LINDA

The lovely lady in the blue is Linda Shelley. The other is Amy Paun - one of my amazing counselors.

Linda was diagnosed with colon cancer in November. She went from walking 6 miles a day & working full time one day to finding out this news the next & never being able to return to work. She went downhill fast & I still can't believe how quickly it all happened. She passed away on January 16th. (The day after Lane's funeral) And this was a funeral neither I, or my counselors, wanted to handle. Yet, how could we not for someone we loved so dearly.

She was a true example of faith. She felt it was her time & she came to terms with it to the point that she was ok with everything. It was amazing! Linda was from England & was extremely organized! She started slowly stockpiling toiletries about a year before her diagnosis & had them overly organized in a closet. Just preparing for whatever may come. Once she knew what was happening she wanted to donate everything. She worked with Amy to gather everything & invited all the sisters to donate items at our Relief Society Christmas party . The response was overwhelming. Everything was donated to a local women's shelter.
During one of my lessons in RS I noticed Linda was wearing a beautiful giant pearl necklace. I stopped my lesson & commented on how much I loved her necklace. She came to church a couple of weeks before her passing. Barely able to move & needing a lot of help to get around with that necklace in her hands to give to me. I was very touched. Having that experience during my presidency is one I'll never forget.

RUBY

My little sister's getting married - WHAT?!?! That's right - only now that this is so late - she is married! As of February 2nd! And we couldn't be more excited. Well, I could be more excited if I would have been able to go. She was married in Sydney & that was way to far for my wallet, unfortunately. Sad, sad for me! ;)

However, Since she was able to come home for Lane's funeral we decided to throw her an impromptu bridal shower. Worked out lovely since she had a lot of family in town that were able to come celebrate! Now we just need to get Ruby & Tane home! Love you Ruby & Congrats!!!

LANE

LANE DALE HALLOWS
February 18, 1949 - January 5, 2011

OK - this post is WAY overdue. Yet, I'm still at a loss for words. It's still completely surreal that this even happened. When my brother passed - that was hard, but we always expected it. (Not that that fact made it ANY easier!) This was completely out of the blue!

I'll try to explain it easy as possible. Lane was my step-siblings father & an amazing man! Because my family is completely AWESOME he was like an extended dad to me. My girls even called him grandpa. He & his new bride of almost a year were always at our family gatherings & that's just the way we work. One big, happy family - just the way it should be! (I only say that because some find it extremely odd that we all get along the way we do. I think it's perfect.)

Anyhow, he always went out of his way to make my little family feel like we were a part of his - even if we technically weren't & that was huge to me for so many reasons. There's just no one like Lane. He was always smiling, happy & could tell you a story at the drop of a hat! You can see HERE what happened. I can't bear to even write it. My brothers were awesome remembering their dad.

I have to give a huge thank you to my SIL Rennie - I stole half of these photos directly from her blog without asking. Thanks Ren! ;) At our Christmas family party we had a special visit from "Santa" (aka Lane). It was hilarious & he was dying to be done & get out of his costume! It will now be one of our favorite memories!


The funeral was beautiful! We were so grateful that Robin was able to get a flight from Sydney to be their! All 5 of his kids stood & said a few words. It was perfect. They are all so amazing! I feel so blessed to have them in my family - they're wonderful examples to me of strength!

I was talking to Lane's brother at one point (whom we lovingly call Uncle) & he was saying how this has been hard on his kids. Most of them grown with families of their own. yet, they've never had anyone close to them pass before. I couldn't help but think of my own kids & how this has almost become a way of life for us lately. My girls have known death all to well & that breaks my heart. They've really struggled this past year with it. Thank heavens for the Plan of Salvation! We'd never make it through without that knowledge & I'm so grateful to have it!!

PAGEANT 2011

As much as it pains me to do so, I'm going to go out of order for this one. I really wanted to be all caught up to focus on some pageant posts like I do every year. However, things don't go the way I plan. Things have been a little crazy, but that is a whole other post.

Pageant this year, of course, has been wonderful! We have a great family group. Although, we're still pretty partial to our family group we had a few years ago. Apparently, we all are, as everyone that was in that group keeps saying that was the best group ever & we want to boycott to be together again next year. It's definitely an amazing thing to be able to be on the temple grounds every night, portraying the most important story in history, and being with your family & friends! It just wouldn't be Easter without it.

This year I was actually quoted in an article seen HERE. It's quite hilarious actually since some of the info. was wrong. This cute girl is in my ward & was very excited to get this job. I recently spoke in church & told a pageant story about my dad & she remembered that & asked me a few more questions & if I would mind if she used me in her article. She got some of the numbers mixed up, but I don't have the heart to tell her. My dad played the Savior for 11 years, not 30. What's even funnier is that my mom said almost the exact same Easter quote as me in an article when I was about 7. I guess I'm like my mother.

