Lightening video

Here is another one of just Lightening playing.

Rachel's art work

Rachel has a website for her Close to My Heart stuff, and she has a section where she posts her current art work. I really liked the butterfly card ( New Create-A-Shade Pearl Paint Class)

The butterfly looks like one of those ones you see at the store in the plastic domes or something.
and this one ( Paper Garden 3x3 Card ). She is getting ready to submit these and some other pieces to the Close to My Heart corporate office to see if she can teach a technique class at the national convention this summer in Orlando, Fl. I'm not sure what other art pieces she is submitting, but you can ask her or just check out her art page and see what appears in the next week or so.

Valentine's Day

Another Valentine's day has come and gone. A good day, but I'm glad I only have to remember it once a year (that way I only have one chance a year to forget it as opposed to 12 times if it was monthly). As you can see from Rachel's smile, I didn't for get this year. (also note her new hair cut)
Rachel likes to make sure the kids are involved in things too, and for Valentine's she always gets them balloons. This makes Lady Bug especially happy, she will carry her balloon around all over the house and to bed with her (the boys do this sometimes too). She is very possessive and will yell at anyone who touches her balloon (like her brothers), but all smiles the rest of the time.

My birthday

It was my birthday last week. I had a good time for the most part. I decided to surprise Rachel and take her out on a date for my birthday/Valentine's day. I even got a babysitter, made dinner reservations and called the theater for show times. The only problem was that Macaroni Grill in Murray can't handle large crowds. It happened to also be dance night for one of the local high schools (we saw some interesting things that passed as formal dresses...), so it was busy; but I made a reservation... I had good company for the wait (it is not often that we get to talk for more than 5 minutes without being interrupted by children) so I didn't notice that we had been waiting for an hour and a half to be seated. When I asked the greeter, door person why it was taking so long, it turned out that we had been forgotten and skipped!! We couldn't stay because we had to get to a movie showing on time and get the kids. All they could say was "we're very sorry". No offers to make it up or anything.
The rest of the night was great though. We ate dinner at the theater and then saw National Treasure II, which was pretty good for a sequel.
Rachel made a great cake for me on Sunday, it was a peppermint poke cake. The recipe is on the back of one of the Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix boxes, you take a chocolate cake, poke holes in it, and pour a vanilla pudding mixed with peppermint extract over it. Frost it and put pieces of peppermint pattie on top and enjoy!

Lightening and Spidey

I taught this one to Lightening last week at church to try and keep him occupied and quiet during sacrament meeting last week. He taught it to Spidey the best he could remember, and this is what we got. The original words go like this:

Here is the chapel,
Here is the steeple,
open the doors and see all the people.
Close the doors, so they can pray.
Open the doors and they all run away.

Lady Bug's in nursery!

Today was Lady Bug's first day in nursery, and mom and dad's first Sunday without kids in sunday school in 4 1/2 years. Lady Bug went very willingly, and everyone said she was the cutest little girl in nursery.

President Hinckley's funeral

Friday morning we went to the viewing for President Hinckley. We were debating on whether or not to drive into Salt Lake or not. It was snowing while we were driving, and by Sandy traffic was standing still on the freeway because of an accident. We quickly exited and rode Trax into town, which made the kids happy.
It was a good thing we went first thing in the morning. Rachel and the boys entered at 9:30 am without having to wait really. After I got in line 5 minutes later (I had to drop my backpack and the camera off at the baggage check desk first) Lady Bug and I waited about 10-15 minutes outside (in the express line, the purse check line was at least twice as long) and another 20 minutes inside. Just like the Rexburg temple open house, this was very well organized. No one seemed to mind the waiting, and the ushers were very kind and had us sitting when there were long waits.
We watched the funeral on TV, which was nicely done. I'm sure re-broadcasts of the funeral will be available online for those who missed it. Afterwards, it was special to see all the people lining the route to the cemetary. Many waved white handkerchiefs or canes in tribute, and many of the churches and the City-County building rang their bells for him. President Hinckley will be remembered for many things by many, many people.

Handball tourney

I had the chance to play in a handball tournament last weekend in Murray. For those who don't know, handball is a lot like racquetball but you hit the ball with your hands and it's alot more fun. I lost both of my matches, but still had fun!

Rexburg Temple Open House

January 14th we braved cold and snow to go see the new Rexburg temple. Because of allergies we had to spend Sunday night at the Days Inn in Rexburg, but that made it easier getting to the temple by 8:30 am. Being Rexburg it was bitter cold, it would have been that way even without the wind blowing!
The open house was very well organized. We all went into a room for a 15 minute video presentation on temples (there were a dozen or so room set aside for this) at the new stake center next door. The we walk up to the temple doors through on a covered, heated sidewalk. At the door they had volunteers slip booties over your shoes, then we went on the tour with a couple for tour guides. We never had to wait for anything, and never had to be in the cold.
The temple isn't very big, there are only 2 endowment rooms; there are 5 sealing rooms though. There are several motifs inspired by the area, wheat is seen in several paintings and in the decoration in the carpet and stair railing. The walls in the ordinance rooms are painted with outdoor scenes from the area.

Snow days

We've been getting a lot of snow here lately. One brother at church said that this was more snow than he has seen in ten years of living here. Remarkably enough, we had clear skys for president Hinckley's funeral. It's making up for it now though, we have gotten about 5 inches at our house since last night, and it is still snowing!