I Love to See the Temple

So the temple experience was simply put... amazing! On Friday I received my endowments and on Saturday we were sealed. On Friday it was great to have my family and friends with me and if I looked at people I would start to cry. I think the fact that I was finally there and able to be there with so many good people it overwhelmed me. Then came Saturday. It was so wonderful to be there with Brad, my wonderful husband. I felt our bond strenghten. Then came in our three little angels. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. They were perfect. Mason sat on the alter and smiled at the sealer. Noah and Wyatt were so peaceful and as my mom says, they knew how important that was. Noah still talks about it and makes cute comments almost on a daily basis. I just have to say you girls were with me in my heart because I saw Brooke on friday and Saturday and it made me cry because I was happy that she could be there, but also happy because I though of you gals and what a support and example everyone has been to me. I am excited to get to go back to the Temple. There is nothing else like it! Hopefully we can all go together sometime soon. I wish I had some better pictures to post. Getting three young children to take pictures is a difficult and exhausting task. On another subject... Brad left for Brazil today for 11 days. It should be interesting to say the least.

Aubrey is here!

So for those of you who haven't heard yet, a few hours after Kristen's post last night she went into labor! Aubrey Michelle was born at 4:12pm today (exactly one month early), is 7 lbs., and 19 inches. Mom and baby are both doing well. You can see a few pictures on our family blog: www.624kents.blogspot.com. I'm heading out there with my parents tomorrow, so I'll be sure to post pictures here soon!

Our Utah Trip

My sister-in-law Pirate Amber, Ballerina Kevin :), and baby Logan

Our niece Kate in all her princess glory...who doesn't love gold taffeta!?

Party Princesses....( Try to ignore the huge green princess on the right...Kate insisted that the baby be a ballerina too and wear one of her tutu's...I know you're all wondering how we even got it on, but I think I look more like a flower from the Nutcracker...)

The Pirate Crew ( Steve's Dad, Steve, Nephew Alex, and our sister-in-law Emily)

Kate the Ballerina/Princess... she just stared at her cake forever! All she wanted to eat though was the icing!

Our nephew Alex the Pirate and his cake....

Kristen, Amy, Kate, and Kevin being Princess/Ballerinas!

So we went down to Utah this past weekend...sort of against doctor's orders but he just sent our records with us...and had lots of fun. We spent Friday night at our twin niece and nephew's pirate/princess-ballerina party. It was fun. We got to go with Steve's sister Amy to the temple the next day to take out her endowments for her mission. She leaves on the 24th of this month for the MTC and will just miss our little baby girls debut! ( We might try and be sneaky though and meet up with her at the airport before she leaves).

I've just been working in the school district subbing and most recently doing a test proctoring job. It's been good, although I think I am ready to be done soon. I'm almost 36 weeks and feeling really ready to be done. These pictures really aren't the most flattering so hopefully I can post some more soon so you don't think I really look like and overweight ballerina all the time! :) I'm going in weekly now for my doctor's appointments and anxiously awaiting my due date.

Steve treated me to a prenatal massage at the Sage Day Spa here in Rexburg. It was really nice. Unfortunately, another restless night brought the back soreness right back, but it was nice while it lasted!

whirl wind week

Happy belated birthday LIZZY! I can't believe you are 27. Did you do anything fun for your birthday? What did you get?

Sarah! WOW!!! You're sealing was so AWESOME. Thanks for letting Ryan and I share that with you. Your family was so cute... Sorry we couldn't stay long, i will explain in the next paragraph.

Our week has been a whirl wind.

On Thursday, Ryan found out that he had this awesome opportunity to got to Alaska on a fishing trip on SUNDAY. So he splurged and bought a plane ticket.

On Friday, Ryan and I left work at one and drove to Bountiful go to go Sarah's endowment session. The Bountiful Temple was BEAUTIFUL!

On Saturday, we went to the Wardle Sealing, which was SO AWESOME. What a beautiful sealing. It started SNOWING on us when we were driving up there and it continued to snow for the rest of the day. After the sealing Ryan and I had to scat because he still had to get home and pack for ALASKA.

On Sunday morning, I drove Ryan to the St. George airport and dropped him off. He will be in ALASKA until Thursday. Sportsman's Warehouse is doing a write up on a new fishing lodge in Alaska and the editor needed someone else to go and Ryan was in the right place and the right time...so he is off having fun for a couple day!!!! When he gets back I will have to post some pictures of his Alaskan Adventure. He has already encountered a moose and 5 grizzly bears, not to mention all the FISH!

I have been busy with work and just found out I passed the CUPA test...it's pretty much the LSAT but for Legal Secretaries. So that is exciting! Hopefully it will help my pay scale coming this fall!!!

Well, that is if for the Smiths. Blog you later.... Brooke
sorry there are no pictures, my computer's supper slow downloading! I will post some when Ryan gets back from Alaska!

Meet me in St Louie

This month Doug and I have both been traveling for work. Two weeks ago, Doug went to St Louis for a few days and then last week I went to Waco to my VA office for some refresher training. I got just 2 days at home to relax and then had to leave this morning for St Louis to meet with my VA leadership training program. (It's too bad our St Louis trips didn't fall on the same week!) I'll be here until Friday evening. We're supposed to be pretty busy all week, but tonight, I'm just kicking it in my room by myself... I'm excited about getting to know all the people in this program and getting started with the projects and stuff. Sounds like it'll be a lot of work though.

I didn't take this picture, but here's the St Louis Arch... just for effect :)

Also, Recently I joined a book club with some friends from my Relief Society. A few weeks ago, we finished this book - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I told Kari about it already. It was really good and a pretty fast read. I'd really suggest it.

Husker Power

I think everyone needs to see a few pictures of the insanity we experienced last night. These Nebraskans don't kid around when it comes to football! USC was in town, making it easily the biggest event in Lincoln all year. We set a NCAA record for the most consecutive sellouts (I think in the 280's), and there were almost 85,000 fans there. We arrived at the stadium a mere 2 1/2 hours before the game started and still found ourselves halfway back in the line to get in, even though the doors still didn't open for another hour! It's quite the feeling though, being in the middle of the student section, with the power of red all around you. We got into the fight song and cheers for the first half, which was fun. Then of course came the second half though when USC really showed their dominance, so it got harder to cheer! I wish I could have captured on film all the people in corn hats, painted bodies in overalls, and the extreme amount of tailgaiting that had been going on since Thursday when professors started letting people out of class early to party. Anyway, it was definitely something I'll always remember from our time here in Lincoln.

Front Page News!

Well it is offical. I am going to receive my endowments on the 28th of September and be sealed to my 4 boys on Saturday 29th in the bountiful temple! I am very excited. It has been a long time coming and we are very ready. So... if anyone is going to be in Utah there is an event to attend! Of course I will not be upset if people are unable to attend I realize the short notice makes things difficult. Brad is going to Brasil the first part of October and so we wanted to do it before he takes off to a third world county.