happy birthday { jenna lee }

My amazing, strong, beautiful, sweet cousin Jenna returned home to her Heavenly Father on Wednesday, July 14, 2010. She was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma 4 1/2 years ago. Even though she is no longer here with us and we miss her, she is no longer suffering and I know that brings some comfort to our family. I was able to go home and spend a weekend with her in January. I had the opportunity to have one on one time with her and to learn so much from her. Her testimony is amazing, the love and relationship she has with the Lord is inspiring in so many ways. I was so happy that I was in Utah when she passed away. I was able to extend my trip and attend her funeral in Horseshoebend, Idaho. Jenna was always an example to me growing up and of course to anyone that knew her. She was STILL being a missionary even at her funeral. Jenna wrote her testimony for all of us to read, and to know of how dearly she loved the Savior and the Gospel. There was one part of her testimony that I have to remind myself daily...

"I know that His church is perfect, but the people within it are not. They are people that are trying to get through life the best they can and sometimes forget or become blind to those around them. Everyone, no matter to which church they belong to needs a reality check at least once in their life time, but it is not our job to give it to them.
I know He went through excruciating pain and suffering of the atonement. Not just for me but for all of us. I know that the atonement doesn't just cover the pains of our sins, but all of our sorrows, heartaches, and pain on any level be it psychological or physical.
I know that the Father and/or the Savior could have stopped the cancer to take its course and death to happen so that the atonement could fully take place. Also that I could come closer to the Father and the Son as I allowed them to succor and aid me. They were there to speak peace to my heart as I realized that I wouldn't be able to accomplish the average life span of being human. THEY WERE, and ARE ALWAYS THERE!!"

Anyway, all I wanted to do was wish Jenna a HAPPY BIRTHDAY... But for some reason I felt like I needed to express my love out loud for Jenna on her special day! She taught me so much, especially during these last 4+ years of her battle and will continue to teach me. We had a conversation on her bed back in January when I was going through a trial of my own. At the time I didn't know why I even opened my big mouth about ME, when she was the one in physical pain. But now for the passed month I have learned to know why, and I will never forget the words of love, inspiration and encouragement she gave me.
Happy happy birthday Jenna Lee! I hope its the BEST one yet and that you & grandpa are having a party!

Me & Jenna!

Our loving, sweet grandma & Jenna...

My mom, grandma & Jenna...

I thought this was sweet and had to capture the love and trust of a daughter and her parents. This is my uncle Rob, aunt Linda and Jenna as we were all kneeling at her bed talking.

ps...

{ Utah Trip! }

telling the { KELLER } family...
Ok... So you know how you have things pictured in your head of how something is going to happen. Well, this is NOT one of those stories, but it was still awesome & super funny! I had been in Utah for a whole week with out Colby. Whitney was flying back to Chicago Thursday morning, and Colb flew in from Houston Wednesday night... so it was perfect timing to tell the family about the BIG SURPRISE!!! We came up with the idea that since it was Whit's last night we should have a little family pizza party. So we ordered some pizza from Arella's {our favorite} and planned to be at the house at 7:30... Well, it was the last day of the month and Brother Keller needed to get his home teaching in. So we waited until about 10:00 for him to get home. To make things not so obvious, I had Whitney wait and give my dad her belated Father's day gift until this night so we could give him ours as well.
I made these Shutterfly books for both of our families, with pictures and quotes through out the whole book. On the last page of both of them was the BIG SURPRISE of us being pregnant! I wish I took pictures of the books, but I didn't. Which is totally weird because I am always making sure I document everything! haha Anyway, the week before I went to Utah I had an ultrasound with updated pictures of the baby. I stuck them in my dad's book to keep them from getting wrinkled. I tied a big bow around the book and completely forgot that I had stuck those pictures in the book. The way I had pictured this to happen was, having my parents look through the book like it was nothin' and then being surprised at the last page... well, that didn't happen. He didn't even get to the first page. The second he opened the book the ultrasound pictures went EVERYWHERE!!! I went to hurry and grab them but Colb just told me not to worry about it... So there I am sweating like crazy and freaking out because this was not how I pictured it! My mom was sitting next to my dad eating pizza and went to grab whatever those things were that fell out... My dad just starred at the ground knowing EXACTLY what they were and started to tear up. Funny how my dad noticed what they were before my mom did! My mom went to give them to my dad when she finally caught on... she started screaming with a full bite of food in her mouth! "WHAT!?! ARE YOU SERIOUS? IS THIS A JOKE? ARE YOU KIDDDDDDDINGGGGG MEEE?" haha It was so funny, she thought that I was only maybe a few weeks along, but I was exactly 4 months pregnant! So that made her a little mad! She couldn't believe I was able to keep it from her that long. It was so fun to be able to tell them in person. We almost wanted to tell them on Mother's day, but thought it would be worth it to tell them in person once we knew everything was ok and the baby was healthy. It was such a fun night and so worth the wait!

