Temple Open House

Earlier this week I took the kids to the Ocquirh Temple open house. It was so beautiful. Lexi said she never wanted to leave. :-) When we were going through the baptistery Trevin saw the baptism clothes and he said "Look there are all of Jesus' clothes" It was so cute. Beautiful! Go if you get a chance.

camping

We went camping this weekend and took our new trailer out for the first time. It was way fun. Shawn's mom and dad came up and spent the day fishing with us at Strawberry. Then Liz and Tien came up and had a little campfire with us. It was great. The only bummer was that my camera battery was dead so I didn't get any pictures. :-(

Easter

Easter was a lot of fun. We took the kids to an Egg Hunt on Saturday at Riverton City. Then we had a great day at church and went to Grandma Williams' house for more Easter fun. Aunt Stacy gave a family home evening lesson on the last week of Christ's life. It was wonderful.

Where has time gone?

I have not fallen into this "not blogging" thing to this point. Sorry to anyone who keeps checking and finding the same old posts.

Anyway, a lot of the same has been happening here for our family. We had parent teacher conferences last week and we were really happy with how the kids are doing in school. It really is amazing to see how they learn. We are grateful for teachers who put the time and effort in to our children and their education.

Baptism Day

Lexi was baptized today and it was a beautiful day. We are so happy and proud that Lexi made the choice to be baptized. We love her so much. Grandma Marks made her beautiful baptism dress. I will post pictures really soon. Hopefully later today.

Baptism Plans

Well, Lexi will be turning eight on the 12th of February. We have been able to make special arrangements so Grandma and Grandpa Marks can come down from Sandpoint. She will be baptized at 9:00 on Saturday the 14th. I think it will be a perfect day. Lexi has such a big heart and what a better day than Valentine's to be baptized on? We are so proud of her. The other night she was talking to her cousin Kassidy, who was just recently baptized, and she asked if it felt fresh when she came out of the water. It was so cute. I remember feeling fresh and clean when I was baptized.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had a very interesting Christmas this year. There was a huge snow storm and Shawn and I both have to remove snow with our jobs. Shawn was called out to plow at 5:00 in the morning. He got to come home for an hour and we opened presents and had breakfast and then back to work. He put in 18 hours Christmas day. I had to do snow removal here at the apartments so that was kinda lame. After I was done the kids and I went to the $ movie and saw High School Musical 3. It was fun. Santa spoiled the kids. Good thing for Santa 'cause for some reason at Christmas we are just always strapped for cash. :-) New Years came with another snow storm, so again out to push and plow. New Year's Eve was fun we went to Shawn's mom and dad's and had a sleepover with all the cousins. Played games and got bruised up playing spoons. :-) We are all ready for the kids so go back to school tomorrow. It will be nice to get back into the regular life routine again.

Lights at Temple Square

We have the privilege of living close enough that we can go up town and see the amazing lights at Temple Square. This year we rode the trax up with Shawn's Mom and Dad. On our way up we saw the Bell family from Sandpoint. What a small world. Then while we were walking through looking at the lights I heard a voice calling my name. It was Sam Hiatt from Sanpoint too. It was a good night to see the lights. Both kids fell asleep on our way home. What a beautiful world we live in.

Credit Cards for Christmas

On Monday I was asking Lexi what she thought Santa would be bringing her for Christmas. She sat there for a second and then she said, "I don't know but I know what I want." She went on to tell me that she wants a credit card. I asked her if she meant like a gift card and she said yes. I asked her why she wanted a card. She told me she wanted to buy stuff for people. Then I got thinking maybe she wanted to buy Trevin, Shawn, and me a present so maybe I should give her some Christmas money to go shopping. I asked her who she wanted to buy stuff for and she told me probably the most heart felt sweet thing I have ever heard. She said, "I want to buy cans of food for poor people who have no money to buy food." I wanted to break down in tears right then. I am so happy that she has such a kind heart. I hope I can be the same way. My little seven year old is a wonderful example of Christ like love to everyone.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Lexi's class has been practicing for a school assembly to sing Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree with actions. Today was the big day and they all wore red shirts and sunglasses. COOL!!!

Called down to the office?

Today when I saw Trevin walking to my office from the bus he was carrying this loaf of bread. I was totally confused so I asked him what the deal was with the bread. He said he got called down to the office and he got to pick something out. Apparently he was caught being good at school and he picked bread for his prize.

Biggest Loser

I am starting a new journey in my life. From January 6th to April 7th, I will be competing in a biggest loser competition hosted by Sherylee and Kristina. I am very much looking forward to changing my life. I think the hardest thing about doing this is going to be forcing myself to stick to the schedule I create for myself with my eating and exercise plan. I know I can do this and it will require a great deal of self control. I am going to start simply by "Practicing" to follow my plan. I think there is a substantial amount of power that comes from practicing. Just like when I learned to play the piano. Back then I had to practice for 30 minutes a day. I don't see any reason why I can't practice 30 minutes a day now. I will be reporting my progress as the time goes. I have a great support group at home, at work, and also with the other people who will be participating in this competition.

Halloween

K, so this was a little while ago, but I had to put a picture of my cool costume I had this year. I was the Queen of Hearts. Not much work got done that day. We were way to busy being silly. pictured left to right Darrin as the Goblin King, Mendi as Pregnant Cheerleader, Cori as Pregnant Cheerleader, and myself as the Queen of Hearts.

Music

I've been listening to a lot of nostalgic music lately and it is amazing to me what the mind can remember when a simple tune is played. Memories of singing with a broom as a microphone, or driving on a long road trip, or cleaning the house as a kid, or getting in a fender bender with Kristina because we were trying to figure out if that person was a woman or a man while listening to the "Car tape" in the "Beach Bomb". Such funny things come back.

Onward Any Onward

This morning Trevin was getting ready for school and Shawn and I were still laying in bed. We could hear him in his room singing a little song. He kept singing "Onward any onward" to the tune of Called to Serve. It was so cute just hearing him. This year during the Primary program Trevin was singing like an opera singer to that song and you could see the congregation was getting a real kick out of it.

Long Time Reader....First Time Blogger

So, I've been reading everyone Else's blogs for a long time now and have finally figured out a little about how to do this. I'm sure I will be an old pro in no time, but for now this is my start.