*Patriotism*

Micheal in full battle gear. This picture was actually taken just 30 minutes before he died.

I have been wanting to put up a post about this video for a while. One of the family members of Amy and Micheal hired someone to come and video everything about Micheal's funeral and such. It is absolutely amazing. It features when the plane came to bring his body in from Iraq, the Patriot Guard Riders, the graveside services and so much more. The music is exquisite. We are all still waiting for our copies of the DVD but I found it on the photographers website.

Please take the time to watch this. Take the 15 minutes out of your day to watch this amazing video. For those of you who couldn't be there, here is your chance to see everything. It is worth every minute. You can't help but feel more patriotic, more love and more compassion for the soldiers and their families who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.

Amy is amazing, and this video only shows how incredibly true that is. Micheal paid the ultimate sacrifice. He is an amazing and wonderful man who has touched so many lives. It makes me think of one of my favorite patriot quotes, "Freedom Isn't Free!" How true that is! Please always remember to keep Amy and her family in your prayers. If you can watch this video and not cry, then you're not human and you clearly have a heart of stone.

Here is the link. Also listen for the last song on the video, it is the 3rd song. It is called "Fallen Flowers" by Steve McDonald. It is a gorgeous song, I think I've listened to it 100 times. Youtube it. Click the 4 little arrows in the right hand corner of the video screen to see it in full screen on your computer.

Micheal Boyd Alleman Tribute Video

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SACRIFICE!!!

Rabbit Trails

***How is it that I do photography and I can't get my own kids' pictures done? I completely missed Halle's 3 month pictures. It just makes me want to scream. I did Chloee's 3 year pictures last week and she was terrible for me... and that is an understatement. Your kids are always 10 times worse for you than they are for other people.

***I wanted to get Halle's 6 month pictures done before any teeth popped through. She's been teething since about 3 months but nothing has popped through. I love that little toothless grin they do, when it's all gums. It's like they still have that baby look to them. Well, Halle is sick so I can't take her pictures and sure enough that tooth popped through. Just my luck.

***My kids are a magnetic force for sickness. NO JOKE! Just 2-3 weeks ago both of my girls were on antibiotics. Halle is sick again. Of course it is a viral infection so absolutely nothing that can be done. She can't breathe therefore she doesn't sleep. It's moved into her eyes. She screams majority of the day and on top of that, she got her 6 month shots on Monday. Yes, 7 vaccines on top of a wicked virus. It's been non stop fever, aches, pains, saline and sucking. My heart just aches for her, she's in so much pain.

***I am really tired of people thinking that because I do photography and I know them that I should do their pictures for free. It just infuriates me, especially the ones that drop hints about it, like I should want to do it for free or something.

***I have fallen in love with 6 new songs. I can't stop listening to them.
1. Better In Time by Leona Lewis.
2. Make Damn Sure by Taking Back Sunday
3. Diary of Jane by Breaking Benjamin
4. Gives You Hell by All American Rejects
5. Paperthin Hymn by Anberlin
6. Citizen Soldier by 3 Doors Down

***I have to get my wisdom teeth out. Yep, all 4 of them. Joy! At least then I will have an excuse of why my cheeks are so enormous that I look like a chipmunk. Right now I only have that it's because I'm fat.

***The Williams girls are taking a trip to Vegas in November. Wahooooo!!! Back in June, I found these killer flights to nearby states. This way, Annie, would be doing the same traveling and it costs us all the same. Annie is coming from Cali and me and Amy will fly out together, that should be interesting, to say the least! My Mom couldn't make it work but she will be terribly missed.

***New Moon comes out ONE WEEK after our trip to Vegas. It would have been so fun to go see it together. I am so excited for New Moon to come out. It looks so good. It feels like it's been 3 years since Twilight came out. Can't they pump them out any faster than a year apart? :)

***Josh was in Canada last week for work. I went down and spent some time at Amy's. It was a blast, as always. We went and saw, The Time Traveler's Wife. It was superb. We watched 17 Again, it was a really cute show, definitely one I want to own. I can't even recall all the fun things we did. I do know that my stomach ached every day and night from laughing so hard.

***Amy has been such an incredible support to me through everything. She has been amazing and so willing to help in every aspect. She has been so good for me. I know it should be her that is going through the lows, she is the one that lost her husband, but her attitude and perspective can't help but raise just about anyone out of the depths of despair. She truly is amazing. I can't believe how well she is doing. I'm sure Micheal is so proud!

