* Rang in the New Year
* Said Goodbye to Seth as he headed back up to BYUI in Rexburg. He had a troublesome time getting there as he broke down near Hagerman on his way back. He got towed to a small mechanic shop in Gooding and they said it'd be about $400 to fix it so Seth told them to make the repairs only to find out that it still wouldn't start... long story made short: he couldn't keep putting money into the Cadillac and so they've parted ways. It was Great Grandma Edie's 1999 Cadillac that she loved (and Seth did too!) And just so you know - Dad went and rescued him on the day of the break down and he hitched a ride back to school with Brandon Perry a few days later.
* Busy with the Youth in the Ward: Dad took Nathan and all of the Teachers out shooting and we also had a YM/YW activity to go Sledding outside of Idaho City. The girls had been sick all week and we didn't think it'd be a good thing to have them out in the cold all day so mom stayed home with them and dad went as one of the drivers. Ben invited his friends from Nampa to go with them and everyone had a fun time!
* Ben's girlfriend, Natalie, turned 18 and the girls made a special meal and cake to help her celebrate
* We got the Harry Potter movies for Christmas and since then, the girls have been on a huge Harry Potter kick! They've been doing some amazing artwork around the characters and even created an Elf costume for one of their elves! It turned out so cute!
* We had a field trip with Tech Trep Academy to the Trampoline Park. It was all fun and games until Aubrie landed and rolled her ankle.. she then sat out with me as the rest of kids continued to jump and get their energy out! She got a blessing from Dad and August and about 36 hours later, she was able to walk on it again without much pain.
* It's been a very mild winter! We were "supposed" to get a big storm come through and while it did snow - the sun came out later that day and it was all melted by that evening! Boise weather is definitely A LOT different than the Montana and North Dakota winters of years past!
* I realized I didn't put a picture of the girls' amazing Gingerbread House that they designed out of Graham Crackers to be an exact replica of our home in the last blog post (and I have since printed up 2019's book and since I want to preserve that memory, I'm including the photos of it here!). They worked on it for DAYS and really put a lot of thought, energy and effort into it and it turned out awesome! You can certainly tell that it's supposed to our house!
* Well... something has been years in the waiting. Since we've been renters for the past 6 years, we always had stipulations on not having any dogs - and while mom was OK with this, every other person in the family (especially dad!) has felt something "missing" in our family - a family dog. He particularly wanted to get a Lab that he could train to be a hunting dog and go duck hunting with him. Since moving into our new home last fall, this has been almost a daily conversation that eventually turned into including the plea "to find a yellow lab puppy that would be the perfect fit for our family" into our family prayers. And the wait has ended. Meet Maggie May Vogt, our little Yellow Lab Puppy!
Spiritually Speaking...
The kids made the goal to attend the Temple every single month this year - and dad and I couldn't be happier! I hope that we've been a good example to them as they've watched us make time each week to go! We wanted to go as an entire family before Seth went back to school and so made arrangements with the Bishopric for the girls to get their Limited use recommends on New Years Day! We went the following day (Thursday, Jan 2nd) and the girls wanted their first time to be at the Boise Temple (since that's the one dad and I were married in). It was a packed Temple and apparently before we arrived, it was "standing room" only! Luckily we were the tail end of that rush and so it wasn't too terribly crazy. August and Seth were asked to help with Confirmations and did that non-stop for about an hour. Dad and Ben did the baptizing and McKendra and mom helped with the towels and helping the girls know where to go. It was pretty cool that both the girls were able to be one of the Witnesses as they awaited their turn in the font. It was seriously so wonderful to all be in the Temple together -I loved it! Since it was the girl's first time, one of the Temple Presidency made time to come and speak to us before we left. He shared that this was as a special day - not only for us, but for our ancestors that we did the work for. He said that on the other side of the veil, each of those names we baptized and confirmed that day had been specifically called up by name as their work was done. It was really neat and meant a lot that the 1st counselor made time for us. Afterwards, dad had to get back to work (we met on his lunch break at the Temple) and the rest of us headed over to Marco's for some yummy pizza that August prepared for us! We are all excited to go again next month! It's our goal to attend on the 1st Thursday of each month - and we're planning on going to the Meridian Temple in February.
I've asked the girls if they'd each like to share a few thoughts that they had...
Aubrie: Hi! so Jan 2nd i got to enter into the temple with my family. We did baptisms for the dead, and the first thing i saw was that everybody was dressed in white. then we took off our shoes and waited in the waiting room, when it was our turn we got called in and Ben, Nathan, Lexi, and I all got dressed in white to get baptized for our ancestors, and now that girls can be witnesses I got asked to be a witness, and then i got baptized for some of my ancestors and when i got baptized for the last one I felt peaceful and joyful and like my ancestors were thanking me, then I got confirmed and I felt the Holy Ghost. I'm thankful that we have a Temple so close to us so we can attend so often.
Lexi: so when we went to the temple I was really excited and we had the whole family go. When we first got there I felt calm and immediately felt the spirit and I was also called up to be a witness. Then it was my turn to get baptized and the whole time I felt very happy. When we got out and changed we came out and one of the members of the temple presidency came out and talked to us about some stuff but something I really liked was he said and as you were baptized that persons name was called up in heaven.
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