I Love to See the Temple

(Idaho Falls Temple, picture from LDS.org)

In light of the recent Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I would post about something that I am grateful for: Temples.

When I was young, the Primary song, "I Love to See the Temple" was my favorite. I loved singing the song and listening to the words. I felt like they were meant for me. As I got older, I came to love the temple and anticipate greatly the day that I would be able to receive my own temple ordinances and blessings. I view that day as one of the most sacred and important days in my life, which led up to another sacred event: the most wonderful and crowning blessing, my sealing to my sweetheart, Devin. Because of that sealing, we also have the privilege of having our beautiful daughter sealed to us as well. I am most grateful for this.

It is hard for me to express just how much the Temple means to me. I love the feeling that is felt there. Although we are not perfect, Devin and I try to attend the Temple regularly and I feel extra peace and strength that flows into my life when I go there. I can't pretend that I understand everything that is taught, but one thing I know for sure is that I know it is the Lord's house. I know that the things that are felt there and the ordinances that are performed there cannot be found elsewhere and cannot be replaced. In short, I have a testimony of the Temple and I am so grateful for this sacred place in my life.

In particularly troubling times, the temple brings added comfort and understanding. I have been thinking a lot about a recent tragedy, the death of a former bishopric member of ours in a caving accident. He leaves a pregnant wife and a 14 month old daughter. This breaks my heart for her and the family. I know that the blessings of the Temple will bring her comfort in this terrible time and that she can go forward knowing that she is sealed to her husband and will spend eternity with him, when the time comes. Having watched my sister go through the similar process of losing her husband (albeit in totally different circumstances), I know that the Temple is also paramount in her ability to move forward and find joy in life. Without those blessings, I cannot imagine the dispair that death would bring. There would seem to be little that could shake the mourning and feeling of loss. Thankfully, we have the knowlege that we will see our loved ones again in the eternities if we are faithful to our covenants.

I know these things for a surety and I am grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to be a partaker of the blessings of the Temple. I hope you all have had a happy and safe Thanksgiving and that you have had time to reflect upon and give Thanks for the blessings in your life!

It's All Hereditary

Hallie has definitely received some hereditary traits from my side of the family...BOB- We like to call the "belly over belt" BOB for short. This most definitely better not come from me personally, but I do have a few uncles that I can name that have/had the BOB. Perhaps this picture just makes Hallie's tummy look extra large because her sweater is three sizes too small. You pick. However, definitely time to retire the sweater.

Chatterbox- This absolutely, 100% comes from Devin. The animated talking with the hands though, well that comes from me. I use my hands to talk when I am describing something to someone on the phone. Nevermind that they can't see me... Hallie talks with her hands all the time too. It is quite comical. (sorry this video is so dark, we have terrible lighting upstairs!)

Bad Driving- Yes, she got that one too. Poor girl! I fully admit that I am a terrible driver, but as you can see, so is she!!

Digging through the Garbage- Also, unfortunately something I have been known to do. No pictures of this, it just occurred to me because it is what Hallie is doing right now. Perhaps I should keep a better eye on my child?

It is good to know that she has at least some of my traits, although as she gets older, let's hope she starts to develop the more desirable ones...

Winner Winner...

After never having won anything in my life, I am proud to announce that I got a phone call today from Home Depot announcing that I have won a fabulous prize...dun dun dun...A year's supply of laundry detergent and a 2 year supply of dishwashing soap!! Yes, it's true. Since we have been frequenting the Home Depot in the name of home repair, last time I was there, they had a washer and dryer out front that you can register to win. Of course I entered, I mean why not? Well, apparently I didn't win the washer and dryer, but I did get the above named soaps. Fantastic! I am honestly more excited about the fact that I won than the soap itself. They should be delivering my prize on Tuesday. We will see how it goes. If you don't believe me, you can join in Devin's ranks. He didn't believe me either.

Now, since I haven't posted pictures in a while. Have a look at a few of Hallie's latest happenings.

