Zachary Smith's Blessing

While I was there, Steph and Trevor blessed their little bundle of joy.... Zachary Davis Smith. Several members of Trevor's family came and many from the Lawson side as well. Grandma Lawson made the beautiful blessing outfit for the 13th grandchild in the family. He has a ton of hair and is very wiggly, but he is one cute baby.
After church we all had dinner at my parents house and ate turkey, shattered ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, cherry jello, and homemade rolls. For dessert we had triple berry trifle and Lemon Cream Pudding Dessert bars. It was very delicious!!!
Justin was able to join us for the blessing and it was a short reunion with the kids and I, but we had missed him since we had already been in Colorado for about 10 days.

Valentine's Day

Since I was in Colorado on Valentine's Day, Justin sent me 2 dozen rainbow roses to the store at All Discount Vacuum. It was very sweet with a love note and a box of chocolates. They were so yummy. For dinner at night, Grandma made crab, parmesan sliced potatoes, mixed veggies, strawberry fluff, and had a yummy dessert. (which I can't really remember what it was.) The boys got little bags of valentine's candy with rain boats. Brayden got lizard boots, Dylan got Giraffe boots and Jaci got a pink adn brown flowered jacket from the Valentine Phantom. It was so much fun and the kids loved it.

Grandpa Herb's Birthday!

While we were there we got to celebrate Grandpa Herb's Birthday. I don't really know for sure what his age is...but that doesn't really matter. We got to eat Swiss steak, cheesy potatoes, fruit salad, mixed veggies, and a triple pudding dessert that was just yummy. It was fun to watch Grandpa open his presents from everyone and the boys drew him lots and lots of pictures and put each one in an envelope. By the time we left, Grandma and Grandpa had to buy more envelopes. Sorry mom and dad:(

On the Airplane!!

Brayden, Dylan, Jaci and I all decide that we wanted to go and visit Grandma and Grandpa Lawson in Colorado and the fastest easiest way in the winter was to fly. That was definitely an experience. The kids did really good on the airplane for the most part, but if anyone knows how my daughter is then you would know that she was to be considered a lap child, but ended up standing and sitting in her brothers seats. The flight attendants were very nice to us and gave the give crayons and a coloring page book to do. After we got off of the airplane in Denver, we had to ride the train to baggage claim and the kids were all tired and hungry. As I was collecting my luggage, waiting for my mom to come in and help with the kids, i realized that I cell phone fell out of my back pocket and I was to do it all by myself. So, I loaded all 6 pieces of luggage on a luggage cart with Jaci sitting on the front and wheeled my kids to the southwest office to report a lost cell phone, then back to the pay phone to call my dad at work and let him know what had happened and find out where my mom really is. As I was talking to the operator to get connected, Jaci ran off and so I set the phone down and quickly picked her up and got her back on top of the luggage. Finally I made it downstairs to where my mom was supposed to be and soon she drove up and southwest called and said that my phone was in their office. I ran back upstairs and told the people at the southwest counter that I was here to pick up my cell phone and she looked at me with a dumb-founded look and replied she had no idea what I was talking about. I was just there 20 minutes prior and now she is telling me she has no clue who I am. I was just a little frustrated. After about 5 minutes of figuring out who I really was the manager said that a cell phone came in about 5 minutes ago and it had my name on it. Thanks goodness for people that have a brain and are somewhat observant. I was glad that was over and wasn't going to get frustrated anymore, so I really just laughed about how lame I must have looked with my 3 kids and 6 pieces of luggage on a luggage cart and wondering around like a chicken with my head cut off. I made it safe and sound and was glad that I was in sunny Colorado.

Grandma Paula's Birthday Party!

We celebrated Grandma Paula's Birthday by eating dinner at Little Bit of Mexico and the we had cake and ice cream at my house. We had party screamers and poppers that shot confetti. Jaci didn't know what to think of the whole thing, but I think she liked it. We had a chocolate cake with 4 layers of cake and a cream cheese frosting, that had chocolate shavings on it...it was Yummy. Along with Shaun and Krissy's family, we got Grandma a web cam so she can talk to her grandkids that live in Seattle and see things that are going on else where..we hope she likes it.

