile of branches. I can think of no other explanation, dear sweet angels. Thank you thank you thank you!

Love,

A Very Grateful (and still shaken) Mama

This is my parent's beautiful backyard. They live on the edge of a canyon. To the left it drops down into a huge gully. We called it the "hollow" when I was growing up. It is great for adventures. Not so great for 4-year-olds to drive off on ATVs.
You can sort of see the track the kids were taking down the right side of the lawn. They'd circle around a sprinkler placed on that brown spot in the middle and come back and into the front yard. Instead of circling, Loumy went on the track to the right, then only did a 90 degree turn instead of a 180. He headed straight off this point:
Unless somebody were to stand at the bottom, I don't think you could really tell how steep this is from a photo. But this is where he went. It took 4 guys, a rope, and a garden hose to get finally get the ATV back up to the top.

He Talks...

...and he laughs. I love my Finny-Finn Baby!!!

Commercial

This has to be the my favorite commercial ever! Check it out and see if you can guess why I like it so much!


"I love what you've done with your hair."

Hurray for Bald Girls!!!

I first went to a Bald Girls Do Lunch hosted by Thea Chassin in November of 2007. It was the first time that I had gone bald in public at all. It was the catalyst for change for me. I have changed so much since that time. I will be forever grateful. Check out this cool bit on the Today show about Alopecia and Bald Girls Do Lunch. Seriously, don't the women look beautiful when they take their wigs off? I used to not feel that way but I have changed and am forever grateful.

On a side note, my hair did start to fall out again but, as you can see, my friend "confident-bald-girl" came right back, so for that I feel extremely blessed as well. Oh, and there is a pic of me on this segment. Near the beginning some photos come on the screen and I am in the 5th photo.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Little Things that Hurt My Heart

We have 20 new children that we are adding to Haitian Roots. That will bring us up to 133 children. We hope and pray that we will be able to raise the funds necessary to provide them all the education they so desperately need and that their parents dream for.

I recently received their applications and copies of the pictures that Chareyl took in June. The children are, naturally, very beautiful and mostly I am just excited and full of hope. But it is funny how the little things are what break my heart.

Take this cute father and daughter. This little girl is Jesula. She is 6 years old. Her parents love her very much but are currently unemployed. Unemployment rate in Haiti is very high. They know how important education is and took this opportunity to meet Chareyl and fill out an application very seriously. I can only imagine the difficult circumstances surrounding Jesula and her family. But for some reason it is her dad's signature (Joseph Lasson)
and her oversized shoes that I noticed from the corner of another photothat hurt my heart the most.

Hm...

Four Months Old

You've come a long way, little soldier boy! We love you like crazy!

Then (15 March 2009): 3 lbs. 8 oz., 19 inches
Now (15 July 2009): 12 lbs. 10 oz, 24 inches

Family Reunion

Over the 4th of July weekend we had our first ever actual family reunion from my parents on down. I vaguely remember going to a family reunion or two when I was younger and I didn't know a soul. They weren't that fun to me, even if they did have a bouncy castle or two. But this is what I call a reunion! It wasn't some fourth cousin that I never met. It was just my parents and brothers and sisters and our kids and stuff. But there are a ton of us so now we actually have to plan a reunion to get all of us together. My sister, Megan, got the idea and headed it up. Nancy was nice enough to give the stats on our family recently:
2 parents + 11 kids + 11 spouses + 57 grandkids + 6 grandkid spouses (well one is engaged) + 8 great grandkids = 104 people!!! Whoa!
We were missing about a dozen nieces and nephews, but all of my siblings were together for the first time in a very long time. We spent the weekend in Soda Springs, Idaho, swimming, laughing, eating, talking, riding horses, motorcycles, 4-wheeler's, playing basketball, and more.

Here we all are clockwise from far left in blue: John (#5), Rob (#6), Me (#9), Dad, Nancy (#10), Mark (#1), Tony (#2), Aaron (#8), Amy (#4), Chris (#7), Mom, Megan (#11), Kathy (#3).When I look at these photos I feel like the luckiest girl in the world because I love my brothers and sisters so much. My Mom always prayed for two things for us as kids: 1. that we would marry well, and 2. that as siblings we would be eachother's best friends. Thank heavens for answered prayers!