MMM MMM chocolate! We have a fan here. Don't mind the ugly cabinets in the background, they are just part of our kitchen that is going going gone. My family all came last week to help us stain our new cabinets and they should be installed in the near future. Exciting! Definitely an upgrade from those old beasts.

Hals got this cart from Che' and Landon for her birthday and then the next day got a baby stroller from her aunt Kirston and kids. She is soooo happy with both. She loves pushing them around and in particular loves putting her bear in, then taking it out, then putting it in, then taking it out. Serious entertainment I am telling you.

Hmm well it appears that that is all I have to post about right now. Don't be too jealous about our laundry soap. I may just share.

Pet Peeves

So, I have one. I am an avid obituary reader. Always have been. I don't know why. I was shocked when I moved to Utah and there were 4 pages of obituaries in the paper instead of 4 total.

Anyway. The reason I am telling you this is because I absolutely hate, Hate, HATE it when the obituary does not list a cause of death. I am then left to surmise that all those without a listed cause of death (unless they are 94 years or older) is suicide. I don't like to think that half the people in the obituaries committed suicide. So, people, please include in your obituaries the cause of death, at least for my sanity.

My sister and I always call to compare funny obituaries. I am not trying to be insensitive, but dang there are some funny ones. Like the one that said to rock in your rocking chair and enjoy a beer in the deceased's memory. That's classic right there. I had to write my own obituary for a class one time. That was definitely an odd experience, one I hope to never repeat.

Why am I blogging about this you ask? I am not quite sure. I think I should put a limit on my blogging and only blog before 10 pm or something, so you don't get weird ones like this. However, this has been on my mind because I just spent a half hour on the internet trying to research how someone died.

Probably I shouldn't have just admitted all that stuff. Oh well. Just tell me that you have weirder pet peeves than me and I will feel better.

Gross Creatures

Two quick stories:

• When we were in Idaho for Halloween/Hallie's birthday bash 1, all the women in the family took a trek out to see my Aunt Sue-Dawg's (Don't worry, I am not offending her, that is her preferred name) new house that is being built. It's way out in no man's land. Anyway, we toured around ooohhing and ahhhing at the appropriate times when all the sudden, my cousin Hailie shouted, "THERE'S A MOUSE!!!" Sure enough, we all peeked around the corner of the den and saw a mouse, alive, but caught squirming in a spider trap. Well, you can imagine the chaos that then ensued. Seven women, all screaming, huddled near the door, yelling, "you do something about it!" "No, you do something about it!" and on and on and on...Finally, Sue grabbed a styrafoam container and threw it over the top of the sick mouse so we wouldn't have to see him. Well, it didn't really help cause we all still knew he was there. It kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. I don't like mice.


• The other day I was sweeping the kitchen floor, when all the sudden, out of nowhere, a HUGE moth appeared. It kept swirling around my head and it was grossing me out terribly. I shouted at it and chased it around the kitchen, trying to kill it with the broom, for a good 5 minutes before I thought that it might be smart to turn off the light. That seemed to help, but it sure wasn't easy to sweep in the dark (this was at night). I also do not like moths.

I later told Devin about story number 2 and he just died laughing. He thought it was ridiculous to picture me chasing the moth around with the broom. But, you have to do what you have to do. We then got into a lengthy discussion about our opinions on the nastiest creatures. He maintains that it is the tapeworm, but I am quite torn. I feel pretty sickly about a lot of things. I can kill a spider any day, that's no problem for me. However, a moth really gets to me. I also hate snakes and mice. And since I can't see a tapeworm, I don't really think it would be that bad. I even had two co-workers that I worked with at a previous job that talked seriously about buying tapeworms to help them lose weight (Odd, eh?). So, please help us settle this debate once and for all. Vote on our poll ----------------> over there and give us your opinion on what disgusts you most. If it is something else, you can leave a comment here.

PS. I think this almost takes the cake. I can't imagine meeting one of those things. ICK!! I would just post the picture here, but I don't want to drive myself or others away from my blog. Happy Voting!

Good to Know...

Apparently Hals looks more like her dad. I wonder what would happen if we used different pictures??? Also, I have never seen one of these where the kid is more than 10% like one parent. More often than not, they are equal or close. Anyone seen any big differences? I am curious.

