Draper Temple Celebration is Tonight

I am so excited for the Draper Temple Celebration tonight. On Wednesday all the participants went to the Conference to go over the performance twice. All of the participants is somewhere around 6,00 youth which is pretty incredible. We left our homes a little before 4:00 pm and we returned after 11pm. It has been quite a sacrifice for all of the youth, but especially the Lombardi's, the Maughan's, and Brother MacDonald who have put in countless hours in their behalf by being in charge of teaching them the music and dance steps which isn't an easy task to a lot of youth who have competing schedules with dance, soccer and other conflicting activities. But regardless they made it happen after months of work by practicing twice each week.

On Wednesday night when we were in the Conference Center and we watched everything coming together it was so inspiring and magnificent to see the youth perform so well in their dance and music. I was in awe of how much they had accomplished. One of the things that was cool was to see the youth cheering each other on when they were performing for one another. What a blessing it is to have temples continue to dot the earth and to be blessed to live in a time where we can have the opportunity to do the work for others that they can't do for themselves. This temple will mean something to the youth of this area after sacrificing their time to truly celebrate it coming "high on the Mountain top".

I am so excited tonight to see the final production that they will be doing for President Monson all that are privileged to attend!

Just wanted to let you know.....

I just wanted to let you know about a wonderful book that I recently read that I am certain you will LOVE!!! And it just so happens to be from a former member of our ward and one of my favorite bishops I have ever had. He recently wrote a book called, "Sliding into the Millennium." I finished reading it and it has been one of my favorite reads. I loved the book because it really made me think and it inspired me and has caused me to ponder my life and re-prioritize my goals and direction. I love any book that makes me think long after I finish it. One of the things that I loved the most about the book is that it was written with characters that were that served in the bishopric of this former bishop, Jerry Hirst. For example he has the characters Doug/Janet/ Bob/Alice and James/Angie who were members of the bishopric along with their wives. It was really cool to read and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. There are two ways to purchase the book.

One way to purchase it is to buy it off the Internet as an e-book for only $3.20 (it is listed as $3.99, but to get 20% you need to enter the discount code listed below in the red) and also you will save trees in doing so! :) To get it this way go to his web page at www. jerryhirst.com and then put in the discount code VJCbc20 to get 20% off. Then you can either download it to your computer or put it on your hand held device. Or if you prefer to get a tangible copy you can get it through Lulu and have it sent directly to your door by going to http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/sliding-into-the-millennium/7182796 It is $11.42 through Lulu. I know you won't be disappointed when you read it. Let me know what you think or let Jerry know. Happy Reading! OK, for some reason the links aren't working that well no matter what I do so maybe you could just cut and paste them? Sorry. I will keep working on them, but if they still don't work if you could just try that instead! Thanks!

Why is the end of the school year so crazy?

Kara recently did a poetry unit for her class. She worked really
hard on it and did all kinds of poems (some I had never heard of). She
did illustrations for it and then there class did a reading of their poems for
all of the parents that could come for the reading of it.
The day I got my hair cut and colored. Why can't I ever
get it to look that good on my own. (Kara wanted to take pictures and Matt was out of town in CA for the week. Oh and I am in my PJ ready for bed and it still looked that good after almost the whole day; which never happens when I do my hair)!
Here is Kara and and the group, "Up with Kids" performing
"Enchanted" Kara had to changed her costume four times. There
were 96 people in the play and they did a marvelous job.




Elder Kimmel (one of our favorite missionaries. He is the one on the left) was in the
area for a baptism and he decided to come and visit us. What a
treat and while he was here I took a picture so I could send his mom
a copy too.
In the background is Spencer talking to Lindsay
who happens to work at one of the kiosks that is right by the piano
recital.
And here is Kara and all of the piano students of her teacher before the recital
at our local mall. It was a lot of fun and they all did well. You would think
we only had one child by the look of the pictures, but the rest are just camera shy.

Spencer just finished finals and is about to start classes again. He also shaved and got a hair cut in hopes of finding a job. Classes are supposed to start for him this week. We have been remodeling our master bathroom which has been fun, but it is close to being finished. Hooray!
The temple celebration is coming to a close. It has made things very busy, but it has been so rewarding to work on. Colton and I went to a wonderful practice yesterday at the conference center. Kara had a full dress rehearsal yesterday too for the dance portion. Colton is going to be working at the cub day camp and is really excited. He will be working in the super hero camp and we have been driving him all over the valley to take him to his meetings for it. Last Saturday I ran into one of the missionaries we had in our ward for 10 months, Elder Peters. It was great to see him. What are the chances of that? He will be going home in a month.
On Mother's Day we talked to Coby and it was so great to hear his voice. He sounds so good and so busy and happy. Well, until next time.....

Spencer turns 19!

On May 1st Spencer turned 19. Unfortunately, for him it was also reading days for finals week so he wanted to celebrate most of his birthday on Saturday. But I knew if I asked him if he wanted to got out for breakfast on his birthday he wouldn't turn me down so we went to Ihop--just the two of us and I would have taken pictures, but frankly he is just not that into pictures and the only reason I have these pictures is because Lindsay was there and he will do pretty much anything if she is around (thank you Lindsay)!! :) Then we headed over to Costco quickly to get the meat he wanted for his dinner and then he went home to study for his finals. He still had three finals and had finished one. I went home and quickly made a birthday cake for him and he had two of his friends stop by and drop off some goodies and his girlfriend called to wish him a happy birthday too. Then I went to Kara's school (where sometimes I think I visit a lot) to help and also so he had quiet time to study. Then later that night we came home and Spencer, Lindsay, Matt, and I went and saw Wolverine! I LOVED it. We didn't go and see it at the same showing as Lindsay and Spencer wanted to see it alone but we did go drive together. Lindsay gave Spencer her presents and he was pretty happy about that. Then after we came home Lindsay, Spencer and I wanted to watch another X men movie (it got us on a roll and Lindsay had never seen them before). Matt fell asleep so he didn't get to enjoy them all. On Saturday we had our birthday dinner for Spencer and then Lindsay joined us for birthday cake and presents which consisted of money--kind of boring in my opinion. Spencer got two birthday cakes the one I made on Friday and then an ice cream birthday cake on Saturday.

I am grateful Spencer was born in our family. He has brought me a lot of joy. On Monday night we had our family night about him. I talked about when he was born and talked about the cute things he did when he was born and then everyone talked about what they liked about him. It is always a lot of fun to do that. I got hersey kisses and whenever anyone said something they loved about him I threw a kiss to them and then Spencer got a kiss too. Spencer has been throwing me kisses each day since he has been born and some really crazy curve balls too! :) I sure love you Spencer and I am glad you are my son!