Hannah's 6th Birthday

Hannah had her 6th birthday yesterday. We went shopping and Hannah picked out a shirt, a fleece jacket and a dress. We went to lunch and the movie Bolt! Then we picked up Emily and Shelby and went to Chuck E Cheese's. We had cake and ice cream at my mom and dad's.

Salt Lake City and the lights on Temple Square

Salt Lake City:

We're waiting for the Trax.

Coming Home to Idaho!

A couple of weeks ago, my dear, sweet husband found out he could take the last 3 weeks of December off work. He knew how much I would love to come home to Idaho to be with family for the holidays, so he suggested we come home. Yes, I live in Virginia but Idaho is my home. We decided to drive the 2600 miles each way. We have driven the trip in 2 days before but it's been in the summer. This time we decided to make it 3 days: 1 day to St. Charles, Missouri, then next to Fort Collins, Colorado and then to Salt Lake City. We stayed an extra day in SLC to see the lights on Temple Square. My mom and dad brought Emily and Abby to SLC to see the lights with us. Then we drove the rest of the way into Boise. I must say, I have the best traveling children . . . . hands down. They just get in the car and we drive. When we make these trips, I tell them that if it's light outside and if the car is moving, we're not there yet.

What do they do for that many hours?

They listen to their iPods and sleep.

Here's my good husband driving and driving and driving.

They watch movies on their PSPs.

They read books and play their PSPs.

Washington DC Temple Christmas Lights

On Saturday, we decided to go up to the Washington DC Temple to see the Christmas lights. We drove up in the morning to John & Heather's, then in the evening, we all drove over to the temple. To our great joy, it started snowing! The temple and the temple grounds were beautiful. In the Visitor's Center, they have a room filled with different creche' scenes selected from around the world. It was great to see the different nativities. They also had the Reflections of Christ exhibit. What a stunning and powerful photo exhibit! Here's the URL if your interested: http://reflectionsofchrist.org/ . Outside they have a live nativity with readings from the Gospels. We also went to a flute concert. I had the kids dress warmly, and as you can see in one of the pictures, Joshua was so warm and comfortable he fell asleep in the flute concert. He says he was "lulled" to sleep by the flutes.

Hey, Look the Leaves Sparkle!

On the way to the bus stop this morning, Hannah looked down and noticed that the leaves were sparkling. The sun was perfectly shining on the dew of the leaves and they sparkled. It is through the eyes of a child that I saw the beauty of the earth! How lucky I am to have daughters who notice and appreciate such beauty.