***Both Josh and I hadn't been to the dentist in 2 years. We finally bit the bullet and went a few weeks ago. Josh had 12 cavities and I had 10. Yeah, we'll have to sell one of our kids to pay for that. Amy went 8 YEARS without going to the dentist and only had 3! What's that all about?

***Chloee was out playing with our dog the other day and she came in and told me the funniest thing. She said, "Mom, I told Koda to sit 5 times and he wouldn't, so I gave his treat to the neighbor dog. That ought to teach him!" Seriously, where did she come from?

***Sometimes it feels like wounds won't heal no matter how long of time you give them. Some feel like they are just too deep and callused to the point where nothing can heal them. Sometimes the only thing that gives you a glimpse of a healing wound is your tears. Crying is so therapeutic, at least for me it is.

Cat Food Anyone?

This is what happens when Kennet and Chloee say they are going to "feed the cats". I saw them walking out with a cup of cat food for each of them and I told them no more or the cats would get sick. Later that day I found the entire bag of cat food ALL OVER the back patio of Amy & Susan's house. It was fantastic!

Look at that! Susan had clients coming over to the house to look at some wedding stuff. I tried to clean it up as fast as I could. You'd think the cats would have come over and helped me by eating some of it or something. Honestly...

6 Months Old

I can't believe that Halle is 6 months old, TODAY! Wow, that time has flown by, yet felt as though it has completely stood still. Back when she was born, I was going to put up a post of her and about her birth but life went into crazy mode seeing as how Micheal passed away just 3 days after I had her. Anyway, I decided to put it in with her 6 month post. Lots of pictures, just a warning... You don't like it, get off!

Here is the little cutie today. She seriously has the most contagious smile. It's impossible to see that adorable smile and not just smile yourself. Halle is obsessed with Amy, no joke. She cries when she leaves, she grabs for her pictures that are in my house. She beams with joy as soon as she sees her.

Here I am pretending to be in atrocious labor. I was in labor with Chloee for 30 hours, this one was only 20. Woot woot, I cut off 10 hours!

She was 8 lbs 3 oz and 2 WEEKS early! My dr said she would have been over 10 lbs for sure if I had gone full term. I'm destined to have big kids. Chloee was 8 lbs. 4 oz. and she was a week early. Ok, well they're big for me.

That first time I held her in my arms was magical. There is no other way to explain it. You can actually see the tear running down my cheek. Nice photography Josh!

Anyone who knows me, knows I love my OBGYN. That is why I still went up to Logan to have my baby, even though I live in Layton. He is amazing and if we are going to move out of state, I'll make sure we are done having kids first. Dr. Horsely is the best dr I have ever had, no joke! Thanks Mel for referring me to him.

Look at how much hair she had when she was born, and it was curly. She doesn't even have that much now. I guess her head grew and now her hair is trying to catch up with it.

The new proud Daddy with his Baby Girl.

Grandma and Chloee. Chloee stayed at Grandma Renae's house while we were at the hospital. She loved it.

Big sister holding little sister. It was so precious.

My Dad is so cute, he even wore his "grandpa" shirt to the hospital to see her.

I had to post a picture of me a few days after I had Halle. You can see from the picture that I wasn't this huge, enormous person that I am now. I had lost majority of my weight, then Micheal died. I couldn't cope or deal with anything, so I called my dr and told him he had to give me something to get me through the funeral. I couldn't deal with it and I needed something that would just shut me down so that I could get through everything. He put me on this certain medicine for 30 days, that is all. It did make me completely docile. I really wasn't happy or sad, I didn't really cry a lot, I didn't smile, laugh, scream. You know it just shut my emotions down. It was nice because I could actually be there for everything and not mentally breakdown every time I turned around. DOWNSIDE: I gained 45 lbs in 30 days. I read more about the medicine. Yes, evidently the biggest side effect to that drug is "excessive weight gain" was how it was put. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? My child is 6 months and I weigh more now than I did the day I had her! Blah!

Some Of My Favorites...

