Good luck Ashton

Ashton,
I am so proud of you. Yes, I will miss you so much but am so happy for you and your decision to serve the Lord for two years. People in your mission are very lucky to have you coming. Do your best, return with honor and remember I love you!
Love you very much,
Mom

Sweet Baby Hope

As many of you are aware, Morley and Virginia lost their sweet baby. They named her Hope. We were so lucky to be able to hold her. We could feel of her spirit. Her spirit was so strong. She was so sweet. She was just too perfect to live on this earth. We will miss her so much, but we do know that we will see her again. Take good care sweet baby Hope! We love you!

Sweet Baby Hope

This is a poem I read at the graveside service when we released the balloons

"We Remember Forever"

Hope, we will remember you forever.
Your preciousness, beauty and love
To acknowledge your life
Your importance
Your legacy
Gift and grace
For had we had a lifetime
We'd love you just the same.

You live
In our hearts
In heaven
An angel
A guardian
Shaping our thoughts and our lives.

Silent prayers, thoughts or tears - we release
Our hearts broken in pain
Pausing now for a moment
Uninterrupted -to express
Our love for you, Hope.

Towards the heavens our balloons rise
Higher higher they fly
Like butterfly messengers
And rainbow promises
As we say our earthly goodbyes, until we meet again!

We love you Hope! We will miss you!

Aurora

Aurora is now 18 months old and very smart!
I have a list of 12 things that I have observed Aurora likes:
1. To be happy - it is rare she isn't.
2. Her Heavenly Father - she already loves to say prayers. Kneeling on the floor, bowing her head and folding her arms - the whole works!
3. To figure things out - she is very inquisitive. Just like her parents, especially her dad.
4. Trains.
5. Sounds - she does an incredible job with mimicking sounds of things around her. Such as thunder - she could make that sound the other night all on her own. I expected her to be scared, but no she just made the sound and because she did Grandpa and I laughed and so each time she heard the thunder she would make the sound and we would all laugh. I think we were all sad when the thunder stopped because we were having so much fun! Aurora also likes to mimic her daddy's car noise. Planes in the sky is always a favorite sound for her too, along with many others.
6. Dolls - she takes care of her baby, keeps her wrapped up and feeds her just like her Mommy does with Cassie.
7. Trucks and cars.
8. Shapes - she is incredible with shapes. I have a shape puzzle and I pulled it out of the storage box for the first time this weekend and she sat down and did it all on her own in minutes. It is a puzzle for 2 and up. Incredible! And she knows the word for many of them like square, circle, etc.. Out of the many puzzles I have, she would always go to the shape one, even over the talking animal one.
9. Walks - When she comes to my house she always finds the stroller and she wants to go for a walk.
10. Her blanket. She has a darling blanket that her Grandma Willoughby made for her. When she is tired she likes to hold her blanket.
11. Balls - she loves, loves, loves balls! She is not too bad at catching and throwing them back and forth.
12. Books. She will sit for hours reading her books. The other night when she slept over she wanted to look at a couple of my Readers Digest. She looked at every page in both of them. She of course was a great critique. Too bad Grandpa and I couldn't understand all of the comments. We did understand many and they were pretty good.
I love you Aurora. Thanks for being such a darling, smart, sweet granddaughter!

Cassie's Blessing Day