Easter, General Conference & My Conference Weekend Project

As happens on occasion, General Conference weekend was also Easter. I figured there would be some amazing talks centered on the Savior and the resurrection and I wasn't disappointed. The testimonies were powerful, the music was beautiful and it was a perfect way to commemorate the most important event in the history of the world. I also loved the messages to mothers and parents.

One thing I love about conference weekend is that I can listen to the talks while accomplishing something. Sometimes it is handiwork, sometimes a scrapping project, sometimes it is just coloring with the kids.

This conference, I decided I was going to tackle one of my organizing projects for the year--twenty years worth of family pictures as well as two missions worth of pictures and an album of wedding cake photos. So from two fruit boxes of loose photos, as well as some old, falling-apart photo albums, I started. I spent about eight hours on Saturday and about seven hours on Sunday. This is my finished project. I now have eleven albums, one photo box of loose photos and one photo box of negatives.

I Can't Wait Until I'm Eight!

On Saturday, May 3, 2008, Joseph and his cousin Anna were baptised by their fathers. It was a very special day. We were so happy to have Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in attendance along with their families. We missed those that couldn't come. We enjoyed a delicious lazagna dinner at our church before the baptism. Thanks so much to everyone for coming to share this special day. As you can see from the pictures, the event was accompanied by a great deal of cousins playing together, a quick trip to Shoshone Falls. The guys watched some sporting events, and some people even swam (sorry, I don't have any photos of that). It was such a nice day. We are proud of Joseph and Anna for deciding to follow Jesus's example.

There are a ton of photos. Look at your leisure. When there are this many people, it requires a lot of pictures to capture the fun!
Joe and Anna just before their baptism.
Joe with his parents.
Scott, Anna, Travis and Joe
Joe, Hannah and Lulu flexing their guns!
Travis, Joe, Veronica, Karey, Hannah and Elise
Jacob and Joe
Veronica and Stella play follow the leader
Happy cousins
Travis and Angus
Savannah and Caroline on the fountain
Karey and Stella

Sophie
Lily
Jacob, Nairn, Joe, Bruce and John play ball
More follow the leader
Sam (I think) and Stella enjoying the fountain. That was a very popular feature over the weekend.

Lauren, Nairn and Ethan
Travis, John and John watch the Derby
Alison and Emily
Sam doing what mothers love
Sam doing his little dance

Anna's funny face
Anna's cute face
Julia
Caroline
Kids at the falls

More at the falls
More at the falls
More at the falls
More at the falls

And still more at the falls.

Congratulations, you made it to the end.

Our Personal President Hinckley Experience

We enjoyed the funeral of President Hinckley today. Many shared their own personal experiences with this wonderful man. I'd like to share ours.

When Bruce was 2 1/2 years old (just before President Hinckley was made President of the church), my Dad worked at the church office building. We had gone in to see him and ended up riding the elevator with then Elder Hinckley.

"What a cute little boy," he said.

"Thank you," we said.

"What is your name? No, don't tell me. I'm pretty good at guessing names. Hmm, is it Steven?"

"No, it's Bruce," we said.

"Well, Bruce is a good name, too."

He was kind and funny. Bruce says he's considered naming a son Steven because of the story. It would be a great story for how you got your name.

We will miss President Hinckley, but look forward to wonderful things from President Monson.

WE THANK THEE O GOD FOR A PROPHET

I desperately looked for a way to upload the song "WE THANK THEE O GOD FOR A PROPHET", but unfortunately, I'm just not that computer savvy, so I hope it isn't disrespectful to use the song "Old and Wise", which is a song that reminded me of my Grandpa and came to my mind tonight.

I am sitting here at my computer overwhelmed with emotions. Of course, I knew we couldn't have President Hinckley here with us forever, but I had so hoped he'd be able to hang on until my kids were able to perform for him in person and hear him speak to them at our special temple celebration. That is going to happen sometime between May and July. They have so looked forward to that. The truth is, I was just as excited for myself since I'm YW president and also will be there. I feel so sad that that won't happen.

Along with my sadness, I feel such gratitude that we've had a prophet who loved us so much and loved our children so much. The things he's done are so inspired and he did everything with such love and frankness. For the Strength of Youth is such a blessing to our young people and I'm so thankful we've had a prophet so inspired. What a wonderful thing it has been to have a prophet with such a sense of humor. His conference talks felt more like a friend chatting with us in our living rooms. I loved that about him. What a wonderful leader we've had. I'm so thankful.
I'm so happy for him to be free of the frailties of an old body, even though he put so many of us to shame. What an example of faith he was to us as he endured to the end with strength, courage, humor and love.
What an example of love and eternal marriage. It makes me happy to think of the reunion he is having with his sweet wife, Marjorie.
I feel like I've lost a good friend. He will be so missed. I've loved him so much.
President Gordon B. Hinckley
June 23, 1910 - January 27, 2008

Temple and Meetinghouse Progress Report

I'm not sure why I struggle with getting the pictures in the proper order. I meant this one to be first and then the other temple pictures and then the church pictures, but since I failed, and don't feel like doing it over, here they are.

The temple is beautiful. They are working on the inside and the landscaping. Today a crew with a crane power-cleaned the outside of the temple. After I picked up the three younger kids at school, we took photos of this so you can all see the progress and how beautiful it is. This is Veronica, Joe, and Savannah at the temple.

This is our new meetinghouse. It will be comleted in the next couple of months. We've been told to plan on changes at Stake Conference the second week of November. It is exciting to see the growth and changes in the church here, but it makes me sad to lose some of my young women who I've been working with. Especially hard to think about is losing Veronica's best friend, Kimberly and losing my friend Lori's girls. I've got to figure out ways to stay involved with them.
Another angle of our church. This will shorten our drive to church by about three miles. It's really pretty.
These are some of the beautiful trees that are being planted at the temple. Don't you love the color?
Here is the front view with the plywood still up and the name and message in front. The trees are not tiny trees, but next to the temple, they look pretty small.
Here are some of the pretty rock pillars that I imagine the fence will be attached to. It's anticipated that the temple will be done between April and June, 2008. We're excited!