Trip to Washington for Cousin's funeral

 

This was a great looking barn outside the Best Western Hotel in Sunnyside Washington. We stayed there for the Memorial Service of my Cousin Steven Heckert. 

These are two of my cousins, Left is Tiffanie (Grimmer) Bodine, and Amber (Grimmer) Berg. They are my dad's brother Dwight's (and Dana) daughters. Tiffany is a school teacher in Sunnyside. Amber is a school counselor.

On the left is my cousin Tyson Heckert, his father Randy, younger sister Whitney. 

In the center is my cousin Randy Jr and his wife is in the pink.

Chelsea Heckert is on the left, Amber in the middle, and Cody Heckert on the right. The Heckerts are kids of my dad's younger sister Diane.

My aunty Diane and her husband Reggie. They live in an apartment built in the shop of my cousin Casey, their second oldest son.

My cousin Casey and his younger brother Tyson.

This trip was very interesting. I haven't seen most of these cousins in almost 25 years. My mom and I made the drive from Idaho Falls, to Sunnyside. The Heckerts are amazing and I love them dearly. Casey and his sweet wife Sarah have 11 children. I believe they adopted 4 kids, had 4 of their own, then adopted Steven's kids when he was too far spent with drug addiction. Casey and his wife truly exemplify the Savior's commandment to love your neighbor. 

 

11/06/2025

On Friday 10/25/25, Amanda and I were both out of town. She was in SLC on a Girls Trip with her besties and I was on my way up to Sunnyside, WA for my cousin's funeral (Steven Heckert). Ashlyn and Marley were both at the Thunder vs Rigby Football game when Ashlyn was clocked in her eye by a flying elbow from a fellow cheerleader. Amanda's brother Wyatt came to her aid and took her to the ER. Ashlyn had a concussion along with multiple fractures in her orbital floor. She was leaking fluid into her sinus cavity, making her congested and difficult to breath. 

We were able to get her into surgery on Monday 11/3 with Dr. Ryan Hall. This week, Ashlyn has slept... a lot. We're hoping to get her into school maybe tomorrow. She is supposed to perform in Miss Thunder Ridge on Saturday. I think the concussion symptoms have mostly worn off, but it's hard to say. She is still a bit swollen and mostly over her concussion symptoms. She has difficulty seeing out of her eye. At dinner tonight she made a comment that she didn't think she'd be able to do the full competition. 

Ashlyn is a trooper for sure. I'm not sure what the correct plan of action is. She also needs to get ankle surgery for a collateral ligament tear. If we get the surgery done before the end of the month, then insurance will cover it. If she does get surgery on her foot, then she misses the rest of the cheer season, but would make it for track season. 

It's a tough way to go through a Senior year of High School.

The most current post!

Well, I don't know if anyone is following our blog anymore....but we've had another child! She's almost a year old now. This is the current family photo.

If you didn't know we had another girl...shame on you for not staying in touch. Can't you see we're a bit busy with all these kids? :)

Merry Christmas to y'all. We hope to see you soon if we haven't seen you in a while.

Well, Jared has been gone for the last few days and here are some things that we've been up to...... :)

Our Carrot Family: Mommy, Daddy, Alan, Ashlyn, and Marley

"Flowers for my Daddy!"

New matching hats on the back steps, and getting along! Hooray!

We went to a little nursery/family farm area with some of our friends and had so much fun! This is Marley trying to go through the hay maze. Not impressed obviously.....haha

Ashlyn driving the boat with Collin

Making their way through the maze

Feeding the sheep? Goat?

Ashlyn and Collin

Hanging out at home: the girls LOVED the diapers from Costco!

Ashlyn's very beautiful caterpillar that she drew all by herself :) (the long one in the background, the ugly one with round body pieces is mine).

"What did you just say Mommy?"

Hya!!! For some reason Ashlyn has been in this Kung-Fu mode everytime we break out the camera :)

Emptying the toy box.....oh the joy

Ashlyn's 3rd Birthday!!!

Ashlyn and Marley are both obsessed with giraffes, (mainly because I love them too), so for birthdays, Jared's sister sends the cutest giraffe stuff she can find! This is Ashlyn's new pink giraffe shirt, her favorite color, and her favorite animal, score!

