The Lee Clan

according to Amber.  I still haven't taken her cameras in to be developed, but she was asked to speak on Father's Day about girls camp,  so I am sharing her talk with you:

Good morning brother’s and sister’s my name is Amber Lee, and yes I was the shortest girl at Girls Camp. This year the theme was Hearts and Souls Under Construction. We were challenged to read the Book of Mormon before Girls Camp. I was able to finish the Book of Mormon before camp. When I finished the Book of Mormon I then knelt down in prayer to find out for myself whether the scriptures and the church is true, and I now know for myself that they are true. Well, I can honestly say that Girls Camp was not what I expected it to be. I thought that I would have more classes and that they would be harder than what they were. Also, I didn’t think we had to do chores, but we did, we had to do dishes, set tables, and clean the bathroom. At least it wasn’t what my dad had to do. Whenever there was a problem with the toilets my dad got to fix them and he was real busy on Sunday. So the day of rest was no day of rest for him. Another experience I had at camp was I was able to make new friends. I was able to learn a lot about people. Like, what ward they were in, what they liked about Girls Camp so far, and what they were interested in. During Testimony meeting when my sister Breanna went to bare her Testimony my friend Ashley was sitting next to me but I also felt as if someone else was sitting next to me. The Spirit was real strong and it reassured me that the Scriptures and Gospel are true. Some of my favorite classes are archery, craft, and dance. In dance you basically learn a little dance. The song we danced to was Kids of America. In craft we made necklaces. You take a scrabble letter and some scrap booking paper. You then cut the scrap booking paper to the size of the scrabble piece and you glue it on the back. Then you take ribbon and tie it and it’s a necklace. In archery you shoot bows. I liked archery the most because my dad was the teacher also because I just like it. For my first year at camp I got to be up there with my dad and sister. It was okay but I would of liked my mom to be up there too. I had an amazing time with my dad and sister. Before Girls Camp I was afraid I was going to go hungry because I am a very picky eater. I ate everything that they served my mom was surprised. They even made my favorite food Navajo Tacos they didn’t quite taste like my moms but they were still good. So my first year at Girls Camp was over the top, and I am looking forward to more experiences throughout my years at camp.

Amber did such a great job with her talk.  She was real nervous, and she talked fast.  I am so pleased to be her Mom.  I Love You Amber!

This year we had 2 girls going to Girls Camp.  Yes, you read it right, I wrote 2 girls going to Girls Camp, Oh and my husband. 

Breanna and Amber had a fun time. Amber was a little nervous this being her 1st year, but she survived and had a blast, she was surprised that she didn't get a break from chores.  Jared was up there as the Archery instructor and had a fun time teaching the girls how to shoot the bows, and was even more excited for the girls when they hit the targets.

The theme of Girls Camp this year was "Hearts and Souls Under Construction".  The girls were challenged to read the Book of Mormon and underline the words hearts and souls.  Both of our girls finished the BofM before they left for Camp, and both of them were able to pray and find out for themselves that the scriptures and our Church are true.  I was so excited and happy for both of them to be able to know for themselves the truthfulness of the Gospel.

Jared was such a good sport, when there were problems with the toilets he was called in to fix the toilets.  He received an award for "Best Camp Dad" for letting the girls in our ward paint his nails and then helping them paint their nails. Jared informed me that he got a clear coat with pink polka dots.

We are now the parents of a High Schooler!  I am sometimes still in shock that I am old enough to have a child in High School.

On May 18th we attended Breanna's 8th grade Promotion.  It was a nice, short and sweet program (it only lasted about 45 minutes).  We are very pleased with all of Breanna's accomplishments this past school year.  She tried out for Volleyball and made the team.  She tried out for Softball and made the team.  She was also a member of Principals Academy and FBLA.  She always work hard to keep her grades up, and I never have to remind her to do her homework, never had to worry about her getting her school work done. 

It has been a really long time since I have blogged...and I have so much to catch up on...I have no idea where to begin...so please stick with me as I jump around and try to do a lot of catch up, but for now I will begin with the newest member of our Family!

After we lost Edward, Jared and I weren't sure if we wanted to add another child into our family.  We were very indecisive, yes...no...yes...no!  We were scared to try again for fear of loosing another child, we did want to try again so we could end our Beautiful Family with Happy thoughts.  We soon decided that we would wait a year to make the decision and take the time we needed to grieve Edward and the time we needed to heal ourselves and our Family.

