We went to the Ogden temple on Tuesday night for the last time as we know it. They are going to basically tear it apart and put a new temple back together. The new one will be done in a few years, which is exciting. But we’ve had some great spiritual experiences there. This temple is special to us because it is the temple we went to with a group of friends back in college, when we were just friends, every Friday afternoon to do baptisms for the dead. That was great to do and always ended the week off right. Then as we dated, we kept going with our friends. In the upper parking lot, we practiced how to drive his manual truck, because I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. That was fun. (: Good times. After we were married, we began going to monthly (or as close to it as we could) to do endowment sessions and initiatories. The Spirit is always so sweet at the temple and I’m grateful for all we learn and feel each time we go there. We’ve been blessed to have a temple that is so close it just takes five minutes to drive there. Now it will be the Bountiful for a while, which we don’t mind at all, since it is our favorite you know! But we had a great time lingering a little longer at the temple this last time, taking one last look at the temple we’ve called ours over the last seven years. 
We've been enjoying the weather, whether that's snowy (like this day a few weeks ago when we went sledding), or 70 degrees and warm. This time of year is funny, you never know what to wear or what to expect. But we'll take the warmer days when we can and we're looking forward to spring!
Here are the cute cousins and we've seen them quite a bit lately! Emma, Tayla, Kaison, and Cal. They are all pretty close in age and have such a good time together!
Emma’s doing great! She has been continuing on with preschool, that she still likes, but is feeling more grown up than the other kids. She loves her dance class she’s enrolled in and is taking piano lessons, too so she’s a busy little girl. She had a sleepover here with her cousin Tayla a few nights ago. These two girls are so much fun and just love each other. I love hearing their conversations when they think no one is listening. They are just growing up way too fast and will start kindergarten in the fall. She says some of the funniest things. A few weeks ago at FHE, we were talking about the Word of Wisdom. We were explaining that Heavenly Father knew that smoking was bad for the body before all of the scientists and people knew it. “So Heavenly Father is, like, a hero!” she replied. It was super cute. Another day, we were discussing the resurrection and how we’ll live after this life and our bodies and spirits will be united. “So it’s like on Scooby Doo Cyber Chase how they go from one level to the next?” Yep, kind of like that. Then I explained that there is no “Game Over” for us. I like how she conceptualizes things. She is a sweetheart, though! She loves little kids and is such a sweet “junior mommy”.
We've been enjoying the weather, whether that's snowy (like this day a few weeks ago when we went sledding), or 70 degrees and warm. This time of year is funny, you never know what to wear or what to expect. But we'll take the warmer days when we can and we're looking forward to spring! 
Here are the cute cousins and we've seen them quite a bit lately! Emma, Tayla, Kaison, and Cal. They are all pretty close in age and have such a good time together! 
Emma’s doing great! She has been continuing on with preschool, that she still likes, but is feeling more grown up than the other kids. She loves her dance class she’s enrolled in and is taking piano lessons, too so she’s a busy little girl. She had a sleepover here with her cousin Tayla a few nights ago. These two girls are so much fun and just love each other. I love hearing their conversations when they think no one is listening. They are just growing up way too fast and will start kindergarten in the fall. She says some of the funniest things. A few weeks ago at FHE, we were talking about the Word of Wisdom. We were explaining that Heavenly Father knew that smoking was bad for the body before all of the scientists and people knew it. “So Heavenly Father is, like, a hero!” she replied. It was super cute. Another day, we were discussing the resurrection and how we’ll live after this life and our bodies and spirits will be united. “So it’s like on Scooby Doo Cyber Chase how they go from one level to the next?” Yep, kind of like that. Then I explained that there is no “Game Over” for us. I like how she conceptualizes things. She is a sweetheart, though! She loves little kids and is such a sweet “junior mommy”. She loves trying on my wedding dress! Always hopeless romantic.
She loves getting all dolled up, dressing up and doing makeup. She's getting better, believe it or not.
She likes doing silly things, like making silly faces, putting tights on her head and running around the house.
Emma on the Princess Day we did. Here she is getting her foot bath.
She enjoys doing arts and crafts. She made this sand picture and had a great time doing it.
Emma with little friend Alec, he just loves her! And she loves all little kids.
Cal is growing up! He’s talking up a storm now. It cracks us up what he says. He’s Emma’s little side-kick, always tagging along, and when he’s not with her, he says “Where’s Emma?” And Emma sticks up for him. One day, while playing with the cousins, Tayla called Cal a “punk”. Emma got upset and called Tayla a punk back. She was very sad Tayla called him that. When I asked what was going on and they told me, Cal said “Tayla punked me!” Cal also loves his baby sister. He always says “Hi Lucy, Hi Lucy! Hey Sweetie girl!” He gets so excited and just loves her! He’s got very good manners and is very good about remembering to say “please” and “thank you”. He’s got so much energy and is always on the go!
