Josh, Nicole, and Mara: January 2008

Sunday night, we were all recuperating from being sick (or in my case, a migraine) and getting ready for the week, when we found out that the President of our church had passed away. Gordon B. Hinckley was the prophet for the church when I was baptized, at 18. So he's been the only prophet I've ever known in my life. My testimony of the gospel was really able to grow, in part, because of the wonderful example he set for us all. I remember once, when I was going to school in Utah, I went to a conference with Amanda, and when he came into the Conference Center (which seats tens of thousands), it went completely silent. Everyone had so much reverence. We all knew what an amazing example he was to all of us. He was the mouthpiece of the Lord on the Earth.

Just as prophets of old, he was a prophet, seer, and revelator. He gave us direction from our Father in Heaven, and he always encouraged us to be a little better...to be the best "us" we could be. As my testimony of the church grew, my testimony that he was a true prophet of God continued to swell. I know that we will continue on, and the next president of the church will continue giving us guidance and direction.

Today, a coworker came up to me to tell me she was sorry to have heard about our church leader who had passed away. How nice that those around me can know that side of me also, and what a sweet thing for her to do!

I'm back blogger world! Sorry for my absence. I have been so busy lately. Christmas was a blur. We travelled so much. We had 6 Christmas celebrations, which is always stressful...fun, but stressful. We went to Aunt Sussy's a few days before. We had Wayne and my mom over to our house for our traditional clam chowder Christmas....Home made...YUMMY! We spent Christmas Eve dinner with Josh's mom's family. Then Christmas day, we had our own morning celebration and also sang Happy Birthday to Mara. We then drove to Bloomington for Christmas at my mom's parents' house. In the afternoon, we headed back to Indy for dinner at Josh's dad's parents' house. Did you catch all that? A few days later, we headed to Northern Illinois for my grandma's burial. Did I mention we were busy?

Lately I have been so busy at work, too. We had customers in all week long, so I spent a lot of time preparing for them and trying to catch up on urgent email when I wasn't doing something with them. I'm so glad it's the weekend!

Anyway, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures since we finally got a new camera!!!

The day of my grandma's funeral (right before), I got to go with our friends Amanda (my best friend from high school) and Jamison to their ultrasound. They're having a girl!!!! It was such a great thing for me to witness. It was a beautiful thing for me to see that little life on the screen!

Mara loves a good piggy back ride. This was Christmas Day. It's ridiculous to see the disaster that was my house!

Mara enjoying Daddy's back!

Christmas was a good time to get together with family. This is Mara with Josh's brother, Danny, and sister, Rachel.

This was Mara's birthday cake that we had at our friends' house on New Years Eve. She was excited to see more Dora, as she had received a Dora kitchen set for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Brunk.

This was the whole layout. Each setting had its own maracas, too. Too cute!

She especially loved singing Happy Birthday to herself. In fact, on Christmas night, she fell asleep in my arms singing, "Happy Birthday dear Mara."

Amanda and Jamison have a little Beagle named Porthos. For Mara's birthday, they gave her a stuffed beagle-like puppy. When she opened it, she yelled, "Porthos!" and put him on the ground, pushed his behind and said, "Run! Run!" It was cute that she thought he was real! Here is Mara with both fake and real Porthos.