Happy Birthday Morgan!

A few days after Morgan was born

Her First birthday

Her second birthday

Her fourth birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORGAN!!! Now to those of you who are confused thinking that Morgans birthday is in May it sure is.... I am talking about my dear sweet sister Morgan who would be 14 years old as of yesterday April 19th... My little sister Morgan died 10 years ago this august... Every year on her birthday I think it will get easier and easier but I really do just miss her so much... She was the sweetest little sister anyone could ask for! She sure was my pride and joy! (haha thats something you would probably find a parent saying but I truely did love my sister so much and she brought me such happines and I loved to show her off to everyone and take her everywhere!) I remember the day I found out that my mom was pregnant with her... I was sitting on my moms lap and noticed that she had a belly and asked "mom are you pregnant?" She then told us that she was... I was so excited... When they found out it was a girl it was the most exciting thing... I have an older brother and a younger brother so thats just what I needed... A YOUNGER SISTER! I was 8 years old when morgan entered her life on this earth... She was born with a rare handicap called trisomy 18... Most babies born with this type of disability only live for a couple hours... Like I said before Morgan was my little pride and joy... When it was show and tell at school I asked my teacher if I could bring in my littl sister to show off... My mom came in with her and told the class about her... I always wanted to bring her to the stores, and church to show her off... For she was my wonderful little sister... I loved spending time with her... I would dress her up and put my moms make-up on her... Do little photoshoots, and just lay and watch t.v. with her... By the age of 10 I probably knew how to do most of the things to take care of her... Bathe her, suction her, give her meds, apply oxygen, feed her through her tube, etc... She sure was the sweetest girl with the sweetest spirit... I remember the last day I ever saw her... My family had a tradition of going to california every year for a week... My dad always stayed home with morgan while we went on vacation... That morning that we left I was really sad to leave her behind and I just gave her lots and lots of hugs and kisses... California was fun and after the week there I decided to go stay in utah with my cousins for a month or so... While I was gone morgan had become sick which was really nothing new... I would call home all the time to check on her and ask if I could talk to her... She couldn't talk but would make noises like babies do ya know... anyways while I was in Utah we decided we were going to go to Lagoon! On August 3rd 1999 we decided to take the trip early because that night I would be going home... All I knew was that my aunts from my moms side of the family were coming down to arizona to visit and I thought that is why I was going home... I met my aunts at the airport and flew the rest of the way to arizona with them... The entire time on the plane I had a wierd feeling in my stomach... When we landed the first thing I had asked my mom was how was Morgan... She told me we will talk about it when we get home... A little later I asked again and I got the same reply... On the car ride home I kept having thoughts in my head "what would I do if Morgan died" I had no clue thats what had happened... When we got home I hurried and ran into the house so excited to see my little sister leaving the luggage and my mom behind... She wasnt where she normally was so I ran back to my parents room to see if she was in there with my dad... And she wasn't... I then ran into the kitchen where my mom was standing and I remember so vividly saying "she's dead isn't she?" That must have been a very hard moment for my mom to let me know my little sister who I loved so much died...But I can't even begin to explain the emptiness I felt in my heart... That night my parents sat down with me to tell me what had happened... It was a rough night... Morgan had gone into the hospital the day before with pnemonia in both lungs... She stopped breathing in the car and had an extremely high temp when she was admitted... No joke it was around 107-108 degrees... The nurse had to check the thermometer a couple times to make sure it was right... My dad said he had to put in the shower just to try and cool her down... They soon put her on life support hoping to keep her alive long enough to get me home to say my goodbyes...This is something my parents debated about doing if they were ever in the situation... I guess once they were finnally in that position when they needed to hurry and decided they thought it would be best for them to put her on it so I could at least say my goodbyes to her... They knew how hard it would be for me not to be able to... For it had been a month since I had last seen her... Unfortunately her heart stopped on the life support... My sister had been to the hospital so many times before with pnemonia that this wasnt an out of the ordinary trip... The doctor suggested putting her in the hospital so she could get her antibiotics through IV... I guess this time was different than the others... As sad as I was to lose my sister I am so glad that she was able to be a part of my life... She was such a blessing to me and my family....I miss her dearly and am so happy to have the gospel in my life and the knowledge that I have of the plan of salvation...Knowing that I will be able to see and be with her again is a huge blessing! I guess this year I just need to remember the great times I had with her and celebrate the life that she did have and the time we got to share... Sorry this was so long but I guess I have had a lot of this on my mind today...

whoever knew a desert could be so pretty?!

My cousin Brittny is getting married and while her sister Bridgette is in town for a little bit she wanted her to take some pictures... I thought it would be fun to go out with them and do the engagment photos with them to get some time to hang out...Plus I love taking pictures! I had a lot of fun... I didn't want to get in the way of her taking her shots so a lot of them aren't that great but I am still happy with some of the shots... Mainly I was just off to the side or behind her getting low to the ground so she wasn't in them either...Here are some of the shots that I got in! I seriously felt like I took so many pictures but here are some of the ones I liked... I am still trying to figure out the photo editing program that I have so I know that some of the pictures are a little too bright... I was messing around with the fill flash a lot... Maybe someday I will get back around to re-editing them! Brittny and her Fiance Jason are so cute together! I am so excited and happy for them!

Easter!

So ever since Morgan has started to walk she has become very independent in a lot of ways... Lately all she has wanted to do is feed herself... I can't believe that my littl girl is growing up so fast! Paul was watching her one day while I was gone and tried feeding her... I guess she kept trying to take the spoon from him and wouldn't let him feed her so he decided to just give her the spoon and go at it... As you can tell she seemed pretty happy that she finnally got to feed herself... Paul said that she really only got like 1/2 a spoonful in her mouth but she sure seemed to have fun!

On Saturday my aunt and uncle invited us over for a spring/easter get together... They had egg coloring, an easter egg hunt for the little kids, a barbeque, and amazing homemade ice cream! mmm it was the best! My aunt Donell had an easter basket for each kid and among the eggs scattered all over the yard there were several eggs for each kid with their names on ... Morgan seemed to have fun picking up the eggs and putting them in her bucket, although she seemed to get pretty distacted at times onces she figured out how to open the eggs to see what was inside... We had a fun time visiting with family and I am super excited for next year when Morgan can get more into the whole easter thing!

Morgan in her easter dress... I know it isn't the best picture but she seriously looked so cute all dressed up!

Bath time!

Farm kids!

Today my friend and I took a trip down to the Temple to take some pictures of her 2 month old boy Carson and of Morgan... We thought it would be cute to dress them up in Overalls and to have Carson go shirtless... Babies can seriously be so hard to photograph but I think we got some pretty cute shots! You sure have one cute baby boy Jamie!

Pregnancy Photoshoot

Recently I have taken a real interest in photography... I absolutely LOVE pictures and love taking them! Although I still have so much to learn about taking an awesome picture I thought it would be fun to take a practice shoot of my cousins wife Mercedes who is pregnant... That is one thing I wish I had more of when I was pregnant... So today Mercedes came over and I did her hair and make-up and then we went to the Mesa Art Center to take a few shots... I borrowed my dads nice camera and as soon as we started taking the pictures the camera started flashing the low battery sign... I do have to say for trying to take as many pics I could as fast as I could before the battery died I think I did a pretty good job... Mercedes happens to be very photogenic(sp?)which helps a ton when trying to capture an awesome picture... We had a fun time and hopefully she likes the shots that came out!