Here are most of the grandkids surrounding my parents. Can you find my kids? Its kind of like "where's waldo" :)
And here is almost everybody. ::whew::

More Reunion

I didn't actually take any pics at all at the reunion, rather I did a lot of video. I always forget to video, so I'm glad to have captured a lot. And I'm glad to borrow pics from Megan and Amy to share here! There are really way too many to even pic just these few, but oh well.
Sisters Megan and Nancy:
Deedle in the pool:
Dad holding Finn and Mom holding Nancy's Jesse.
Nephew Christian and brother Tony.
Nephews Adam, Gordy, Abe, and Carson
Brother Aaron with his girls Emma and Olivia.
Niece Allie holding Finn.
Brother-in-law Alan flipping his daughter, Mia, while String Cheese watches from her noodle:
String Cheese trying her hand at tennis:
Niece Goldie takes a snuggle with her Granpa (my Dad):
Niece Jasmine with Loumy:
Chancho on Augustus:
Amy riding Clara:
My brothers Tony, John, Aaron, and Chris:
The HAITIAN SENSATION Loumy:
Deedle:
And, last the best of all the game, this hilarious pic of my oldest brother and his wife, Darlene. I don't know how he got her to participate in his goofiness. Too funny.

Super Cool

Thanks to all of you for your comments about me going private. For now I have decided not to but I did DEFINITELY go in and change my settings so that people can't find my blog on search engines or by simply clicking "next" at the top of the page to see my blog. It is still public in that if I comment on somebody's blog, they can then go to my profile and click on my blog or they can find mine through linking with others blogs. And I feel fine with that. Through feejit I was able to see that the obscene comment came from somebody in Philadelphia who had been searching for "scary stories from haiti" and my blog popped. The person was only here for a few minutes. So, I am not worried that this individual is stalking me, but I don't want random searches pulling me up. Thanks Tia and Nancy for letting me know about changing those settings!

I still have a lot of things I want to catch up on but I thought you all might enjoy this. I have two nephews from this orphanage called Casa Guatemala. It is actually a children's village in the jungle on the Rio Dulce. This makes me cry because I completely recognize the green bleachers and the houses and the docks. It also makes me happy that there are so many good people out there trying to do good things and make a difference in people's lives. As most of you should know by now, my charity of passion is HAITIAN ROOTS. But I would definitely encourage people searching for a good cause (who don't feel drawn to Haiti from some strange reason :)) to take a look at Casa Guatemala. This is photos from a production recently done by the kids and volunteers at Casa Guatemala of the Lion King. You can tell the kids are so proud and excited to be able to take part in something like this!

Going Private???

So, I log on this morning to find that some sick person in Philadelphia has randomly found a blog post from me from over a year ago. It was a funny little story I wrote as a teenager to make my siblings laugh. A few years later those "Scary Movie"s started coming out in theaters. I never saw them but from the previews I could tell that they were along the same vein as my scary little story. Anyway, this morning, whomever found my blog decided to leave a really disgusting comment (anonymously of course). I am sure it is nobody I know. I feel totally violated. Seriously, I am sick to my stomach that I am posting pictures of my sweet babies on here and then some weirdo just comes and can see it. I know that it could be much worse. And actually I should just laugh that somebody would feel such strong anger when they were searching for scary stories and found mine that they had to react like that. It is kind of funny. But really...??? Yuck.

I try to be careful on here as far as not using real names nor places. But I'm sure that if anybody ever wanted to track me or my kids down they could do it in a second. So, my question is, would any of you still visit my blog if I went private? Should I care if people visit my blog and comment? This is truly my only journal right now so that should be my primary focus. But I've had so much fun feeling so connected with lots of people. Anywho...any advice/comments for me? I should probably just do the safe thing and go private.

Updates

This little chubs...
...is not totally cool with being any place other than in my arms. Last night I left him to play soccer. I only played for one hour and by the time I was done I had a bruise the size of Texas, a text message, and a desperate phone call from Chancho letting me know that Finn was inconsolable. I guess that is what I get for trying to get in shape rather than spending every second holding my newborn who is transforming from a tiny infant into a full blown baby before my very eyes. I honestly think that he grew during the night last night. His head looked bigger, his face slightly more rounded, a little more length on the bridge of his nose...it's strange because usually when you see somebody constantly, you don't notice the change so much but he is changing by the hour!

