President Gordon B Hinckley

Our dear and beloved Prophet Gordon B Hinckley Passed away last sunday, January 27th. Eric called me to relay that he had heard that he had died earlier that evening. Then all my sisters began to recieve phone calls and text messages from friends relaying the same news. We found the announcement online and began to mourn his passing then shortly after came the feelings of relief and celebration as we knew he was once again reunited with his eternal sweetheart.

President Hinckley was the prophet of my youth. It was because of his challenge that I read the Book of Mormon in 8 weeks in order to read it by the end of the year. It was because of his goal to have 100 temples that Albuquerque, New Mexico finally had one built. Eric and I were married in that temple. His example and courage will continue to fuel my motivation to grow in the gospel. I will always miss his beautiful sense of humor and contagious smile.

My Aunt sent this poem to me the day after his passing. I do not know the person who wrote it, but it captures so much of what everyone is feeling right now.


Prophetic Passing

I imagine he's running to Marjorie now,
Yes, running, not waving his cane.
I see him embracing his father and mother
While they keep repeating his name.


I see him now meeting his forebears,
Brother Brigham and Joseph are there.
Sweet reunion of prophets, united by service
That only such noble men share.


I see him embraced by the Savior
While Father says, "Good and well done.
So faithful in stalwart endurance,
I welcomeMy noble, most excellent son."


I then hear the ripples of laughter
As he says the reception's just fine,
But he hopes that he'll get an assignment or two
Since there's no need to waste any time.

I can hear his clear voice in the stillness
At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,
Have faith and move forward - there's work to be done.
President Hinckley would want it that way.

Anna M. Molgard
January 27, 2008

Organ Stop Pizza

Dad treated us to one of the family's favorite live entertainment and pizza place on Saturday after the Airshow. Organ Stop is quite the eating experience! Expensive for cardboard pizza, but worth the music. What a cool place! Our performer for the night took our request for "Flight of the Bumblebee" and "Phantom of the Opera". He also played the theme from "Star Wars". Pretty cool! I was so amazed at the size of the organ and all the pipes. I think that it is the World's largest Wurlitzer Theatre organ. Wow! The stage actually revolved around to let all the onlookers watch the organist play. There were chambers behind glass curtains that had all the pipes and music instruments so everyone could watch. And the lighting effect! So cool. They added the dramatic atmmosphere. He played "Under the Sea" and there were actually bubbles coming down from the ceiling fans.

Check it out at http://www.organstoppizza.com/

Here is a video I took. It was super loud and the lights were dim, but you can see how exravagantly detailed the organ was. It is part of Star Wars, but you really can't tell. The Second clip is the end of star wars. It is much longer, but you can see the chambers in the back and the glass curtain. The lights are also blaring in the last clip.

Finally thawing out!

Grandpa's Model Airplane Convention:

The Weather was perfect! Slightly on the cool side so a jacket made it comfortable. Then in the early afternoon it bcame warm enough to be warm in just short sleeves. I even got a little pink on my nose and cheeks. It was so nice to feel the sun again!

Top Row: Dad, Janalee, Marisa, Kallyn

Bottom: Cameron, Rebecca, Allison, and Deborah

Below: Grandma and Grandpa Cowley with his Airplane

Allison almost fell asleep in this position. Grandpa tried to pick her up and lay her down on his lap, but she insisted on swinging on his arms.

Sweet Dreams

Our first night was the only night that both the girls slept all night. The airplane rides must have tired them out! Since then there has always been a reason to stay up, get up, or wake up everyone else. I think they just miss daddy! They have never been good sleepers on the days they miss out on seeing him.

Tribute to My Grandmother

So the reason for my visit to Arizona was to spend my birthday with my grandmother. I was born on her 50th birthday but I've only been able to celebrate less than half of my birthdays together with her. So this big year for us (25 for me and 75 for her) we finally got to spend together.

In the years that I have known my grandmother I have learned that I have many of her "loves" of life. She was the first to sit me down in front of her organ and she taught me to play "Oh, Them Golden Slippers" and "It's A Small World". She loved singing and painting. Oh the beauty she would capture in her paintings! She amazed me with the mountains and streams she painted. She would let us paint with kids paints on her big windows in her kitchen. Then she would leave our paintings up till we visited again. A tradition that I have shared with Kallyn. Hopefully someday I will have windows that can be painted on.


She taught me how to crochet for my 5th birthday. She has had the tradition of making an afghan for each grandchild when they get married. And she quilts too! I remember many times going to her house and finding her quilting frame up in the basement with a marvelous blanket stretched out in front of the couches and she would put us to work tying it. She would bring her pattern blocks with her and we would watch her stitch beautiful patterns onto the fabric in the hoops. I have yet to finish a large quilt, but I love making baby sized blankets.

