Blessing #3-And Pres. Hinckley

My family. As in, my parents, siblings and in-laws on my side. One thing I do love is when we all get together (which hasn't been very often lately) and hang out. You would not even believe how musically talented my family is. We talk jokingly abot having our own "Derusha Idol" competition which would be awesome, because everyone (except me) has pipes. I mean like real awesome singing talent, plus everyone plays instruments. I love listening to my brothers and sisters sing together, they have some duets that really are killer. I really miss hearing that. I am really excited about this year because my sis Bri will be coming home to stay from Hawaii and my brother Nate will be coming to AZ(from Korea) to finish his military stint in southern AZ. For the last few years we haven't been able to ALL be together, it seems like someone is always missing. My parents are the best. My dad and step mom and I are really close. I've always been somewhat of a daddys girl, and my step mom did an awesome job coming in to our family when I was 9 and loving us all and being a great mom. I learned so many good things from her. Ever since I was a teenager we'd stay up and talk till 2 or stay up and clean all night (hmmmmm sound familiar??? lol) I know it was not easy for them (or any of us) to raise a blended family, it was(and still sometimes is) a major challenge, but they did it. I am also really lucky that my little brother and sister picked awesome people to marry into the family. I could not ask for better BIL and SIL. Now one of my other brothers actually married a psycho but I havent seen her in about 7 years and I dont' care to ever see her again so I'm not really counting her. But other than her, I am super grateful for my awesome family, we are really blessed!





Me with my siblings...Except one :( So I guess he gets his own special picture!










I love these guys!


EDIT: I feel like I should have Pres. Hinckley as my #3 Blessing now.....but I'll leave it since I did all that work. I just really loved this man, I had watched a documentary on his life a couple years ago and I was just amazed at the accompishments he had in furthuring the church. It is unreal the things he moved forward, even before he became a member of the first presidncy decades ago. He truly dedicated his life to the church, and I am so humbled by that. When we heard the news of his passing last night, we got the kids out of bed and had a little family meeting about it and told the kids. We explained to them that a new prophet would be called and how neat it was that our church just continues to go on the same, even with a change of leadership. I asked Cade why that was, and he said without skipping a beat "Because we believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church." I swear my heart swelled to twice its nrmal size, I was so proud of him for knowing that. We love you President Hinckley, and we are so happy that you can be reunited with your sweet wife and family and those who love you!!