Draper Utah Temple

Last Friday we went to the open house for the Draper Utah Temple.
The temple is beautiful! We were in awe of the art work, wood work, windows and chandeliers.

But it was the spirit that we felt that touched us the most.
There was a sweet, peaceful feeling as we walked through the temple.
For me the highlight of the tour was the sealing room.
The spirit was so strong as we sat in the room and
heard the testimony of a tour guide.

This temple has added meaning to our family.
Before you tour the temple you watch a short video.
In the video they tell about temples and the reason
we have them. Also it talked about the area and it's
early settlers. It was a nice surprise to see a picture
of Mick's great, great, great, Grandfather and his wife on the screen.
William Draper Jr. was the leader of the first congregation of the
Church established here in September 1852.
The settlement was named Draperville in Honor of him.

As we walked through the temple we thought about how
these early settlers must be rejoicing now.

We have had opportunities to go to several temple open houses.
We were very involved in the Winter Quarters Temple and Nauvoo Temple open houses. We got to lead tours, push wheelchairs and Mick even did security in Nauvoo. Our older children got to help with the booties at both temples. Carly and Kaylie weren't old enough to do this but they were able to tour the temples as well as attend the dedications. They really enjoyed seeing the Draper Temple and had a lot of good questions.

I have fond memories of touring the Provo Temple with my family when I was in 3rd grade. I still remember walking in the halls of the temple and seeing the celestial room. Mick and I went to the Jordan River Temple open house when we were first married. When we were at the Draper open house we saw a list of temples and the date they were built. The Jordan River Temple was the 29th temple in the world in 1981. Today we have over 129 temples built or in the planning stages.
Mick also had the opportunity to go to the Denver Colorado Temple open house. He remembers being there with his Grandma Smith. This was a great blessing for his family to have a temple built in Denver. When we were living in Idaho we drove to Utah for the Bountiful Temple Open House. We have a picture of the whole family standing outside of the temple. That was a fun experience for all of us.

We are so very thankful and feel blessed to live in a time that so many temples dot the land.

Sweet Christmas Moments!

On New Years Day we went and took some family pictures. Melissa's sister-in-law Brittany took the family pictures and Melissa took all of the rest. They turned out great!

It is hard to believe that our family now numbers 20!
We are excited to be adding another grandchild in March!

We feel so blessed to have this amazing family.
We were in a Sacrament Meeting when our children were really young. I think we had
only three or four children at the time.

A man stood up to bear his testimony. He said "I am not rich according to the worlds standard, but I have my Quiver full of Children and Grandchildren. I am very rich".

That has stuck with me and I think often of my own "Quiver Full".
I wouldn't trade them for all the riches in the world.

On New Years Day we also opened letters that we had written 9 years ago at the beginning of the New Century. We were suppose to wait until 2010 to open them. Since we were all together we felt like this was a good time to read them. It was fun hearing what everyone predicted they would be doing in 10 years. Some of them were pretty accurate.

This season has been bitter sweet as we realize that our family is changing even more.
We won't have as many opportunities to be together. But we will always cherish the time that
we do! We are so very thankful for technology that blesses our lives with blogs, email and web cam.

We have a friend who uses this phrase often..."It's all about Temples and Families".
We know that is true and we rejoice in our Family and the sealing power of the Temple.

More Sweet Christmas Moments and a few pictures!

We went to Melissa and Brian's house to try out their snow hill.
Brian had made this huge hill with stairs going to the top.
The little kids loved it and even some of the "big Kids".
Once was enough for me but it was fun watching everyone.

Look, no hands!

Jared, our stuntman!

Kaylie and Madeline after their ride down the hill.

Rachel loved sledding and went down with several different family members.

This time it was Jennifer's turn. Carson was pretty calm riding down the hill.

I wonder who had more fun, Brittany or Carson !

Melissa had a cute craft idea and all the sisters plus Morgan made magnet clips.

Later we went swimming and finished the day off with pizza.

Grandpa and Rachel bundled up for some snow fun! This year Christmas morning was pretty quiet at our house.

We always take a traditional picture on the stairs before we open presents.

Carly and Kaylie were happy to pose for the picture.

Brianna had to work but was able to get off a little early and spend time with us.

All of our children and grandchildren surprised us on Christmas Eve morning.

Melissa and Brian had invited us to breakfast at their house.

What we didn't know was that our whole family would be there.

What a great surprise!

This was our off year for Christmas so we hadn't expected

to have everyone together until New Years. What a great Christmas gift!!

The 7 cutest grandchildren ever! We loved our little Santa!

Seven Silly Siblings!

(*One of my all time favorite children's books is Seven Silly Eaters.)

We spent an afternoon, a few days before Christmas, with Mom and Dad Spencer.

All of our family plus my siblings went to their house the first Sunday in January. We had a great meal and enjoyed visiting with everyone.

Earlier in December we were able to go to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Program.

It was an amazing program and helped get us in the Holiday Spirit. The lights are beautiful on Temple square and add to the magic of the season.

This was the year of changing and evolving traditions. We went to Ogden, Christmas Eve afternoon, to spend a little time with Mom and Dad Smith.

We took Brianna back to her apartment and fixed our Shepherd's night dinner. Brianna had a friend come over who was alone for the Holidays. He joined us for dinner and our acting out the Nativity scene.

The spirit was sweet as we reflected on the birth and life of Jesus Christ.