very special, indeed.

I have wanted to write this post for some time now. Since about October actually. I am glad that I waited because I didn't know that there would be another half of the story. I also wanted to wait a little after the second half of the story to give the family some time to grieve. I didn't want to over shadow them or make them feel sad about their dear mother, wife, sister and friend. This was a very special experience for me and I am writing it to be able to remember the details for the rest of my life.

My sister-in-law, Candace, is one of the sweetest people that I know. And I know that she got this from her dear mom, Judy. In late either late July or early August, Judy was diagnosed with melanoma. The melanoma had metastasized to her brain creating three large, inoperable tumors. When we heard the news it was devastating for us, because we love Aaron and Candace so much. We felt hopeless for them. Jordan and I took their kids dinner the night that they found out. When they got home from the hospital, you couldn't help but weep. I have never seen Candace this way. We just sat with them, trying to offer any kind of comfort.

A couple weeks later, Judy started radiation treatment and would soon after follow with a new drug that takes the place of chemo. But, she could not start on the new drug until she had enough strength from the radiation therapy. I don't know what it is like to go through any kind of cancer treatment, but just from observation, it looks extremely tough. Judy was not having the best time feeling well.

On Grandma Jensen's birthday, everyone came over to celebrate. Candace was talking about how she was throwing a surprise anniversary party for her mom and dad. She was talking about making a slide show movie, but it was just not working out. I wasn't in the conversation, but my ears perked up. I had been making a similar slideshow for Hallie, kind of like a scrapbook she can watch. I turned to Candace and immediately offered my help. She was totally taken aback, and so relieved that I could help her. She needed the slideshow pretty much ASAP, as in in the next day or two.

After grandma's birthday party, Jordan, Me, Hallie, my mom (who was visiting) ran over to their house to get everything we needed. They had scanned years of pictures into their computer, which we then transferred over to mine. We also went through Candace's CDs and picked out her mom's favorite songs, bought a couple off of iTunes, etc. They told me what they kind of wanted, and from there I took their vision and brought in my own.

The whole night and next day, I just kept thinking to myself, I can't believe what is happening with their family and I am so happy to help. I got to know their family, specifically Judy, so much better. I got to see their whole life span through pictures. To put pictures to music is where I get choked up. Anything that I watch, movies, tv, someone else's slideshow, it gets emotional. Somehow, music brings that out in people. I watched the slideshow and added a few things of my own. Specifically Josh Groban's song, "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)." Candace had told me her mom loved Josh Groban, and I needed one more song to make it complete. I found this one and it just hit close to home. It was my little way of telling the family to not give up.

Basically I cried the whole time making the video. When I showed Jordan the things I added, he cried. I showed my mom, she cried. And so on. I brought the movie over to Candace's house and told her not to watch it, that it would be better to her be surprised with everyone else.

The night went on and Jordan and I were going about out business. Suddenly we get a text from Aaron and Candace. This is what it said:

Jordan and I just looked at each other and cried. What an amazing thing we got to do for them. Judy was having a very hard day and did not want to leave the house. Jim had to convince her to go over to Aaron and Candace's house to grab something. They came in and suprise! They all had a dinner together. Then they ushered them into the basement to to the theater room and told them, "they had a cool movie clip they wanted to show them."

Candace tole me that they cried the whole time. It was so special for their family. I am so happy I got to be apart of it.

The next day, Judy called me. All she could do was thank me over and over again. She told me it was the best night of her life. She was so thankful for me and what I was able to do for their family. I was just so happy that they got to spend the day all together and have each other there.

Service is an amazing thing.

Flash forward to January. Judy did end up passing away with all of her family around her.

Aaron came over to the house, and asked me if I could tweak the video to be just about Judy, so they could play it at her viewing. I was more than happy to. I got to see Aaron watch the finished product, and I will never understand the pain and struggle their family had to go through. I just remember him saying, "she was too young..."

When we went to the viewing I got to see my work in action and how it affected the people the watching. That was very humbling.

When I went through the viewing line, each of Candace's family members gave me a huge hug. Casey, Candace's sister, just cried in my arms. She told me, "Thank you so much for what you did for my family. What you did made my mom strong enough to make it through the Holidays. It really was the best night of her life. Thank you."

I couldn't help but cry. Then I got to Candace. She said, "Melissa thank you for being an answer to our prayers." Now I am really crying. I am speechless. I didn't want any credit, it was Candace's idea in the first place, I just put it into action.

Finally I got to Jim. He embraced me, and said, "You made such a difference in our lives. Judy was so thankful for you. I am so thankful for you, and so is my family. Thank you for making the last months so much better for Judy. I will never forget what you did."

