Monday, January 28, 2008

Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008)

The following is from the LDS Newsroom.
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97

Beloved Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley, Dies at 97

SALT LAKE CITY 27 January 2008 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.

The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days.


President Hinckley was known, even at the age of 97, as a tireless leader who always put in a full day at the office and traveled extensively around the world to mix with Church members, now numbering 13 million in 171 nations.

His quick wit and humor, combined with an eloquent style at the pulpit, made him one of the most loved of modern Church leaders. A profoundly spiritual man, he had a great fondness for history and often peppered his sermons with stories from the Church’s pioneer past.

He was a popular interview subject with journalists, appearing on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace and on CNN’s Larry King Live, as well as being quoted and featured in hundreds of newspapers and magazines over the years. During the Salt Lake Olympics of 2002, his request that the Church refrain from proselytizing visitors was credited by media with generating much of the goodwill that flowed to the Church from the international event.

In recent years, a number of major developments in the Church reflected President Hinckley’s personal drive and direction. In calling for 100 temples to be in operation before the end of the year 2000, the Church president committed the Church to a massive temple-building program.
In 1999 — 169 years after the Church was organized by its founder, Joseph Smith — the Church had 56 operating temples. Three years later that number had doubled, largely because of a smaller, highly practical temple architectural plan that delivered these sacred buildings to Church members in far-flung parts of the world. Many more Church members can now experience the sacred ceremonies that occur only in temples, including marriages for eternity and the sealing of families in eternal units.

President Hinckley was the most traveled president in the Church’s history. His duties took him around the world many times to meet with Latter-day Saints in more than 60 countries. He was the first Church president to travel to Spain, where in 1996 he broke ground for a temple in Madrid; and to the African nations of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Cape Verde, where he met with thousands of Latter-day Saints in 1998. In 2005, he traveled nearly 25,000 miles on a seven-nation, nine-day tour to Russia, South Korea, China, Taiwan, India, Kenya, and Nigeria.

At a general conference of Church members in April 2001, President Hinckley initiated the Perpetual Education Fund — an ambitious program to help young members of the Church (mainly returning missionaries from developing countries) receive higher education and work-related training that they would otherwise likely never receive.

Closer to his Salt Lake City home, President Hinckley announced the construction of a new Conference Center in 1996 and dedicated it four years later. Seating 21,000 people, it is believed to be the largest religious and theater auditorium in the world and has become the hub for the Church’s general conference messages to the world, broadcast in 91 languages.

Even before his term as president, President Hinckley’s extensive Church service included 14 years as a counselor in the First Presidency, the highest presiding body in the government of the Church, and 20 years before that as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

President Hinckley was born 23 June 1910 in Salt Lake City, a son of Bryant Stringham and Ada Bitner Hinckley. One of his forebears, Stephen Hopkins, came to America on the Mayflower. Another, Thomas Hinckley, served as governor of the Plymouth Colony from 1680 to 1692.
President Hinckley’s first job was as a newspaper carrier for the Deseret News, a Salt Lake City daily. After attending public schools in Salt Lake City, he earned a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Utah and then served two years as a full-time missionary for the Church in Great Britain. He served with distinction and ultimately was appointed as an assistant to the Church apostle who presided over all the European missions.

Upon successfully completing his missionary service in the mid-1930s, he was asked by Heber J. Grant, then president of the Church, to organize what has become the Church's Public Affairs Department.

President Hinckley began serving as a member of the Sunday School general board in 1937, two years after returning home from missionary service in Great Britain. For 20 years he directed all Church public communications. In 1951 he was named executive secretary of the General Missionary Committee, managing the entire missionary program of the Church, and served in this capacity for seven years.

On 6 April 1958, while serving as president of the East Millcreek Stake in Salt Lake City (a stake is similar to a diocese), President Hinckley was appointed as a general authority, or senior full-time leader of the Church. In this capacity he served as an assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles before being appointed to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on 5 October 1961.

