President Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

Ever since last night when I heard about our dear Prophet passing away, his life and example has been on my mind constantly today. I am happy he is reunited with his sweet wife and know he lived a wonderful 97 years on this earth. The selfish part of me is so sad that he is gone and I long to hear him speak to us again. I have been so emotional about the whole thing (can I blame this one hormones too?) and I feel so blessed to have been able to have him as our prophet for so many years. I keep thinking about how he is the only Prophet my children have known and how much they love him. The girls were so very sad when I told them this morning. On the BYU channel they have been playing documentaries on his life and Isaac looked at the T.V and said, "Hey, there's the prophet." I told him that President Hinckley went back to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus last night and that he was happy and healthy there.

I also have thought today about how in September of 2006, Chris, Emily and I had the wonderful opportunity to be in the Sacramento Temple with President Hinckley while he dedicated the Temple. It was an amazing experience and one that I know Emily will never forget in being able to see the prophet. We truly have been blessed by his life and I hope we can all continue to honor him by the way we live our lives. Below his picture is his testimony taken from a talk a couple of years ago.

"I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you heard me bear my witness that this is God's holy work. The vision given the Prophet Joseph in the grove of Palmyra was not an imaginary thing. It was real. It occurred in the broad light of day. Both the Father and the Son spoke to the boy. He saw Them standing in the air above him. He heard Their voices. He gave heed to Their instruction.

"It was the resurrected Lord who was introduced by His Father, the great God of the universe. For the first time in recorded history, both the Father and the Son appeared together to part the curtains and open this, the last and final dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of times.

"The Book of Mormon is all that it purports to be—a work recorded by prophets who lived anciently and whose words have come forth "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations" (Book of Mormon title page).

"The priesthood has been restored under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. All the keys and authority pertaining to eternal life are exercised in this Church.

"Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the great Prophet of this dispensation. This Church, which carries the name of the Redeemer, is true.

"I leave you my testimony, my witness, and my love for each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

President Gordon B. Hinckley
April 1, 2006, Sunday morning session of the 176th Annual World General Conference

So Blessed

It seems like I always am posting things about Isaac lately. I guess it is just the age he is at and the new things he is doing and discovering as he is getting older. Anyway to make up for it a bit I thought I would post something about my two sweet girls. I really can't complain one bit about them. They are such good kids. Emily got assigned to give a talk on Sunday and when I went into her room last night to tuck her in, on her desk she had her talk assignment and then a paper with scripture references that she looked up to go along with the subject. She is such a good example to our family. I love that she loves to give me hugs still even though she is almost 10. I know I need to appreciate that becuase I am sure the day soon will come when she doesn't think her mom is cool any more. Abby is equally as sweet and is so easy to please. She loves to help with Isaac and is often found reading quietly in her room. She is such a wonderful friend to the kids at school and came home last week to tell me that she saw a new girl sitting by her self at recess and asked her to play. She has such a tender heart. I truly am so blessed.

Isaac's Newest Expression

Isaac woke up this morning and started saying, "Darn-it!" He has probably said it about 15 times today and it is only noon. I picked up birthday presents for some of his cousins today and when he saw them he really, really wanted to play with them. I told him they were for the birthday party. His reply: "Darn it!" When he asked if we were going to the birthday party right now and I told him no, his reply: "Darn it!" He doesn't really get mad after he says it, he just says it and moves on. I guess we must say this phrase a lot in our house. I don't know what that says about our house......

P.S. I opened another bag of Chocolate Chips today....."DARN IT!"

Have you ever......

Ate an entire bag of milk chocolate chips??? I opened one yesterday and now it's gone. I ate it. I would like to say that it was my first time doing that, but that would be a big fat lie. Truth is I have done it quite a bit. I would also like to say that it is just a pregnancy thing, but that wouldn't be true either. Although I do blame this particular binge on my glucose test I took yesterday morning since I had been really careful about eating sweets the day before. I didn't want my results to be off and have to drink the yucky gunk again. So after my test I opened the bag....I really shouldn't keep them in the house. Okay fess up, who is with me???

Making a Mess!

When Abby was little she loved to tear up old magazines. Emily would join in the fun and soon the room would be a disaster. They had so much fun and it kept them occupied for quite a while so I would allow it. A week or so ago Em asked if they could do it again. I was kind of surprised she even remembered since it had probably been at least 5 years. As you can see I let them........ They had tons of fun and the best part is that they cleaned up every scrap of paper all by themselves!

Where did my baby go???

This is what I found the other day when I went in to wake Isaac up. He looked so BIG in his crib and it made me sad to think of him not being my baby anymore. Yes he is still in a crib.....we plan on moving him soon, but I keep delaying it. Maybe it is the hormones of being pregnant but I will miss him being my baby.

In my nostalgia I had to put together a slide show of my little guy as he has grown up the last 2 1/2 years. What a cute and happy boy!

Good Book?

Hopefully Chris won't get mad at me for posting this picture of him. I just couldn't resist! At first glance it appears that Chris may be reading. Which in itself would be quite shocking. However if you look closer you will notice that he is actually NOT reading, but SLEEPING. Yes his eyes are closed. I think he did have good intentions to read, but it wasn't to be. Love you Honey!

TAHOE

After Christmas we went up to Tahoe so we could play in the snow and Chris and the girls could ski for a few days.

The girls skied for three days. Two of the days they were in ski school and one of the days they skied the whole day with dad since ski school was full (see the picture of their "dorrito lunch" with dad?).




They were able to be in the same class together and had a lot of fun. Their instructor said that Abby was a fearless skier and that Em has perfect balance (Em would also say she is fearless!). Emily's favorite part of skiing was going over a big jump, having her skis fly off and getting the wind knocked out of her.


After a cold day of skiing nothing is better than getting in the hot tub!! The girls were so hot they had to go play in the snow. They were even sliding down the sledding hill on their bottoms...CRAZY!