They live in Orem, Utah where I was born and lived until I was 9. They have a huge acre yard where my grandpa has the best vegetable garden and the most beautiful lawn. My grandmother adds a splash of color with her flower gardens. She has a Lilac bush that blooms the most fragrant bunches of blossoms. I loved the mixed smell of lilac blossoms and fresh baked bread in her kitchen every spring. She also had 2 rows of the sweetest raspberries and every year after the cherries were picked and eaten we would peek to see if there were any ripe raspberries yet. I will always be reminded of my grandmother every time I eat a raspberry.



My Brother and sisters and I would bring out all her kitchen chairs when she would mop and wax her floors and we would make trains and buses and pretend to go up the canyon to play with our cousins in Heber. Brian would pretend to fly an airplane or Helicopter like the ones my grandpa flew. Grandma would bring out her large blankets and we would make HUGE tents and forts and serious mazes of tunnels. Of course her snacks were always a sweet refreshment. I'll never forget the red punch and cheetos mixture we made once. The things we eat as kids!

Grandma and Grandpa loved the outdoors and would take us on picnics and camping trips often. We once saw a moose or an elk. Whatever it was it was big. My grandpa built a camper by himself and we spent many fun hours playing Uno or Mouse trap on the tiny table that colapses down to make a bed. We sometimes spent the night up on the bed above the cab of the truck. My grandma always had a camera handy and we would have to repose for whatever it was that she wanted to capture on film. Or we would have to wait untill all the family got in the picture and posed just the way she wanted us. I appreciate that she loved her family just the way we were and still continues to do so now. I love reminiscing over her photos and the vidoes my grandpa took. Just this last week we watched a video of my sister and I singing the same songs that Kallyn likes to sing today.

Grandma has always had a heart for sevice. Ever since I can remember she has been singing in a womens choir that shares such sweet music with the community. She is a temple worker for the Timpanogos temple and finds great joy in watching brides covenant with worthy Priesthood bearers. Especially when they are her own grandchildren. She stands as a great example of what I aspire to be for my husband and posterity. She has always been very active in the Relief Society and lends her help whenever it is needed. She is always talking about how much she loves her visiting teachers and the sisters she visits on her monthly route. She is a great friend to anyone who needs a smile or a helping hand. She is always the first to find a compliment for anyone and everyone she meets. She is most asuredly a sunshine scatterer.

Happy Birthday Grandma and thankyou for being such an aspiring daughter of God and being a great example for me and the rest of your family and friends! I love you!



Songs my grandmother sang to us as kids:

Fiddle dee dee, fiddle dee dee,
The Fly that married the Bumble Bee.
The Fly said he "Will you marry me,
And live with me, sweet Bumble Bee."
Fiddle dee dee, fiddle dee dee,
The Fly that married the Bumble Bee


Wyoming Campfire Round:
Wagon wheels, wagon wheels,
Keep on a rollin', wagon wheels.
Roll along, sing your song.
Wagon wheels carry me home.

I get the campfire blues
Underneath the moon
in old Wyoming, Wyoming.
When the sun goes down and I'm all alone.

Wyoming, Wyoming, Wyoming


Songs I devote to grandma
O Mio Babbino Caro-by Giacomo Puccino, My first Opera piece, she gave it to me as a piano solo

Pachelbel's Canon in D Major- our first real duet on the piano

Oh, That I Were an Angel-a common request when we visit. She likes to sing the harmony with my mom or sisters.

As Sisters in Zion-because it always reminds me of how hard she works to uplift Gods children

March of the Toy Soldier- We would play musical chairs while she played it on the piano.

Ballerinas

Happy Birthday Janalee and Grandma Marilyn

The last time I spent my birthday with my grandmother (I was born on her 50th birthday, January 24, 1983) I think was when I turned 11. After 14 years of phone calls and birthday cards in the mail We finally got to celebrate "our day" together. For our birthday gift my mom flew me to AZ where grandma and grandpa would be staying for a week over her birthday for grandpa's amatuer model airplane show. She had no idea I would be coming with my girls. Oh she was so thrilled to see my mom walk in and put Kallyn on her lap (she was asleep, Allison was, too). Mom and Dad just left for an errand they had to do real quick and I walk in door. I have missed her so much and I really enjoyed being able to spend "our day" together, finally!

We had hamburgers for dinner. With banana splits instead of birthday cake. Brian and Heather came over and we surprised them, too! Heather is having a little girl due in March-Kiya Mackenzie. It was great to get to know her better.

Eric called us and sang "Happy Birthday" over the phone. And Marisa had some friends come over to sing to us also. We spent most of the day playing the piano and singing along with each other.

