President Gordon B. Hinckley

"We thank thee, O God, for a Prophet, to guide us in these latter days."
I can't believe that President Hinckley is really gone. Quite honestly, I was shocked to hear the news. We were at a 6 Stake missionary fireside, and the mission president delivered the news. There were gasps in the congregation and then everyone burst into tears. The mission president kept his composure, and suggested we end the meeting with singing, "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet." And he added, "Sing it with joy!" I'm glad we were all together in a meeting like that. The spirit was strong and comforting. I am happy for President Hinckley. He is with God, with our Savior, with his sweetheart; he's able to embrace those loved ones who have gone before him. On the other hand, I am sad for us who are left here without him. We all knew that his death was coming. He was 97 1/2 years old! The last couple of General Conferences he looked more and more frail each time. And then he'd always say something like, "I'm in the sunset of my life. I hope to see you again in 6 months." Or, "My life is totally in the hands of God now." That always made me think that he knew he was getting close to leaving this life. I can't imagine life without President Hinckley. I was talking with my MIL earlier and we both agreed: even though we didn't personally know him, we felt like he was our best friend. I remember seeing President Hinckley for the first time up at Ricks, now, BYU-Idaho. He came up to inagurate Elder Bednar to be the president of Ricks. It was the first time I had ever seen a prophet in real life. He walked in the room, and we were all standing, anticipating his arrival. When he walked in, I felt it in my heart. The spirit confirmed to me that he was, indeed, a prophet of God.

I had always believed this, but to feel it so strongly when in his presence was an exprience that strengthened my testimony of a living prophet on the earth. I loved his sweetness, his bluntness and his humor. I loved that he was so great with the media. I loved the way he would clear this throat when he got emotional. I will always have a special place in my heart for President Gordon B. Hinckley. I feel blessed to have been able to live in the time he served as God's prophet.

From the Mouth of Babes

The other day Brett and McKay were wrestling all over our bed. Brett had sinched McKay up in one pant leg of his pajama bottoms--like a sausage. Then Brett loudly declared, "Now, I'm going to EAT you!" He picked up McKay and McKay quickly screamed, "You can't eat me! I have blood in myself!" Brett laughed so hard, McKay had time to make a quick escape with aid from Makenna.

Coach Cami

Well, guess what? I volunteered to be a coach for the city "Jr. Jazz" basketball league. They really needed people to help out and I thought, "Hey, I've never done that before. It might be fun." So, I decided to do it. They assigned me to a team of 6 and 7 year olds with 3 girls. I was really excited about the girls. But, once our first practice came around I thought, "What did I get myself into???" I had no clue what I was going to do. So, I decided that for the first practice we'd just meet eachother and I'd let them play around a little bit and then do some running, and drills. Stuff I remembered from playing back in high school. No sweat, right? Well, little did I know that when all the parents dropped off their kids for practice, they would also STAY THERE! I had a wholel bunch of parents sitting there, watching me, waiting to critique my coaching skills...or lack thereof. Anyway, I totally had to pull stuff out of no where to fill up the 60 minutes of practice time. It went ok. But after we had our first game, that Saturday, I realized how much more we needed to work on. So, by our next practice, I had a plan. And it was totally fun. We did tons of running, and I run with the kids, they love to race me. And I also did challenges. If they could do X amount of perfect passing then I would do 2 laps of sprinting around the gym, or I'd have to do 25 sit-ups. It was really fun. So, I am having fun. Even though it's an extra 2 hours out of my already busy enough week, it's been fun and worth it. I hope the kids are having fun and getting a sense that hard work pays off and a sense of self-worth.

No Treats for 1 whole month!!!!!???

