Meredith's birthday celebrations!

 Meredith started her birthday weekend with mom bringing her lunch from McDonalds at school.  In the evening she celebrated at Farrell's with a carmel sundae!  She loved standing on the chairs and having everyone sing her her!

Saturday was her friend "baking themed" party.

 Each girl got these darling aprons when they arrived.  We made homemade strawberry freezer jam:

 The girls made their own lunch (pb&j sandwiches with their homemade jam):

 They played some classic games, jumped on the trampoline, decorated cupcakes and opened presents:

 These are a bunch of great girls!  There were so many more that Meredith wanted to invite, but unfortunately I could not handle 30+ girls.  She sure has a lot of friends!

 On Sunday we celebrated her birthday with the family.  She got "Twinkle Toes" by Sketchers from Grandpa and Grandma Wright.  She has wanted these shoes so badly and was so excited to finally get a pair!

 The kids loved the blue frosting!

Our gift to her was the rip rider:



Happy 7th Birthday Meredith!

This cute thing turns 7 on the 7th of January!  It is her golden birthday!

I love this sassy picture of her.  It shows her sweet side and her sassy side.  Meredith came into our lives unexpectedly and very early.  She was our SURPRISE baby.  What a wonderful surprise she has become!  She is a girl who is helpful, compassionate, funny, loving, snuggly, eager to learn and has captured all of our hearts.  She loves all things snuggly (stuffed animals), men, helping others, reading, riding her bike, jumping on the trampoline and her baby dolls.

WE LOVE YOU MAE MAE....HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy New Year with a Special Baptism

On Saturday 1/11/2011 at 11:00 a.m. we were lucky enough to be in this City (Logan, Ut):

For the baptism of Danielle's step-brother-in-law Andrew:

Andrew and Lisa have been married for many years and have three beautiful children.  Lisa was born and raised in the church, but Andrew was not.  He had a few word of wisdom issues and just was not sure if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was really the true church.  Back in October when he and his family drove down for Scooter's mission farewell he started really pondering the truthfulness of the gospel.  He was really intrigued by our belief in eternal families.  Well after meeting with the missionaries and taking discussions he decided to be baptised!  What wonderful news for the entire family!  Richard and his family drove all the way from South Carolina to be part of this special day!  Richard figured out that the entire family added up traveled over 25,000 miles for this special day.

We are excited to watch him and his family grow in the gospel and recieve all the blessings that are waiting for him.  This family already has a date to be sealed for time and all eternity together in the SLC Temple next year. 

Here is a picture of the family (minus Mackenzie, Deeanna and Scooter).  Mackenzie flew home from Utah early for a dance.

front row (l-r)  Richard, Tiffany, Heidi, Scott, Ryan, Danielle, Brad, Lisa, Andrew, Lara and Mark
middle row (l-r)  Tristin, Sheridan, Payson, Kaylee, Madalyn, Pam, Jim, Luke, Haven, Erik
back row (l-r) Ireland, Larkin, Simeon, Cameron, Dallin, Kyler, Meredith, Trevor, Brittany, Sandra, Cassidy, and Zack

Sledding

The next morning we woke up to this:

So we decided to hunt out a place to go sledding.  We ended up by the Temple in Daybreak.  There was a park that was nicely covered in snow.  Since it was snowing so much and there was no cover so I kept my camera in the car and did not get any pictures.  Infact, I did not take any pictures for the next three days.  Such a bummer!  We had a wonderful time visiting close friends that we have not seen in years, the girls had a sleepover with our friends children.  How thankful we were that they all got along so well!  Too bad I did not get any pictures.

Our last day in Utah was spent in Logan for a very special day.  However I will write about that in another post as this special day is how we started out a New Year 2011!  There was no better way to spend it!

Lights at Temple Square

After a busy day of walking around SLC we got to experience the lights at Temple Square as a family.  Visiting Temple Square is one of my favorite childhood memories.  We went to the visitor center and had a good time watching all the Mormon Messages and Commercials and seeing the replica of the inside of the Temple.  The kids really enjoyed seeing what the inside of the Temple looks like.

The red and orange lights were so powerful!

Here is a small nativity on an "endless" fountain pool.  The reflection of the nativity and lights was just beautiful!

Scattered around were different nativities from other countries.  We thought the "Hershey Kiss" nativity was funny!

Here is a picture of the kids inside the Tablernacle.

Visiting Church Sites in Salt Lake City

Our first full day in Utah was spent visitng different church sites in SLC.  The weather was cold, but there was no snow on the ground so we thought we would take advantage of the good weather.  This was a good choice because the next two days were full of non-stop snow!

Our first stop was at the Conference Center for a tour.  We have done it once before with the girls and it was so nice to go back to learn even more.  It was still decorated for Christmas and the David Archeleta performance.  It was beautiful!

Here the kids are standing outside:

Here are a few shots from inside:

Here we are up on the roof top:

Nice view of the SLC Temple:

Next we visited the Church History Museum.  The kids loved standing behind the pulpit and calling everyone to repentance.  It was quite embarrassing as I was across the room and could hear them shouting it out.  One of those "that is funny, but those are not my kids" moments! haha!

Trevor LOVES Captain Moroni.  Everytime he sees a Temple he looks for Him.  He was so excited to see one in the museum!

We ate luch at the Lion House.  It was so busy, but worth the weight.  We all rolled out of that place.  We could not believe the number of people with dessert on their trays...how do they have room to eat all that food??!!!??

After lunch we snuck over to the Beehive House for a tour.  One thing we have learned about Trevor on this trip is he LOVES tours.  He just soaks in everything the tour guides tell us.

We visited Welfare Square and got to learn more about the church welfare system.  We are so blessed to have such an inspired program in our church.  We were amazed and the number of members and non-members who benefit from this system all over the world.  The kids were amazed at the story of the children in Etheopia who had gone without food for so long that their tiny bodies could not digest food.  The church supplied a nutrient (sorry I cannot remember the name) to these people so they could survive.  We also got to see the different type of humanitarian packages that are sent throughout the world during times of natural disasters, famine, etc.

At the end we got to sample some of the products that they make on site.  We sampled the cheese, bread, chocolate milk, peanut butter and jelly.  We could not get enough of the chocolate milk...it was sooo good!

Later we went to the Joseph Smith Building to show the kids the view of Temple Square and to watch the movie.  The goal was for Meredith to get a little nap, but she was so into the movie that she did not rest her eyes!

UTAH Road trip

This year we decided to take all the kids on a road trip to Utah.  Trevor and Meredith had never been to Utah and I have not seen the Christmas lights at Temple Square in years so this was my excuse to go!   Here are some shots on our way there:

A traditional stop at Iceburgs on the way up for a Mini (yes those are mini's) shake- yum, yum!

Drove by the burned up Tabernacle in Provo.  The whole place was gutted...so sad!

Stopped by BYU to show the kids around and visit the bookstore:

We found this shirt at the BYU bookstore.  As a family we cannot stand the taste of Mountain Dew, buy our nephew, who is currently serving a mission in South Africa, is addicted to the stuff.  So we got a good laugh out of this shirt!  Especially since just four days earlier when we were on the phone with him he told us they DO have Mountain Dew in South Africa with much happiness!