This is the only family pic I have from that day. There are my 2 brothers. Brian and Heather are on the couch and Cameron is on the floor. 2 of my sisters are also on the couch. Stephanie is the one on the phone texting her BF Mitch most likely. Marisa is the baby of the family and is next to Brian. Boy do I miss the days when we all just gathered together in the familyroom and hung out!

Here are some more pics. Marisa is quite the little mommy. Our family is going to be quite blessed to have such a fun and caring aunt to play with the little ones.

Bug found my old baby dolls.

Our little fairy princess. Kallyn is holding the wand we made on the airplane and she found the dressup box. Can you tell?

Our much sought after Aunt Debbie. Always getting my girls to use their imaginations. They are pretending to sleep in their tent.

After A Crazy Daze We Made It!

BEWARE! Very Long Travel Log!
We were all such a bright sight in our "Banana Suits". Dressed in yellow we couldn't get lost as easily. Of course Kallyn just thought that we wore the banana suits because of her favorite "Curious George" movie.
For sure my idea worked because I did not see a single yellow dressed person in any of the airports we were in. I saw lots of pink dressed little blond girls. So our silliness was worth my security!
We started off later than we wanted to, but by running to the gate (thankyou Michelle SOOOOOOOOOOO much for letting us borrow your stroller!) we made it in time to see the departing flights screen blink "DELAYED" for our flight. Phew! I recollected myself and started to play with the girls. We found the Fisher Price "Gate of Fun" just down the terminal and we had 15 minutes to get all our wiggles out on all the fun toys they had to play with!
We boarded without any problems and got situated with all our stuff (1 backpack stuffed full of activities for the long flight, 1 backpack for food and snacks, 1 lunch cooler with fresh fruit, and 1 carry-on suitcase for activities for the long layover in Newark) I over packed, I know, but I was terrified of flying by myself! Kallyn was so worried about being safe. She climbed up into her seat right away and put her seat belt on and told me she was going to hold onto the armrest extra tight just in case. Bug sat on my lap and was rather restless to begin with. But she was very frightened during the takeoff. I tried to calm her down, but the small plane we were on made it seem very bumpy and she wanted me to hold tight the entire time. She was very glad to get off the plane. Kallyn however was very excited to look out the window and see the houses and cars get smaller and smaller. And she especially loved the bumpy landing. It was the hardest landing I've ever experienced.



We had quite a busy layover in Newark. We had 2 soiled diapers and one pull-up change in the bathroom as soon as we got off the first plane. By the way, it was so much easier to have Kallyn in a pull-up instead of hiking back to the bathroom and trying to juggle both girls while attempting to fit in the teeny tiny lavatory. Our plane deboarded at the end of one terminal and we had to walk back to the beginning and over to the next terminal where our next flight was baording all the way at the end and around to the otherside of the food court. Phew! What a walk! Then when we got settled in the wiating area of an empty gate we brought out the suitcase of activities. I taped off an area that the girls had to stay in and we played. We ran in circles and jumped and got out all our wiggles!



Kallyn had some "Lippy" (lipgloss) in her treat bag and we had a great time playing "Super Glamour Glossy Sparkly Makeover" party. The cheap lipgloss found at Target actually distracted the girls many times throughout the long flight.



I called my Grandma just before we boarded to tell her that I was going to be out of the house all day on our birthday and I didn't think that I'de be able to call her and wish her Happy Birthday. But I was sending her Birthday gift to my Mom and Dad's place so she had better watch for it there. Me siblings did a great job keeping the surprize a secret! Little did she know what the birthday gift was!



Allison had a very hard time with the next plane. She started freaking out as soon as we went through the gate. She did NOT want to get on to another plane! She screamed all the way to our seats in the very back. Thankfully we were the ONLY passengers in the last quarter of the plane! So she didn't bother too many people. She burried her face in her blanket as she followed Kallyn and the flight attendant back to our seats. Everyone was looking at her and she did not like it. When we finally got settled she wanted nother to do with me and I had to force her into sitting in the seat with a lap belt to keep her there. She totally freaked out during takeoff, but when the shaking stopped she closed her eyes and was OUT! She slept for about 30 minutes in an upright sitting position. Poor thing! But everytime I tried to move her she started crying again.
Kallyn enjoyed the quiet time!

And she eventually fell asleep, too.

Some of our activities included:
Paint with water books with Q-tips
Playdough
pipe cleaners and ponybeads
view finder
making fairy princess wands
Watching movies on the laptop (pain to carry around by myself, but it saved me the last hour!)
Stickers
Magnetic activity pads
tattoos
bubbles
"Don't Eat Pete!" toddler game
stick-it notes
audio books
Color pillows with markers (you can see it in the pic below on Bugs lap)
Foamie Puppets
Glowsticks

Yup, we stayed busy! And I kept my sanity. Since we were the only ones in the back of the plane by the bathroom I could let Kallyn go by herself and still be able to check in on her and watch Bug at the same time! Oh I hope the flight home will be empty, too! I was so relieved to see grandma and grandpa! I couldn't get my stuff fast enough I was so tired and I just wanted to see the look on my grandma's face!

