Unexpected Spring Cleaning

WOW!!! What a good looking yard right? We think so! After having spent almost a week in the hospital the house had been needing some serious attention with spring coming on and all. So I committed to coming home that day and getting things cleaned up and nice for Jill to come home to. Well the doctor gave us the okay to come home together. We arrived home to the greatest sweetest surprise we could have imagined...OUR YARD WAS CLEANED, TRIMMED, WEEDED, MOWED, and MUCH MUCH MORE!! AWESOMENESS flowed from our yard. We were so grateful for my family that had come by and done all this for us while we were away. I thought that was great because it would allow me time to be able to clean up the inside of the house and catch up on the laundry...thats when the Allphin crew showed up to the rescue of a confused inexperienced husband...whites with colors? Within a couple of hours...the laundry was done, dishes cleaned, house was vacuumed, and pretty much all was in order in just a short amount of time. It was an incredible experience that brought us to tears. The most amazing part is that the kindness that everyone had shown has not stopped since that day. Acts of service like these are occurring on a daily basis at the Pickett home.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! And we cannot say thank you enough for all that you have done for us. We are so grateful to have such wonderful family, friends and neighbors close by and even far away who have come to help. We love you and thank you all for playing a part in helping us keep the little boys in the cooker until they are ready to come healthy and safe.

Welcome Lauren & Ashton!

Congratulations to my brothers and their wifes on their sweet babies! We are so excited for you, but we are also excited for our two little boys to have cousins close in age. The top picture is my brother Jeremy's little Lauren and the bottom is my brother Kevin's little Ashton. They are both so sweet. Thanks for letting me hold and love them.

San Diego

Our last vacation together...just the two of us..before the other two get here...well technically they were kinda there with us. But, we didn't have to chase them around.

After the recent events in our lives we are super grateful that we were able to take this trip, relax, and just enjoy. It was a beautiful week....sunny and in the low 70's all week long. We hit sea world, the beach, farmers market, temple, old town, balboa park, some great food places, and did lots of other cool things.

I was mostly surprised at Jill, who was quite daring with her entree choices. You see she is not very fond of the seafood, but everyplace we went, that was their best dish and being the adventurous girl that she is--she tried many of a fish dish...as it were. I particularly enjoyed the jumbo shrimp..mmmmm....good. But one night we couldn't find a place to eat and just decided to drive around till we found something. That night we found KING FISH! Took the food back to our room and enjoyed one of the other signature items of San Diego...sour dough bread. There are few things more enjoyable than a nicely buttered warm piece of sour dough bread...quite good.

We visited lots of historic places including the floating aircraft museum in the harbor, pirate ship, and Russian submarine. All things considered the best time spent was pool side or at the beach just relaxing and not worrying where we needed to go next.

The last night we spent at Coronado Island. We had dinner at a really nice seafood place that overlooked the entire city of San Diego. We could also see the sunset and when night came...we marvelled at the lights of San Diego at night. After dinner we enjoyed a good ice cream and a walk along the boardwalk. A nice conclusion to a wonderful week.

Can't wait for our next trip with just the two of us...but we'll fit in a lot of cool trips in between with the boys.

Growing Tummy

Per several requests, for all of you who I don't get to see much, here are a couple of pictures of my growing tummy. The first picture has a bit of a shadow, so I look a little bigger.

I miss you all! Love, Jill.

Baby A & Baby B

Wow, the big news is out and it seems so unreal. First off Nate and I would like to thank everyone for your best wishes, advice and support. We love you! Here are our most recent pictures of our two little miracles. They are about 4 inches long and growing so fast. It's amazing to me how they can be so small and have developed so many little features.

Valentines Video

My husband is the best videographer in the world!!!
Watch this and tell me what you think.

Happy Valentines.

Love Jill


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Gordon Bitner Hinkley

After the passing of the Prophet I've seen a lot of pictures of him. Which has been a cool way to think back on him. To think of who he was and to remember and reflect on the great things he stood for.

One of my favorite pictures of him can found at Jim & Angie's blog (see the links on the side to get there). But I chose to share this picture above because it really made an impact on me when I first saw it. I can't say exactly why it did...except for the expression on his face as he waves. It is so kind and happy, as if to say "hey, I'm a normal nice guy...just saying hello" and its even better because he is with his wife.

One of my favorite memories of President Hinkley was reading his words in his book "Standing for Something" I read it on my mission and it was an easy read because it was so inspiring. And most recently it would be the talk he gave in priesthood session about anger, which Jill would tell you was specifically inspired by her prayers for me. In the talk He explained "he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty" and counseled us that we shouldn't be so easily offended in order to be happier. He said that we should leave our grudges behind and, simply stated, that we get into trouble when we get angry.

I remember when in an interview he said that he couldn't remember ever raising his voice to his wife or yelling at her. Maybe it was even Sister Hinkley who said that about him, I don't remember exactly, but it was true I'm sure. I wouldn't have believed it had it not been the Prophet. If there were a very small room reserved in heaven for those who never raised their voices to their spouses it would probably still be a pretty roomy room. I can think of many times I was ashamed for having lost my temper. That is one of those things that he made me realize that I can do a little better at. The "stuff I can do a little better at" list is kind of a long one though. Not as long as the "stuff I could do a lot better at" list, but I won't go into the details of either.

I really starting typing here not really thinking what I would say. Honestly I thought this would be a quick short post, but I'm glad that I've taken a second to write down a few things here. Its fun to think and write about President Hinkley. He has been the Prophet for most of my life and even though I have never met him I certainly feel like I know him pretty well and when I reminisce about memories of him or listen to other people share their thoughts and feelings about him it really is like talking about a good friend. One that I will miss very much. I loved him. He was really a great guy and an inspiration to us who want to stand a little taller and do a little more. He was a servant of God and what a blessing it has been to live in this time that he has been the Prophet. So here is a thanks to him for his great life and his contagious smile. Till we meet again.