President Gordon B. Hinckley

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.

(from lds.org Newsroom)

Christmas in Florida

We spent Christmas with my family in Florida. It is always great to be with them, but it was especially fun to see the 3 cousins spend time together. 3 one year olds on Christmas day = lots of excitement!!! Emily had 2 more birthday parties in addition to her Christmas gifts. She really started to enjoy receiving and opening presents. She probably wondered why it all stopped when we got home. Here's some of the fun pictures we took.

My sisters and I and our kids:
Erin, Amy and Katie
Brayden, Emily and Travis

Emily with Aunt B.B.

Emily with Gramie and Papa

Emily in her Mickey ears!

All the cousins LOVED Brayden's car.
Luckily, Brayden was good about sharing his new gift with his cousins.

Travis staking his claim!
He hopped in and told Brayden, "GO!"

Emily and Aunt Carole

Mema and Emily

Aunt Erin made Emily a tutu for her birthday.
It is VERY cute!

Emily loves dogs. Chad wants to get a chocolate lab
someday so we got "Cocoa" for Emily for Christmas.
She seems very happy with that for now.

More family pictures

It was 80 degrees when we left Florida and 12 degrees when we got off the plane in Kansas! Emily was all bundled up and ready to recuperate from all our vacation fun! (And to have a nice nap in her own crib!) Thanks everyone for your kindness and generosity. We had a wonderful time. We love you!!!

Christmas at Disney World

My sister Katie really wanted to take all of the kids to Disney this year. She and my mom decided to treat the family to Disney World for Christmas. (We missed my brother Patrick and his family. They were unable to make it to Florida for Christmas.) It was quite the adventure with 3 one year olds in tow. They actually did remarkably well and seemed to really enjoy all of the excitement. When we first arrived Katie had Mickey hats(complete with names on the back) made for Travis, Brayden and Emily.
What's a first visit to Disney without Mickey ears!

Welcome to the happiest place on earth!
(Thanks to my sister Erin for this picture.)

Emily with Papa and Gramie

SMILE!

The park was PACKED but we managed to get around pretty well. After getting everyone in the park, our first stop was Dumbo. Waiting in the line was not a favorite for the kids, but they enjoyed the ride. Emily kept flipping the switch to make Dumbo fly up and down.
She was sad when the ride came to a stop and
we told her it was time to go.

Emily, Amy, Travis, Katie, Erin and Brayden

We only made it on a couple of rides while we were there (Dumbo and It's A Small World) but we spent some time in Toon Town and watched the Christmas parade. Speaking of the parade, Emily LOVED it! She clapped and cheered for Mickey and his friends as they were singing and dancing. She was very attentive the entire time.

Emily watching all of the people in It's A Small World.

We visited Mickey's house and took a tour of the garden.
She decided that shoes and socks were optional and were not needed. (We humored her for a few minutes and let her go barefoot.)

Cheese! This is Emily and I with Aunt Erin and cousin Brayden.

clapping at the parade

The highlight of Emily's day came when we went to go get her silhouette made for Nana Jensen. All day she had been noticing the balloons that were everywhere. When she was having her silhouette made a little kid next to us had a balloon. She sat there staring happily at his balloon. Gramie surprised Emily with a Mickey balloon of her very own! Squeels of delight were heard and an enormous smile spread across her face. Thanks Gramie!!

This is Emily letting out shouts of joy after receiving her balloon!

Emily survived a day of no naps like a champ! (She fell asleep on the ride home in a matter of minutes...she was worn out!) We were delighted that she faired so well. It was a fun way to kick off the Christmas celebrations. We all had a wonderful time.
Thanks to Mom and Katie for a great day at Disney!

Cinderella's castle...beautiful!

The whole crew

Christmas Pictures

We had our friend Mike take some family photos of us for this year's Christmas card. We took some inside, but lucky for us it was beautiful and white outside. It was snowing lightly and made for a great background. Unfortunately, we took the inside pictures first so Emily was a little tired of picture taking by the time we went outside. She didn't have her usual big smile, but it was understandable. Picture taking is tough for a 1 year old. But she did have a great time exploring the cold white stuff we call snow!

Santa Claus

We had a ward Christmas party at church. Chad and I were on the Activities Committee (We were just released on Sunday.) and spend most of a Saturday morning decorating the gym. It was all a bit unorganized at first, but everything ended up looking great. We had a wonderful turn out and many people brought their friends along. The Activities Chair and his wife made most of the food and it was all delicious! Chad made his family's famous punch (that everyone just had to have the recipe for). Over all it was a huge success! To top everything off Santa came to visit all the kids at the end of the night.

Chad and I weren't sure about how Emily would handle her first visit with Santa. (She always shies away from men with facial hair.) I got in line with her and she watched with excitement as all the children went to sit on Santa's lap. She was even clapping and smiling while we were waiting. However things changed the moment I put her on Santa's lap. She took one sizing look at Santa and then lunged at me trying to escape. We even tried again later in the night, but to no avail. This year she only loves Santa from afar...maybe next year!