Not long after my spur of the moment trip to Colorado we found out that we were expecting again.  We were excited, scared, worried, we had so many emotions going on at the same time that we didn't know what to think. We went to my Dr. and found out that I was due May 4, 2011.  We went through the pregnancy finding it hard to get excited, once we got past 21 weeks it became easier (21 weeks is when we lost Edward), but we were still scared.  Once we hit 24 weeks it became even more easier (24 weeks a baby is viable and the Dr.s are willing to help save the baby when outside of the womb).  Once 32 weeks came even more easier (every week you can keep a baby in the better the chances are).  At 37 weeks we had an amniocentesis done to see if the lungs were developed, we got the results 2 hours after the procedure was done then went in the next day to be induced. 

*Side Note:  At 22 weeks gestation I was diagnosed with a condition called PUPPPS, I was and still am very itchy.  There are many times when I want to rip my skin off.  This is why we decided to induce early, we were hoping that it would go away once I delivered, but it hasn't.

On Thursday April 14, 2011 we went to the hospital and I was induced and at 4:15pm our Son Rowdy James joined our family.

Here are the Stats:
Name:  Rowdy James Lee
Born:  April 14, 2011
Time:  4:15 pm
Weight:  6 pounds 10 ounces
Length:  19 1/2 inches

We were so Happy to hear him cry, hold him and then to bring him home with us.  He is truly a blessing.  We are having fun relearning what it is like to be parents to a newborn again.  I got used to sleeping through the night (oh how I miss those days, but wouldn't trade what I have now to have them back).  Rowdy is a very easy going baby, don't get me wrong we have our moments, but I can't complain.  I am Thankful to my Heavenly Father for sending us our Rowdy, and am truly blessed to be his mom.  I am looking forward to the joys that will come as we raise him.

Back in July I had an opportunity to go to CO with the girls, unfortunatly Jared was unable to come with us (he had to work), but he encouraged us to go and take a break from the reality of our life for a brief moment.  I am truly blessed to have Jared in my life, HE is MY BEST FRIEND!  I LOVE YOU HONEY!

We had a wonderful time with family. 

on August 9th.  Yes, we are back in school, as much as I wish that we had longer summers, I think that we were all ready to be back into some sort of routine.  The girls were very excited, they were all looking forward to a new year and new teachers and getting in touch with all of their friends from school.  (Opps, a run on sentance, maybe I should go back to school...NOT) 

A couple of months ago we planted a tree in honor of Edwards short life, and also as a memory for us.  Something that we can look at and cherish and hopefully sit under and have shade in the heat of the day.  Jared's parents were so gracious and loving, when I had mentioned that I wanted to do this, they both said that they were buying the tree for us.  Thank you so much Mom and Dad.  The tree is called a Crepe Myrtle, it is a beautiful, fast growing flowering tree.  Looking forward to enjoying it for many years.

I know that I took pictures of us planting the tree and I can't find them.  As soon as I find them I will post them.

What a fun filled busy weekend...

It started at the 1st Annual Glen Lakes Spring Nationals (Pinewood Derby for the Adults). Jared helped his friend Evan prepare for this the whole week. It was a lot of fun, and Jared entered a car in the Pro-stock and I entered a car in the Stock category. The decorations turned out real good, and Jared and Evan are all ready planning for next years event. Jared won 3rd place in pro-stock and I won for best engine.

We wanted to share our son Edward with our Family and Friends. We are truly blessed to be the parents of such a wonderful spirit, and we feel of your LOVE and PRAYERS. We have learned that in being able to share our Son we are healing.

Create a picture collage

I had the privlege of attending Mrs. Babin's 1st Grade Class "Readers Theater". It was so cute watching all of the children in Jodi's class perform the short plays that they prepared. All of the children had fun making their quick and easy costumes. Jodi was a Queen, so she wore a nice shirt and skirt, with her Sunday shoes and wore a Crown. All of the children did a great job. I have attached Jodi's play that she was in, enjoy!

On April 20, 2010 at 8pm our Son Edward Warren joined our family, 2 short breaths and a cry later he went home.

