Yummy Ice Cream

I made the mistake of bringing an ice cream cone back to our table at Jason's Deli before Quinn was done with his lunch. He quickly confiscated it and as you can see he enjoyed it quite a bit. Messy babies are so cute.

Thank you Kat

My sister Kathleen put a nice little blurb on her blog about my daughter. Thanks Kat - that's sweet of you. If anyone want to click over, check out My Blogger Friends on the side, and click on Sister Kathleen.

We are so proud of you Amanda!

Draper Temple Open House

(ok so the sun was really bright)

With so many new temples opening around the world, you would think we would have had the opportunity to take our whole family to a temple open house before. Since we have been married, we've attended the San Diego Temple Open house (March 1993) and Bountiful Temple Open house (Dec 1994) but the oldest two kids don't even remember it. Haylee has been excited about going to the open house since the Draper Temple was announced in 2004. She was just 5, and I told her that she would have a chance to go inside the temple. Somehow, she got in her mind that it was a temple for kids. We "corrected" her understanding over the years and she was especially excited to finally go inside (you see Amanda, Wes, and Heather have all been able to do baptisms for the dead in the Salt Lake Temple, and she has felt soooo left out.)

Today, we had the very special opportunity to attend the Draper, Utah Temple open house, and have our whole family in the temple together. It is of course incredibly beautiful. I love all the decorative glass windows and how much natural light shines inside. The chandeliers are mesmerizing. The colors are muted tans and very light sage greens - some of my favorite tones. I noticed the incredible details, especially the sego lily motif that appeared everywhere - even sculpted into the carpet. The tour ended in a Sealing Room, and our family stood together in front of the mirrors that reflect back and forth seemingly eternally. One of the hosts said, "Now that's an eternal family". That was probably my favorite moment.

I am so grateful that we have temples, and that Troy and I were sealed in the temple almost 19 years ago. We can be an eternal family if we keep the covenants we made there. I pray that we will have the chance to see all five of our children make those same covenants and begin their own eternal families.

Draper Temple Trivia (I can't believe my kids remembered all these details)

129th operating temple

12th temple in Utah

13 foot 8 inch Angel Moroni statue

exterior stone imported from China

interior stone imported from France

interior wood imported from Africa

will serve 60,000 patrons in it's temple district

Time it took us to complete the tour - 2 1/2 hours

Flavors of cookies served - sugar, chocolate, and oatmeal raisin

Last day for open house tours - March 14

Number of open house guests expected - 1.1 million

(after the tour waiting in one of the tents)

Finally Finished (basement)(almost)

I haven't posted a blog for a while, so I thought I'd bring everyone up to date on the status of finishing our basement. We have been doing our basement a little at a time and we finally finished the last two rooms, the hall and the den/multimedia/home theatre room. We finally got carpet in early December and have acquired a couple pieces of furniture. We looked all over Salt Lake for just the right entertainment center and finally found the one we wanted for the best price out here in Tooele. (imagine that). I had the projector and the surround system and now they are finally installed. (YAY)

This is the sectional we just got at IKEA. It is much more comfortable than sitting on the floor. The door leads to the preschool room.

This is looking toward the preschool room and the stairs to upstairs. I can't believe how many DVDs we have collected over the years.

This is looking down the hall towards the bathroom. You can see me in the mirror.

And finally, here is a closer look at the new carpet.

I still have a lot of work to do in the basement. I plan on making some built in book shelves and a desk for a computer for the kids to have another place to do homework. But for now it is very functional and I no longer have a good excuse to not work in the yard. (but that can wait until spring)

One is Fun

Quinn had a great birthday. He thoroughly enjoyed his cake as you can see. He is walking really well now and is a bundle of energy. He's great entertainment for the other kids and goes nonstop.

We took him to Amanda's work to see Santa. He was curious, but not really afraid.

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. Here are pictures of a few of my favorite things about this year's holiday (by the way, I forgot to take a picture of the turkeys):

Everyone helping to prepare the food (fun peeling potatoes)



Finishing touches on the dessert



Homemade rolls ready to bake



And of course an assortment of pie.



In the spirit of the season, here are my top 10 (ok so I included 11) things that I am grateful for this week. I'd love to see all of my friends and families' lists.

1 - The love and support of my husband (in spite of my many short comings)
2 - My 5 precious children
3 - The knowledge and peace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
4 - Mondays - Troy and I both have this day off, but the kids are in school :-)
5 - Having a job that I enjoy
6 - An uninterupted night's sleep
7 - The many miraculous beauties of nature - especially beautiful sunsets
8 - Extended family
9 - Low gas prices
10 - 4 live in babysitters
11 - Chocolate

A Mom Can Brag a Little Can't She?

This is one of those moments where I really miss having Mom and Dad around. Praising my children for their good efforts to their Grandparents is an easy thing - they always respond with pride. Not exactly sure how others might respond, but in their absence, I needed to share. My kids have worked really hard and I am proud of them. I don't know how often a parent gets to see 4 straight "A" report cards, so I have to cherish the moment.