My poor mom thought she was the first to know, and then she turned around to see 2 snap shot cameras out and Marla video taping the whole thing! She was pointing and yelling at everyone... "YOU KNEW! YOU KNEW? YOU ALL KNEW?!?!" haha


My sweet dad didn't even jump up at first like my mom did, he actually started to cry! That is a rare sight for Scott Keller...

How funny is this... my dad looks a little disgusted finding out that I have a baby in my belly and how it happened...

My dad looking at the book again & again!

I LOVE these pictures of my big brother Casey and his little boy Scotty!


My cute mom & the page with the big surprise!

I am so proud of my sister... She was able to hold in the secret for 2 months!

...A week later we took our cute moms, the GRANDMA'S to Fetal Photo to find out what we were having. It was so fun to have them there and be part of something because we live so far away! And stupid me didn't even take pictures of that either!

telling the { STRINGHAM } family...
We don't have any pictures of when we told the Stringham family. Because it didn't really go as planned, AGAIN! So... We were all up at a friends cabin in Oakley with just the Stringham fam, it was the first night we were there and had just gotten settled in. We thought, "Oh! This is a perfect time to tell them!" So I grabbed the book for Bob's belated Father's day gift as we were all quietly sitting there. Bob & Em were looking through the book together, they were only 2 pages away from the big surprise when Judah starts crying. So gma Sue jumps up to make him a bottle, Em gets up to take him to bed, & Alex just wonders off somewhere... total chaos! So its just me, Colby & Bob! AWESOME! Bob flips to "THE PAGE" and just starts laughing at Colby's funny faces. So Alex comes back to see what was so funny, mean while, Jude is still crying, Em & Sue are still in the kitchen. Alex starts reading... "The day when Colby found out..." Stops, looks at the pictures again, finishes reading; "...he was going to be a dad!" They BOTH sat there, starred for a few more seconds and as soon as they caught on my camera freaking DIES!!! Bob didn't have his glasses on so he had no idea what was going on and couldn't read anything-- like the sign that Colby was holding "Welcome home daddy!" hahahahaha He then yelled, "SUE! EMILY" Get in here RIGHT NOW!!" They come in the room and see what the big deal was and then we all started screaming, laughing & crying... and yes, Jude was still crying at this point! It was totally not at all how we pictured it, but it was pretty dang funny! I just wish I would have gotten it all on film. And I didn't even take pictures of the Stringham book either... Too many crazy things going on! But it was awesome!!
Anyway, here are some pictures from our weekend in Oakley!
Grandpa Bob is so good with Jude! Isn't this so sweet!

Colb, me & Alex!

I have no idea what was going on in this picture.

Lov-uh-hers...

Show offs!!

Baby's first 4-wheeling ride at 4 months!

We took some cute pics of mommy Em & baby J!


This one is my favorite!



I just love these boys... Its so fun to see how much Jude looks like Uncle Colb!