We are greatful to have added another child to our Eternal Family. Edwards short life has taught us much. We are truly greatful to our Family and Friends for their LOVE and SUPPORT during this blessing...

In January we found out that we were expecting our 6th child. We were in shock, we were supprised and we were excited all at the same time. You see, I was using birth control that is 99% effective, so in our minds I shouldn't have been able to get pregnant. We felt that we were finished with our family, but the Lord had other plans for us and we were HAPPY to be apart of those plans. Once we found out that we were pregnant because of the birth control we went in immediately to see my Dr., she confirmed what we already knew. Once she figured out that Jared and I were excited to be adding our son to our family the three of us started making plans as to how we were going to have a sucessful pregnancy.

By the end of the week we knew that we were 7 weeks along, and the possibility of many complications could be coming our way. The next 14 weeks brought bi weekly Dr's appointments and many ultrasounds, all of which strengthened our resolve to do what was needed no matter what the sacrifice. On April 17th during the adult session of Stake Conference Alyssa started having contractions, we went to OB Triage and were there for 4 hours and went home, the contractions hadn't let up by the next morning so we went back. A couple of medications later to slow the contractions down, Alyssa's Dr was on call and consulted with the nurses. We were sent home to schedule a follow up appointment on Monday with my Dr. Contractions didn't let up all day Sunday and we saw the Dr on Monday, we thought that we were making progress, but 5 hours after the appointment we were back at OB Triage, this time instead of sending Alyssa home they admitted to antepartum wing of the hospital to monitor her contractions. Once Alyssa was settled in Jared went home to be with our girls. Tuesday morning Alyssa's Dr was there to check in on us, we were eagerly awaiting the results of some blod draws and other test. Once afternoon came it looked like we were in the clear, and that this was just another bump in the road. They decided to keep Alyssa overnight again just to make sure that everything was ok, so Jared went home to be with the girls and give his parents a break. While shopping for a birthday gift at Target for Jodi, our youngest, the dreaded phone call came. The one that Alyssa thought that she would never have to make, and Jared would never have to receive. Alyssa's water had broke and she was headed to Labor and Delivery, just 21 weeks and 3 days into the pregnancy. Shortly after 8pm Jared's sister Denee joined us in the delivery room and we started the process of notifying our family. An hour or so later Jared's dad arrived to be by our side. We were able to spend 3 and a half hours with our son, which felt like much longer. Alyssa was taken back to her room we got a couple of hours of sleep and cried buckets of tears, and thanked our Father in Heaven for our small part in Edwards life. At a little after 5am Jared went home to take Breanna to track practice, and then to meet Denee and the 3 younger girls at Alyssa's room. The healing process was started and continues on at this time.

HUG your children and tell them how much you LOVE them everyday, for you never know when it will be the last day.

May the Blessings of the Lord be upon your families is our prayer!

is driving me nuts. I can't figure out why the comments and other stuff is posting before my post. I have tried to arrange it several times to be the way I want it, but it isn't working. AUGH!

I have so much catching up to do...and so little time to do it in! School started for the girls back in August of 2009. Yep, I am that far behind. Wish that I had pictures...but they are on the broken computer...and I only have a couple of pictures of Jodi, the other girls were so excited that they ran off once we got to school. Yes, our girls are growing up. Breanna is in the 7th grade, Oh My Goodness, I have a child in Jr. High. Amber is in the 5th grade. Candace is in the 3rd grade and Jodi is in the 1st grade. I love all of their teachers, they are wonderful and caring.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I can't remember the details, guess that I should journal more often so that I can't forget. But onto the next big post.

Is BUSY!!!! Love you all!

It is now Friday morning! My parents, sisters and their husbands wanted to go to the Zoo, Jared and I on the other hand did not. So my parents willingly took the girls with them to the zoo. The girls had a fun time, while Jared and I went shopping to get food for the trip home and we ran a couple of more errands. It was actually a nice quiet time for us. We sent the girls to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with the camera so that they could take pictures of their trip.

The Moose that they saw!

A Bear that they saw!

The girls cousin Brody! My sister Elena's son!

Needless to say, the girls had a fun time at the Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa, but they didn't take very many pictures.

That night Jared and I went and met up with some friends of ours, and had a wonderful time catching up.

