Birthdays!

July is  a huge month for birthdays. there are eight just in my family so we're celebrating a birthday at least once a week, some weeks two or three. I've always said I want a summer baby since there are so many fun things to do for birthdays, mostly involving water! Last week was full of two birthday parties, the 4th of July celebration (parade, free activities and food, bbq, fireworks, etc,), and more swimming the days that followed since the weather was so hot! I don't have any 4th pics yet (gotta see if my sis has any), but here's a few from the birthdays.

The cutest cousins at Carson's cousin Skylee's 4th birthday party.

The only two pics of Kirk's 20th I got before my camera died.

Carson and Skylee. Carson sure loved the water balloons

Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of my nephew T.J.'s death. I still can't believe it's been that long. Still feels like yesterday I got that call on a Saturday night when I had been up at college for a week. I miss him and know what a heartbreak it was for my parents, brother and sister-in-law. Today my Uncle Fred passed away of cancer. He was a young guy, four years younger than my dad and was my dad's best friend. I'm thinking of his family and my dad today as they mourn the loss of him. My sisters and I went to visit Fred last Thursday, it was sad thinking how fast the cancer took him and how precious life is.  There have been three deaths since my parents left on their mission (grandma, uncle, and aunt) and they've only been out 11 months, life truly is precious because you never know when your last day will be. Seeing Fred in his last few days really made me think about a lot of things, especially our life after this. Those little things don't matter anymore and family and the gospel become your reason for living. You kind of just think those people most especially your parents and siblings will always just be there, you don't or at least I don't really ever think about when they'll die and then when something like this happens it really makes you think this life here on earth does end.

 Keith also had a co-worker whose wife was in her early 40s and she just passed away all of the sudden a few weeks ago. We saw him last Friday when we went out to eat, it's hard sometimes because you don't know what to say but you want to help. He looked so distraught and said he had slept maybe 4 hours the whole first week. It really hits your heart when you hear of a death of someone you know. Praying for these families.