The truth is, I don't mind a bit (his needing to be held by me). I am loving my baby so very much and can't get enough of him. I feel an ache when we are apart for even a short time. I still don't even mind getting up in the night with him (which is still every 3 hours), whereas with my other kids I was often in tears in the morning because of my weariness. Finn has become very social within the last 2 weeks. He loves to be talked to and smiles all of the time. We've even had a giggle or two. He is cooing a lot and when Chancho talks to him after coming home from work, it is a full body event as Finn tries to get out some sounds to let him know he was missed. Lips are moving, arms flailing, legs kicking, and finally..."aahh-ggooo". I love it!

Finn is not really on a schedule for evenings yet. Only because I haven't forced it. He likes to be awake and held until about midnight. So that is what we do. But that does mean less blogging time for me. I checked my google reader and found that I had missed 97 blog posts from friends and family that I really like to read! Sorry for the lack of comments, though I have been reading while holding the baby the past couple of nights.

These next posts will probably be mostly photos of events this summer. Here we go...

Blessing Day

Finn received his baby blessing by Chancho on June 21st. Due to the size of my family, we had a fairly large circle including Bishop Jensen, my dad, Tony, John, Chris, Alan, Mike H., Adam, Ben, Hiram, Guy, Aaron, Brian, and Isson. At least I think that is how it was. Chancho gave a beautiful blessing asking God to give Finn knowledge, empathy, wisdom, a love for the scriptures and his fellow man, among other thing. I had a cute little linen outfit from Meg that I was going to dress him in, but when I put on the tie, Chancho thought it was way too funny and cute not to do, so we dressed him like a little man.I spent the entire Saturday and most of the Sabbath until minutes before the blessing cooking and preparing. Since it was also Father's day I wanted to prepare food that Chancho would actually like. In case you don't know, there is a typical Mormon-after-event-large-gathering-meal. Or maybe it is just our family. It is lunch meat and sliced cheese, rolls, cheesy-hashbrowny-potatoes, and a hodge podge of salads, chips, and desserts. I find this a veritable smorgasboard and love it. Chancho does not and says he is always sick after. So, I made tamales, taquitos, chips & salsa, rice, and beans, horchata, and family members helped provide yummy desserts and lemonade.Isson and his family came up from Orem. We had the dinner at Chancho's parents' house. It was a very special and memorable day. It was also quite exhausting. I felt bad that I was more consumed with cooking and dressing the kids than making Chancho feel special for Father's Day but he was a very good sport and a few gifts and a massage seemed to make him as happy as anything. He's super cool like that.

The Carnivore

OH my goodness? Could I be any luckier? I don't think I could.

Ever since Deedle got confused and called the carnival a "carnivore" last year, I can't rightly call it anything else. This year Chancho left me for a backpacking trip so I had to go it alone. But that was okay. Chancho has never left me to go on any type of trip (other than one or two overnighters for work) during our entire marriage. I, on the other hand, go to St. George each year with my sisters, and traveled many times to Guatemala and Haiti sans him or the kids. So, he deserved to go, even if the backpacking event turned out to be much more of a survival camp than a vacation.

My sister Amy and her husband Al once again hosted the S. O. Days celebration in their backyard. There was a lot of good food, family, a perfect entrance to the park and carnival, and a prime spot for viewing the fireworks. And, best of all, lots of wonderful cousins to help out with the kids. Here Ryliegh and Tess head off to the carnival with the girls.Jessica and Jordan were the best. They took my kids on tons of rides which I couldn't do because I had Finn snuggled in a pack (and because I would have thrown up). String Cheese is especially grateful!!!Come to find out, my girls are extreme dare devils when it comes to the rides and Deedle was very sad that she was not allowed to ride everything she wanted to. And poor Loumy was forced to grow up quickly. He started out on rides like this:

But then, never willing to be outdone by his older sisters, he was forced into stuff like this:I also got to meet Christian's darling new fiancee, Sara.The End