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." -John Lennon

"Don't mistaken rain clouds and a thunderstorm for complete and total darkness." - Audrey Taylor

"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst."
- William Penn

"Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin!" - Anonymous

"If you can't forgive, don't ask to be forgiven." -Napoleon Hill

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." -Mother Teresa

"Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose." - Tom Krause

"God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight." - Reggie White
(AMY, THIS ONE WAS WRITTEN FOR YOU!)

Anniversary Weekend...

Our anniversary was last Wednesday, July 29th. We celebrated our 6 year anniversary. It's hard to believe that it has only been 6 years of marriage and 7 years together. It seems like we have been together for at least 15 - 20 years. I don't mean that in a rude or bad way. I just can't remember my life before Josh, or the kids for that matter. We have been through a lot of BIG things in our first 6 years of marriage. Oh well, you get what life hands you and make the best of it, or at least try to. You make mistakes and learn from them. I know I've made more than my share of mistakes. I'm just grateful that Josh still loves me despite my many, many faults.

Okay, enough of that. We decided this year to take a couple of days, go out to eat, see movies, you know the regular things you can't just go and do with the kiddos. My sweet sister Amy, was a doll and took the girls for 3 days. I guess I should really be thanking Amy and Grandma Alleman. Amy was such a sweetheart. The girls were absolutely spoiled rotten and Chloee screamed and didn't want to go when we picked her up. Halle was held majority of the time, I'm sure. Amy and her have such a special bond, it's really neat to see the two of them together. After we got home, Halle was looking at Josh and I like she had no idea who we were and wanted to know where Amy was. I even showed her a picture of Amy and then she started smiling. They went swimming in Grandma's huge pool in her backyard. They did lots of stuff, made cotton candy, Chloee had a tractor ride with Grandpa in the backyard. I can't thank Amy... or the entire Alleman family (for that matter) enough for taking the girls for those days!

Let's see, on Thursday we slept in until about 10 am. That was nice! We went and ate at Jimmy John's for lunch. We LOVE that sandwich shop. Yum! We went shopping around the mall for a few hours then went and saw, The Proposal. It was my 2nd time seeing it, just as great at the 1st time.

We went to the Olive Garden for dinner. We used to really LOVE that place but it's kind of gone down in both our books lately. Not such a favorite anymore, but good, nonetheless. After dinner, we went to a movie. Josh has been wanting to see that new Star Trek movie for FOREVER. Lucky for him that it was still in theaters. I thought I would completely hate it. Actually, it was really good. I thought I'd fall asleep watching it and not get anything that was going on because I don't follow Star Trek like Josh does, but it was excellent.

Oh gosh, that night we came home and had rented Push, so we watched it. I wasn't super impressed with it. I thought it was going to be a lot better than it was.

Friday we ate a big brunch at Jeremiah's in Ogden. Josh talks about it all the time from when they go there for work. He LOVES the place. I must say, some of the best breakfast I've ever had at a restaurant. We then went over to the Ogden Temple and did a session. Good thing we didn't try and go to the Bountiful Temple, I found out after we did a session at the Ogden one, that Bountiful was closed. That would have stunk! We then went and ate at Lucky China. Everyone around here talks about what an amazing Chinese restaurant it is, so we thought we'd try it. It was very good.

That night we went and saw Transformers 2. We couldn't get in until the 10 pm showing though. It was so good. I know we are losers that it has taken us this long to go see it. I swear it is impossible to get a babysitter with a newer baby.

On Saturday we had to take care of some personal things that took up most of the morning but we had the afternoon together. We went up to the Weber County fair grounds. The annual Patriot Guard Rider "Field of Honor" was HERE, in Ogden, UT this year. I told Amy that I'd go there for her and take pictures of Micheal's flag. I will put up a whole other post about that. Amazing!

We went and got the girls late on Saturday night. Chloee was crying, she didn't want to leave. I basically had to pry Halle out of Amy's arms. I know those two share that bond with Micheal and I know that Halle sees him on a regular basis. You should see her giggle, smile and laugh EVERY time she sees a picture of him, and of course when she's just looking right past you or through you for that matter, just a beaming.

Thanks again Ames for all that you did for us. We truly appreciate all you did to take care of the girls those 3 days. Love you lots and lots!

It was great to spend time together, just the 2 of us. Even though we stayed home and didn't go anywhere fancy, we had so much fun together. We figured why go to a hotel, nothing compares to our bed anyway. Happy Anniversary Sweetie!