Church

This weekend was General Conference weekend.  We were invited to a wonderful breakfast with the Liddell family which we very much enjoyed!  We then came home and enjoyed watching conference over the internet (don’t have Dish with BYU TV yet) in our new home!

Today, Sarah had her “Missionary Farewell” talk in Sacrament meeting.  She did such an incredible job and we are so proud of her!  She has come a long way since her first 2 minute talk that she gave when she was 12!  Kirstyn also got to speak as well and did an outstanding job also!  I got released from the Bishopric today which was very sad, but because of that, I got to hear the girls speak from in front, and not behind, so I could hear them better!  🙂

Tonight Alan and Julie Thompson threw us a going away party at their house for all the ward members and friends to come.  There were a bunch that showed up, and it was great to see the love that our friends have for our family (or maybe they just came to see if it really was real that we were moving and can’t wait)!  🙂  We will really miss our friends!  That is the one thing about Illinois that is great which we will miss the most.  The people here are wonderful and we have felt so at home.  After all 18 years of knowing people really gets you attached to them.

It’s really hard to think about moving right now, although we are super excited to do it.  Everyone has a new chapter in their lives going on right now…  Sarah going on a mission, the family moving, others in the ward we found out may be or will be moving, etc.  It’s crazy!  We just hope that we can stay in touch with many of them.  🙁  Sniff sniff…

What a WONDERFUL day we had today!  We got up early and drove to Nauvoo.  Grandma and Grandpa Hobbs came with and we all went to the Nauvoo Temple with Sarah for her to receive her endowments.  It was a very emotional day and one that we will never forget.  What wonderful choices Sarah is making in her life, such as going through the temple and going on a mission.

We are so proud of you Sarah!  What a fine young woman you have grown up and become!

Zach had his last basketball game today.  We missed it because of the Nauvoo trip, but his sisters went and supported him.  At the lunch afterward, he received his “Play Hard” award for trying his best.

He played really hard and tried his best.  He wasn’t the best person on the team by far, but he worked his little heart out and had so much fun.  He probably was the most improved player on the team because of this!  🙂  Great job, Zach!

Today Zach had his first Pinewood Derby!  He was so excited.  He built most of the car by himself with only a little help from dad (I promise).  🙂  I’m not a huge fan of Pinewood Derby competitions (lots of kids end up crying) but Zach sure enjoyed it!

He ended up in the bottom half of the cars, but he sure had a blast.  The great thing was that he didn’t care if we won or lost.  🙂  That’s the way it should be.

Way to go Zach!  I’m sure glad you had fun, and I had so much fun spending time with you building your car!

Right after the Pinewood Derby was over, we went and picked up Sarah from the airport!  🙂  We flew her in tonight so she could go to the Nauvoo Temple tomorrow to receive her endowments, have a missionary farewell talk at church on Sunday, and re-connect and also say good-bye to friends.  It was so great to see her!  We all kept giving her lots of hugs!  The boys were especially clingy.  They have missed her so much!  🙂

Today Kirstyn participated in the regional science fair with her project on how different types of sugar make bread rise.  She did a GREAT job on her board, and really impressed the judges!  At the end, she was awarded semi-finalist!  She was glad she didn’t win outright because the state science fair will probably be after we move and she couldn’t participate anyway.  🙂

Great job Kirstyn!  It was also fun for Angela because she got to be one of the judges!

Tonight was Mormon Prom!  Brittany was so excited all day she could barely concentrate on getting anything done.  They had a group of them go up together.  They met at the Cawley’s for dinner and took a bunch of pictures.

Then they went to  Batavia to a really cool old church/school where they held the dance.  It was a multi-stake affair so there were a ton of people there.  They got pictures done and had a great time dancing to all the songs!  The cool thing about Mormon Prom is that even though you have a date, everybody dances with each other!  As parents, we LOVE that! 🙂

I was on duty to go help pick them all up after the dance, and that’s always a fun thing.  The kids talk and talk and talk the whole way home about all the fun things that they did and it’s always fun to just sit back and enjoy the craziness of it all.  🙂

SARAH GOT HER MISSION CALL TODAY!!!!  We were SO excited!  She set up a time tonight where she had all of her friends over to her apartment (it was packed), and we got on Skype to watch her open her call.  She was very emotional as she opened it…  California Ventura Spanish-Speaking!  She couldn’t have been more excited!  She really wanted to speak Spanish and now she has the opportunity!  Since we couldn’t be there in person, we had to take a picture of her with her call on the computer!  🙂

We are so proud of her!  Everyone there in her apartment was jumping and screaming!  Lisa was there with Tommy and the noise scared him so bad he started crying.  How cute!  🙂  After all this excitement and wait, she finally knows where she’s going!  She’ll go into the MTC in Provo on May 8th!  That’s going to be a crazy time between when she comes home from school and when she goes into the MTC!  We will only have about 10 days or so!  Yikes!

Congratulations, Sarah!  You’ll do GREAT!

It’s gingerbread house time!  The boys and I decided to be festive a little early this year and we built a gingerbread house together!

Today we had our Ward Christmas Party.  Instead of the normal family dinner, we decided this year to do a breakfast with program and then Santa visit.  We thought this would be a much easier thing to do and be better for the families.  Part of it was also a service project, making baskets for less active and non-member families.  We had a great time!

Zach missed a bunch of the party due to a basketball game, but he made it back just in time to finish breakfast and to do some of the service.  Kirstyn was in the same boat.  We had fun and delivered the baskets we decided to take.