Sunday 27th January 2008- The Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley dies at age 97

This Sabbath day was a day of remembrance. Our block of meetings at 9:00 went very well with Joshua now understanding a bit of how sacrament meeting runs with hymns sung and prayers said. He also does a very good job of taking the sacrament on his own. I taught my first lesson as the Laurel Advisor and it went really well. I made these really cute handouts that I gave to each girl and all the leaders. The lesson was on 'Living the Gospel Daily' and I made cute flower pens with the quote
"Just as a seed needs daily sunlight, water, plant food and T.L.C. to become a beautiful flower; we, as daughters of God need, love prayer, service, obedience, scripture study, and work, daily to become beautiful young women!"

After having dinner at my parent’s house we headed home in the terrible wind. Around 8:30 my mom called with the news that President Gordon B. Hinckley had passed away. It was such a sad but yet peaceful and happy moment. Just a month ago I had finished the book "Go Forward With Faith: The Biography of Gordon B. Hinckley ". I felt such a stronger connection to the Prophet after learning about his life and everything that led up to him becoming our Prophet, Seer and Revelator. My testimony has grown tremendously and my love for the prophet multiplied. I had always known that Gordon B. Hinckley was our prophet and called of God but now it was a lot more than that. I felt as if I knew him personally!
As we watched news documentaries and listened the news stations highlight his life I knew everything they were talking about as if it were my own grandfather.
We are so blessed to have had such a wonderful man as our prophet and even more blessed to have been apart of all the changes and impacts he had in so many lives. Nearly four years ago his wife Marjorie Pay Hinckley passed away while I was in the temple receiving my endowments and now Gordon B. Hinckley gets to reunite with his beloved.
He was a wonderful example in our lives and will never be forgotten. We are excited for the changes and new experiences to come. We are now beginning a new era.

Some Pictures I took of Marc & Tara

Whew! What a day!

Saturday well what can I say, it was an awsome day!
Lots happened and it was so fun to be with family. My uncle Garth got sealed to his wife Carol in the Timpanogos Temple at 11:00. The Suxo-Sanchez family were kind enough to take Joshua and Steph for a couple hours while I went to their sealing with my parents.
Aaron had to work but he met up with us later for lunch.
The sealing was so amazing and the Sealer did and incredible job. The spirit filled the room and alot of emotions were present. I am so happy for the both of them and they looked so happy. They were both beaming with joy.

We then went outside and waited for them to exit. We all had our cameras out ready to take pictures of the happy couple. I stayed and took some pictures while my parents went back and picked up Joshua and Stephanie. I also did a little photo shoot of Marc and Tara - they are so stinkin cute and the pictures were gorgeous.

For lunch we all gathered at Los Hermanos in Pleasant Grove for some excellent mexican food. Mmmm, my favorite. Josh loves the chips and salsa, he seriously scoops a ton of salsa onto his chip and then takes a huge bite. Only once or twice did he stop and say "hot, hot, hot" and then frantically taking a huge gulp of water. That didn't stop him though :)

After lunch we went home and watched a couple episodes of 'Prison Break' , its so good. Then we headed up to Marc and Tara's house. We were going to watch their kids while they went out for their spa massages. They were given gift certificates for these all exclusive massages that cost just over $100.00 each. They loved it!

Afterward Marc made us this really good dinner. I was impressed, he did a really good job and It was delicious. The kids enjoyed their time playing together as always!

Gotta love 'family weekends'!

25th January 2008

Friday -

We finally got our health insurance sorted out and we actually have a pretty good plan now. I have to find a new doctor but the good news is that we get to keep Joshua's doctor.
I took Josh to American Fork Hospital for the blood tests that needed to be done and Josh actually did really well. He didn't fight the needles or the nurses, he did cry a little when they stuck him with the needle but he was ok after a minute. He is such a brave boy!

