Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication

Spence, Nathan and I had the opportunity to attend one of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedications at the temple last Friday. (President Monson's birthday.) It was such an amazing event and I feel so blessed to have been able to attend. We were seated in one of the endowment rooms. The speakers were amazing and had great words of wisdom. Of course, made me feel guilty for not going to the temple more often. So I am determined to make it a higher priority in my life. The music was so beautiful and the Spirit was very strong. Spence filled up his white hankerchief with tears before the Hosanna shout even started. :-)

When it was over, the usher stood by our exit to hold us off for a minute from leaving. Our room was right by the elevator. The usher told us the Prophet was coming. We were in the back row of the room so right when Spence peaked his head out to look, President Monson peaked in to say hello to everyone. He shook Spence's hand. Spence was elated. The elevator was taking forever so we got to spend a few minutes only feet from a Prophet of God, along with an Apostle and President Uchtdorf. What amazing men they are. It was an experience I will never forget and will treasure forever.

As I was sitting in the endowment room waiting for the dedication to begin I couldn't help but feel so blessed to live where I do and to have these opportunities that so few people have. I have had the chance to see two new temples built and attend open houses, volunteer in one of the open houses, take part in the Youth Temple Celebration at the Conference Center and attend a temple dedication in the temple. What a great year it has been! And I have a feeling that it will end with my family being sealed in the temple. :-)

Queen Claire

All of my posts seem to be about Claire lately- this one is no different.

Claire has been living like a Queen lately in the mornings. She is so spoiled. Every morning between 6 and 7am I hear this loud "Mom!!" She refuses to come to my room to let me know what she wants. So I have to drag myself out of bed to meet her needs. It's either a drink, something to eat (yes- breakfast snack in bed), or my favorite: "Mom, will you pull my covers up on me?" I just shake my head and think of how ridiculous it is.

Well, a few nights ago I decided that I was going to end this habit. So as we laid in bed I rehearsed with her what to do if she needed a drink- simply reach over to the nightstand and get the cup of water herself. Then I pulled her covers downs and taught her how to pull them up herself. "Now Claire, when you wake up in the middle of the night and your covers are down- what do you do? Do you call for mom or do it yourself?" She showed me how she could do it on her own. Yay!

That next morning at 7am I hear "Mom!" ARGH! So I stumble into her room- her covers are pulled up and she has a grin on her face."

"What do you need Claire?"

"Look! I pulled the covers up all by myself." All I could do was laugh and think I GIVE UP! :-)

Toilet Talk

I was laying in bed with Claire the other night when we had this conversation:

"Mom, are you done growing?"

"Yes Claire, I am."

"Is Dad done growing?"

"Yes, he is. (pause) Well, I guess I could grow fatter....or skinnier."

Claire began to pat my arm lovingly and said "I will still love you no matter what."

"Ah, thanks Claire."

Then after a few moments she says "But if you were fatter it would be easier to sit on the toilet because you wouldn't fall in."

So glad she can find something positive about getting fatter. :-)

Father Sons Campout

Little slow with getting things posted.... Our ward had their annual Father Sons Campout in June. Spence hates to camp so it's always a struggle to get him to go. I bought an air mattress for him and they just took out the back seats of the Sequoia and slept in there. All of the boys took their airsoft guns and the "big boys" took their guns. I wasn't too pleased about that, but everyone survived. Nathan even survived almost falling right into the fire while running from the Bishop in the dark playing "Capture the Flag." Here are some pics from the campout thanks to Bro. John Castleberry.

This is the modern day "Circling the Wagons."

I think we need to have an annual Mother Daughters campout. We could start out with manicures and pedicures. Take a trip to the spa- then out for a little tea at the Grand America downtown. Top it off with a suite there.....guess that's probably not in the ward budget. :-)

The Cheetos Girls and Other Summer Fun

We have spent a lot of time at the swimming pools this summer. Some of my cousins came and spent a few days with us and the kids had a blast playing with them.

Here's my cousin Belle, Claire, and friend Malia at the pool enjoying some Cheetos.

This is my cousin Nick and Logan. The new thing to pass time at my house is to set up the cars, helicopters and army men in the front flower bed. Guess it makes an awesome jungle. :-)

This is at the Murray swimming pool. Claire and my great-nephew Lucas.

Nathan enjoying the diving board.

Logan and Claire at the Murray Pool. They love the waterslide there.

I can't believe there's only another month of summer left for us! I'm sure I will be ready for school to start though. :-)

Finally A Post!

After like forever- I am finally taking the time to catch up on some posts. First is Girls Night Out. The boys had their Father/Sons Campout at the end of June. Claire and I, along with my friend Coby and her daughter and niece, went to the Arts Festival downtown. Claire had fun painting and making little crafts.

After about 30 minutes being there it started to cloud up and get really dark. Then there were a few little raindrops....then all of sudden it was a HUGE downpour. Oh my goodness did we get soaked! We were running for the car. I've never seen raindrops that big. Claire was having a cow and was so worried about the boys being out camping. (They didn't get rained on at all BTW.) Claire just kept saying she needed to just go home and that she needed a nice warm shower. Our car was only parked about 2 blocks from the festival and this is what we looked like:

Right when we got home we took that nice warm shower, got in our cozy jammies and played some card games in bed. It ended up being a nice quiet evening together.



FLOWERS!


A few weeks ago, Claire and I spent the afternoon together planting some flowers. Claire picked them out and had fun helping put them in the pots. She had on quite the "gardening" outfit. :-)

I love my Claire!

Claire's Photography

I finally took the time to download pictures from my digital camera and found that half of them were pictures Claire had taken of her baby dolls. Different dolls, different poses. There were about 50 different picturess, but I won't post all of them. :-) So for all of my photography friends out there- watch out! You might have some competition on your hands! LOL

Then there were some old ones on there that she and Macy took. (Paige is the one in the elephant mask.)

(Notice how Paige is holding the cat- tightly around the neck- the way a cat should be held. j/k)