President Hinckley

Hopefully, everyone had a chance to see President Hinckley's funeral. The whole ceremony was moving. I almost lost it at the beginning when President Monson came to the pulpit and paused for what seemed like several minutes. His emotions were evident and it was then it truly hit me of our great loss through President Monson's eyes who has spent innumerable moments in service with President Hinckley throughout his life. The final musical number where they played a video montage of President Hinckley's life is where both Andrea and I cried. For me, it was amazing to recall some of the moments of service and his sense of humor. He has been the prohpet through the formative years of my testimony. He was the modern day prophet that I introduced to countless investigators and converts to the church in Mexico. I testified of him to those same people that I knew he was a Prophet of God on earth today to guide us. I still bear witness of him and now of President Monson.

While looking around the internet, I found hinckleychallenge.com. It is a simple challenge to follow one of his teachings and to honor him. Check it out! Simply it is to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days (his age at death). We are gonna take it on here in our home. (The Saturday before he died, I had set the goal to read it by conference, so I have a little bit of a head start.)

What a fitting way to remember his example!

Andy's New Hair Style

Well, I finally did it!!! I put blonde highlights in my hair (ones you can actually see). I did cut off a few inches as well, but nothing too drastic. Last time I got my hair cut was a year ago in December and last highlights in my hair was in November 2006. I really do like it and I am glad that I did it. I do think that it takes a lot less time to do my hair. I hope you like it and can actually see it in the pictures. I am glad that I got it done and I don't feel like such a frumpy stay at home mom. I can still look cute, even if my kids are the only ones that see me most of the time.

Kids say the cutest things.....

I was telling Brayden and Dylan that President Hinckley passed away and they looked very sad. Brayden had a puzzled look on his face and he said, "Mom, you know how Jesus died for us?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Well, President Hinckley is going to live again, Mom!"
He said it with such confidence and so much faith about Jesus; I am very grateful that my 4-year old can understand and know that the Savior really died for us and that he lives, and that someday we can too.

Jaci sitting in the sink

I was doing Jaci's hair in two pigtails and she thought it would be fun to sit in the sink while I did her hair and brush her teeth with Justin's toothbrush (sshhhh he doesn't know). She also wanted the water on, but I wasn't going to allow that (as you can tell by her expressions, she can get a little crusty face.)
She is just too dang cute!!!

Our Fire Alarm at Church

On Sunday, we had just been settled into our first set of meetings when the fire alarm went off. As many of you know, I am the nursery coordinator for our ward for about 32 kids. The kids started crying, parents were rushing in grabbing their kids out and many adults were just about ready to hit the road. Then we found out that the youth sunday school teacher had brought a fog machine for an object lesson about the iron rod. I guess that the smoke alarms are pretty sensitive to even the fog. All in all we were able to get the kids calmed down as well as the parents and eventually the kids were happy again. However, my daughter thought that the fire alarm was funny. Until the fire department could come and turn off the switch, it would go off periodically, and Jaci just laughed at it. She is quite a character. The boys were calm and didn't even budge, except to cover their ears. What an eventful Sunday!!

The Rexburg Temple

Justin, Brayden, Dylan and I were able to go to the Rexburg Temple Open House on Thursday, January 17th. It was just incredible!!! They have you meet at the church which is about a block down the hill from the temple where you are guided into a room of about 35 people. You watch a short 10-12 minute video about the meaning and the sacredness of why we have temples. Then you walk through the corridor till you get to just outside the temple and there are young women putting booties on your feet. They first start you out at the Baptistery, then guide you to the hallways that go to the ordinance rooms, then the celestial room. There were many flights of stairs to go up and down. The boys explained that it was Heavenly Father's House and that the church was Jesus's House. It was a great experience to take the boys and we are eager to attend a session there shortly. The dedication will be Feb. 3rd. If you realized we were missing a child on the tour...miss Jaci Lyn went to Grandma Hegsted's house and hung out with Grandpa most of the night. Brayden's favorite part was all the stairs that he could look up and down as we went to another floor. Dylan's favorite part was the Baptistery; he wanted to know if you cold swim in it and he thought the oxen were cool underneath the font.

Facts: *The Rexburg Temple took 4 years to build from its announcement till now.
*It has the largest sealing room in the church.
*Is the same size as the Idaho Falls without their cafeteria.

Making Fun Hats

When Justin is gone to Montana during the week, I get to think of some creative ideas to keep the kids entertained. We made hats out of construction paper, colored them and the tape them so they would fit our big heads. Mine was the only one that really did fit so good, but the boys liked it. They said we had to take pictures of us, so here we are. We also took some silly ones, but it is hard to hold the camera and make sure that everyone is in the picture.