My Grandpa Ian's Funeral

Grandpa,

I will miss you so much.  Your stubbornness, your honesty, your love for my children.  You have created quite the legacy and we all hope to live to make you proud.  We know you loved us all so much, thanks for being a great Grandpa.  Love you.

Military Honors

Camden holding a flower to put on Avery's grave.   Avery now has Papa next to her.

My sisters

My siblings

 Mike, Amy Matt,

Anne, Kristi, and Kaite

My beautiful Grandma Lindy

The Pallbearers were all my male cousins

One of my favorite things is to see my dad cry.  I love his trying to hold back tears face.  It is truly endearing

Photography Business up and Running

My great friend Danielle and I finally started our dream job!  We opened our Photography Busniness! Creatively Chic Photography!  We have been busy working already...it is such a blessing to have a creative outlet in our lives. Visit us at creativelychicphotography.blogspot.com or for pricing and deals visit creativelychicphotography.com  

Thanks to everyone who supports us and has helped us get started.  If you like our stuff add our blog to your list of blogs!  Thanks and we love you all!

Anne

Introducing Sydney Anne Copeland to Shabby Apple

Sydney is our "picture princess" for many reasons and here is why she should be yours as well. Sydney is the kind of little girl you hope you have someday. Syd is an old soul. More mature emotionally than anyone I have met. She is the kind of girl who truly loves to see others succeed. More times than not, she silently encourages me to be a better person. Basically I know because I was given such a good person to raise then I better not live my life with anything but a flare. I learn basic life lessons of innocence though her. Sydney loves to be beautiful, inside and out. She is our miracle baby as she fought to stay alive after a very premature birth, and that fight is still in her to be anything but ordinary.

The style that best describes sydney is the Canary Dress from Shabby Apple
http://www.shabbyapple.com/p-185-canary.aspx
"little girls and girls dresses from shabby apple"




Sydney Anne Copeland
Age 8

Age 8

Age 8

Sydney gets Baptized

Step one.....we got to witness our little Sydney get baptized this weekend. It was such a great moment for us as parents and for her as a very mature little girl. As she walked out of the waters into the bathroom where I met her to change her clothes she had tears streaming down her cheeks and she told me.."Mom that felt so good". Her innocence made me cry too. I learn more from Sydney's good spirit than I learn from myself. She is such an old soul. Then she was confirmed by Cameron as well. Cameron gave a sweet blessing which he cried through. It made Sydney emotional as well..then we all bore our testimonies and again Sydney cried through her testimony. It was so sweet. We had both sets of Grandparents there which made it so nice. It was a wonderful day.

This is a picture of Sydney before the Baptism she got some money from
grandma Debbie....she did not forget Jaxon either..he scored 5 bucks!

Here are Sydney and Cameron right before the baptism.

Mom and Sydney

Proud Parents...this was so great to have our first "baby" Baptized

Happy Birthday to our Avery, December 21

My thoughts on Avery Lynn Copeland....it seems that this week in December over the last two years has been consumed with thoughts of you. My heart aches to remember the details leading up to your birth and consequently your death. This will always be the moment that I will remember as the day our family changed. Good things came of your death as well as the pain of your death. I have never relied more on your dad and we have never been closer in all of our marriage. We felt the presence of heaven around us, including the love from Heavenly Father who was very aware of our pain. I remember being consumed with love, first for you, second for my Father in Heaven, and third for my good husband.
It seems all those weeks on bed rest we came to know one another. I truly fell in love with you as my daughter. I often wonder two years later what you would have been like. What would have been your favorite color? Would you have been a girly girl or would you have been more logical like your older sister? Would you have loved the things I imagine you would love? I see you with dark hair and dark eyes. Eyes that are pure and full of goodness. I always think you would have been the one to pull me along. My little miracle reminder of what is good in this world. However, it seems you are that in my life. You are the one that pulls me along. You are the reminder of where I want to end up. I cannot wait to see you again and have you run into my arms and hold you like I have craved to hold you. I feel like I will know you, as you are always in my thoughts.