Cal is growing up! He’s talking up a storm now. It cracks us up what he says. He’s Emma’s little side-kick, always tagging along, and when he’s not with her, he says “Where’s Emma?” And Emma sticks up for him. One day, while playing with the cousins, Tayla called Cal a “punk”. Emma got upset and called Tayla a punk back. She was very sad Tayla called him that. When I asked what was going on and they told me, Cal said “Tayla punked me!” Cal also loves his baby sister. He always says “Hi Lucy, Hi Lucy! Hey Sweetie girl!” He gets so excited and just loves her! He’s got very good manners and is very good about remembering to say “please” and “thank you”. He’s got so much energy and is always on the go!Always making us laugh! 
Emma loves to dress Cal up. He doesn't love it so much.
And to end things off, a little video. This is Emma's first piano recital! My mom has been teaching her for the last two months. We went shopping and bought her a new dress she picked out. To wear and everything She was very excited to do it. We weren’t quite sure if she’d follow through with it, as she gets very shy sometimes, like when she was supposed to give a talk in Primary a month ago, she froze and wouldn’t do it. But we practiced very hard and she did it! She was Grandma’s first student to perform. She went up there and did both of her songs well. She even remembered to take a bow when she was finished. Also, before it started, my mom had Cal come up and show everyone how to bow, because he has been practicing with Emma this past couple weeks to get ready. Everyone thought it was really funny, it cracks me up when he does it! He grabs his belly, and it’s just so cute! Bravo!
Or, maybe he does...? We're trying to teach him what's for girls and what's for boys. He's learning.
Little hick boy.
Cal loves to play with balls and play catch. This ball he deflated and then put on his head as a hat.
We had a little mishap with Cal in March. I was working on finishing up Lucy’s birth announcement cross stitch, but Cal got to the needle and was pretending to cross stitch as well. The needle fell on the floor and Cal stepped on it, breaking it in a few pieces. One of the pieces we found on the floor, and we found another part of it, which Dave pulled out of his foot. Poor kid was crying and in so much pain! We cleaned it out, dressed and bandaged it. Then he was fine, walking on it and playing all week, and said it felt fine when we asked him about it. Later on in the week, when I saw it on Thursday night, it wasn’t looking good. It was all discolored darkly around the area he stepped on the needle. When I showed Dave, and went to my parents on Friday with the kids, they all said I should definitely take him in. So we went to the Instacare Clinic in Bountiful, about noon, and they checked it out, and did X-rays. Sure enough, the poor kid had about a centimeter of needle stuck up pretty far in his foot. So the top, pointy part of the needle got lodged up in there. They referred us to Primary Children’s. So we went there and waited, and waited and WAITED. It was so busy, they were calling in other doctors to the ER. We played with Cal a ton in the waiting room, trying to keep him entertained. He did pretty well considering what was going on! Then we were finally seen by a doctor, who said he thought the best thing would be to have the Radiologist do an ultrasound on it so he could pin point (no pun intended) the exact location and angle of the needle, and get it out with a quick incision and . The Radiologist was busy for a while, and it was after five, so we had to wait longer for them to round up some nurses who would stay past their shift to help out. Cal did so great! He never really cried, even when he was being poked with IV’s, he just said “owie” very softly, which surprised the nurses that he handled it so well. They gave him some sedatives, and then they took him back into one of the Radio-active rooms to do the ultrasound and operate to get the needle out. He came back to us about a half an hour later, and was so out of it! We had to stay there for another hour so they could make sure he was okay. His eyes were going crazy, and he was so out of it, but still kind of knew what was going on. He muttered some things we couldn’t understand, sang some songs like Old Mc Donald, said “I wanna go!” and “ice-cream” (he was starving but couldn’t eat anything, we promised him we’d get ice-cream after, I guess he remembered), “I want my car” (we brought some toy cars for him to drive around, that saved the day! He loved driving them all over the hospital), and gradually regained full consciousness. He wanted to try to stand and sit up, but would just fall to one side or the other, it was so sad, yet funny! And when they brought him some Gatorade and some crackers, when he tried to put it in his mouth, he couldn’t quite make it. When we gave him his favorite toy car, he drove it all over his hospital bed, and kept saying “Watch this, Mom!” or “Watch this Dad!” Then he’d do tricks with it while laying down. He was a little drowsy that night, but was just fine the next day, and has told us his foot doesn’t hurt at all. So he’s all better! I swear that boy, he is always going to the doctors! It seems he takes after his father, who was always getting hurt! (: He always seems to get every sickness going around as well. He went to the doctor a couple of times in February already, once for an upper-respiratory infection, and once for a double ear infection, where his ear drum burst. He got chicken pox, Emma never got it. He got Swine Flu, she never got that either. He gets the colds and flus. And then he’s been so much to the doctors and specialists for his allergies and growth problems. I’m just grateful (but waiting) that he hasn’t broken any bones yet, or gotten major stitches, with the way he is. He’s just such a little crazy boy, and always getting hurt. I’m grateful; that overall he’s a perfectly healthy boy. Going to Primary Children’s always makes you so grateful to have health. It makes me so sad to see the ones with chronic conditions or diseases that are incurable. I feel such heartache for those children and their parents, but know Heavenly Father has given them those trials to grow from, and me different trials to deal with.
