Summer Bits

 The first week of Summer has been a good one.  A bit of crazy, a bit of fun, a bit of silly, a bit of sad, but a whole lot of happy too.

First, a bit of sad:

Meet my nephew's babe, Brenna.  Our whole family has been anticipating this little darling's arrival, and she made her entrance on May 29 (she had a bit of a rough landing).  Baby Brenna had a known congenital heart condition, but her doctors had given her parents (and us, who have been praying for this little bean for months now) every hope that her problems could be fixed and she had a good chance at a mostly normal life.  It was not meant to be though.  At about a day old, she was taken in for her first procedure, which did not go as planned and from which she never really recovered.  She slipped into the next world several hours later on May 31.  She wasn't even two days old.  It broke my mother heart.  We attended her funeral earlier this week, and was so impressed by the strength exhibited by her parents.  I know they are surely feeling a whole gamut of emotions, but they expressed nothing but faith that this was part of the plan for Brenna.  Her daddy spoke about how she fought it out long enough to build memories for her parents and then trusted them to let her go when it was time.  I'm so grateful for my testimony of the gospel, which brings peace and joy, even in really hard times.  So although this was my bit of sad, it is also my bit of happy.  Families can be together forever!

Ok, now a bit of crazy:

"Crazy" pretty much describes our day to day life, but these photos go back to the last day of school when Ellie had neighbor girls over to celebrate.  They had a great time playing with water balloons.  One friend got to stay for homemade pizza and a late night.  Lucky kids.

A bit of silly:

 Daisy licking the plate clean.

And a bit of fun:

My brother is in town.  We don't get to spend a whole lot of time with his family (they live far far away, but not on Judea's plain), so it's been a real treat.  We went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity (which has a lot of fun things to do, but was insanely busy) with his family and then our other siblings and parents joined us for dinner at our home.  I didn't get any photos, so this one will have to do:

 Brian and I in the summer of '83.  Doesn't he have the sweetest little face?