I don't know if I will ever be able to feel the love that Heavenly Father had for me that day again. I often wish I could feel it on demand. It was more of a physical feeling that I have ever felt before. One where you can feel arms around you, where fear is replaced with peace. Where trust comes easily. You just know you will be alright. I remember the long night before you were born, when we knew you would pass away right as you came into this world the next morning. The intense saddness knowing that the kicks I felt would be the last life I felt from you. That in a few short hours you would be still. My heart hurts so badly remembering this because it is such a real moment in my life. I remember emotionally handing you over that night, back to our Father in Heaven so that when I really did have to see your spirit leave you it would be easier. I felt peace knowing you would be taken care of. I remember the comfort in allowing the Father's will to be done, and no longer fighting the outcome. No matter how bad it hurts.

I have been lucky in love. I don't even know how to understand this blessing that was given to me. My husband is my blessing. I feel God gave me Cameron to prepare me for this moment in my life. I know that I could not have gone through this with anyone but my pure good husband. The events that happend and the strength we had to draw from each other is too sacred to me to post for everyone to read, but I truly know he loves me and we will be more bonded together because of you Avery.


So here's to you Avery....I promise to live a better life each year so we can be together as a family in the Celestial Kingdom. I won't let your life be in vain. We will learn the lessons your life was meant to teach us all.

Only a moment you stayed but what an imprint your footsteps have left upon our hearts.

I love you baby girl...Happy Birthday.

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

We have discovered that our little man Mason is our best eater ever! The little guy is only 6 months old and is already chowing down on graduate food. He loves all orange veggies. He loves bitter biscuits, and cereal puffs. He eats usually 2 full food jars and a biscuit 2-3 times a day. It is so nice to have one that eats well. Not that you couldn't guess he was a great eaters. The cheeks tend to give it away. Here is a picture of a little post mealtime smile.

Halloween 2008

I will be on time with at least one post this year!!! Tonight we had a great night doing the regular ol trick or treating. I can remember that Halloween was such a big holiday for the sugar craving girl I was, (who am I kidding) the sugar craving girl I am! My kids seem to be a lot more laid back than I was. They had no maps of the neighbor hood drawn out nor did they ask to start while it was still light. My friend Tina and I were dedicated trick or treater's. They also don't care much about the loot once we get home. I asked for a piece and they said sure take whatever. That would not have happened with me. I would have bartered a piece off or I would have asked for something in exchange. They just don't see the passion of the holiday yet! I should be thankful. They certainly have less of an addiction than I do.

Carving Pumpkins with Grandma Debbie. She is visiting while I recover from getting my tonsils out.

Jaxon ,football player (yep same as last year) Sydney a Witch and Mason a bumblebee!

This is the darn cutest bumblebee I have ever seen! Check out the cheeks!

A new tradition

Growing up in Utah at the base of the Wasatch Mountains I spent a lot of my nights as a teenager in the mountains. A typical weekend consisted of building a campfire and listening to friends play guitar. It is one of my favorite things to do. I never thought such a thing would be possible in Texas but we discovered we could still enjoy the outdoors with a campfire even if we were not in the mountains. A group of us went to Erwin park in Mckinney and found the perfect camping spot. It had lots of maintained grassy area around us so we could play sports while it was light, then it had a great fire pit for the evening. We got up to the spot about 4 in the afternoon and did not leave until closing at 10. One of the funniest highlights of the trip was when Len Tanner, Cameron and Lens daughter Lindsey decided that we needed to move the camp trash can away from our table because there were tons of bees bothering us. The men put on sweatshirts and gloves and planned on running with the trash can while Lindsey stood near by with newspaper on fire to calm the bees. I have to say it was one of the funniest things to witness...you can see a little of it in the pictures we took. After that we cooked tinfoil dinners over coals and they turned out perfect! We ate our dinners and then roasted marshmallows and sang songs by the campfire while Cameron and Steve played. The highlight is when Cameron played guitar and Len and Steve sang an improv song about the night. We were crying they were both so clever. The kids told scary stories and made forts in the trees. It just felt like it should, you know the way it was when you were all kids. Free fun loving innocent fun. It was all around a great family night out.