This year one of the Roman Soldiers gave us copies of a bunch of his photos from the years. This year he took a lot of behind the scenes shots that I love from the angel stage. Such as: the tents set up for Super Saturday rehearsal, the 3 Wise Men staffs, baskets of flowers & fruit props, etc. I love the details of things.

One of our rehearsal nights was rainy & freezing!!! It was pretty miserable. Luckily, we had awesome people in our family that brought a pop-up canopy & portable heaters. We also love being around some of our favorite people - the Crosland's! The girls just adore them & especially they're little girl Castle. We've had a wonderful pageant year indeed!!

If you want to read more pageant stories you can always click on the Easter Pageant label link. Lots of stories I know you're all dying to read! ;)

Christmas 2010

We had a fun Christmas this year! We even got to decorate gingerbread houses. (I opted for the small village of houses this year instead of the giant ones.) Kylie's making a silly face, but it's the only pic I got of her. (Sorry for the underlining - can't figure it out!)

We went to the temple lights, but I apparently didn't take any photos. We like to go early when it's still fairly light outside before the crowds hit. We don't do crowds.

Christmas morning is always fun around here. The girls are excellent at acting overly excited! We got some good happy face pictures this year. We love Christmas time!

KYLIE'S 11

WHAT THE?!?! How did we get here? How did we end up with an 11 year old? My goodness! That means we have 1 year left until Young Women's. Actually, since it's already April - we only have 8 months left now! My, oh my, oh my!

Kylie had a party this year & in true fashion for me - it was totally thrown together at the last minute! She invited some friends & wanted to do cake decorating. I made small round cakes for each girl, had lots to decorate them with, & let them go nuts. Since our table is smaller - we did it in groups. While one group was decorating - the other group made ornaments. Then, we played pin the cotton ball in Buddy the Elf's mouth.

Kylie has a cute group of friends & we had a lot of fun!

DISNEYLAND 2011

Disneyland is my favorite place on the planet. People think I'm joking when I say I could live their & be completely happy, but I'm not! I could!! One of these days I'll be rich enough that I'll be able to stay in Sleeping Beauty's castle for a week! Hey - a girl can dream right?! In fact, I tell Erik all the time that if I ever get to the point to do a Make a Wish event - I want to be Belle for a day. How awesome would that be?! There would be nothing cooler than watching little girls faces as they see Belle walk up first hand!

Anyway, enough of my crazy ramblings. We were lucky enough to go to Disneyland again in December. It's turned into a little tradition to go with our friends the Paez's from Vegas. This year the Linford's came, too! We left early on Wednesday morning the 1st, checked in & went straight over to Disneyland. No messing around for us!!

It was nice this year. Since our girls are older now - we didn't spend all of our time looking for characters. We even did rides we've never done before! Such as, the Storybook ride with miniature models of characters homes. That was a fun one to us! Slow paced, but crazy how they build those. Mr. Toad's home is in the collage below.

Day 3 - Friday - was the day the Paez's were able to meet us. Thanks to them we had quite the memorable experience most people don't have. Wendy, the mom, is obsessed with Mary Poppins. She has passed that love down to her daughter Jenny & now her 2 girls Lorelie & Payton. So much so that they had dresses to look just like Mary. They are bigger Disney fanatics than us, by far! And every time they go they look for Mary & take pictures with her. This time they made a book for Mary with all the pictures that was way cute! They knew when she would come out & we waited for her to come out. When She & Bert appeared they were floored to see two little girls dressed just like Mary. Then, Wendy presented her with the book & she started to tear up.

She was so touched that she took us on a little journey. She took us to meet a few princesses - cutting us to the front of the lines every time. In fact, there was a 60 min. wait to meet Rapunzel & she took us in the back way of the cottage & got us right in. It was crazy!! She had to leave for awhile & we were on our way with a plan to meet her again later. From their everywhere we went characters knew who those little girls were. Apparently, Mary had talked about them backstage to everyone. Mary said that she sees girls dressed up all the time, but never like her. These little girls made her day!

Mary does a show in front of the castle where they sing "Supercalafragalisteexpeallidocious" (something like that) & she told us where to go & pulled the girls into the show. Jay got to participate & was quite the ham. What amazed me was the time they spent with us. Especially just the walking around & talking with the girls. I love the photo on the bottom left of her & Jay talking & the one on the right with Lorelie in the air & everyone skipping. It was just too fun!!

Besides this - the Paez's are always a joy to be with! They are so good to our girls & our girls just adore all of them! We miss the a ton!

Unfortunately, this could be our last time for awhile. Since I went back to work I had to quit my Disney job. Therefore, no more free tickets every 6 months. SAD, SAD, DAY!! Because of this I took a million pictures of little details. I love, love, love the Haunted Mansion ride! Especially during Christmas time when it's The Nightmare Before Christmas. If I could, I would decorate like that ride. I would kill to have that carriage in my yard! (Minus the pumpkins.)