It All Started With Him

Back in 1996, I started listening to books on tape. It was the only way to survive mowing my mom's lawn. Since then I have listen to countless amounts of books while working on my farmer's tan and helping my mom's lawn stay in somewhat good condition. The very first book I ever listened to was President Hinckley's biography. I remember distinctly developing a great love for our prophet as I mowed the lawn. I know this sounds a little funny, but there are certain stories of his life that I can't think about without thinking of certain spots in my mom's lawn. He has taught us so much. Looking back on my life, listening to President Hinckley's biography was the beginning of so many things for me. The more I learned about his life, the more I wanted my life to be better.Over the last 24 hours one thing that he said keeps coming to mind. During one of his conference talks he made some comment that he would be remembered as the prophet no one listened to or followed. (Something like that.) I hope that we might all do what he has asked us to do. To "go forward with faith" to "be little bit better" to "do the best we can." I am so grateful that I have had so many opportunities to learn from him. I know that he was called of God. That he was sent here to be an instrument in our Father's hands. Like President Hinckley we each have important things to do to help the church move forward, to prepare the world for our Savor's coming. It is my prayer that we can all go forward with faith. That we might not skip a beat in our eternal progression.

My Husband and His Crazy Brother

What do most people do on a Sunday night? Some watch football. Others go to firesides. Lot of people go hang out at Walmart. (I know this because when we drive over to my mom's house the parking lot is ALWAYS full.) What do the Baldwin boys do? With the encouragement of Pam, they go jump around in the snow barefoot. I love to participate in all sorts of crazy activities. But this is one that I am happy to be only a watcher and not a "snow jumper." I guess in Idaho there just isn't a lot to do, so you've got to do something for fun.

Two for the Price of One

Check two more temples off our list! This weekend we got to go to two new temples. One defiantly more "new" than the other. We stopped by the Ogden temple on the way up to Idaho this weekend. To be completely honest, if you have been to the Provo temple, you've been to the Ogden temple. It is different because it is right in the middle of town. Most temples are on a hill and kind of out of the way of things. Not with Ogden. You're driving down the road and BAM! there it is. Who doesn't like the element of suprise now and then?
We also went to the Rexburg temple Open House. (Hence the title "Two for the Price of One") It was fun to go through the temple with Devin's whole family (minus his parents who are on a cruise). So within a few days we went from a "old" temple to a bran spankin' new one. The Ogden temple was dedicated in January of 1972. The Rexburg temple will be dedicated on February 3rd. It is amazing how 36 of progress can change how a temple looks. They are both beautiful and we are grateful for the chance we had to see them both. Two more down....."x" more to go. :)

Walking On Water

I think everyone at some point has had the desire to walk on water. Ok, maybe just me. :) We had the chance to kind-of walk on water this weekend. We went to watch a Polar Plunge out at some lake in Logan. Unfortunately, we were too late to see the plunge. We thought it would be fun to walk out on the frozen lake. I've never done that before. It was funny to think that we were walking out to the middle of a lake.

For Our Disappointed Fans

Yeah! We've been married for one whole year! It went by really fast. We are really happy. We have both decided that we would be happier if we were going to Disney World again. The year has gone by quickly. My mother was so nice to put our "cake top" in this special zip-lock bag plastic wrap combo packaging that preserved our cake for one year. I am one that believes that if something has been in the fridge for over a week, it probably should be thrown out. I was a little skeptical about the cake top. I wasn't sure how it would taste, or if I should taste it at all. Notwithstanding the unsure feelings about the quality of the cake. We went ahead and cut our cake. Devin had a different plan in mind. I thought we were going to cut the cake and eat it. NOOO! Devin had another plan. He wanted to cut the cake and smash it in my face. As you can see, I smashed back. Last year many people were disappointed at our reception because we didn't smash the cake in each other's faces. I'm still glad we didn't. Devin I guess had to wait a year to finally smash some cake in my face. I was just glad that we were wearing clothes that didn't need to be dry cleaned and that we could vacuum up the mess as soon as we were done. The cake tasted really good, just as good as it did the day we got married. So for whatever it is worth, we are happily moving on to our 2nd year of marriage. WOO- HOO!

Oh My!

Wednesday we got a lot of snow. Enough snow to be proud of. As I was driving to work and a rapid 5 miles per hour, I was very grateful that I now work in South Orem and not Highland. I love snow, it is very pretty, but I hate driving in it. So once I got to work I was perfectly happy with the thought that it just might snow all day long. At about 8:30am the school district sent around some big snow plows to help out with snow removal. The plows usually take a sweep or two through the playground area to make the job easier for our school custodian. The truck took one sweep past my classroom. The second time I thought, "Dang, he is really close to the wall of the school, a.k.a. our classroom!" Then the BANG came! One of my students, who was closes to the windows shouted out, "OH MY!" What in the world? But the plow kept going and we kept working. When I went to get my later kids at 9:10 I realized what the "Bang" was. The snow plow had ripped off the ramp that leads up to my classroom. It was a few yards down the playground. I opened my door and said, "Who stole my ramp?" Luckily the head custodian and principal were right outside my door shoveling the snow. I looked at them and said, "Can I have that back?" pointing to the ramp that use to be by my door. They spent the next 1/2 hour trying to push the big slab of assault back in front of my door. With the help of their little four-wheeler snow plow my ramp is right back where it should be. Too bad I didn't have my camera ready to take a picture of it when it was half way across the playground.

Now That's A Gingerbread House!

One of my favorite family traditions is making gingerbread houses. When we were little we made them sometime in December. For the last several years we have started doing it on New Years day, seeing as none of us spend the day working at the rink like we use to. I'm not sure when it all started, but sometime, someone (probably Dave and Marthe) started making more than just your normal gingerbread house. We have had all sorts of things over the past years, planes, pirate ships, farms, and spaceships. I guess the ground rule is that you have to at least use, in some way, the pieces from the gingerbread house kit. You can cut the pieces up any way you like. This year was no exception. I was thrilled to finally have a partner. Devin and I decided to make a carousel. I must say we were very pleased with our finished product. You may vote for which "house" you think is the best.

Devin & Julie: Carousel









Peter & Emily: No Snow!










David & Marthe: Trogdor










Mark









Brent: Castle with Drawbridge













Aaron: A Church with Parking Lot

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

To celebrate the coming of 2008 we decided to have a party. And where else to have a party, but my mom's house. We decided that it would be fun for everyone to sleep over, heck...there's more than enough room. It was a lot of fun. We played DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) for quite a while. It was pretty fun watching the boys play. The surprise of the evening was that we discovered Peter's hidden talent of dancing. Who knew? It was great fun. After the little people went to bed we stayed up until 2am playing Carcassonne and watching Strongbad sing about Trogdore. We were all amazed that we lasted that long, seeing as we all usually go to bed before 11pm. The next morning we had a great breakfast. Thanks to David and Marthe we woke up to the smell of bacon, eggs, sausage, and pancakes. Wow! A great breakfast that we didn't have to cook ourself. Thanks! New Years was great fun, probably the most fun I've had in years.