Tuesday, January 29, 2008

A Tribute

A beautiful tribute to our beloved Prophet President Gordon B. Hinckley.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Don't know what happened

I don't know why the picture is now not showing up in the other post, so here is the picture again.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Power of a Sign

On Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Utah Birth Defect Network Conference. The keynote speaker was Rachel Coleman. For those who may or may not know her, she is the daughter of the popular LDS vocal artist Lex de Azevedo. Music was a big part of her life, including being in a band and producing a CD. But the music stopped when her only daughter was one year old and they discovered she was completely deaf, she wondered how she could keep the music going when Leah could not access that part of our language. Her and her husband set about to become fluent in ASL. When Leah was three years old they decided to have another child. During an ultrasound they found out Lucy had spina bifida. She was able to have the surgery to fix Lucy's spine while in utero. When Lucy turned two years old, she was told that Lucy had cerebral palsy as well as might be mentally retarded. During this time her and her sister co-create the ever popular public television series "Signing Time." It was originally started to make videos to help others be able to communicate with Leah. Rachel, Leah, and Rachel's nephew Alex, who learned ASL as an infant, star in the series. Her sister asked her to write the theme song, she hadn't written a song since Leah was one years old. She picked up her guitar and took Lucy in the other room with her and came out 20 minutes later having written two songs. The first in the actual themesong and the second she wrote for Lucy, that she titled "Show Me a Sign" wanting Lucy to prove the doctors wrong and let her know there was life in this broken body of hers. The lyrics to the song are below.



"Show me a sign" written for Lucy by Rachel Coleman
How are you doing little one?
My little one, my little one
I’d like to know what’s on your mind
Our days together, time together
You and me, our one on one
These are the times that make me smile
You make me smile
Tell me that you love me
Tell me that you’re thinking of me
Tell me all about the things you’re thinking
Day and night, both day and night
Tell me that you’re happy
And you love it when we’re laughing
Tell me more, oh, tell me more, show me a sign
Show me a sign
Every day you grow up more
And teach me more about what I’m here for
And every day I love you more
I love you more. I love you!
Tell me that you love me
Tell me that you’re thinking of me
Tell me all about the things you’re thinking
Day and night, both day and night
Tell me that you’re happy
And you love it when we’re laughing
Tell me more, oh, tell me more show me a sign
Show me a sign—show me a sign—show me a sign.

She sang this song and I just cried, I am a baby I couldn't help it, but one of the greatest gifts that I could recieve is to be able to communicate with my sweet Caleb. His desire is there, I just need to find the magic key to open that magic part of his brain. But miracles do happen and Rachel and her husband received one with their daughter Lucy, she learned to sign and eventually talk, use her power wheelchair and walk with a walker. So heres to keep on keeping on and hope for the best.

Caterpillar Dreams

I wanted to include this song that she sang as well. Also to show what Signing Time is all about.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Cabin Feva!!

We are part of a dinner group, and the hosts for this month own a cabin and invited us all up. Thanks to grandma Jan for watching the boys we were able to go. It was a lot of fun once we finally got up there. We got stuck MANY times, the snow was really deep and soft. We ate pizza and snacks and then stayed up to all hours of the morning talking and playing games. Saturday we ate a yummy waffle breakfast and then headed out on their snowmobiles. I had never been on one so it was a lot of fun. I am not much of a snow person but that is the way to play in the snow. After we were all offically pooped out, we headed back to the cabin for some warm soup before packing up and heading home.We got home much more tired than when we left, but it was definately worth it.



We got stuck many times just trying to get to the cabin. Tyler thought that whole experience was fun, I was not too sure about that


Can you tell by their faces that it is about 2 A.M.?


Danny our "host" wishing we would all go to bed


We were all just getting ready to head out on the the snowmobiles


While some were riding the snowmobiles, others were riding the tube down the hill


Tyler was riding on the tube, while Seth drove trying his hardest to get as much snow into Tylers face as possible.


Me wondering what Tyler was taking a picture of, apparently not smiling


This was Tyler right after he got off the tube, he didn't look too bad, others looked much worse


This is the group watching whomever was on the tube at that time.


Tyler was supposed to be riding the snowmobile around the cabin after we were done to put it away and he ran into a tree and got it stuck. Luckily I had just jumped off right before.