President Gordon B. Hinkley

"President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.
President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995."
(http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97#continued)

What a man, President Hinkley was. He led the church and set an example for us to be better missionaries and people. His sense of humor and unconditional love for everyone are just a few of his many attributes. He will be missed, but I'm sure he's thrilled to be back with his sweet wife.

Students at Madison High School dressed in their Sunday Best as a way to honor him. This sign of respect is humbling and I am truly impressed. This morning as I got dressed, I just worried about staying warm and dressed in slacks. The students here continue to amaze me.

Here Come's the Tooth Fairy!

So, about a week ago, Kenny declared he had a "wiggly tooth" I was pretty excited. Visions of my childhood flashed before my eyes as I remembered dad trying to flick my loose teeth out of my mouth with quick and precise accuracy. I remember sometimes not daring to announce my loose tooth for fear of the upcoming pain that was sure to follow after his attempts.
I couldn't wait to try it myself. Allen was more than reluctant to attempt tooth extraction so it was left up to me. Every day we felt it would happen soon, but it never did.....until tonight. Kenny had been complaining about how when he ate, it hurt his tooth. So I said, "get over here and let me look at it." He hurried over and knelt in front of me. When I went to flick it I realized it was at a 90 degree angle so I held the tooth between my fingers and pulled, and I had it out in one swift movement. It happened so quickly that he didn't even realize what had happened until he went to wiggle it with his fingers and it wasn't there. Then he did the happy dance!
Don't worry, we took the pictures pretty soon after it had happened. We had to hurry and call all the grandparents and you could tell he was pretty proud. I eventually got him to put it in an envelope before the little tooth was lost before the tooth fairy could take care of it. He wrote on the envelope "To tooth fairy From Kenny", and both Ashlyn and Kenny decided that the tooth fairy needed a notebook as well. He's pretty sure that the tooth fairy is going to bring him $6.95 for his little tooth. I'm not sure where he got that idea from, but I'm pretty sure the tooth fairy will only bring a 50 cent piece. I'm sure he'll be excited.
One last comment however, I have a friend who can't seem to part with all of her children's baby teeth. She keeps them somewhere with their baby books. Her children are old enough to know the truth about the tooth fairy. I however, will have to pass on that little keepsake idea....GROSS!

Snow as High as Joseph's Eye

It's been a long time since we've seen snow this deep in Madison County. Of course, some of it is due to where Allen blows the snow, but it's still really deep all over. I couldn't resist taking a picture of our Christmas nativity that Allen made. The snow is so deep that it just comes up to Joseph's eye. I just wish that we would get more snow and cold days to make up for boring months ahead before summer.

BPA Regionals - A Success

Friday, I took my BPA kids to Idaho Falls to compete in the BPA Regional competition. And I'm so proud of them. They did great. Many of them will continue on to the state conference in March.

Fundamental Accounting

3^rd Dallin Walker, 4^th Eddy Hernandez

Computerized Accounting

1^st Jake Powell

Spreadsheet Applications & Analysis

1^st Devin Broadhead 2^nd Carl Ricks

Banking and Finance

1^st Brandi Mace 4th Jake Powell

Basic Office Systems & Procedures

1^st Brandi Mace

Database Applications

1^st Carl Ricks

Digital Media Production

2^nd Rob Page

Microsoft Network Administration

1^st Tyler Southam

Small Business Management Team

2^nd JC Weber & Dallin Walker

Interview Skills

8^th Dani Lewis

Human Resource Management

2^nd JC Weber

Prepared Speech

4^th Ray Flores

Presentation Management – Individual

2^nd Dani Lewis

Of course, after the weekend, we had Monday off for Martin Luther King Day, and Tuesday was off because of the cold. So, here it is Wednesday and I'm resenting the school district for not giving us another day off because it is still very cold, and Kenny got it off so he's home alone (even though Allen is there, he's asleep). I just don't want to be here. But I'll live.

Temple Open House

Well, the day of our tour of the temple finally came. And, it was really beautiful. The tour felt rushed and there were so many people there because it was Saturday, but the spirit was undeniable. Our time in the temple felt really short, but actually it was just about 1 hour. It was really neet to have our family there. My family and Allen's parents came up and we had a nice time with lunch before and a lot of visiting. Everyone was introduced to Baxter. And of course, Ashlyn packed him around in a head lock. Poor puppy!

Baxter Brown

So, here's the picture that Allen e-mailed me of our dog when we were deciding to get a dog. Isn't he cute? It's hard to get a good picture of him because he's so dark.

First Primary Activity

Well, I survived my first quarterly activity as Primary counselor. I must say, I was pretty stressed. What we did was a get to know your new teacher breakfast and topped it off with some activities about temples, in light of the Rexburg Temple Open House. It went pretty well. We fixed pancakes and sausage, and also orange juice. Afterwards, we divided the kids into three groups. Station 1 was What do we do in temples? Sation 2 was Where are all the temples? and Station 3 was How do I get to the temple? It was a great activity and I think the kids really liked it. I must say that planning for 3-11 year olds is a lot different than planning for 14-18 year olds.

Temple Work

I had a fantastic opportunity to usher in the Texburg Temple open house on December 29th. I've been looking forward to it....couldn't wait actually. I went with my friend Megan who it doesn't matter what we're doing, we have a great time. We got to serve in the sealing room level. It was truly beautiful beyond words. Everything about the temple took my breath away. We got to walk around the temple and see little corners that that the normal tour does not get to see. We got to see the bridal room. I felt like a princess in that room. It was really neat to see how people were touched by the spirit that was undeniably there. At the end of our shift, I was helping count the visitors who left the temple and we ended up with 9,823 on the first day of regular tours. I can't wait to have my regular tour on the 12th with all my family. It was truly a blessing to help serve in the temple.

Christmas Festivities

Once Christmas break began, we had many things to do. CRAZY! We finished shopping for some last minute things, we attended a Christmas party at the Browns, as well one for the Bowens. We spent Christmas Eve at our house in Sugar City and made cookies....and ate a lot of cookie dough.

Christmas morning was really exciting because Santa brought us a puppy! Our puppy is a minpin and we named him Baxter. Which sounds cute, but is a little scary sounding when a 3 year old tries to say it. (naughty word) Our family was very generous and we had a great Christmas. Of course lots of food was always involved in every celebration.

Allen deep fried some turkey breasts for his crew at the work camp and even did one for us. YUMMY!

Ashlyn's Christmas Program

Ashlyn participated in her very first Christmas program this year with Apple Tree. She was so cute and she tried very hard to do what she was supposed to do. However, she couldn't resist the wave to mom from the stage. Way cute! After the last song was sung, Santa made his appearance on the stage, much to the surprise of the children. Funny thing though, Ashlyn was the only one who freaked out. She stood up from her chair, looked him square in the eye, then turned toward me screamming "MOMMY!" Everyone around me was like "oh that poor child, where is her mother?" I turned and said, she's mine and went to comfort her. She came out of it eventually and sat reluctantly on his lap, remembering to ask for a candy cane instead of any toy.