Sunday, November 30, 2008

Tis the Season...


Hello All,
To those who know what we're going through, thank you for the prayers, support, and help you've given. We are overwhelmed with gratitude! To those who don't know us personally, here's our story in a nutshell....
My name is Jessica (Winkle) Hammett, my husband Chad and I have been married for almost 2 years. We came together both having two children full time and added one of our own this June 2008! Brandon, our 14 year old was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, which is a bone cancer, in August 2008. We were of course devastated and scared, but have learned a lot over the past couple of months and have gained strength from the prayers and support of family and friends. As if being newlyweds, blending a family, a new baby, and now childhood cancer weren't enough to worry about, Chad was laid off from his job about a month after we found out about Brandon's cancer. We have been very blessed through these trials and are always trying to see the silver lining. We have definitely grown closer as a family. We have to travel 4 hours north to Primary Children's Medical Center every other week, to stay a week in the hospital, for Brandon to receive Chemotherapy. This is not only hard on us as a family being away from each other but as you can imagine financially difficult.
We would ask all of you who receive this to PLEASE forward this on to everyone you know. We realize times are tough for everyone right now and if you can donate $1, $10, $50 , or just keep us in your prayers, we appreciate it all the same. To those of you who have helped us already, we thank you SO much!


All our Love,
Chad, Jessica, & kids


These are links to Brandon's web page and our personal family blog, both have links for donation on them.



Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Super Date 08

We were so fortunate to have Grandma and Grandpa come over to our house and stay with the kids all day and night. We headed to Spokane, WA in the morning and went to lunch at Red Robin. After lunch we headed to the Spokane Temple for a session there. Then we went shopping at the Church Distribution Center and then the Air Force Base. After that we headed back towards downtown Spokane for dinner. It was super foggy and dark at this point
so we skipped the place we were planning on going and stopped at Dick's. It was good, but not a real Dick's! Those of you from the Seattle area know what I'm talking about. ;)
Then we went to the Spokane Performing Arts Center.
Lisa Hannigan opened the show...she was great.
Wonderful voice and random instruments.
Then we saw Jason Mraz...highly recommend his concert!
We had so much fun, we danced, we laughed, we loved.
Go JASON!!
We had a great time together!





We stopped at Denny's around midnight on the way home.
I look really corny, but I was having fun.
Robert (is actually corny) and is writing in his journal.
He couldn't wait to get home. Lol.



Thanks mom n dad...and thanks Jason Mraz...
and thanks hubby!!
I love you!


Here's a clip of Jason and Lisa doing his song Lucky:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aunkjvk9dvk

One more pic of TayTay.


A better pic from Halloween my mom just sent.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Happy Halloween Pics

Happy Halloween
Hope it was a safe and fun one for all of you.
We had tons of trick-or-treaters!! It's been years since I've seen that type of action.
This was our spider web of lights...looked cooler in person. Oh well.
Fun to decorate our own house!
My Sweet Lil' Ducky
Cookies I made for the Trunk-or-Treat
Mr. T. This was very popular especially with the dads.
In fact, both our ward and neighborhood have some
enthusiastic and good impersonators out there! ;)
Yeah. He LIKES the haircut. Oh my. He sported it to church...
at least I got him in his suit that day.
Halloween night. Mr. T, Dorothy, and a Skunk.
A Motley Crew to be sure.
A cute little stinker.


Practicing with her bottle for our big date on Friday. Looks like she's got it down!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

My thoughts...

Okay, politics aside for the most part to focus on both a historical and personal aspect to today's election for a moment:

I think it is awesome to have some diversity in the White House. I mean, there are numerous women President's in countries around the world. I just simply like that we now have some diversity.

I would really hope that regardless of how I did or didn't vote that people wouldn't assume I feel the way I do BECAUSE my family is black. I would never vote or not vote for anyone for anything because of their ethnicity. I think it sucks that some out there really believe that Obama won ONLY because he's black. Although that may say something about the progress of our country, unfortunately I'm sure there are still those that didn't vote for him for the same reason. Anyways, back to my personal thoughts...

Earlier today, out of the blue, my son Mekhi told me that he wishes he was white and not brown. This just about broke my heart. He didn't have a reason except to say that he thought it would just be better. I did my best to explain to him that God doesn't make mistakes and he is just who he is supposed to be and there is nothing "better" than who he is. So, tonight when I could tell him that the President of our whole country is brown just like him...well? Well, it felt REALLY GOOD!!! I'm glad that kids out there can now really believe they can be anything they want to be and if you don't think kids were thinking otherwise before now, you'd be wrong. For this I am glad.

My other point, which is also something I feel very strongly about is that we now have a duty to uphold and support and pledge allegience to our new President. Just like I didn't appreciate all the smack talk about Bush, I likewise will not appreciate any about Obama. The people have spoken and he is OUR President. I just hope that as a country we can unite and that Obama and his family will be blessed, and that he may be blessed by our Heavenly Father to make changes for the good and for all people.

That's my two cents.

Love ya all and good night!

P.S. - After I told Mekhi the news, he yelled "COOL!" and about 10 minutes later he said, "I guess I don't mind being brown too much. It's been pretty good so far." Gotta love him!