Cute Girl

This is quite possibly my favorite picture of Ellie. Ever.

Fun with the Fam

Zeke, Natalie, and the kids came to visit from out of town and we were lucky enough to be able to spend some time with everyone (minus Dave... sorry Dave! We missed you!) But anyways, here are some pictures I snapped throughout the day.

Tossers & Hitters

We took Ellie to her first baseball game! The weather was cold, but not freezing. Mike was able to teach Ellie "tossers" (pitchers), "hitters", and first base and she could point them all out by the end of the game! Unfortunately, the Bees lost. But we had a great time anyway!

Scriptures

Ellie has started repeating everything we say. It's pretty darn cute. So anyways, we've started having "family scripture study" at night where we'll read a verse and have her repeat each word. The other night it went a little something like this:

Me: For
Ellie: Foh

Me: it
Ellie: -t

Me: was
Ellie: wuz

Me: the
Ellie: da

Me: cause
Ellie: cahzzz

Me: of
Ellie: uv

Me: great
Ellie: gate

Me: sorrow
Ellie: row

Me: to
Ellie: to

Me: Alma
Ellie: ....... Elmo?

Where were you?

Where were you on 9/11? They say you'll never forget. And it's true. I don't always have the best memory, but that day will forever be imprinted on my mind. I was a senior in highschool and I'd just gotten out of early morning orchestra rehearsal when people approached us in the hall and said, "Did you see the news?" We spent the entire day glued to the tv in disbelief and shock.

I was at work when I found out the news about Osama bin Laden. It's actually kind of a funny sign of the times: my co-worker's husband posted something on facebook about it. That's how we found out.

It's hard to believe 9/11 happened almost 10 years ago. I feel incredibly grateful for those in the armed forces who are fighting so hard to protect us at home.

As I was watching some of the news reports about bin Laden, I saw something that bothered me a little bit. I hope this next part doesn't offend anyone. That is not my intention.

I saw people outside of the white house, celebrating the death of a man.

And an image immediately came to mind of news reports I saw on 9/11.

People celebrating death.

I won't ever forget that image. Sitting in Mr. Whitney's Human Biology class, watching people celebrate an event that took so many lives and shook our entire nation. How do you celebrate something like that?

I am not saying that Osama bin Laden should not have been killed. I think it was a necessary action and an American victory. And I'm not trying to compare those outside of the white house to al-Qaida terrorists. What I'm trying to say is this: Is dancing in the streets to Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" really an appropriate response?

Rusty Korean

One of my Korean mission companions just moved to Provo to study English. It doesn't feel like it's been 4 years since I got back from my mission, but when I try to speak Korean it feels like I almost never went. Good thing she's here to study English so I made sure to speak plenty of it... ya know... to help her practice.

It was SO MUCH FUN to see her again! We served together for just one transfer, but boy what a transfer that was! We had fun reminiscing about old times. She caught me up on the lives of all of my other companions (who were all Korean). She told me funny stories about our mission president, who is now the President of the Seoul Temple.

She'd never been to Temple Square, so we went, despite the cold weather and snow.

She kept hoping to bump into the prophet, but we had no luck in that department.

We took a tour of the Conference Center, which was really neat! I hadn't toured that building since it first opened. The coolest part was being able to go on the roof. Now I'm probably way behind the times, but I remember hearing that they'd closed the roof to the public after that poor boy died. And I always assumed that it was still off-limits, and that always made me sad because as a young woman, we did a service project where we helped plant some of the stuff up there. But I was thrilled when our tour guide said that you CAN tour the roof with an escort. They don't let you out if there is any sign of inclement weather, but the snow had stopped and the sun had come out by the time we got up there. It was so neat!


They have it organized so one side reflects foliage you would find in the mountains, and the other side represented the desert. Very cool! And very peaceful!

And they had this neat monument that reminded me of the Korean War Memorial.

Anyways, if you have a chance and you haven't done it for awhile, I would definitely recommend touring the Conference Center!

Easter

Happy Easter! Our day could be summed up in one word: bleh! All of us were sick. My dad came home with a cold, and Ellie quickly caught it and passed it on to Mike and me. We managed to make it to sacrament meeting, but then came home and spent most of the rest of the day sniffling, coughing, and aching. But Ellie did get to wear her new Easter dress for a little while.


Here she is pretending to be a puppy (one of her favorite words to say). She took Grandpa Ken for a walk around the house, and it was the highlight of her day!

Due to our sick condition, we had to postpone our Easter Egg Hunt, but when it finally did happen, Ellie was absolutely thrilled! What? You can open these colorful plastic eggs an find candy inside?!? Best day ever!

In reverence of the holiday, and all that it means, I'd like to share one of my all-time favorite quotes, by Elder Neal A. Maxwell:

"As this Easter day draws to a close, how fitting that we contemplate atoning Jesus--bending and curved in Gethsemane. His bleeding curvature transformed the grammar of death. Until Gethsemane and Calvary, death was a punctuating, rigid exclamation point! Then death too, curved-- into a mere comma!" (Ensign, May 1994, p. 91)