President Hinckley received a number of educational honors, including the Distinguished Citizen Award from Southern Utah University; the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Utah; and honorary doctorates from Westminster College, Utah State University, University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Southern Utah University, Utah Valley State College and Salt Lake Community College. The Gordon B. Hinckley Endowment for British Studies, a program focused on the arts, literature and history of the United Kingdom, was established at the University of Utah.

President Hinckley was awarded the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America; was honored by the National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews) for his contributions to tolerance and understanding in the world; and received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 2004, President Hinckley was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in the White House.

In March 2000 President Hinckley addressed the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He also addressed the Religion Newswriters Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors and twice addressed the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

President Hinckley wrote and edited several books and numerous manuals, pamphlets and scripts, including a best-selling book, Standing for Something, aimed at a general audience. In it he championed the virtues of love, honesty, morality, civility, learning, forgiveness, mercy, thrift and industry, gratitude, optimism and faith. He also testified of what he called the “guardians of virtue,” namely traditional marriage and family.

President Hinckley married Marjorie Pay in the Salt Lake Temple in 1937. They have five children and 25 grandchildren. Sister Hinckley passed away 6 April 2004.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Tagged Again

My friend Nic tagged me so here I go. She only listed five things so I am going to stick to her format.

Things you may or may not know about me:

1. I love High School Musical just as much as my kids. Half of the time I join the kids in singing and dancing around--and yes, the soundtrack is the #1 played CD in our van. It makes me happy (I swear there are subliminal messages in it to make you smile!)

2. I am addicted to silly reality shows. American Idol is first on the list, of course...but I can get hooked into any of them. Next fav is a tie between Biggest Loser and Beauty and the Geek. I know I am a total nerd!!

3. I can't count the number of times that I have changed my major in college. I started out pre med many eons ago. It has ranged from Art History to Family and Consumer Science Education to Spanish, etc... I have finally settled down now that I only have 14 credits to go and am going to graduate in Physical Activity and Health. And it has only taken me 13 years to get there!!!:) I know it is pathetic--but at least I am getting there!

4. In less than 9 years of marriage Dave and I have changed our address over a dozen times. We have never lived anywhere longer than 18 months. So now that we own this new house I am hoping to buck that trend permanently!

5. I have had 3 c-sections! Yep, all three boys came out that way. Teancum was breach and so we had to have him that way. Zeke was by choice just because everyone scared me about the risks of a VBAC and after 2 c-sections you pretty much are stuck for any other children you have--according to the dr. I had. Not that it mattered, because Jonas would have had to be an emergency c-section anyway since he came 8 weeks early. (And for those reasons my body has called it quits on having any more babies!!)

So that is it for now. Time to pass the pleasure on to others. I tag Deanne, Veronica, Carrie, and Kelly.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Mustache Jonas

Jonas decided that his lip was a little too hairy a while ago and decided to do something about it. Luckily daddy had left his razor out on the counter to help him out. He didn't cry or anything! Infact he didn't say anything--being the little toughy that he is! We just noticed that he was bleeding and then he had to show us what he did. Funny, little, mischevious kid! He was more upset about the band-aid and that everyone was laughing at him!!
Nice angle, I know! Luckily there aren't lots of boogers in his nose!



We think that he looks a little Hitler-esque with the band-aid on in this one!

High School Musical

I know that the target audience for High School Musical is young girls but we have a little 2 year-old boy that is in love with it. He asks for it multiple times a day. He always needs to have his microphone handy so that he can sing and dance along with them. He gets shy if anyone is watching, but today I got rare footage of him singing. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Our Home

I have decided to post some of the photos that Dave took of the house while he was back here buying it. It is kind of hard to tell the size of the rooms through the photos since there is no furniture, etc.. but you will get the idea. I will take pictures again after it is decorated--this will not be until the summer since I an planning on painting most of the rooms. (What is it with builders painting everything with flat white paint!!! I hate it--more accurately I hate the grubby finger prints that refuse to leave it's surface!!)