Later that evening we went out to dinner with my parents and enjoyed the time out. We went to Chilis (our favorite place) and had to wait 1 hour to get in. Yikes! But the food was delicious.
While there Dr. Anderson called and said that they got joshua's blood tests back and they were a bit concerned about some of the results. Unfortunatly I missed the call so he left me a message and said he would call back on Saturday to discuss the results further.

Update...

This past week has been a busy one!
Thursday (17th Jan) the bishopric came over and extended new callings to Aaron and I. Aaron has been called as the Bear Cub Leader and I have been called as the Laurel Advisor in the Young Womens. We are both very excited and Aaron cannot wait to be a part of Elders Quorum.

Friday (18th Jan) was Marcus' 23rd birthday. We had a little birthday bash for him at our house and Nichole made her very first cake, ever! She didn't do too bad. My cousin Justin and his wife Ashley were also down for the weekend for a sealing they went to. We played some fun games and then watched a few episodes of Prison Break! Its so intense and exciting...
Earlier that day Josh had his 2 year doctor appointment. The doctor evaluated this new rash he has all over his body and diagnosed it as 'Petechiae'. This rash is cause by little blood blisters that form under the skin and can be a sign of many different underlying health problems. So they have written up the labwork for us to go and have some blood work done on Josh. We also have to take him in for and Ultrasound because they couldn't find his left testicle, it has gone back up into his abdomen which can be a problem if it doesn't drop. We are just about done sorting out Health Insurance and then we will be taking him into the hospital for all the testing.

Saturday (19th Jan) brought another long day of events. While Aaron was at work Josh helped me do some laundry and clean the house. I then made a few dozen cookies (the Double Chocolate Dream Cookies everyone loves) that we took up to Marc and Tara's. We met up with Marc and Tara around 5 (including Justin and Ashley) and we went out to dinner. We ate at a place called 'Real India'. The Indian food was so delicious. We had Chicken Tika Masala, Chicken Curry, Coconut Chicken, Rice, bread etc... MMMmmmm it was good and Josh loved it! We then spent the remainder of the evening at Marc and Tara's house playing games, eating cookies and laughing.

Sunday (20th Jan)- We were supposed to go back up to Marc and Tara's for dinner but our day turned into a busy one. After church my companion and I went visiting teaching and then I had Young Women meetings to attend in the evening. When I got home at 2:00 Josh, Aaron, Justin and Ashley were all asleep so I started cooking dinner. We ate dinner around 4:00, relaxed for another hour and then I was off to my meetings.
Our primary class was really sad to see us go, they sang a goodbye song to Aaron while I took Josh to his nursery class. Everyone is always telling me how much they love Aaron, how he has a wonderful sense of humor and is a wonderful dad! They really like him a lot!

Josh is now beginning this singing phase, he loves to sing! There are a couple of songs that he is picking up the words to and during sacrament meeting he tries to sing the Hymns with us. Not so much singing with words but rather Ooos and Ahhhs. Its so cute!

Monday brought Martin Luther King Jr. Day and lots and lots of snow. When we woke up there was at least 1 foot of snow. While I shoveled the drive way another 6 inches to 1 foot fell down on top of it. It took me nearly 2 hours to shovel the driveway and I was paying for it the next day. My back ached because the snow was so heavy. It was beautiful though! I spent most the day working on Young Women stuff and preparing my lesson for sunday.

Tuesday we were back to our normal weekly schedule. Taylor was back and I was working all day on cleaning, laundry ironing etc. It seems as if the days get shorter and shorter and I cannot find the time I need to get everything done.
My parents brought steph down in the evening because she is off track for a few weeks so she will be staying with us. Then Mary Kate called and invited us over for dinner. So we had a delicious dinner with the Suxo-Sanchez, she made a Cheese and Broccoli soup with homemade bread and a fruit salad. Yum Yum. Josh and Steph then hung out at their house for just over and hour while I went to the Young Women Activity. It was a lot of fun, the girls are so cute!
Things are good though, and we received an email from Scott this morning, he is doing great and likes his new companion.