On Saturday we headed over to Widefield High School, where Jared and I both attended HS, one of the reasons we went to CO this summer was for Jared's 20 year reunion. OMGoodness, am I really that old? Of course the other was to spend time with all of our family. So, back to the reunion, they planned a picnic lunch at the HS, we had alot of fun showing the girls around the halls, and showing them were some of our classes were. The funny thing for us was that some of the areas were closed for asbestos removal. They were removing asbestos while we were in HS and after 20 years they are still working on it. The HS isn't that big. Oh, Well! One of our memories of HS is the big gladiator that is the HS mascot, and is huge, and stands in front of the school, so we took the girls over to him to get their pictures taken.

Jared and I!

Jared and his girls!

That night we went to a restaurant for the official part of Jared's HS Reunion. We had a nice time catching up even more. Jared is glad that he decided to go to his reunion. I am still debating whether or not to go next year to mine.

We truly had a wonderful trip, and enjoyed spending time with our family. One of my favorite parts of the trip is when we got to meet Brody for the first time, I thought that he would be shy and cling to his parents, but boy was I wrong, he is a big flirt, I put out my arms and he walked right up to me. One of the funniest parts of the trip was when the girls were trying to teach their Uncle Mike how to "Skin a Cat". When Sunday rolled around we were glad to be heading home. Our drive home was real quiet, because we were minus 2 girls, Breanna and Amber had the opportunity to stay and extra week and Uncle Justin brought them home August 2nd. They had a fun time, but they were ready to come home. Hope you enjoyed our many post about our fun vacation to CO!

Well, it is Wednesday night and we are at my parents home now. We truly had a fun time visiting with everyone, but we have decided that we will do things differently the next time we come to CO. When we left John's home it was right at the beginning of rush hour traffic. What were we thinking? Jared was really tired, the girls were really tired, I was really tired. It took us 1 hour to drive through Denver, this had to have been the longest ride from Denver to Colorado Springs I have ever taken. Needless to say we just rested when we got to my parents home.

On Thursday morning we went to Rock Ledge Ranch, when I was growing up it used to be called White House Ranch. The girls had a fun time learning about the family that lived there, and looking at the first home that they had, then the second, then the third and how they gained more amenities every time they built a home.

Candace helping cut wood the old fashioned way!

Breanna with her cousin Mallory!

Jodi with her cousin Tayloranne!

Amber!


For dinner my parents made reservations at one of the coolest places I have ever been. If you are a cowboy or a cowboy at heart you have to check this place out. We went to The Flying W Ranch. This is a working cattle ranch, and they have a small part of their ranch set up as a small western town. You can go and tour the town, they have places like a school, a library, a drug store where you can get old fashioned candy, you can watch them shoe horses, but the best part is they feed you a real chuck wagon dinner, and then after dinner you get a show, the Flying W Wranglers sing for us.

Jared with his girls and Tayloranne and Mallory(cousins)! He bought himself a cowboy had, and all the girls a cowgirl hat. I can't wait until October when it is cooler to get our family pictures done...I have got such a cute idea for matching clothes to go along with all of the hats.

This is all I have time for today! I will finish our trip in the next post!

After we got home from the Butterfly Pavilion, we decided to hang out and rest at John's home. Now, I am sure you are asking yourselves, "Did they really rest?", I can totally understand this question...because we haven't rested at all since our vacation started. Well, the answer is no, we did not rest. Jared came across a dart gun and decided that all of the children needed one. So off to the store he and John went and came home with some wicked dart guns. The men and the children played non-stop for almost 3 hours. We didn't get very many pictures of this, because it was hard, they kept running around for some reason.

Jodi with a semi-auto dart gun!



Cousin Jacob reloading!

Amber with her sniper riffle dart gun!

That night after we got the children into bed the adults played "Hand and Foot" until about 1 in the morning. Boy were we tired the next day. While the parents were tired, the children wanted to play some more so we took them to a really nice park. In the afternoon we let the kids play in the water, until it was time for us to head down to my parents home.

Breanna and Jodi racing down the slip n slides.

I think this was tied!

Candace and Morgan hanging out in the Kiddie pool!

Amber holding Rosie!

Candace holding Rosie!

A Butterfly had landed on Jared's back!

A Butterfly had landed on Amber's shoulder!

While at the Butterfly Pavilion they had an exhibit there where the children could feel like they were the size of bugs. Yea! So here are some pictures of that exhibit.