2012: part 2

July:

Spillman's annual Lagoon Day. The kids LOVED it!

I was just over 8 months pregnant. I was ready to meet our sweet little baby! We were pretty set on naming her Scarlett.

 We went to our annual 4th of July fireworks in Logan

Grey and I made strawberry freezer jam that we're still reaping the benefits from.

Jon and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. I love this time of the year and I love this man!

I plopped myself on the lawn and watched the kids play with their remaining salamanders:)

I made my first quilts with the help of a talented friend. I was so excited to make them match since the girls would be sharing rooms!

 Our beautiful baby, Scarlett was born. It would be a month until we found out her diagnosis, PCH. But in the mean time, we were with her in the NICU as much as possible, loved her more than possible and we learned what it meant to trust in the Lord.

Just over a week after Scarlett was born, the nurses allowed our other children to meet her!

 September:

Scarlett was blessed on the first of September. She looked so angelic in her white dress made by her Grandma Pearson.

Hunter started 1st grade and Jaina, kindergarten. Thanks to my many friends and neighbors, I was able to visit Scarlett in the mornings,while they watched Grey and Jaina when she got out of school. I have THE best  people in my life!

The kids got to hold Scarlett for the first time. Those were special moments!

Jon celebrated his 33rd birthday and Scarlett celebrated her 2 month birthday on the same day!

 After much fasting and prayer, we made the most difficult decision to let our beautiful baby return to our Heavenly Father. We will never forget our dear Scarlett. I am so thankful that families really can be together forever! 

After coming home from the hospital after Scarlett died, our thoughtful and sweet neighbors had left a Scarlet Hawthorne tree for us to remember her by. I am so excited to see it blossom this year!

The funeral was so beautiful and comforting. My friends made this beautiful arrangement of all of Scarlett's things. It brought me to tears when I walked into the church.

We buried Scarlett in the Brigham City cemetery, just a few feet away from my Grandma and Grandpa Packer.

October: 

The month after Scarlett died was very surreal for me. Although I was so sad inside, I was somehow able to feel so much peace, too.

I knew we just had to carry on, though, without out sweet little baby so we tried to do fun things as a family, but we always talked about our dear Scarlett.

In October, we had our fun Halloween party with all the Packer cousins! It was a blast! 

We decided we needed to get away as a family and just spend time together, so we pulled the kids out of school for a week and headed to St. George. We had so much fun!

Grey learned how to ride a bike.. at 3 1/2? That boy has some skill!

The kids went trick or treating. I think that was their favorite day of the whole year!

November:

 I was itching for something to keep my mind occupied, so I painted the boys room. 

I've realized, since painting our family room 4 times, that I must paint to relieve stress. I love listening to conference talks or the Mormon channel as I do it. This one and this one are some of my favorite ones to listen to.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Jon's parents. It was so delicious! I realized last year how much the kids love pumpkin pie, so I was super excited to make it this year!

We got our fist snow of the season! The kids scraped up any junk blown into our yard and made a little snow man.

Jon won one of the categories at work for best mustache for Movember! I was super proud, but glad to have that gone! Reminds me of this episode of The Office. 

And it doesn't hurt that he got an autographed picture of Tom Selleck either:) (see the resemblance?)

I started on the big makeover- of my doll house when I was little that my dad built- to give to Jaina for Christmas. It was a lot of work, but so worth it!

Today I heard her crying for help so I ran to her bedroom and found that it had fallen on top of her as she tried to scoot it away from the wall. She was wedged inside that bottom right room. Luckily she was okay. That just made me realize how much I love that little girl! I hate scary moments:(

 Jaina loves doing homework!  She usually does the whole packet for the week in one sitting. She is learning so quickly and effortlessly.

December: 

We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas in one day with my family! My family has the best cooks in it!

We started a new tradition (that I hope sticks!) of a baking day with my mom and sister and (sisters in law- but you know they totally feel like sisters to me!) It was sooo much fun and sooo yummy! Hopefully more of them can come next year!

We went to temple square!

 And I made our traditional Christmas Eve dinner that we always ate growing up and invited Jon's parents over to share it with. Lee and Robyn are so great!

Christmas was simple and beautiful this year! I am so grateful for my Savior. I understand His love now more than ever.

 Jaina's learning to write. She was really mad at me and Jon this day. (no dads and moms allowed)

 We celebrated New Year's Eve differently this year. I stole this idea and the kids had a blast, and so did we.

 A couple other things that happened this past year that I just thought of was:

Hunter lost his front bottom tooth in December and Jaina can now pronounce the "R" sound, which is kind of sad, she had some cool ways of pronouncing words!

I will always hold my memories from 2012 close to my heart!