It is my sister Carey's birthday and boy am I happy I have her in my life. From this picture you can see how happy my boys are to have their Aunt Carey. Also pictured is one of the many reasons I am grateful she is my sister. She is the mother of 6 wonderful kids, 2 of which I got to meet in the hospital on the day they were born. What an awesome, special experience for a sister to share! (Alyssa, when you get to reproducing, I strongly suggest you should live nearby one of your sisters but two would be better. Think Arizona!) Holding Lucy and Brigham on their birth days was such a gift. Thank-you Carey for not stopping at 4! I know I can call on Carey whenever I need her from the big emergencies to just needing to pee. (As Elijah so eloquently put it in a previous blog post.) When Jared ended up at the hospital in October for pneumonia I called Carey at 10 PM (on a school night) and asked if I could bring the kids over to spend the night. She cheerfully agreed and offered her services a bunch over those days. She even offered to meet me at the hospital to pick up my very sleepy kids. The same experience happened when Jared had appendicitis although this time I needed her to meet me at the hospital since I was taking him straight to the Emergency Room and when Jared was in the hospital because of the motorcycle accident she had my kids the most. You would think she would move away since we have proven to be so needy. She has an open invitation for us to stop by when we are in the area looking at houses. She even goes so far as to feel hurt when she finds I have been in the area and did not stop by to say hi. When Jared and I were staying in the weekly rental she welcomed Xander, Elijah and I to hang out at her Mesa house nearly every day. She verified that Xander had indeed mastered his first word at 6 months. Until she brought it up I worried I was going crazy. She has been a part of my growing up years (I consider the 20s to be the most growing up I have ever done). Earlier this year when I heard about her bicycle accident I was literally freaking out and panicking. I prayed and prayed knowing I could not handle losing my sister (The month prior I had lost a friend to a biking accident). After I learned she would be okay, I prayed and prayed that she would be able to take care of Lucy. It had been heart breaking for her when she wasn't able to nurse Brigham. She and I hadn't even talked yet about the fact that she might not be able to nurse Lucy because of the accident, but I knew that would be devastating to her and so I prayed and pleaded. I love laughing with Carey and am grateful I can cry with Carey. She is among my bestest friends. Every girl should have a sister. I have been especially blessed to have 4.