Paul's Funeral

I had debated whether to include all this or not, but it is part of our history.

Last Wednesday Sept. 24, Daniels brother was out for a walk with his wife and was hit by a car. He passed away almost instantly. It has been such a wave of emotions for us over the last few days. He was only 45, and left his wife and 4 children (ages 22, 18, 16 and 11) behind. He was such a great person and Daniel was very close to him. Daniel has worked with him since he (Daniel) came home from his mission in 1999. When I think about Paul, I will always remember how happy he was. He liked to joke around and seemed to always be smiling. We will miss him but are certainly grateful for the gospel to know that we will be reunited as a family someday. My girls think that should be now. Annalin seems to think he is only sleeping and that he should wake up from his rest now. Kalissa wants Jesus to come back now so that Uncle Paul can too. Just this morning Annalins exact words were,

"Maybe on this day, Uncle Paul's not dead."

They are both very young and don't understand it all. Kalissa had a really hard time at the funeral. But we have pictures of him, and I want them to remember him in those rather than this.

My attempt to get all my girls to look at me at the same time was not great. But they are still CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!!!

The girls with Daniel's parents.

At the cemetary. Kalissa with Aunt LaRue, the brothers, Annalin, Jodi, Nicole and Kyler.
There are 9 boys and 2 girls in Daniel's family. The 8 brothers were all pallbearers. After most of the people left the brothers lowered Paul's casket into his grave. It was a little different, I had never seen this before but Daniel said after helping that it was comforting to be able to do it.

At the Sunday night viewing. Kalissa with Aunt Sandra and Aunt Cheryl, Jaina, Amy and Jana. Amy is the first grandchild and Jaina is the 52nd (most recent) grandchild.

In between all the tears there were some smiles. We all got together for lunch at Sam and Kim's before the Sunday night viewing. The cousins always have a good time when they get together.

The very last bottom right picture is supposed to spell Lusk. Brittany, Jaina and Anna (L) Jodi (U), Kalissa (S) and Kristi (K).

Our Bathing Beauties

Nice Day for a Walk

We decided to walk to the store yesterday for multiple reasons but also becuase it was such a nice day. My 2 little girls were sleeping by the time we got back. It is amazing to me how big Anna looks next to Jaina.

Kalissa just rode her bike. She still has not learned how to ride it without training wheels. She keeps saying she will learn one day.


These other pictures are from the weekend. Jaina was sitting by me on the couch while I was reading a book and just kept laughing. Apparently something was very funny.

Daniels parents came to visit us on Sunday. I didn't have a picture of Jaina with her Grandpa Lusk so I snapped one. But I always had to take one of the other girls and Grandma too.

The Best Babysitters

I have such funny children. I know I say that often but I really do. They make me laugh daily.

Friday night I decided to mow the lawn. It was cool outside but it felt so nice. I asked Kalissa if she would push Jaina around in the stroller while I cut it. She said she wanted to stay inside. So I put a movie on my laptop for them and I went outside to mow. A few minutes later she was outside riding her scooter. I asked her what Jaina was doing, she said that Anna was with her and she was fine.

I kept mowing, and every few minutes I had her go in to make sure she wasn't crying. I finished the front and continued on to the back. Before I knew it Anna was outside on her scooter. Figuring the I had lost the fight of trying to keep either of them inside and not wanting to stop mowing I kept asking them to run in and check on her. They kept reporting back to me that she was fine and not crying.

As I finished I went to check on my little baby. Above is what I found. They took the laptop and set it right in front of her. Figuring of course, that she wanted to watch the show. In the end Jaina was fine, the lawn was cut and Kalissa and Annalin got some of their never-ending energy out of their systems.

7 Years Ago

I was sitting in a meeting at work when the President of the company received a call from his wife. He didn't usually take the calls during our meetings but was told it was important. He relayed to us what his wife told him. That a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We all figured it was a terrible accident and was probably just a small 2 seater.

I was around 6 weeks pregnant with our first baby and sick, sick, sick. I didn't stay at work. It was the first time I missed work because of how bad I felt. I decided to go home and be miserable there. I listened to the radio on the way home and they were announcing that the 2nd tower had just fallen. I was driving across the desert in little Idaho while thousands of people were running from falling buildings. It was unbelievable.

I had been to New York just a few months earlier with work and drove right through the middle of the city. I was extremely tired and so I don't remember a lot of it. (I am disappointed about that now that the skyline is so different.) 2 weeks earlier Daniel and I had been in DC for both my work and vacation. We drove right by the Pentagon many times. It was the first time I had returned to my mission since coming home 2 years earlier.

That was not a fun week to be sick. All I could do was exist, while lying on the couch. I watched T.V. and cried a lot. Watching all the heart breaking stories of people looking for their husband or wife, father or mother, brother or sister. Not knowing whether they were alive or dead. All the time I spent at home was awful.

It is painful to watch the videos, and see the pictures from that day. Who would have ever thought we would have been attacked like that. I could not believe and still can't. What the world was becoming? I was scared my little baby that I was bringing to the world. If my world is like this what will hers be like? I was and am, very grateful for the gospel teachings in my life to help me know that this wasn't the end for those families. Happier times will come.

I have always considered myself to be a proud American. But I felt a love for my country that week and the people in it, deeply. It was hard to watch and hear about all the families that lost loved ones. It is hard to hear about them even today. However I do think we are stronger for it. Now it is something that will always be in our history for us to learn from.

I love America and I am so grateful to those who give their lives so freely to protect our country and our lives.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

Jaina's Stats

Jaina had her 4 month check-up yesterday and she is doing so well. She was so happy and giggling right up until those darn shots. She screamed and screamed and went red in the face just for a minute. Then, it was over, for another couple months.

She is 25 1/2" long (90th percentile)
She weighs 13 lbs 12 oz (60th percentile)

4 Months Old

I still can't believe my little Jaina is 4 months old! Time needs to slow down.

She is starting to pick up things, make louder noises, notice people she likes and those that she doesn't know. Her latest thing is to laugh. Her sisters make weird noises and dance around her and she laughs at them.

So cute!

Old Woman's

We bought our house 3 years ago and ever since I have been the pianist in primary. I didn't ever go to Relief Society because I was always in Primary and apparently Kalissa noticed this.

2 weeks ago they realigned our ward boundaries and we are now in a different ward, which now means currently no calling. Last Sunday as we were getting ready to go to church, (this being our 2nd time in the new ward), Kalissa asked me if I got to go to "Old Woman’s" last week. It confused me a little. I couldn't think about what she was referring to. I then figured it out. "Old Woman’s" as opposed to "Young Woman’s."

Funny girl.

Princess Hair

I love fixing Kalissa's hair. It is long enough that I can do almost anything with it. This is how I fixed in on Sunday for church. Sometimes I can do Anna's the same but hers is still a little to thin on the front/sides. It is frustrating to me that I can't do Kalissa's hair in the morning for school because I work. I usually do something boring the night before that will stay in for the next day.

She wants to cut it. Which wouldn't be so bad. She could probably comb it in the morning and get away without doing much to it. But I will miss fixing it in fun ways. We'll see if we actually cut it off or not.