I Love To See The Temple...

The Boise Temple was recently remodeled. Before it is rededicated, it is open for the public to come see the inside and learn a little more about this sacred place. We took our family through the open house- it was really nice to be able to all be inside the place where Cory & I were married for time and all eternity!

 

 

The people who are in charge of the open house are anticipating so many visitors that there isn't enough parking at the temple, so we parked at a nearby chruch and rode a bus over to the open house. Brig was pretty excited about that part too!

 

 

Not to mention the fact that we were able to visit with some of our favorite people!

 

 

This next picture makes me smile becuase this is the "real Brig." He can be so shy in front of people, but when he is in a comfortable place- he really lets loose...literally! He has all kinds of moves...so he decided to just start dancing right outside the temple.

 

Cory & I had the opportunity, with many others from our church, to be tour guides for the temple.  It was nice to be able to serve and it was incredible to see all the poeple that were visiting. The day that we worked, they were expecting over 13,000 people! That was just in one day!! There were so many people that we weren't able to talk about the temple because of time constraints with trying to get so many people through.

 

 

It was really special to be able to show Brig the inside of the temple. His favorite part was the baptistry...when he saw that he said- "Whoa. That's cool."

 

 

I am so grateful for this holy place. It is absolutely beautiful inside and everyone is welcome to attend- you don't even need an invitation (but if you don't want to go alone...let me know! I would love to come with you!) but the most important thing is the beautiful feeling inside the temple. To us, it is the House of the Lord and is the most sacred place on Earth. In the temple, families can be sealed for not just this life but for eternity. I am so grateful for this knowledge that has been restored to the earth by the Prophet Joseph Smith and so grateful for my own eternal family!

 

A Head's Up

I know the title is not really that punny:)

One month ago today Brig had his accident {you can read about it HERE}. So I thought I would do a quick update on our little man...

He is doing great!  We visited the neruo surgeon and he said that if we took an X ray the fracture may not even be visible.  He still has the hemotoma (I am not sure about the spelling of all these medical terms- just so ya know!) and that will take a while to completely dissipate and may cause neckaches and headaches for some time.  He reccommends that we still keep a close eye on him for the next 3-6 months so he doesn't have anymore serious concussions. 

Despite the fact that Brig is a normal, energetic 2 year old and keeping them from hitting their head is always tricky businesss- we have one thing going for us...

We are all paranoid!!!!!

His accident really scared us and so now we are way more keyed up than we were before- I am hoping that this will fade in time but for now- we may seemed a bit over cautious.  Brig also has had some psychological trauma from his little medical escapade.  He was pretty tough before but when he bonks his head now (nothing serious obviously) he cries way more than necessary.  This too shall pass though I believe....

In the meantime we are extremely grateful for his recovery and for everyone's thoughts, concerns & prayers in our behalf.  Again- we are grateful to Heavenly Father for letting us wittness and be part of such a miracle -one month ago and every other day that we have had our wonderful little BMan. 

Cheesy smile from our little stud...and no that isn't a bandage- just part of our family home evening...he is acting like Nephi:)



Brig's Miracle

It's interesting how life can give you the most bitter and sweetest moments all at the same time.

On Friday evening Cory, Brig and I went up to Donnelly where I would attend our church's young women's camp for the evening and the boys would fish and play nearby.  While they were playing Cory went to take a picture of Brig and he fell from 5.5 feet (that was the height of his feet), head first onto the asphalt.  When Cory picked him up the had a depression in his head about 3/4" deep and about the diameter of a racket ball.  Instantly, Cory began to think the worst and rushed into the church camp where he told someone to find me and another man drove Brig & Cory to the local hospital. 

When they arrived at the hospital they took XRays and asked some questions and when the XRays were done they saw that he had a skull fracture and was in serious danger of  the brain hemorrhaging or swelling. Brig was given a priesthood blessing.  Finally, an hour after the initial accident, I arrived at the hospital.  They told us he needed to be life flighted and the helicopter would be there soon.  Brig was conscious throughout the entire process and was having several people strap him to boards, put IVs in his little arms, draw blood, and put a neck brace on him.  It was awful! The entire time he just sat there and begged for us to hold him. 

Finally, the helicopter arrived and we flew to the St. Als trauma center where he had more people poking and prodding (and taking very good care of him). They did a CT scan to check for bleeding and swelling and any damage to his neck.  Then we waited.

He was such a brave and good boy throughout the entire thing- as soon as the people would clear away from him, he would calm down and just ask for us to hold him (which we couldn't do yet). However, he had several moments that show just how amazing he was...

When we were headed to the helicopter we tried to distract him and show him the stars...he then let our a ferocious growl.  Why?  We aren't sure but he likes growling at the moon and I couldn't believe how tough he was being.

At St. Als, Grandpa Walker asked him if he wanted to go fishing and Brig nodded.  He asked if he was going to catch a fish this big (hands about 6 inches apart), Brig shook his head.  This big? (1 foot apart).  Brig shook his head.  This BIG? (Hands stretched as far as they would go) Brig nodded. 

Then when they finally came and told us his neck was ok and they began to take the neck brace off- he told the doctors who had been "hurting" him all night Thank You.  It melted me right then and there.

Finally, at about 1:30 am they came and told us they did find some blood on his brain and were talking to the neurologist to see what needed to happen next.  At about 2:30 they came in and told us that the blood was just seeping from the outer wound inside and that he was fine.  If we wanted to we could go home that night.

Finally, after hours of waiting...I got to hold my precious little boy who was going to be ok.  It never felt so good.

We had an incredible staff help us at St. Als and one of the life flight medics stayed at the hospital waiting for several hours.  Both he and our doctor told us that theses falls do not usually end like this.  And despite the depression that Cory (and other witnesses at the young women's camp) saw...there was never any sign of any kind in either the XRay or the CT Scan.  They said that had that been the case...he would certainly have had brain damage, paralysis, or worse. 

It was nothing short of a miracle.  We know that Heavenly Father had preserved his life right from the beginning of this whole ordeal.  We know that the Priesthood is real and that there is true power when blessings are administered.  We know that Heavenly Father loves us and loves Brig more than we can ever comprehend. 

And we are eternally grateful.

He is doing very well now.  We have to watch him for the next several weeks and try to limit his activity as much as possible since his skull is fractured and his cute little head is quite delicate.  We will meet with a neurologist soon and in a month they will do XRays again.  They said you won't be able to tell that anything ever happened.