"I Love To See the Temple"

"I love to see the temple. I'm going there someday

To feel the Holy Spirit, To listen and to pray.

For the temple is a house of God, A place of love and beauty.

I'll prepare myself while I am young:

This is my sacred duty."

The words to a familiar primary song that all my grandchildren sing often.

I wanted to make that happen when they announced the open house of the Ogden Utah Temple

Amazingly the open house was held when all 8 of our grandchildren were going to be in town 

so as soon as they became available I got the tickets for all of us.

Here is our cute family.  

Notice we look like a polygamist family because not one of the dads of the kids were in town, 

but the important part to me was getting the children to see 

and feel the importance of the temple.

It was absolutely beautiful.  

The night became a little crazy and overwhelming 

so I'm not sure the impact was what I had anticipated, 

but hopefully they will remember being there

and want to return when they are older.

The fountains and grounds are wonderful.

How precious are these little ones?

I will never be the grandma with the clean house or the fresh baked goodies.

I won't even be the one who spends lots of money buying them "Things".

BUT I will be the one who will help them experience this amazing world 

that we have been blessed to live in.

I want them to love animals, nature and the wonders of the earth.

Their talents and natural curiosities need to be developed and expressed.

 I want them to be exposed to cultural events and activities.

Their educational pursuits will always be encouraged by me.

Most importantly they need to be strong in their testimonies of who they are.

My job as a grandma is to help them KNOW that they are a Child of God.

I want them to Be Strong and Unwavering as they face this world each day.

That is my job as a Grandma.  

A Quick Catch Up

I begin to procrastinate blogging when I get behind and so I'm going to do a quick catch up so I can begin blogging regularly again.
I do want this to be a family history record so I need to get most of the things we do recorded.  

The first of May Jessi, Amy and I went to Women's Conference.
I'm sure I have been over 20 times in the past and I still love it.
When I first started going with my friends from Logan there were only about 3000 women that attended.  Now there are about 13,000 attendees so the logistics are a little different
but the same incredible spirit is still there.
I want to get my girls in the habit of attending conferences like this because as moms we all need to fill our bucket so that we have something to give to our families.
Everyone needs spiritual nourishment but especially busy moms.  

Every year I am totally amazed at the women that have traveled from all over the United States and even other countries to attend.
The good works that that many united women in the gospel could accomplish is astounding.  

Jessi spotted these kittens at Petsmart the other day.  They were pretty cute because they looked like our old Patches that we had for so many years.  Jessi is willing to adopt any dog, cat or child.  Luckily for Stefan we did leave without it.  It wasn't easy convincing her.

I made a quick, really quick trip to North Dakota to see Lucy's dance recital.  I had heard so much about this teacher who came from the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia that I wanted to see it first hand.  

I do have an extreme love for great ballet and this didn't disappoint.  

His older dance students were incredible.  I hope they realize the opportunity that they have to study with him.  Why he chose North Dakota to teach is a mystery.

He even teaches the little kids dance classes which is extremely rare so Lucy and her friends are equally fortunate to take these classes.

The program was entitled A Storybook Ballet or something close to that

 and all the music was from familiar Disney classics.  

It was so fun to watch and be a part of it from the dress rehearsal to the performance.  

Lucy was so excited and she had incredible costumes.  

They all had over the top costumes for the performance.

There were several beautiful backdrops used throughout the night also.

It was quite the production.

Lucy was a monkey and danced to Curious George.

Her next number was "It's a Bug's Life" and she is the darling red caterpillar.

 Here she is in deep concentration before we left for the performance.  

She has her hair done and makeup on.

 The lobby and entrance were even decorated with incredible Disney cut outs.  

Clara loved those.

While I was there we did sneak in a quick trip to the Minot Zoo before the dance recital.

It was so fun.  

The girls loved the little merry go round and walking on the log wall as much as seeing the animals. 

I'm so glad I went I just wish I could of been there longer.   

 I flew home early Saturday morning so I could be there for Mother's Day

 and then early Monday morning we flew to Israel.  

More on that soon.  

Easter Celebration

I love Easter.  It's like a breath of fresh air to me.

The beginning of Spring, a spiritual awakening, gathering of family, 

It is the Perfect Holiday.

We had the kids over on Saturday for a small party.  

We of course began with an egg hunt in the back yard.

 Jessi and Stefan were on hand to help with finding those elusive eggs,

especially since they might of been the ones who hid them.

 Only two of our grandchildren were there so they were able to get LOTS of eggs.

SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR

 We made the cutest little birds nests complete with little Cadbury birds eggs.

 I just used the recipe for regular rice krispy treats but used chocolate rice krispys and a spoonful of peanut butter to add some color.

They turned out pretty cute, without much work, 

and the kids liked getting their little hands in there to mold them.  

 Obviously we had to eat them before our barbecue,  

Dessert first is always where it is at.

Sunday was a quiet day for Jeff and me.

Everyone was at in-laws or out of state.

It was different being alone for Easter Dinner but in a way very refreshing.

Thankfully Jeff and I enjoy being together and it gave us time

 for contemplation  and discussion about the Savior and his sacrifice for us.

What a wonderful way to spend our Easter weekend.

Great to be the Grandma

As I spend time visiting with friends my same age who are pursuing advanced degrees, educating children at schools, or going into the business world each day, I wonder what I'm doing with my life.  I often feel bad that I haven't taken the time to pursue a career, but then at times like yesterday I'm so thankful that I get to be home so I can help my children and grandchildren when they are in need.

Yesterday Amy was scheduled to have a nerve block in her neck to help relieve the constant pain that she has been experiencing.  It was all worked out with a babysitter for her little ones and I would go with her to the hospital.  When she woke up in the morning her two year old Callie had spiked a fever and was definitely inflicted with influenza A, which her dad had been diagnosed with a few days earlier.  Knowing she couldn't take her to the babysitter and expose her family to the flu, we regrouped and I brought Callie with us.  Amy had to go in by herself, assuring the hospital that there would be someone to drive her home after the procedure.  Of course, as everything goes with Amy it was more "Invasive" than originally planned and she was in horrible pain when I picked her up a few hours later.  We gathered the other kids from the babysitter and I brought them all to my home.  Within an hour of returning home her 4 month old baby spiked a fever and we now had two with the flu.  I spent the day cuddling sick children, entertaining Blake who was still healthy, and worrying about Amy and the pain she was experiencing.  As I returned them all to their home last night after Luke came home from work, I had to offer a silent prayer that I was so so thankful I could be there for them on this day.  I also had to add that I was grateful that I was just the Grandma instead of the Mom.  I realize I raised 5 wonderful children and we had awful and trying days too,  BUT I admire these young moms more than ever and realize that the plan to have children when you are young is a Heavenly Plan because I couldn't do it anymore.  I love my role as grandma and I enjoy each of these grandkids so much, but how nice to know I can drop them off at the end of the day to the constant care of their parents.