Steve Frederick and Abbey Frederick.
Bret Crane and his 6 month old Gavin and Cameron and 6 month old Mason. They are one week apart.
We tried to take a good picture, but it ended up with the boys popping in the back and Cameron looking half asleep while Mason's attention was somewhere else.
Ryan represented the Barker clan. Kellie was home sick with Grayden, but Alex and Ryan made it. This is Ryans "man pose?"
Jenny Frederick, Anne Copeland, Emily Crane, Julie Sivley, Shelly Tanner. Such great friends.

Shelley held Mason while the boys took care of the bees. I have to say it is such a cute one of both!
Emily and Shelley. Even darling while they camp.

Jenny and Anne.....how long have we been friends now? 5 plus years I think.
Len Tanner (trying not to blink from the flash) Lindsey Tanner, Sydney Copeland and Abby Crane.
Bill and Barrett Sivley. Some daddy love.

Len and Cameron preparing to remove the bee problem.
Lindsey Tanners job was to be the "bee calmer" they lit the newspaper on fire.
Here are Len and Cam running with the bee filled trash can. You can see the fire holder behind Len.

They ditched the trash can and are running back to safety!

Triathlon 2008

In the last two years I have spent a total of 5 months on bed rest (2 months of that in a hospital) 10 months of throwing up, two delivered babies, and quite a few months recovery. Needless to say my body needed some serious physical activity. So I finally agreed to my husbands long long long time request to do a triathlon with him. If you know me, I am not a natural born athlete. However, I was finally postpartum fat enough to do something intense. So for the last few months I have been training my butt off....,I wish literally! We have been running, and biking, and taking swim lessons to get ready for this. This was also Cameron's first triathlon. The date was set for September 13, as many of you know Hurricane Ike put a small or rather large damper on our plans. It went right though the route of the race! So the race was postponed a week to the 20th. We drove the 2+ hours down to the race site on Friday night (19th) and stayed in a hotel so we could be well rested for our 6 am call time. I was so darn nervous I could barely sleep. I just keep feeling like I might drown in the lake! Needless to say swimming is not my strong suit. Well without going into too many details we had a blast. It was one of the darn hardest physical thing I have done but we finished and that was the goal. It sort of got me addicted to the adrenaline and we plan on doing many more in the future!

Here are some pictures from the race... not my prettiest moments to say the least!

Before the race...I was so nervous I was physically shaking.
Cameron and I before the race!
I had just crossed the finish line here!
We are done! Such a rush!
The staging area for bikes, you can see the lake we swam in behind the bikes. The water was a perfect temperature. Thanks heavens because we did not want to have to wear wetsuits. They are kind of like cheating in my book.

October makes me nervous

This is the first October in three years that I have not been sicker than a dog pregnant! However, I think my body is trained to get sick or at least nervous this time of year. I am finding it hard to enjoy this fall (which is usually my favorite season). It really is amazing what your body remembers. I smell pumpkin candle or cinnamon or anything spiced for that matter and I immediately feel nauseous. I see Halloween decorations and remember the last two where I sat on my porch trying to choke down food meanwhile, trying not to scare the kids with my ashen face. I need to get out of this "Fall Funk". This year I will be down on Halloween as well because I am getting my tonsils out so I guess 09 will be my year to get out there. However since the above seems so full of complaints I actually am so thankful that I was able to get though the pregnancy's because the rewards have been so great! Here is a look at four of my blessings....

My darling Kiddos! Sydney, Jaxon and Mason
Mason Ian Copeland 6 months old
Jaxon Cameron Copeland 5 years old
Sydney Anne Copeland 7 years old
Avery Lynn Copeland (would be 22 months old)