A TRIBUTE TO OUR PROPHET

I have been wanting to write something ever since I heard the news that our prophet had passed away. It was Sunday afternoon when all of a sudden my phone was flooded with text messages about how our beloved prophet had left this world to be with his wife. Oh what a glorious reunion that was, I am sure. When I first read the text it came as a shock to me and I just sat there. My very first thought was this is so sad and I wanted to just sit and cry, my second thought was how happy for him to get to finally be with his wife, and that thought did make me cry.
He is such an amazing man and has done so much for our church while he was prophet, I felt like I knew him and quickly thought back through my life if I have ever actually met him, I felt like I had. After much reflection I realized I had never actually met him in person, but I had attended two different firesides that he had spoken at, and I will never forget the one in Utah at the Marriott Center when he walked into the room and everyone stood up and sang, "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet, " I am sure there was not a dry eye in the whole place, the spirit was so strong and if I hadn't had a strong enough testimony before, I knew with out a doubt at that moment in my life that Gordon B. Hinckley was a prophet in these latter days and he did speak with God and knew what we needed to hear for this day in time.
I turned on the news trying to find out more information. Sadly enough, nothing was being said. So, I immediately got on lds.org to see what they had to say. I tried calling Aaron to see if he had heard the news, then called my sister Janica to see if she had heard. I guess I almost felt like I needed confirmation that this was true and not some misunderstanding.
Monday Aaron spent some time reading aloud to me every article that was written about him on CNN and the New York Tribune and on lds.org, etc. Anything he could find. For FHE we talked about him and all his service he has done while prophet. It has been good to take time to talk about and reflect on the life of our prophet and the great man that he was and is. He was definitely a devoted servant of our Heavenly Father. What a great example. What an amazing man.

GYMNASTICS!

Today was Kali's first day of gymnastics and she did such an awesome job!!! I am not sure who was more excited Kali or me. I competed in gymnastics when I was a little girl and so I was excited to get Kali started. She got to swing on the bars and do somersaults and jump on the trampoline and jump off of the spring board. She is a natural.

My little Angel

I hear Kali talking away in my room while I was cooking, guessing she was either pretending to play on our computer, talk on the phone or one of her favorite things and my favorite things that she does is read mommies scriptures. I have been meaning to do this for awhile but today Kali and I finally took a walk to the temple and went to the distribution center and got her, her own set of scriptures so that she can now read along with us while we do our family scripture study.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

We spent our holiday at Kawela Bay with a bunch of friends. Kali had fun playing in the sand and out on Uncle Jame's kayak. Always a good time at Kawela's.

POTTY TRAINED!

This past week we have been working hard at getting Kali potty trained, and I must say she has passed with flying colors. She is doing so well! We gave her stars for each time and then after she got a row of stars she would receive a surprise. She got her pony bag, a Dora bat and ball and a calculator! Daddy even took her out and played ball with her after she received it. She was so excited to finally get to try out her new bat and ball.

Kali's friends and relatives in Utah

Kali got to meet some new friends and visit old friends and some of her relatives while we were in Utah. I also got to see some of my friends!! It was fun! When we first flew in to Utah we stayed with Susan and Chris Petersen and Kali and I got to meet their little one Hattie. She was so cute. They had good times together, well I hope Hattie had fun, I know Kali had fun bossing her around. Kali also got to spend lots of time with her cousin Michael. Michael is my older brother Brandon's son. Kali and her cousin Calee got to spend some time together playing and taking a bath together. Bath time is always more fun with a friend! Kali was so excited when we went and visited her friends Fiona and James. They use to be our neighbors in Hawaii but they have moved on now and are living in Utah while their dad Jared finishes his Masters program. As for me I was able to visit with Corissa and Susan one night for dinner which was so fun and I also got to see (not pictured) Jeff and Tay Faulkner and Hauni Crocket and her son Max. It was so fun to see so many people we haven't seen in a while. Vacation was fun, but Kali and I are glad to be home with Daddy again. We need to make sure he comes next time, it was too hard to be gone that long with out him. We love you DADDY!!

Kali in Utah

The day after Christmas Kali and I flew to Utah to spend some time with the family. Kali got to play in the snow which she calls messy, she had me wipe her shoes off when we got into the car because they had gotten dirty from the snow. We got to watch Auntie Cori play basketball for the BYU Cougars, she did an awesome job! Kali was cheering her on, saying, "go Cougs, go BYU, go Tori." (Kali calls her Tori, because she can't make the "Cu" sound yet, it is so cute) For everyone who wanted a shot of me with my belly and my new hair here is one with our fam on the way to Coriann's game we stopped at Cabella's for a look around, it is a pretty cool store, Kali enjoyed it! Talk about an outdoors men's dream! We got to visit temple square and see all the pretty lights, it was so cold but Kali was a trooper. While we were in Utah Kali never went to bed before 10:30 pm and we got to sleep in until 10:00 or 11:00 every morning, by the end of the week Kali was exhausted.