President Hinckley

I've been meaning to post this for a week and now that I've heard the news of President Hinckley's passing I find there isn't a better time. Last Sunday Garden Park Ward (my home ward in SLC) was re-dedicated after a lengthy restoration. I was fortunate enough to be in town and attended with my family. It was an amazing event but very subtle at the same time. President Hinckley attended along with Elder Oaks, and Elder Wirthlin. Garden Park Ward has a great deal of history being the home ward to President Joseph F. Smith, Mirium G. Romney, and Bruce R. McConkie. We were all very pleased to hear that President Hinckley would be attending to re-dedicate the building. I was surprised to see him being pushed in a wheel chair and he looked very frail. His son (our stake President) Clark Hinckley spoke as well as Elder Wirthlin and Oaks. President Hinckley re-dedicated the building with a prayer. He had a difficult time speaking and often paused to catch his breath. There wasn't a dry eye in the building as I heard sniffles all around me. I think a lot of us knew he was giving one of his last public prayers. A week later at around the the same time as the re-dedication (6 p.m.) he passed away. I thought about him passing away last week and it made me very sad. However, now that the news has reached me, I am happy knowing that he is reunited with his sweet Marjorie (probably the cutest little lady that ever lived). I love knowing that he is in a glorious place and happier than we can all possibly imagine.

Here are a few more

I thought these were pretty cute. I can't decide which ones I want to enlarge. Let me know what you think. Personally I think the one of her on the chair in the sweater is the cutest.

Photo shoot

The Children's Hour needed some models for a couple of adds so we decided to make a photo shoot out of it. Sadie needed her 18 month pictures taken and even though she is 20 months now, we decided it was just as well. I love the photographer. Her name is Angie and she is from Simplicity Photography. I think she did a great job. If you want to check out the rest of the pictures they are at: simplcityphotography.com/diane
These are the ones she posted on her website.

Snow Days

We went to Sugarhouse park and went sledding for the first time with Sadie. We thought she was going to laugh her head off but she was pretty indifferent to the whole experience. She kept saying "car, car...go." I think she didn't like being so bundled up that it was hard to move. We had fun watching her. Her arms were permanently raised because the bulk wouldn't let her lower them. Pretty hilarious.


We also built a very sad looking little snow man. Sadie thought it was so fun putting berries on it for eyes and buttons. Every time she sees a snow man she says "mi ma." I have no idea where that came from but we love it!!!

Christmas 2007

Here's some photos of our Christmas at the Etherington home. We ended up eating breakfast first this year (a new thing for us sticky fingered children) and opened presents afterwards. Sadie thought everything was pretty cool. She enjoyed hanging out with Ruby and Walter the cat..of course. She walks around the house saying "Wally, where are you." And if she can't find him she says, "where kitty go?"
Listening to her talk is so much fun. This morning she said "Bye bye daddy, he went up stairs." It's amazing to finally have her speaking in sentences. Afterwards we went to the Cannon's and opened presents. My favorite gift of the year is definitely a gift certificate to Piper's Quilts. I am officially a knitter!! I am taking classes there three times a week so I can read patterns by myself by the time I get back to D.C. Thanks CC for the great gift!!

Second time's not the charm

We keep hoping that one day Sadie will want to sit on Santa's lap or even want to be with in ten feet of the guy. Here's a picture of last year's Santa attempt and below is this year's. We had Santa come to the Children's Hour which made it a lot more convenient for us. However, Sadie wouldn't have a thing to do with him even when I gave him gummy bears (her favorite) to give to her. She couldn't be bribed. She couldn't even be persuaded to have me hold her and stand by Santa for a photo. Pretty hilarious actually. I'm just glad I didn't wait in line at the mall. That would have really ticked me off!!

Here's a close up of that lovely face. The sheer terror is similar to the first years, don't you think? Maybe next year she'll be more interested. You know what they say...third time's the charm.

Gingerbread Houses

After our lease was up at our apartment we moved in with the Todd's for a week until we flew to Utah for the holidays. Staying with them was a blast and always entertaining. Sadie loved all the attention she received from her cousins and there were many new toys to share and play with.
We made gingerbread houses with them and their friends one night. Chase and I decided to have a competition to see who could make a better one. We stayed up until midnight putting on the final touches. The test was the next morning when we asked Nathan (an unbiased 7 year old) to judge. He chose mine and I did a very annoying victory dance. What do you think? Which one is better?