Another view of the house

The garage


This is a portion of the front yard and driveway. We have 2 to 3 times as many trees and shrubs in the back yard.

This is our back porch. (and a piece of paper that Dave had in his hand accidently showed up in the picture)

Obviously we don't have all this stuff down to protect the floor anymore. This is a picture in the living room looking at the dining room.

You have to imagine the kitchen with stainless steel appliances and without all the garbage!


This is the master bath. I thought this tub didn't look that big in this picture when I first saw it, but it is BIG and deep. It goes up higher than my shoulder when I am sitting in it!

This is the master closet. Again--picture doesn't do it justice. It is really big.

This is a portion of the unfinished basement.

Friday, January 11, 2008

My Cute Bedroom



I have a very sweet husband. After promising that I wouldn't buy a ton of new furniture when we moved into our new house, he is letting me anyway. The hideous (those that have seen it would agree) double dresser that we have does not fit in the space we need it in our room. All of our bedroom furniture is mismatched, DI or the like type of furniture (either free or extremely inexpensive). At one time everything was painted to match, but being it was my first effort it wasn't painted very well. Now the paint is chipping off and it is so ugly I don't think that the DI would take it--remind me to tell you the story about the DI refusing our couches on a different occasion! So I started out looking just for a dresser, but then realized how wonderful it would be if everything actually matched!! Crazy idea, I know!! So after searching high and low I finally found a bedroom set that Dave and I both like and that is a good deal for the quality. I just barely paid for it and it will take a couple of weeks to get here. I can't wait. So here are the photos from off of the website.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

My cute little home

So today I measured my garage. The house is 1500 sq feet with a full unfinished basement--part of which is a 2 car garage. So I have been asking Dave how big the house is minus the garage and today I finally took finding out into my own hands. It looks like the garage is more or less 500 sq feet. So that leaves us with about 1000 sq feet to finish!! YUCK!! some of that is going to be the utility room and also a BIG storage room that don't need to be finished--so I guess it won't be that bad. I really want to finish the bathroom and the rec room though so that I can lock the kids down stairs!!:) Anyway, here are a couple pictures that Dave took when he originally came out and found the house.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

We made it!!!!

Yes --it is a shocker, but we are finally in our house!! We left Utah on New Year's Eve and arrvied in Virginia on the 2nd of January. We actually had to cut our last day short and stop about 30 minutes away from Charlottesville because Dave was experiencing his first ever kidney stone! So after a night of sleep and a bunch of Aleve and Uristat he finally felt well enough to move on to our new home. That is right--after a few hiccups in paperwork-- we are finally the owners of a BRAND NEW HOUSE on .82 of an acre. It is in the cutest community that is just filled with trees--we have some huge trees on our property, too. I will be posting pictures as I get things put away. I keep telling everyone that as soon as they come to visit they are going to want to move out here too because it is gorgeous. Dave did a great job in choosing the house. It is perfect for us. We have only met one set of neighbors, but they are worth an entire neighborhood!! They have helped us so much. They are a couple in their late 50's maybe early 60's and they have done everything from helping us unload the moving van to driving me to a place I needed to find an hour away from our home because they didn't want us to get lost and even took us and the four kids out to dinner. So we are happy to have people next door that are so nice. Our ward is awesome. We had about 5 men from the Elders Quorom show up to move our big stuff on Saturday and then we had a ton of calls from everyone in the ward this morning welcoming us and making sure we knew how to get to the church, etc... Then after church the calls started up again and we have already been invited to dinner and family home evening. So we are really excited to be in a place that is so excited to have us!!! I will write more once I have some pictures to share.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Tagged