1.0 part 2.0

Ok, so I know everyone is probably sick of the birthday blogs. This is the last one, promise! How often does your baby turn one? Anyway, I am sure at least the grandparents want to see pictures. So without further ado, here is what we did for Hallie's birthday on the actual day. :) First, I decided to let Hals do whatever she wanted. Afterall, your birthday only comes once per year. Devin agreed to this as long as she "didn't drink poison." I told him I am not that stupid...But, I did allow her to destroy a roll of toilet paper. Pretty friendly of me, I thought.

Second, Hals got to spend some quality time with her dad near the ceiling. He just wanted her to see what the view is like for later in life when she is over 6 feet tall.

For lunch we gave her pizza. Ohhh did she love that.
That night, we couldn't think of a darn thing a 1 year old would like. We settled on going to McDonald's like I used to for my birthday parties when I was young. Yippee!! So Hals enjoyed her first Happy Meal (don't judge us on the terrible nutrition for the day, its not normally that bad...but she did eat apples with her chicken nuggets, so that counts for something, right?). *yes, we switched bows partway through the day. She refused to keep the other one on, perhaps cause it was in her eyes. So we went with a smaller one.*
She got a few more presents, including two fabulous books from my friend Camille that she totally adores. Right up there with big bear as favorite gifts. Love her face in this picture, that is a totally classic Hallie face.

She got a mini- kiddie cone. We thought it was plenty for her, but she thought different as she then took over my cone and then Camille's. Remember that letting her do anything she wants all day? Starting to regret it at this point...
Too bad I am so huge I am covering Ronald McDonald. Not a feat I am proud of. but, please note the ice cream all over Hallie's face and her full mouth. Hals loved this piano thing that played music when you walked on it. Spiffy for sure.

The present we got her for that day was this doll. She is so funny with it! She looks nervously at it and gets a little scared at times, but she also won't let it out of her sight. She was holding it and patting its back and trying to feed it her milk. Perhaps she will be a nice older sister someday? We will have to wait a while to find out about that.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, she had a fabulous birthday week. It was also my mom's birthday the next day, yesterday. She is still celebrating through Saturday at 3:30 (that's the deadline that her husband Dave gave). I am sad I can't be there to celebrate too. But, Happy Birthday mom!! We hope 50 is as good as 40! (ha ha, just kidding, she is only 47. But we already have fabulous plans for the big 50. Just you wait...)

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Brand New

1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months
5 months
6 months
7 months
8 months
9 months
10 months
11 months
12 months

I honestly cannot believe that it has been a whole year since I was at the hospital anticipating the arrival of our little girl. I was so worried that she would be ugly (every mother's fear) and was so relieved when she was just gorgeous from the beginning. Our lives have been so full and fun with Hallie, every day is a new adventure. She is the greatest joy in our lives and we are thankful every day that we were blessed to have her.

Here are a few things about our 1 year old:

• She claps like a pro
• She sticks out her tongue frequently, on command and otherwise
• She knows where her nose is, but will only point to other people's noses, not her own
• she folds her arms all the time (see above picture). She knows to do it when we pray, but also does it frequently otherwise, like after every other bite when she eats. What can we say, she maintains a level of spirituality that none of us have gotten to yet!
• she loves to talk and jibber. She uses her tongue to do so a lot and it is really funny.
• she leads music when it comes on and especially at church
• she also sings with the music on ocassion, when she really likes the song
• she loves to jump up and down when someone is holding her or when she is standing on the couch
• she walks and runs with help although she does not yet walk on her own. She walks around furniture and walls.
• she crawls up and down the stairs
• she tries to walk down the stairs. Now, someone explain to me why she will not attempt to walk on her own without prodding, but she will always, without fail, crawl up the stairs and then stand up and start to try walking down? Let's master regular, even floor walking first, eh?
• uses a comb or a brush to comb her hair
• loves to help brush her teeth
• absolutely LOVES being the center of attention and has the system down
• "flirts" with men of all ages, including a middle aged man last week in my sister's ward. She does this by peeking at them and then acting shy and giving them a small smile and then repeating the process. Its funny that she can identify boys and men to do this with because she never does it with women.
• loves to be chased, she thinks it is the funnest game
• does the actions to patty cake
• pulls out her hair daily after mom has done her best to make it look cute
• tries to put her own shoes on
• her favorite toys are books and stuffed animals
• keeps the beat to music by bobbing her head
• "talks" on the phone or anything else that has buttons, such as a remote. Her conversations usually go, blah blah blah, pause. Laugh laugh laugh. Repeat. She must have learned that from somewhere?
• favorite foods are bananas, tomatoes, and sweets.
• least favorite food is potatoes. Still one of the only things she simply will not eat.
• She loves water. She splashes through bathtime every night and the best treat for her is to go swimming.