We had a little mishap with Cal in March. I was working on finishing up Lucy’s birth announcement cross stitch, but Cal got to the needle and was pretending to cross stitch as well. The needle fell on the floor and Cal stepped on it, breaking it in a few pieces. One of the pieces we found on the floor, and we found another part of it, which Dave pulled out of his foot. Poor kid was crying and in so much pain! We cleaned it out, dressed and bandaged it. Then he was fine, walking on it and playing all week, and said it felt fine when we asked him about it. Later on in the week, when I saw it on Thursday night, it wasn’t looking good. It was all discolored darkly around the area he stepped on the needle. When I showed Dave, and went to my parents on Friday with the kids, they all said I should definitely take him in. So we went to the Instacare Clinic in Bountiful, about noon, and they checked it out, and did X-rays. Sure enough, the poor kid had about a centimeter of needle stuck up pretty far in his foot. So the top, pointy part of the needle got lodged up in there. They referred us to Primary Children’s. So we went there and waited, and waited and WAITED. It was so busy, they were calling in other doctors to the ER. We played with Cal a ton in the waiting room, trying to keep him entertained. He did pretty well considering what was going on! Then we were finally seen by a doctor, who said he thought the best thing would be to have the Radiologist do an ultrasound on it so he could pin point (no pun intended) the exact location and angle of the needle, and get it out with a quick incision and . The Radiologist was busy for a while, and it was after five, so we had to wait longer for them to round up some nurses who would stay past their shift to help out. Cal did so great! He never really cried, even when he was being poked with IV’s, he just said “owie” very softly, which surprised the nurses that he handled it so well. They gave him some sedatives, and then they took him back into one of the Radio-active rooms to do the ultrasound and operate to get the needle out. He came back to us about a half an hour later, and was so out of it! We had to stay there for another hour so they could make sure he was okay. His eyes were going crazy, and he was so out of it, but still kind of knew what was going on. He muttered some things we couldn’t understand, sang some songs like Old Mc Donald, said “I wanna go!” and “ice-cream” (he was starving but couldn’t eat anything, we promised him we’d get ice-cream after, I guess he remembered), “I want my car” (we brought some toy cars for him to drive around, that saved the day! He loved driving them all over the hospital), and gradually regained full consciousness. He wanted to try to stand and sit up, but would just fall to one side or the other, it was so sad, yet funny! And when they brought him some Gatorade and some crackers, when he tried to put it in his mouth, he couldn’t quite make it. When we gave him his favorite toy car, he drove it all over his hospital bed, and kept saying “Watch this, Mom!” or “Watch this Dad!” Then he’d do tricks with it while laying down. He was a little drowsy that night, but was just fine the next day, and has told us his foot doesn’t hurt at all. So he’s all better! I swear that boy, he is always going to the doctors! It seems he takes after his father, who was always getting hurt! (: He always seems to get every sickness going around as well. He went to the doctor a couple of times in February already, once for an upper-respiratory infection, and once for a double ear infection, where his ear drum burst. He got chicken pox, Emma never got it. He got Swine Flu, she never got that either. He gets the colds and flus. And then he’s been so much to the doctors and specialists for his allergies and growth problems. I’m just grateful (but waiting) that he hasn’t broken any bones yet, or gotten major stitches, with the way he is. He’s just such a little crazy boy, and always getting hurt. I’m grateful; that overall he’s a perfectly healthy boy. Going to Primary Children’s always makes you so grateful to have health. It makes me so sad to see the ones with chronic conditions or diseases that are incurable. I feel such heartache for those children and their parents, but know Heavenly Father has given them those trials to grow from, and me different trials to deal with. 
Growing up too fast, buddy! I think he looks so grown up in this picture!
Lucy is growing up! She’s now 6 months and loosing the newborn look. We gave her a binky a few weeks ago, and she loves that! She’s now starting to smile (but stops every time we get the camera), and it looks like she may have a dimple or two. She still loves her beauty rest but is awake more now. She’s starting to hold her head up better and she’s getting stronger. She’s also been a bit more fussy lately. She met her new cousin Brody, who is about a month younger than her. They are about the same size! It’s so much fun! They’re too cute!
Lucy is growing up! She’s now 6 months and loosing the newborn look. We gave her a binky a few weeks ago, and she loves that! She’s now starting to smile (but stops every time we get the camera), and it looks like she may have a dimple or two. She still loves her beauty rest but is awake more now. She’s starting to hold her head up better and she’s getting stronger. She’s also been a bit more fussy lately. She met her new cousin Brody, who is about a month younger than her. They are about the same size! It’s so much fun! They’re too cute! Here she is at exactly one month. Cute!
Lucy and Brody, such sweet cousins!
Calena joked that Kaleb looked like a sumo wrestler next to Lucy, he is a big boy and Lucy is so little! 
