Aubrey Anna's 12th Birthday

My sweet beautiful Aubrey Anna turned 12 on Tuesday.  Back in early February when we were having lovely 60 degree weather, and unbeknownst to me, she and her friend Amaya planned a joint Birthday party which they were going to invite their entire school class to.  The plan was to have the party later in February, between both of their birthdays.  I knew the awesome weather we were having wouldn't last forever, eventually it had to be winter.  And I could not handle the entire 6th grade in my house while it was snowing outside.  So I decided to seize the day and the weather we were having at that moment.  Twenty four hours later we were having a full on party!

 I turned my back for one second and when I turned around again this was happening:

And then all out cake war broke out.  Almost a month later and I'm still finding cake smear in strange places.

 Last Sunday my mom had us over to her house for Aubrey's Family Birthday Dinner.  She made Aubrey the cake of her choice.  Actually she made her 2 of them.  One to eat then, one to take home for later.  Best Grandma ever!

Ever since she turned 11, she has been planning her 12th Birthday.  Her greatest desire?  To go on her 12th birthday to the Temple and do baptisms for her ancestors.  We told her she could choose which temple she wanted to go to.  It was a decision she took very seriously and didn't decided until just a few days before.  She chose the Logan Utah Temple.  She chose this temple because it is beautiful and also because it the the temple where her grandparents, Steve's mom and dad, were sealed.  Steve was working out of town but he drove back home for the special day.  As soon as school was out, we left for Logan.   Before we went to the temple we had a delicious dinner at a Brazilian restaurant.

 It was a special night.  As soon as the temple workers found out it was her 12th Birthday and that she chose their temple to go to, they gave her extra special treatment.  I am so thankful for Aubrey and her desire to go to the temple.  She is a special girl.  I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am thankful for temples that bind families together for eternity. And I am so thankful for the effect the temple has had on our family as we have made it our focus.

Kay's Birthday Bucket List

Thursday August 7th was my dear mother's birthday.  She had the day off work and spent it with her friend Caroline who is here visiting from Dallas.  That night she and Caroline and Caroline's son Tommy and his family came over to our house for dinner.  We had a lovely meal.  As we were all sitting around the table chatting after the meal, my mother said that she had something she wanted to mark off her bucket list and needed our help.  She wanted to ride on an ATV.  The kids were happy to oblige.  Zac took her on a ride.  We got all the wheelers out and everyone took turns riding.

After getting our fill riding the wheelers, we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes.  We sat outside enjoying the lovely weather, beautiful scenery and fantastic company.  Happy Birthday Mom!

Celebrating Steve's Birthday: Lunch Italiana and The Dead Sea Scrolls

My dear husband, Steve, had a Birthday last Saturday.  I knew we were going to be busy watching General Conference all day Saturday and wouldn't have time to celebrate, so the kids and I planned a fun surprise for him on Friday.  Aubrey and Addy were out of school for Spring Break, but Zac and Emily were in school that day.  We checked them out early and headed downtown for our celebration.

First stop was for lunch at one of Steve's favorite Italian restaurants, Tucci's.  The food was fantastic and our waiter was the best waiter we have ever had, ever.  He really helped make our dining experience fun.

This is Steve's very most favorite dessert (that means a lot coming from a man who isn't big on desserts) so we had to have some to celebrate his Birthday.  The waiter even taught us how to sing Happy Birthday in Italian so we could sing along with him.

Emily freaked out because we had to pass the offices of her favorite radio station to get to and from the restaurant. 

Next Stop, the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.  This was AWESOME!  The Dead Sea Scrolls are over 2,000 years old and are the oldest know copies of the Bible.  They were found by a shepherd in the 1940's.  He was out with his sheep and threw a rock into a cave and heard pottery shatter.  Inside the pottery he found the ancient scrolls.  Utah is only one of six US cities that will display the scrolls, so I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and wanted to make sure we saw them before they left.  If you haven't been-GO!  It was such an amazing experience and it will only be in Utah for a few more weeks. 

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was a beautifully done exhibit.  And there was a feeling of reverence throughout the whole thing.  I found a few pictures of it online.  This is the room in the exhibit that has the scrolls in it.  Under the glass you can see a part of a scroll, like the one pictured above.  Then next to it it has an enlarged picture and also the translated text.  It is interesting because there are some parts on the scrolls that are not in the Bible.

This was one of my favorite parts of the exhibit.  It is a 3 ton stone from the Wailing Wall which is the remains of the temple built in 517 BC (or BCE - Before the Common Era- as we sadly learned it is now being called).  We were able to write our prayers on a piece of paper and put it on the wall.  We were actually able to touch a part of the Western Wall!  Do you have any idea what that means to me???  I'm so sad we couldn't take a picture of us next to it.  But hey, I found this picture of this nice family at the wall on the internet.  

The whole experience was so fantastic.  It had extra special meaning to our family right now because we are reading the Old Testament together this year.  It is a blessing that we were able to see these special, sacred artifacts.  It was also a great way to kick off our Conference Weekend.  Below are a few pictures I took at a place in the exhibit where you are allowed to take pictures.

After the exhibit, and while others in our group were enjoying other exhibits, the girls found a fun little play area where they were able to create this pixelated picture.