Birthday Present

I had a good birthday this year even though I turned 31. OUCH! We spent the week in Grand Junction with my family, and they had a little party for me. The best part of the day though was being able to watch my favorite soccer team play for the European Championship. Thats right, I love soccer, or football as I call it. I have become a huge fan of the Manchester United football club from the English Premier League. Well, this year they made it to the final of what is called the Champions League. All the best teams from all the best leagues play each other to determine the best team in Europe. My team won, and I had a blast watching it. This is a picture of the players reacting after winning the match after a penalty shootout.

Reflections of Christ

Yes, normally this is Tyler's blog, but I don't have one and I have something on my mind that I want to share. A couple months ago we had a fireside at the Stake Center. It was called Reflections of Christ. Clyde Bawden used to live here with his family (Tara's dad), and he came back with Mark Mabry (Tara's husband) to do this fireside. Mark was actually set apart to take these photographs. They are all photos depicting events in Christ's life and they are absolutely amazing. Clyde and Mark both spoke at the fireside and talked about the influence of the spirit on this project. I went to the fireside and was in awe at the photos as I walked through the art gallery that had been set up at the stake center. We also watched a documentary that showed in detail the process of taking the photos. I should have left and immediately started spreading the word about these pictures and making family and friends witness what I had, but it kind of got pushed to the back burner. Then I was reading Cheri's blog tonight and she had a link that went to a Reflections of Christ page, I commented on her blog and wondered why I hadn't also been sharing this with everyone I could. So I am following suit and including links. If you go to the Reflections of Christ website and sign up you can also watch the documentary that we watched at the fireside. I think everyone should see it. Thanks Cheri

http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html

For many years, the Mesa (Arizona) Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had exhibits on the temple grounds during the Easter season. This year, there was also a 'Reflections of Christ' photography exhibit in the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center. The photographer was given permission to photograph pageant cast members for the exhibit. They traveled to various locations in Arizona that the photographer thought looked like the places in Israel where these events took place and recreated the scenes. The photographer worked with a few others to put together a 5-minute slideshow which includes every image from the exhibit and set it to the hymn ' Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.'Just remember when you're watching the video that these are photographs -- they aren't paintings. You can expand the video to fill the screen by clicking the icon in the lower right (left of the volume control).

http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/

go to video

sign up

it should automatically start playing

Now Tyler can have his blog back.

Oh and it was his birthday yesterday!Ü

Happy Mothers Day!

I would like to say Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers in my life. Happy Mothers Day Mom. I love you mom. Here are some pictures of me and my mom.

Happy Mother's Day Amanda. You are a great mother, and I love you.

Back Yard of the Month!!

Our last project for the day was building the rock waterfall and pond. We had a lot of rocks left over from this back yard and they have been sitting in this little area all year. We bought a pond liner and a pump and just went for it. It took some time and a few trials, but we did it. We are going to put a bunch of flowers and plants around it now. The bush above it is in bloom, and has some really pretty flowers. They are bright pink. Our tree in the back yard is starting to bloom its purple flowers now too. My new grass is doing well also. It is as green as ever. Over all, our back yard looks awesome right now.

We went to Gordon's Nursery in Huntington today and bought some plants for our garden, and some flowers for our flower pots. The pictures are of our garden boxes. I made some modifications for them this year. I hooked into the sprinkler line that goes to the back yard and set up a drip system for the garden, so now it gets watered when the grass does. The black soaker hose it clamped to each end and does a great job of watering the whole box. We planted tomatos, bell peppers, and peas.

I decided to upgrade the tree house last week. All it had before was a few board nailed to the tree as a ladder, and a hatch on the floor to get in. It had a few 2x4's as walls, but it was not very safe. So I made a ladder for them that went up the side and enclosed it with scrap board I had on hand. Then for family home evening last week, we painted it. Hadlee picked out the color, and she and Calvin helped to paint it. They had paint all over themselves, but they had fun. Then we decided to put in a slide. I went with Jared to Sutherlands and bought a slide. It is made for a certain hieght, and our tree house is a little too tall. This makes for a very fast slide. Hadlee and Calvin love it though.

Awards Banquet

I was invited to this years awards banquet at CEU by the Biology Department, as their outstanding student of the year. It was fun to dress up and take Amanda with me. We sat by this really outspoken and weird old lady, but it was fun. Dr. Krum (the biology dept. head) had to submit a short bio about me and my experience at CEU. He made up a story about me getting an epiphany during one of his lectures about becoming a dentist. It was funny. This is the award they gave me. Not much, but I will take it.