Cute Words That Make Me Laugh!

So Allison's been increasing her vocabulary of words she can say. However, I still can't understand half of what she can say. These are 2 of my favorite words she uses. She begs to color and play with playdough and the way she says both just make me laugh! She gets so animated when she's excited!

On The Way to Be An Olympic Down Hill Skiing Champion

Eric took Kallyn skiing for the first time today! She did Awesome! And she's only three! Here's some great pics and videos to wow ya!

What we've been up to...

I know that I had a dry spell of posts lately and I will appologize to those who try to keep up with me, but I guess you can say that I caught up in 2 days! We have been super buzy not being buzy at all! Just enjoying the time at home with Eric. There were a few crazy days when we watched extra kids, but mostly we enjoyed not having anything to do. Not that we were lazy, actually we were rather lazy till about noon every day, but it was so nice to not have papers due, hours to clock in at work, family plans to get together, tests to study for, assignments to turn it, yada yada yada!
So I forgot about the blog for a while and just enjoyed taking lots of pics!
Our latest activity was Chuck E. Cheese day! We stopped visiting Chuck when "IT'Z" opened up down the street from our apt in Albuquerque. Let me tell you about IT'Z. It's Chuck E. Cheese on steroids! Real bumpercars, rides, and a bowling alley! Not to mention the food! Pizza, Salad, Pasta, Potato, and Dessert buffets! And the pizza did not resemble cardboard in the least bit! And the dining rooms to choose from! Wow! Four to choose from. We always ended up in the Gametime room. OK, check it out yourself! Here!

N*E*Ways, Chuck seemed silly to us after discovering IT'Z, but really, you can't beat the cheap arcade, and just the thought of eating cardboard just so you can enjoy hanging out with wonderful friends!

Berry Yummy!

My girls take after me on this one! They have developed my taste for berries, alright, my obsession with berries! I can't get enough of them and it seems that my girls can't either! We bought raspberries, boysenberries, and strawberries on our last run to Sams for diapers and wipes. The strawberries were the only ones that made it through the first 20 minutes after we got home! I couldn't fill their cups fast enough!!!! And the darlins had berry yummy fingers, too!

Color My World!

From Crayons....




To paint!

Drum Roll....
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...
...
...
...
...



Viola! It's a Masterpiece!!!



And the original, by Kallyn

Lil' Lefty

Aunt Debbie will be so happy to learn that she is not the only lefty in the family anymore! I am certain that Bug will be a lefty also. I know it's still early to tell completely, but she does everything in her left hand and better than her right. Kallyn was rather ambidextrous till about 2, but she always colored better with her right. It might explain their polar opposite personalities! But they both love to color, read books, and give daddy luvs.

Johnny Jump Up and Fall Asleep!

This little guy is my girls favorite toy! Occasionaly I watch him for his mom while she works once a week. I just got out my "Johnny Jump-Up" to see how he would like it. 5 minutes was all it took and he was out! Then when he woke up, he would coo and grin as the girls danced and made a ruccous in the kitchen! Oh what fun are little babies!
I was so glad to finally use the jumper. In Albuquerque our apt didn't have any doorjams with a big enough margin to hang it on. Once I took it to the church while I was at Mutual for YW's, but those girls couldn't keep their hands off my girls. They were quite a distraction I know, but I hope they learned from me how hard it is to be a mom and what joy children bring to life!!!

Snow Is Falling All Around...

These are pictures from our front and back windows after the snowstorm on New Years Eve. I am still so amazed at how much I love the snow! I cannot get enough of it! Of course I'm not the one that drives in it every time the roads get bad, but you all know what happened while I drove when the roads were fine! Already we've had 2 cars bump into our new van while it was parked! Of course it was nothing- due to the careful drivers going absolutely as slow as they could, and it wasn't because of slippery conditions either! Just parked in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Both are very good friends of ours so we are not suing for damages!! Ha Ha!(Both from the Law School community!)

In order to keep our firewood from getting iced over we bring it down into the cellar. Abbott finished the bulkhead just before the first snow, so we take the wood around the house and toss in into the dungeon!!! Kallyn loves that part! She is such a daddy's helper! The last time we moved the firewood Eric had shoveled a little trail from our back porch to the cellar doors on the other side of the house. We lost Kallyn in all that snow! She started falling on purpose so we sould have to help her out of the wall of snow. Some of the piles were 7 ft or more!