Judy was so wonderful. I am so thankful I got to be apart of her life.

I cannot express what the Craig/Sautter family means to me. I am so thankful for this experience. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve. It is where you truly feel the most joy in your life. I am so thankful for the plan of salvation, that families can be together forever. I am so grateful that Jordan and I are sealed for eternity and that Hallie is sealed to us. What a blessing in our lives. Doing this for Candace was one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had in my life. And that is very special, indeed.

Reese Elizabeth | photoshoot

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to take newborn pictures of my new niece, Reese. I was super excited and super nervous. The only newborn shoot that I had done before that was Hallie's. And to say the least, newborn pictures are complicated. They pretty much don't do what ever you want them to, they don't stay posed more than a second, and when their diaper is off it is pretty much free game of going to the bathroom everywhere.

When I did Hallie's newborns I did them alone, and I look back and wonder how I did it. Tiana and Tevin were both helping me the whole time. I also wanted to recreate some newborn pictures that I have really like on the internet. Holy cow those things are hard to do. If you have no idea how someone did something in a picture, likely is, you will not get the shot. I have learned this lesson over, and over again. For some reason I thought that it wouldn't apply to doing newborns pictures. Well, of course I was wrong, and there were a million things I wanted to do but didn't get to.

Overall, I am quite pleased with how they turned out. All though I didn't get to do everything that I wanted, Reese was a good sport. Might I add that Tiana is a good sport for sitting by and watching as I tortured her newborn.. haha.

So here are a couple of favorites. Anyone out there that is also a picture taker, I would love feedback. Just throwing that out there:) 

St. Valentine's Day

I know I should have written this a couple days ago, but I have been trying to compile my thoughts. I couldn't decide if I wanted to share this particular story, but it has been on my mind.

Jordan and I split Valentine's Day into two days. Hallie goes to bed around 7-8ish and we wanted to do dinner and a movie. We didn't want to stick her with anyone in her waking hours, so we wanted to wait until she was asleep so Jordan's parents would just need to listen to the monitor.

Monday night we saw "The Vow..." I will be coming back to this....

Tuesday was awesome. I got a big bouquet of flowers delivered to me from Jordan. That night we went to the Olive Garden. Pretty much everyone else in Idaho Falls went to the Olive Garden too... We got there and the hostess told us it would be at least an hour and a half wait. Oh my. I was not having this. I was starving at it was 8 at night! I took a look at the bar... and I walked over and there were two seats available. I waived Jordan over and we ate our Valentine's dinner at the bar. It was quite hilarious. The bartenders were so awesome and we were in and out so fast. I noticed a couple that was waiting when Jordan and I arrived, and when we were leaving they were still waiting to be seated! Couldn't believe it. It was so fun, we got to watch basketball, eat our dinner, and we were in and out in about an hour.

Ok, now back to Monday night.

Jordan and I went and saw "the vow." It was ok. I'm still deciding if I liked it or not. It makes you extremely frustrated the whole time, and it doesn't exactly end the way you would want it to. Anyways Jordan and I started talking about the 'semantics' of the film. Basically what would we do in that situation, and getting into the details (am I the only one or do I think about characters and what they are doing outside of the film, their expenses, how things are possible, etc, etc??).

When we were talking about this, Jordan brought up his accident (he lost some of his memory and has never gained it back, and things before the accident are a little scrambled to him). For those of you who don't know, Jordan was hit by a car when he was ten years old. When I say hit, I mean HIT. He ran his bike head first into a vehicle going 40-50 mph and was launched a good 100 feet. He had major head trauma, and if I can recall the story correctly, had internal bleeding in his head near his brain. And if I also remember this correctly, the ambulance that came for him didn't really give much positivity into him making it. Luckily, Jordan's dad was able to be there and a couple of neighbors and they were able to give him a priesthood blessing before the ambulance took him to the hospital.

But, when Jordan got to the hospital, he had no internal bleeding, only a concussion and severe road rash. He only has a little scar on his forehead now. What a miracle that happened. It was 100 percent the Lord intervening and I know that without a doubt.

Here is the picture we have from Jordan's accident, don't look at it if these things freak you out. It's not bad in my opinion, but hey just a disclaimer.

Because of the holiday which makes you cherish your loved ones, and getting out Jordan's scrapbook and looking at the pictures from the accident really put things in perspective for me. Jordan's mom still gets choked up when she looks at the pictures from his accident. Sometimes I think to myself, what if Jordan didn't make it through the accident? It chokes me up to even think about it. I look at our daughter, our lives, our love, and it makes me weep, I'm trying to hold it together now. I  CAN NOT imagine life without Jordan. This is so funny to me, but he is my soul mate. I am so thankful for him.

