Insights Into A Hot Bath

Matt and I have owned our home for almost three years now and not once have we ever had a hot bath.  We needed a new water heater, but at the time it just wasn't a priority.  Besides, we could always just boil some water on the stove and dump it into a bath.  So this weekend, Matt decided it was time for a new water heater.  After hours of installing and a call to a plumber, our water heater was ready to get to work. 
That night I hopped into a steaming hot bath.  As I lay soaking in the steam, my mind turned to Haiti.  I thought of the thousands of people who have never had a hot bath, who probably never had running water.  I thought of the devastation and pain that they were experiencing at that very moment that I was enjoying a relaxing HOT bath.  My heart hurt for all that suffering. 
Then, my mind turned to a bunch of conference talks that I had read that day.  Our new YW president has asked each of the leaders to go through and do the personal progress again.  So I was working on the first faith goal and it talked about faith and the relationship faith has with prayer.  I know that millions of prayers have gone out to the people in Haiti.  I know from personal experience that through prayer, Heavenly Father can send peace for the soul and comfort for the heart.  Suddenly I knew in my mind that although there is devastation and suffering in Haiti, Heavenly Father is comforting his people and answering prayers.  My faith has been strengthened and I know that Heavenly Father is aware of each and every one of his children.  I know that He loves us and if we exercise TRUE faith, nothing will ever go permanently wrong.

Mid-Winter Blahs

The time between New Years and the end of January is just blah.  There isn't anything fun going on.  No parties, no fireworks, no yummy food.  I just don't like it.  It is very blah, and nothing blog-worthy happens.  So here I am biting my thumb at the mid-winter blahs.  Only one more week until the partying can begin.

New Years Eve

I've got to be honest. I don't know if I am too excited for 2010. Mostly because I'm going to turn 20-10 in 2010. But that didn't stop me from ringing in the new year with my family.
The day started off with a little sledding out to the meadow with all the fam. The kids were super excited. They loaded up on the school bus hood and were off:

By the time we got to the actual field to go sledding, the kids were frozen from all the snow blowing up in their faces. Bailee was especially distraught:

We put her in the truck to warm up while the others went sledding. Then it was our turn:

Dad was having fun trying to flip us over:

After about an hour, I was ready to go home, so we showered, had a snack and headed up to the First Night in Provo. We stopped and had dinner at TGI Fridays and then we hit the Town Centre. As we were heading up to the second floor, we saw a magic show so we sat down. Then we got balloon animals (Bailee got a flower and Jeremy got a snake).

Next we did some face painting:




Jeremy and Matt saw something they really wanted to do . . . jousting!



Then the kids wanted to have some obstacle course fun.


Next, we headed to the bottom floor to make some masks.

We saw that the Muppet Show was about to start, so we pulled up a chair.

It was about 30 minutes until the fireworks, so we went upstairs, got a drink and watched some show called the Thrillionaires:

We headed outside to wait for the fireworks. The kids had a BLAST dancing to the music. Matt even got into it.

Then the fireworks began. They were cool. They had music cued up to the blasts. It was great.




After the fireworks, we loaded in the car and headed to Cory and Sharon's to ring in the new year with pots and pans. It was a fun (and cheap) night!!