My sis-in-law Amy tagged me. So here goes...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper is always more fun.
2. Real tree or artificial? Ours is an artifical tree. But I love real ones.
3. When do you put up the tree? A few days after Thanksgiving.
4. When take down. around New Year.
5. Do you like eggnog? LOVE IT!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Original Cabbage Patch the first year they came out. Her name was Mallory and I loved her.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes--but it is dying. I need a good one.
8. Hardest person to buy for? My mom.
9. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? A book about how to sue people if your kids get hurt!!! Definitely not a present I was wanting!!!
11. Mail or Email Christmas card? Mail is always better, but email is good in a pinch.
12. Fav Christmas movie? A Christmas Story--is there any other Christmas movie???
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Depending on the year we usually start around January--on a good year we start right after Christmas. I hate last minute shopping!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Turkey sandwiches for breakfast. Mom always cooks a turkey overnight so that is the first thing you smell in the morning is turkey!! I love it!!!!!
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear all the way!
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night!
18. Travel for Christmas or stay home? That would depend on the year and where we are living at the time!! This year stay home since we are living with my parents for this month.
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Of course. Can't everyone?
20. Do you have an Angel on top or star? Always a star! I like the way it looks best.
21. Open presents Christmas Eve, or Christmas morning? Christmas morning...except for we always open one on Christmas eve--it is always PJ's.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Stores being packed.

Now to tag others... Jen Martin, Nicole, Veronica, Teri Le, Sarah Jones

Saturday, December 8, 2007

NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that I am a slacker, but I have a good excuse for not updating the blog for the past month. We are not moving to Georgia after all!!! Welcome to our ever changing, hectic life!!! We are now back in Utah staying with my parents for the month of December. Last week Dave traveled back to Charlottesville, Virginia to buy a house for us since that is where we are headed now! For those of you that remember, we were planning on heading to Charlottesville before we were given the opportunity to go to Hawai'i. So I guess it is where we are meant to be. We absolutely LOVE it back there and are planning on starting our trek across the country a day or two after Christmas.

FOR MY FRIENDS IN HAWAI'I:
I was asked to provide snowy pictures. My parents live in a log house in a small town in the mountains near Park City, UT. In fact, I always worked in Park City as a teenager. Anyway, they have five acres and 2 four wheelers---which makes for a really fun winter combination! We pulled a sled behind one of the four wheelers while the other just drove around with kids holding on to grandpa! They had so much fun. The didn't want to stop even though they were frozen through! Jonas enjoyed it the most. After each turn he would say "just one more time!"







Monday, November 5, 2007

Halloweens Past

In the last post my friend Carrie commented about whether or not we do "themes" every year. The answer is yes. There has been one year that I didn't do a theme because we were right in the middle of moving during the month of October. But other than that we have had a theme since we have had more than one child. I don't have all my photos with me so I can't show you how cute London was as Little Mermaid and Teancum as Sebastian (his costume was hideous!! I did a really terrible job on his because I spent so much time making London's perfect). The next year I didn't have matching and it was very boring. The following year the kids were the Three Amigos and they won a prize at our ward Halloween party. They were sooooo cute. Ezekiel wouldn't keep his hat on for the picture though. The following year was the Wizard of Oz. I am putting on Zeke's scarecrow picture because I was especially proud of how well it turned out. And you can't get the whole Dorothy effect if you don't see her shoes--so here is a picture of London too. Teancum's was the funniest because he couldn't sit down in it. I tried to modify it after I realized my design flaw but Tank quickly corrected me by saying "Tinmans don't have bums." And right he was--so we left it as it was! Then there was last year. We HAD to be Star Wars. Teancum was supposed to be Chewbacca but the fur on his costume made him so fluffy that he looks more like an ewok. Infact, we saved it just in case we need an Ewok costume in the future. (perfect winter costume by the way. Tank was sweating up a storm. Definitely warmer than most costumes!) And of course, this year we were the Chronicles of Narnia. So that is our Halloween Costume history. The kids are already thinking up ideas for next year. Right now they are going back and forth between Harry Potter or Planet Heroes. I am sure they will think up more as we get closer. I am hoping that if it becomes a habit they will always do a theme together, but I am sure the day will come when they decide to think independently--------Until then I am going to push the "theme" concept for as long as I can!!!