Simply said, we just love our Hallie girl! Happy birthday baby!!!!!

1.0 part 1.0

In our family, we like to celebrate birthdays for as long as possible. If you are my mom, your birthday lasts about a month nowadays. If you are Hallie, since you are just a little girl, your birthday lasts about half a week, though that is still quite good if you ask me. Over the weekend, we therefore went to Idaho to start the party! The cake. You have to have a cute cake for a 1 year old. Chris's sister Stephanie made this for us. Isn't it the cutest thing?

Hals posing with her cake. Since it was Halloween, we rolled two parties into one. Gotta love it.

We started by eating potato soup and cornbread that my mom made. It was delish.We then went to opening presents. Hals is ONE SPOILED GIRL. She got a ridiculous amount of presents. She quickly learned how to open them too, as you can see.
Hals and her loot. Told ya, she's spoiled.
Next, the favorite part! Cake time!! YAY!! Clearly, Hals was anticipating the prize coming her way...

We gave her one whole round part of the caterpillar. A little excessive? You betcha!!!

After figuring out what she was supposed to do, she quickly got to work on that cake.

There was no doubt she would love it since both her father and I are extreme sugar-holics. Love it she did.

Ta-da!!! I made a mess!

Next, we had a costume parade for the kiddies. Aunt Mariann and Grandma pulled out all the stops. They brought individual treats for each of the kids, right on down to jars of baby food for Sadie and Max. So funny! Hals is clearly mad in this picture. Actually, I don't think I have any pictures of her in her costume where she is happy. Oh well.
Grandma decorated scary faces on her bags of candy. She is too funny.

I just have to include this cause it cracks me up. Doyle keeps a large stash of HUGE pickles in the fridge for Mariann. Devin and Nort decided they wanted one too so everyone was sitting around washing down the cake with pickles. Sick.

That night, we got the girls dressed back up to go trick or treating! (Like they care, but I DID!) So again, Hals was quite mad. She wiped all her makeup off right after this, so that was the end of that. She spent the rest of the night looking like she had a few black eyes.

Sadie was Eyeore, Chris's favorite. We took them around a coul-de-sac trick or treating. That was pretty fun. Devin ate all Hallie's candy already, darn it all.


Ok, I lied. Here is a somewhat happy picture. Only because the ordeal was almost over. We were on our way to my dad's house so that the girls could trick or treat there.

Last, Hals got to open one more BIG present from dad and Sharon. She got this gigantic bear that is like twice her size. She loooooves it. She kept hugging it and saying "ohhhhhh" and throwing herself on top of it. Super funny. She loves stuffed animals, so it was the perfect gift for her. She has a small teddy that she sleeps with (well small compared to that) so on the drive home on Sunday, she had both in her arms. She would get mad if she lost one, so pretty much we couldn't see her the whole time until she fell asleep. It was cute.

Of course, gotta have a video of the cake eating extravaganza. She was shoving it in like she had never eaten before. Glad she enjoyed it, thats the last time she is getting that much cake for a lloooooooong time!

Sorry for the enormous amounts of pictures. We will see what we do on her actual birthday, Wednesday. We don't really know what to do, but want to make the day special for her, so we will see what we come up with! Hope everyone had as happy a Halloween as we did!