Ashlyn got a basketball hoop for her birthday. "You gotta start them while their young babe," says my hubby :) They both love it, actually, we all love it.

Ashlyn also got a princess dress up box for her birthday which she absolutely LOVES because she is obsessed with wearing dresses at all times of the day (and night) and she loves princesses. It's hard to keep up with all the outfits she goes through in a day!

We had some of our friends over for a party which was super fun! Lot's of little girls! 3 boys got to come too :)

Of course, all the kids want to help open presents :)

My friend, Kelli, SCORED, with this doll because Ashlyn's new favorite movie is "Tangled," and she wants to grow her hair out very, very long.

Family pictures with Alan

I cried like a baby when he left :(

We have so many fun, fun memories with Alan and Ashlyn, Marley, Jared, and I are so sad that he is gone, he just became part of the family. Marley is very sad in this picture, but she loved to cuddle with Alan, that's how you know he's part of the family :)

An amazing woman

An amazing woman.

Happy Wednesday Amanda! I'm sending this to you via my smart phone from my air mattress in Kellogg Idahon. It is now almost 1 in the morning, and I've still got guys blowing up their air mattresses.....oh to be the shaperone (sp) of a bunch of high school boys.
  I just thought I'd let you know of some of the things I learned at camp so far to help shown appreciation for you letting me come.
1. Things aren't always as bad as they seem. Despite a lot of negatives and points or criticisms...my basketball team is growing closer together and getting better. I would love to have a team full of athletes who new how to play the game.
2. Advice from reliant resources makes difficult situations more bearable.  There are a lot of coaches here with quite abfew year of experience under their belt.  In B basketball, you won't find a coach who hasn't had an experience similarity mine starting out in Darrington.
3. I love my wife. Like you said....this is probably the maximum amount of time that I care to stay away from you.
You are my biggest fan, supporter, counselor, person. You are my everything!
What do you think?
P.s.
I love you!

Life will be life

Well, life will be life, and it is whatever you put into it. Sometimes, I think, "Wow, things are going so great, I'm doing everything right, my family is happy, etc," and then slowly, I start to become unperfect (haha, alright, you all have to admit that sometimes, you feel like you're doing an awesome job!) and I get very cranky and nothing seems to be working out the way it should and Ashlyn poops in her pants and Marley's cutting a tooth and I find out that I'm pregnant and Jared doesn't know if he'll have a job next year and Alan's leaving in a few days, etc. Anyways, isn't that how it always goes? Haha, the Lord has to remind me that I'm not in control of everything and sometimes it is just really hard. Seriously, I don't know why I'm writing this, but even when things are......... difficult, to say the least, I just have to remember that life is so good for me and for my family and that I'm so blessed. I'm so blessed to have a healthy, loving family that's there for me through everything and friends who care about me and love me even when I'm witchy :) Thanks for being so great to me and putting up with my blogging lapses :). 

So today was Ashlyn's 3rd Birthday! But I don't have pictures on my computer yet, I'll get those up soon. Happy 3rd Ashlyn! We love you soooooo much and are so happy that you are a part of our life :)

Here are some pictures from the month of May that are soooo fun! It was a crazy fun, crazy BUSY month and I'm kind of glad that it's over but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. 

Sammy's Wedding!

My little sister got married!!!!!! So crazy! It was so fun though, I don't have any pictures from the actual wedding day yet, but we had a blast while she was up here. She got married in the Seattle Washington Temple so my family got to come up and stay with me. So great!

Getting pedicures!

Aunt Meledie getting a hot wax dip :)

Sammy and me at her reception in Spokane, she looks soooo beautiful and so happy :)

At the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle

Memorial Day in the yard and BBQ with Jared's Aunt's family, the Haywoods

This, my friends, is Ashlyn's very best friend in the whole world, Fallon Magnolia Howe

Ashlyn's very first fishing pole! Of course it's pink with princesses on it and of course she's going with daddy!

Alright, seriously, I haven't updated my blog for like 2 months, but WHAT IN THE HECK IS UP WITH THE NEW BLOGGER?!?!?!?!? If it's this big of a pain in the butt, I may not be doing it as often as I wanted, please help me! Love love :)