Sunday, October 28, 2007

Halloween in Narnia

This weekend we had a ward Trunk or Treat. The kids were way excited to dress up and test-run their costumes. In case you don't know, the theme for our kids this year was Narnia. London was the White Witch, Teancum was Peter Pevensie, Ezekiel was Edmund Pevensie and Jonas was Aslan the Lion. Most of the pictures we have are of the boys holding up their swords and sheilds and screaming "For NARNIA!!!", while Jonas roars like a lion. After the Trunk or Treat we headed over to the Ewa Railroad. It is a little historic train that only runs Sunday afternoons so we have never been able to go on. But this year they decided to have a Spook Train for Halloween. It was their first year doing it so it wasn't that great---but it was such a hit that I am sure that they will be doing it bigger and better next year. Most of the pictures are self explanatory, but there is one of London "acting" scared, one of Zeke hiding behind the shield because he really was scared and the best is of Jonas pinching his nose--He said he was doing it "so the Monsters won't see me!" I don't know where he got that from but Dave and I got a kick out of it. The one of Tank by himself was the best one of him we had. He is scared of the flash because it hurts his eyes, so he would always anticipate it. Oh well! Have a Happy Halloween!!
















Thursday, October 25, 2007

Yet Another Change

Well, the time has come for me to update you all on our ever changing life. I put off updating everyone until things settled down a little because I didn't want to have to make a new post every day. For the past few weeks our lives have been up in the air. For a while we thought Dave was going to be going to Iraq, then we thought maybe active duty, and then we were being tossed around between Utah, Virginia, and Georgia. Well, now the dust has settled and it seems as though we have a plan for the next little while anyway.

We are planning on leaving Hawaii the end of November!! Sorry to all of those that didn't get a chance to make it out to visit. We honestly thought that we were going to be here longer. And we could be, but that plan would require Dave going to Iraq again and we aren't ready for that. We really can't complain. The way we see it, we have had an 11 month vacation in paradise. Not many poeple get that opportunity! So now we are going back to Utah just for a couple months of training and then the Guard has been great enough to give Dave a position back in Augusta, Georgia. Dave is really excited because that is his location of choice for when we finally decide to cut the apron strings from the military. So we are taking a leap of faith and planning on buying a home so that we can do whatever is necessary to stay there long term. (long term is a minimum of 3 or 4 years for us since we have never been anywhere longer than a year and a half---and nowhere longer than a year for the past 4 years!!)

We are going to stay with my parents for December, January and maybe part of February until Dave is done with his training--and this will hopefully give us enough time to find a great house to buy!

Now that I am posting this I am probably jinxing us--and we will probably have yet another change of plans---but we hope not!!! We'll keep you updated...

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Dossier Photos

For those of you that don't know, we are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. We just barely turned in the last bit of paperwork and after it has all been authenticated, etc.. our dossier will be sent on to China and the waiting process will begin (right now it is almost a 2 year wait). With the last group of paperwork we were required to submit between 6 to 10 photos containing at least me or Dave, in order to show what our lives are like. And also at least one in front of our home so that they could see what our home looks like. I have been worrying since I turned it in that I didn't pick very good photos. They don't show us as well as other photos, but they do at least show our personalities and our pastimes. Today I received an email from our contact at the adoption agency and this was what she had to say, "Your lifestyle photos are phenomenal – so vibrant and colorful, and your kids are PRECIOUS!!!" So I am feeling better about them! So I thought I would put them up for you all to see. Some of them are older. There are pictures from Disneyland and our visit to Monterey and also from our vacation at Jackson Hole. Plus Chuckee Cheese and the swat meet! I am sure I have put some of these up before--sorry for any repition. F.Y.I. when we do get our little girl from China we have decided to call her Langli (Like Langley, VA--we are trying to keep with the place names for the girls!). So if I write about Langli that is who I am talking about.