Weekend Update

Our life right now is literally surviving the tax season. On Saturday, I enjoyed a Mother Daughter Tea Party with Ashley & Abbey at our church for Activity Days. We had breakfast and then each girl paid tribute to their mom. Here's the sweet notes that Ashley & Abbey read to me.

On Sunday, Alex received the priesthood & was ordained to be a deacon by his dad, Jason. Alex got his first chance to collect fast offerings on Sunday and will be going to do baptisms for the dead on Friday. I'm so grateful that both he & Jason have the priesthood. I honestly wouldn't be here today if if weren't for a priesthood blessing given to me by my dad when I was 2 1/2 years old (I'll save the story for later since I'm out of time today).

I was released from working in Nursery. It'll be great to be back in Relief Society. Our ward has some pretty amazing Relief Society teachers. Sunday's lesson was on being kind. I loved the quote by Sis. Hinckley, "Be kind. Everyone is fighting a hard battle." Good thing to remember!

Short & sweet post. I better get back to work!

And Happy Birthday, Mom, if you're reading this...My mom is turning the big 6-0 today. We'll be having a party at our house on Sunday to celebrate.

And Melissa if you're reading this, we're counting down the hours until we see you. My cute sister, Melissa & her family are flying in tonight. We're SO excited to be with you!

Crockpot Chicken w/ Angel Hair Pasta

Here's a super easy, but delicious meal that we had for dinner last night. It's a great one to make on Sundays.

This recipe is enough for 10-15 people (so you can either half the recipe for your family or make the entire quantity and freeze the other half, it freezes well)

8 chicken breasts

In bottom of crock pot, put:

2 cans golden mushroom soup (or 1 can cream of chicken soup & 1 can cream of mushroom soup)
1 8 oz container of onion & chives cream cheese
2 envelopes Good Seasons dry Italian dressing mix
2 cups chicken broth or bouillon

Mix above ingredients. Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve over rice or angel hair pasta.

Draper Utah Temple Open House

Last Friday, January 30th, we took a well-needed break from taxes and took the kids to the Draper Utah Temple Open House. Here's a quick picture I took of Jason & the kids before we went inside the church. If you look closely towards the mountain you can see the temple in the background.

I was amazed at how organized the experience was. Our stake was given tickets for either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Of course, we picked the Friday afternoon time since I couldn't imagine us getting 5 kids ready and being in Draper by 9 am. We arrived at the church and watched a movie about the temple and then we went by bus to the temple. Ava loved being in a moving vehicle and not wearing a seat belt. She was squealing & jumping in her seat the entire 6 minute ride.

The kids were so great and reverent throughout the temple. They were fascinated by the baptismal font. Ashley & Abbey loved the beautiful bride's room. All of the kids were amazed at the size of the chandelier in the celestial room. Alex wondered how much it cost. It truly was breathtaking! And of course, we all LOVED the cookies and water at the end of the tour.

I was so grateful that we were able to take our children to the temple and have them see for themselves how incredible & beautiful the temples are. I am so incredibly grateful for the knowledge we have that we will always be together as a family. It was so peaceful and special to be together as a family in the celestial room and reflect on my love for each of them & for Jason.

The next day, Saturday, I had quite a few tax appointments. One of my clients was from Draper and told me some interesting facts. The church is having the open house until March 14th and the temple is open from 8 am to 8 pm. She was a volunteer one day serving cookies and water and told me they go through 250 cookies every 10 minutes and Costco delivers a truckload of water every day. Also, the first week the temple was open, the missionaries received 26 names of people interested in learning more about the church. If you want tickets you can go to lds.org or even just go anytime.

After we went to the temple, we then spent the rest of the night with David & Mindy and their kids. Mindy & I had a pedicure, which I haven't had in quite a few months. In fact, the Vietnamese lady said to me when she was scraping my feet with her magic blade, "Oh, your feet so bad, very bad." Gotta love their brutal honesty! At least now I have very smooth feet with a handpainted flower on my big toes and my feet are so good, very, very good!