This is when we told Colby's grandparents, aunt Nancy & Uncle Wayne. We had the camera on a timer, and last second they thought it would be funny to all point at my fat belly! Pretty funny guys...


...Cory & Michelle Hanks are like second parents to us Keller kids. Cory is my dad's best friend, and we just love the whole Hanks family like our own. It was so fun to surprise them too!

This is when Cory finally realized the whole reason we were showing him the book... "HEY!!!!" haha

{ Oh BABY!! }

colby...

+plus+
stephy...

=equals=
baby stringham...

That's right... Colby and I are MORE than excited to announce that we are finally HAVING A BABY!!! I say finally, because it has been quite the journey for us. We have been wanting to start a family for over 2 years. And now... we have been blessed with this amazing little miracle. This little GUY will make his big appearance sometime around Christmas, my due date is December 21, 2010. And let me tell you, December just can't come fast enough! We are more than ready to meet this stubborn little dude!


...The Story...
So... facebook friends, do any of you remember that day I posted the Cafe Rio Pork picture & recipe on facebook back in April? Yeah, lets just say I haven't even attempted to make it again and even worse... I didn't make a SINGLE Cafe Rio stop when I was in Utah! Because the night I made it, I woke up in the middle of the night, ran to the bathroom and I am sure you can guess what happened next. So for the next 3 days I was living in the bathroom. I called my doctor to see if I should come in and what medicines I should take, because HOLY COW... I had NEVER been that sick. She told me to take a pregnancy test, call her back with the results and then she can give me a list of medications to take. I was like, YEAH RIGHT!! Do you know how many pregnancy tests I have taken, I am so not about to take another one just to see another - sign or see the words... NOT PREGNANT!! Well, it kept going through my mind every time I made a visit to the toilet. Heck, I didn't even think I had a test. I eventually found one in the bathroom closet, wiped the dust off of it and peed on it... I got up to do something and forgot about the test. About 20 minutes later I made another visit to the throne and what do you know... PREGNANT!! I couldn't believe it, after 2 years that was the VERY FIRST time I had ever seen those words. But of course I didn't believe it. It was old and I was sure it was broken. So I dragged my sorry butt to the store and bought 4 different tests, different brands and with different result pictures, some sprite and crackers. Came home, peed on all of them and HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO... they were all positive. I just kept starring at them, walking in and out of the bathroom crying, grabbing my hair, noticing the slight plumpness of my small chest in the mirror and wondering if I should call Colb or not! haha Well, unfortunately Baby Daddy wasn't the first to know... I called my nurse and she wanted me to come in ASAP! So I went in, did an ultrasound, lab work and all that fun stuff-- sure enough, we had a little bean planted in there!
I rushed to the store AGAIN, to buy a few things to surprise Colby when he got home from work. This is what he came home to...


Colby walking in from work... And yeah, those are MY keys that I had left in the door the entire day. Don't worry, I have done it a few times since... but it was overnight.


Excited Daddy!!

Oh crap!! How much is this going to cost?!?

We are having a BABY!!

I bought these little newborn onsies 2 years ago! I was so excited to finally pull them out... but now we know we will only be using the one on the right! Its a BOY!

Baby Daddy trying to soak it all in...

POSITIVE BABY!!

I snapped all these pictures when Colb got home and went STRAIGHT BACK TO THE COUCH!


...Well, this was all back in April. I am now 5 months along and starting to poke! We were able to keep it a secret for 4 months before we told our families. We knew we were going home in June and thought about how cool it would be to wait and tell everyone then. Colby didn't think I would be able to hold it in for that long. But sure enough... I DID! And we were able to tell them in person, SO WORTH IT! I was in Utah for a whole month, so I will post all about it once I get my house cleaned and caught up on laundry! Oh man, I am not sick anymore, but I HAVE NO ENERGY! So tired all the time... or am I just lazy!?

hey fatty, fatty, fatty!!! 20 weeks...