This St. Valentine's day has reminded me how much my family means to me, and that there is a plan for all of us. Jordan is in my plan, I am in his, and Hallie is in ours. I love my little family!

drab to fab

I have wanted to paint my living room for some time now. Every time I'm in there (which is pretty much all the time) I pretty much want to poke out my eyeballs. I credit this to HGTV. I watch their fabulous redecorating shows (in my living room) and after a show is done I am even more disgusted with the room (maybe a bit dramatic but hey I need you to get the point.. plus any of you that know me.....). I decorated when I was 19 years old (a teenager... crazy) and needless to say, I had no idea what I was doing back then. Jordan and I have had many conversations about redecorating. Our conversations go something like this:

"I hate this room"
"Why?"
"Because it is so freaking ugly"
"I don't think it's that bad"
"Can we at least paint? Please?"
"I guess if you want to...."

Which, the last time we had this conversation I ended it with oh yes I do! And we bought a paint a couple days later. I have had this vision in my mind. All of which included repainting the kitchen, the living room, all the furniture, the table, the chairs, and much more.

When I decided upon this project I thought, oh this will only take a couple days. Man was I wrong. We started painting on a Saturday (just the walls). The kitchen alone took 6 hours. Then we painted the living room. Then every day, after Hallie was asleep in bed, we would head out to the garage and paint all the furniture. It was fun at first, but after a week of doing this it got very old. I made Jordan paint all the chairs and table by himself, partly because I stink at spray painting.

So after painting EVERYTHING, it is finally complete. A couple things still left to hang on the wall, and a couple decorative store trips an we will be finished. I am quite pleased. I wish you all could take a trip and see it in person because the pictures do not do it justice. I love the room now.

These are all our paint choices...

Living room- Fashion Gray
Kitchen-Gem Turquoise
Furniture (bookshelves, TV stand [which we bought on craiglist and it looked like a piece of crap but it was the size and shape that I wanted], end table, mirror)- Left over Gem turquoise paint
Table/Chairs-sun yellow spray paint plus recovering chairs in fabric from Joann's
Frames-all white

And before you scream because these paint options seem very scary and crazy... I was very scared to do it. But... it turned out awesome. Love it to pieces.

Our room was so drab. And now I just think it is FAB!! haha. I guess decide for yourself. But... seriously. Come visit me. SO much cooler in person.

BEFORE:

(see that ugly thing behind the table? That's the TV stand before we painted it... lol) 

AFTER:

(Hallie was watching Mickey Mouse while I took these... But actually watching me...)

I am so happy with how it turned out. And since Jordan and I decided we are living in this basement until we die, it might as well be what we want it to look like.

Oh and don't mind my empty frames.. just waiting for a certain sister of mine to send me a disc or our family pictures...hint hint:)

Kisses for Reese

Hallie is officially 7 months old... Since about a week ago. And about a week ago, her new cousin Reese was born! They are basically seven months apart (shy of two days).

Since Hallie was born Jordan and I have been training her to be a good kisser. We have been grabbing her face and kissing her lips since she was born. I have a picture of her when she was about 7 weeks old grabbing my face and kissing me. Needless to say, she knows how to do it. Every once in a while (and pretty much only to me and daddy) she turns and grabs out face and gives us a huge open mouth, slobbery kiss. It's gross. But so cute. Who could refuse that cute face of hers?

So when Reese was born, we took Hallie to meet her. Hallie was so cute. I was holding Reese and Hallie was being held by Jordan and she leans over and puts her hands on Reese and gave me a big smile. So adorable. We even let her hold Reese (with Tiana's help).

A couple days later, Tevin and Tiana brought Reese over to the house. And Hallie was so cute.....

It seems that we have trained her well. Very well. This is just a short clip, but she was giving Reese a ton of kisses. It was so adorable.

Hallie is also so close to crawling. She is moving and rolling and scooting all over the place. The only thing she is not actually doing is putting her knees up and crawling. But she has tried a couple of times. She is eating solid foods, which she LOVES. She eyes anything that you are putting into your mouth. She sits there with her mouth wide open wanting a bite. It's like a baby bird. lol. She has said mamamamamama, I'm not positive if she knows what she is saying. And the other day in the tub she looked at me and said, "da!" So she could quite possibly be talking. Who knows. She loves to babble. She sings, screams, laughs, and is making all kinds of strange noises all the time.

Hallie is one hilarious girl. We love her to death.