40 Years ago....

My awesome parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this year and to honor them we decided to throw a surprise party!!!

I have a lot of love and respect for my parents. They both had somewhat difficult childhoods and yet are wonderful people. They've always been there for us. They raised nine children and in my opinion my brothers and sisters are pretty awesome people so they did a good job.

When my parents were married they had almost nothing. Literally.

The day they were supposed to leave to get married my dad showed up a couple of hours late because he was selling some pork he had just butchered. He had to butcher the pigs to get enough money to pay for their way to the wedding and he only just made it. My mom was starting to think he wasn't going to show.

When they got to the temple to be married, the temple mis-place my moms wedding dress and she had to borrow one of theirs. The funny thing is is she was happy about that because their dress was a lot nicer than the one she had.

They didn't have a cake for their reception and when a friend found out she ran home and made them one. The cake was still warm though and toppled to the ground before they ever had a chance to cut it.

Because they had no money, they had to have the reception at an old, abandoned hall. It doesn't look any better today than it did then!

Here is a photo...

The windows are still boarded up. :)

After they were married they moved into an old, one room cabin. No running water and no bathroom (they used an out house) .

What a start! And yet, here they are... 40 years, 9 children and 23 grandchildren (with two on the way) later.

Congratulations mom and dad!!!

And now, some photos from the festivities...

We went with a 70's theme since they were married in 1971.



The streamers are meant to replicate the streamers at their wedding. Beautiful no?

The happy couple!

Walker cracks me up! Love that kid!

Kyle and Mindy and their family.

McKay and Landry.

Danawn Schuman and her parents, the Rice's. They were all at the original wedding reception.

I'm not sure this is a 70's pose, but I love it all the same.

Jana and Jared emcee'd the event.

An original photo. Again, with the streamers.

A beautiful 70's style cake.

We had a table for each of them and they were decorated with things that they loved and passions they have. That picture of a little girl down there in the frame is my mom when she was quite young. It was the cover of The Friend one year. Only it wasn't called The Friend back then, it was called .... I can't remember. Oops!

Dad's table.

Again, Walker with the poses.

And finally they get a chance to cut a wedding cake. It only took 40 years!

The day they were married in the Cardston, Alberta temple.

Then and now. Ah, the streamers. :)

Mom's table. That's a better picture of the cover of... The Improvement Era... That's what it was called!

Jand and Russell got groovy for the camera.

Landry even got in the dress-up mood.

Kaelen and Rochelle. Love the matching handbag Rochelle.

McKay, that is an awesome head of hair!

Jared was so happy that night... was it the full head of hair? :)

Caleb really got in to the spirit of things.

Go Ethan!

That is a very sporty bow tie Bridger.

Nice glasses Coleson.

Emma was quite groovy.

It was a really fun night and I hope be here when we celebrate the next 40 with them!

Grandma's 90th!!!

This month my grandma celebrated her 90th birthday!!!!

90 years!!!

And she's as spry as a spring chicken! :)

My grandma is one of the most amazing women I know. She has seen more and done more than anyone I've ever met. She had 9 children and lost two of them. She's been married 3 times and lost each of her husbands to sickness. But no matter what, she stays strong and is an amazing example. With 8 children, the youngest only a year old, she and her husband packed up everything they had and trekked west to Utah. The amazing part is that they had next to nothing, including a vehicle. They sold what they could and travelled by covered wagon and horseback 1300 miles from Minnesota to Utah. Eventually the family ended up in Northern British Columbia, where she still lives today. I am so blessed to have such an amazing grandma and I can't say how much I love her and appreciate her.

Here are a few pictures from her surprise 90th Birthday celebration!

Click on the photos to enlarge and read the headlines on the newspapers etc... It's pretty amazing stuff.


This is the cake my amazing sister made. Love it!


Emilia and Kalene (or McKlene as my kids like to call her). I haven't written much about Emilia (an exchange student from Finland who is living with us) but I will have to soon. She's leaving in two months already and we'll be so sad to see her go.

This is Elder Campbell. He taught and baptised my Grandma and her family.

Elder Kramer. He also helped to teach and baptise my Grandma and her family.

And my cute little niece Landry.

Should Be Posting More But.....

I realize I've sort of been MIA these last few months and you'd think I'd have a bunch of excuses but I only have one...

Introducing Cohen David Hurren

Cohen was born April 3rd, 2011 at 1:45 a.m. He weighed 7lbs, 1 ounce and was 20 inches long.

It was a super fast labor and delivery and it was all wonderful!

If you want the details of the birth then read on. If not... don't. :)

Labor started at 8:30 p.m. with contractions anywhere from 2-5 minutes apart and not too painful. I've been induced with all my other boys so I wasn't sure this was the real thing and I REALLY didn't want to go in to the hospital and be sent home. Mike and I watched a movie and timed contractions for a little while and they eventually got to the point where I figured we should call my mom to come stay with the boys and we should head in. We called her at 12:00 a.m. and she was here within 10 minutes. By this time I was pretty sure they wouldn't be sending me home but I was still apprehensive. We called Jana (my sister and labor coach) to tell her we were headed in to the hospital and told her we would call her again once we got there and found out where things were at. We live only a few minutes away from the hospital so we got there at 12:15 a.m. and they had me put the gown on for a check. At this point I was just hoping that they would say I was at least a 2! Up until my appointment two days earlier I wasn't dilated at all and the baby was still high. It took her a while to check me and I started thinking, "Oh great! I'm not dilated at all and she's going to send me home!" When she was finished, she turned to me and I was shocked when she said, "Well, it looks like you are dilated to an 8. I'll go call the doctor." I was sooooo happy. I mean, I was in pain and it hurt but to hear I was at an 8 was awesome. I knew it wouldn't be much longer so I was worried that Jana might not make it. The nurse went to call the doctor, came back and offered me some Nitrous Oxide to use until the doctor go there. At that point she informed me that I was too far for an epidural and that made me a little nervous but I was just glad it would be over soon. At that point Jana came in the room. I guess she decided to come right in because she said she couldn't go back to sleep anyway. I was glad she did because otherwise I'm not sure she would have made it. She had just gotten back from Vancouver that evening at about 8:30 p.m. (right when labor started, I guess Cohen really wanted her there) and I would have been bummed if she couldn't be there after all.

I labored for a little while longer and pretty soon they wheeled me into the delivery room. At this point I was in a lot of pain (duh! it's called labor for a reason) and I was really ready to be done. :) Luckily the pushing went quickly and as soon as the baby dropped, one more push and there he was! He looked so tiny and adorable. I thought he looked a lot like Luke as soon as I saw him but Mike sees more of Walker in him.

I have to say, the hospital and staff here were awesome! They immediatly put him up on my tummy and let me hold him and look at him before they took him away and cut his cord etc... The delivery room was so calm and peaceful and it was just awesome. I was so lucky to have both Mike and Jana there to help with things. Jana helped coach me through breathing and pushing and Mike gave awesome encouragement and kept me calm.

With all my other babies I had an epidural and I have to say there are definitely benefits to natural and epidural. I'm really lucky that I have fast labors and if I had to labor for hours and hours like a lot of women I would want the epidural for sure. I didn't mind the drug-free labor and again, I am lucky it was so fast but would I do it again? I'm not sure. :) The epidural is so nice for that last little bit but I loved being able to walk immediatly afterwards and I felt like my recovery has been a lot faster without the after effects of an epidural.

Cohen has been a joy to have around. I think he's adorable. He makes his older brothers laugh a lot and he's a really great sleeper - during the day anyway. :) But I have nothing to complain about. I am healthy, he is healthy and we are home and doing great!