I can't believe I'm doing this! My crazy SIL, Natalie (who by the way is the blessed SIL that set me and Brett up) came up with a crazy idea. She said one of her New Year's goals was to go 1 month without any treats, sweets, desserts. You get the picture, right? Well, I decided to go along with her and do it too. After eating way too much over the holidays and after experiencing the great joy of my pants being a little more snug that I'd like after said holiday, I decided I wanted to join her! Well, we are now 14 days into it and I must say it's going great! It has been hard at times. Very hard, in fact. And I must say, that I probably would have given in if I didn't know that Natalie was counting on me and doing this too. I knew that I would have to be accountable to her and I didn't want to have to tell her that I had blew it! So, it has been awesome and very eye-opening. After less than a week, my afore-mentioned pants were fitting back to normal again. And I have felt really good. I already know the benefits of eating healthy, but to go this long has been really great. I feel so good, I might even extend it.....maybe....But whenever I decide to have treats again, I'm going to make the brownies you see up top. Don't they look so fabulous? They're called Nutella Brownies. Click here if you'd like the recipe. I think my other wonderful SIL, Amz, would really like these. She loves Nutella. Anyway, let me know if any one tries these. As for now, I'll just have to salivate while looking at the picture and imagine what they would smell like. Sometimes, that's almost as good!

Sledding

We got dumped on a couple of days ago and the kids were dying to go sledding. So after my meeting this morning, we decided to go out! Our backyard lets out into a frisbee golf course that has a couple of perfect-sized hills for kids to sled on. It's so great. Most of the time, I let them go out with their friends and I can see them from our kitchen, but this time I decided I should go with them. I started to get ready and McKay said, "You're coming sledding with us too?!?!" He was so excited about it, I decided I need to do things like that a little more often, since it's so easy to just let them go out and play in the back by themselves. I vow to spend more time playing with my kids! We had a blast!

Here is our little angel, Makenna, making a snow angel.


Here's McKay on his new sled he got for Christmas

The Prophet Joseph Smith

These last few weeks I have been preparing to teach a lesson in Relief Society on the introduction chapter in the new Joseph Smith manual. I had to teach this same lesson on Spencer W. Kimball last year. Last year, teaching the lesson was actually quite hard. It was wonderful to be able to read and learn about President Kimball's life. I learned many things I did not know, and my love and appreciation for President Kimball deepened. But, to teach that kind of 'lesson' was really difficult for me. The intro chapter is more just like a outline of the main events and happenings in the prophet's life. So I felt like I was doing a lot of reading and there wasn't much participation. Well, luckily (and hopefully) I have learned from last year, and this year's lesson will be much more interactive and uplifting. I hope that it will inspire the sisters to learn as much as they can about the teachings and life and characteristics of the Prophet Joseph. This is a quote from the intro to the manual: "The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have established the Teaching of Presidents of the Church series to help you deepen your understanding of the restored gospel and draw closer to the Lord through the teachings of latter-day Presidents of the Church. As the Church adds volumes to this series, you will build a collection of gospel reference books for your home. The volumes in this series are designed to be used for both personal study and for quorum and class instruction. This extraordinary new book offers members worldwide an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the Prophet of the Restoration and his teachings. Never before have so many of God’s children had such access to his prophetic statements." I want to convey this message to this sisters in our ward and hope that they will relish the opportunity to have this book. I have a testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that he saw God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I know that the true church of our God and our Savior was not on the earth at that time. Parts of that church were, but the fullness of the true gospel was not. I know that the gospel was restored to the earth through Joseph Smith. That he received all the knowledge and priesthoods and keys needed to restore that church. I know Joseph Smith was a good man; an extraordinary man, at that. He was kind to all-- even his enemies. He was always a friend. He was humble and forgiving. He never asked to be God's prophet, but he did what God asked him to do. I am continually amazed at his faith in God; his optimism. Joseph once told his cousin, George A. Smith, "If I was sunk in the lowest pit of Nova Scotia and all the Rocky Mountains piled on top of me, I ought not to be discouraged but hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage and I should come out on the top of the heap at last." I love the Prophet Joseph and I am thankful for his life, his faith and courage. His example and his love for mankind. I know he is a true Prophet of God. I am thankful that I have been blessed with a testimony to know of the truthfulness of the gospel and of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith. How grateful I am for him. "Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah!"