"Bye-bye Daddy Broken Car!"

About 3 minutes after Paul drove away to work this morning, he was in a car accident. He was going about 50 mph on Redwood Rd. when a moving truck (like a U-haul) tried to drive across the road, but stalled (or just stopped) right in front of Paul's car in his lane. He hardly had a chance to try to swerve or stop, so he hit it pretty hard.

When Paul knew that he was about to hit the truck, he thought he was going to die or get badly injured. When you see these pictures, you'll probably agree with us that it was a miracle that he walked away without a cut or broken bone--just a sore neck, shoulders and back. The weird thing is, the air bags didn't even go off! (...hmm...maybe he was better off because of that!) And we think if he would have hit the truck a little further to the right, his car probably would have gone under it, and he would have been more hurt. He was also lucky that there wasn't any oncoming traffic, because the impact of his car sent both vehicles across the two lanes to the left.

Here are some pics:




Paul's girls made it to the scene of the accident just in time to see "whitey" (as we affectionately referred to this car that Jen has owned since 2001) getting loaded onto the towing truck. It's most likely totaled.

On the way to the accident, I (Jen) explained to Millie that Daddy's car got broken, but Daddy didn't get hurt. Her first response was, "Daddy car...broken...new batteries!" If only it was that easy to fix it! So I explained that we couldn't fix it, and we would have to say "bye-bye to Daddy's broken car." She finally understood! But it must have still been traumatic for her to see the wrecked car, because she insisted many times throughout the day to see the pictures of Daddy's broken car, and just out of the blue, she'd repeat, "bye-bye Daddy broken car." Tonight she finally thought to ask, "what happened? Daddy broken car...what happened?"

Anyway, as you can imagine, we feel really blessed. We know that Heavenly Father is involved in our lives, and that He protected Paul this morning. We feel a greater desire to serve Him and keep His commandments. We've also been reminded that life is fragile, that family is most important, and that material things have no value in comparison to eternal things.

Easter Egg Hunt

Millie's second Easter, but first year to understand that Easter eggs mean CANDY!! Good thing she's still young enough not to realize when her easter candy disappeared before she ate it all.

Videos: Peek-a-Boo! & Swimming with Daddy

Millie and Daddy love to play together at night. Paul had Millie just squealing with excitement during this fun peek-a-boo game, but as soon as I pulled out the camera, she got pretty quiet. Oh well, it's worth the watch just to see Paul's athletic abilities.



We went swimming at the Bountiful rec. center, and although Millie was freezing cold (she has no built-in insulation layers), she loved it!

Angels Among Us

As you might have heard, I (Jen) had my gall bladder out two weeks ago. The surgery went well, and after laying around an entire week, I'm finally up and moving around again. But for about a week, I had to rest a lot and I wasn't even supposed to lift anything over 10 lbs., including Grace & Millie.

It was an interesting experience for me to switch roles from being the mother who my kids depend on all day long, to being the one who was dependent on others for my needs, and for my children's needs. It was a humbling experience.

I don't know how I would have survived if I didn't have such a helpful, selfless, & serving husband. I fell in love with him 50 times more this week, as I sat lifeless on the couch and watched him take care of his 3 girls. But when he had to go back to work and bishoping, my Angels came to rescue me.

My mother-in-law came and took Millie to her house for 3 days. My mom came with her bags packed to stay as long as I needed her. My sister, Ang, came two days. Paul's sister, Melissa, took Millie for a day. My brother, Josh, and his fiance, Elena, helped one evening. My visiting teacher brought us a meal, and neighbors also offered help with the girls.

How could I not feel loved and cared for with that kind of help? I know I'm so fortunate to have this much family nearby. Through this experience, I was infused with more determination to serve others in their time of need, and to be more observant of when those times may be.

***Youth Fireside Invitation***

Click on the video below if you are between the age of 12 and 18 and are a member of the Foxboro 2nd Ward. Well, actually, anyone can watch this silly video if they want a good laugh.

We're finally "bloggers"!

Well, friends...
We've been putting it off long enough. Today, we finally started up our family blog. This is only the second time we've tried to start, but I think we're more determined this time. I've already wasted all my creativity brain cells to just get the template going. I think this may be all for today!