*The second picture of Joshua is of him after getting into a jar of lotion, he loves to put lotion all over his face and in his hair. Its a bit hard to see it in the picture but it was all over, i found him hiding secretly under Aaron's desk with the bottle of lotion... haha.*

Saturday's Activities

Saturday was a busy and fun day! Nichole and Marcus stayed the night and in the morning I did Nichole's hair up and then we headed out to look for wedding dresses.
We spend a few hours looking and she tried on many dresses until she found that special one. It's so beautiful and looked absolutely gorgeous on her.
Marc, Tara and their kids then joined us later, along with Marcus and Nichole, where we all piled in the kitchen and made a big 'breakfast dinner'. It was so yummy.

We had loads of fun playing games and laughing.

Aaron's First 'snowboarding' Experience

Sledding - 11th January 2008

Friday was Joshua's first sledding experience! We went to a place in Lindon with Aaron and Taylor Cronin where we had the time of our lives. Better yet, we had the hill to ourselves.

Joshua loved it more then we thought he would. After awhile he didn't want to wait for us to walk him up the slippery hill so he walked up it on his own not slipping once. After he reached the top he realized he didn't have a sled to slide down on so he slid down on his belly. It was so funny.
As far as Aaron was concerned, he couldn't seem to stay on his feet. Literally minutes after we got out of the car he had already slipped and fell into the snow, but he did infact have his first 'snowboarding' experience on a smaller sled! He did great!

After sledding we met up with Cassie and went to lunch at The Pizza Factory. Mmmm yummy - pizza, pasta, salad after sledding. It was the best!

Parenting

The Lord’s desire for us as parents is that we keep His commandments. He has said: “Teach your children light and truth, according to the commandments. … Set in order your own house. … See that you] are more diligent and concerned at home.”

I want to remind all of us today that no family has reached perfection. All families are subject to the conditions of mortality. All of us are given the gift of agency—to choose for ourselves and to learn from the consequences of our choices.

Each family has its own special circumstances. But the gospel of Jesus Christ addresses every challenge—which is why we must teach it to our children.

Sometimes as parents we feel we have failed when our children make mistakes or stray. Parents are never failures when they do their best to love, teach, pray, and care for their children. Their faith, prayers, and efforts will be consecrated to the good of their children.

-Elder Robert D. Hales-

Daily Fun!

With all the snow on the ground, who could resist.
We got all dressed up in our snowsuits and headed out.

It was a blast!

We had dinner with the Fifes and hung out with steph while my parents were at meetings. Josh is so cute in his 'Cars' pjs. He loves smiling for the camera.

A New Year! 2008

Wow, we are into 08! I am so excited for this year, there is so much to look forward to and so many things happening.
When I woke up this morning to clean the Bank I found there was 6 inches of snow that had fallen overnight. I love waking up to find the trees covered in snow - it makes all the difference during the winter season. As I cleaned and then afterward went grocery shopping i was reflecting on the past year and things to come in the new year.

I love this time of year, its like a new start to begin new goals and plan new and exciting family events. Birthdays, Holidays, Anniversarys, Vacations, Weddings all happening yet again...
April comes our 4th Year Anniversary and Marcus and Nichole are getting married.
You've got to love springtime when all the flowers begin to bloom, i've planted over 50 tulips, daffodils and other flowers that i am excited to see bloom. Summer is just so fun and we will be working on putting grass in our back yard. Hopefully there will be many of boating trips. Yay!
Come August my brother Scott will be returning from his mission in Leeds, England. We are so excited to see him again and especially spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with him. I seriously can't believe it's been nearly two years.

Aaron is doing great at his job and continues to amaze us all. His boss and other co-workers have told me numerous times how they love Aaron and how he is such a hard worker.
Joshua is growing and learning so fast, yesturday he said "I Love You" for the first time and the last two nights he has gone into his room at bedtime and fell asleep on his own listening to his primary lullaby c.d. Its amazing how one day can make all the difference.
We just need to focus on comunicating with our little ones in the right way so that they understand us rather than be full of confusion and upset.

Sunday Dinner With Marc, Tara & Their Cute Kids!