Merry Christmas!

Wow, interstate 84 and 86 are closed so I don't know if anyone will be able to come up to Padens homecoming Sunday. We had a wonderful Christmas and lots of snow and wind for us, the driveway is all drifted in! Yes, that means I seriously can just stay home!! HAHAH. We hope your Christmas was just as nice.
Chris

Being Thankful for the Simple Things

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we had a wonderful time hosting at our house. I hope everyone will come again soon, but one family at a time (at least until Thanksgiving 2009- then we can do the whole group). We enjoyed great food, good conversation and a just a good old time.

For some reason, my camera ran out of batteries right after flicking these few choice pictures. Christy gave me a great Thanksgiving present this year. If you can't tell from the pictures, along with Tessa's help they got my industrial food wrap to work so that it will work! This might seem like a small task, but I'm very excited to have a fully functioning wrap in my drawer, one that will not cut me on a day when I put my hand in the drawer without looking.

I hope you each have such a simple thing to be grateful for! Wishing each of you a wonderful Holiday Season ahead (and good luck with your industrial wrap)!

Hello everyone!

It was so good to see you all for Thanksgiving-THANKS SO MUCH CRISTIE!!! WE HAD A GREAT TIME and of course, ate too much. We all have so much to be thankful for, especially family.
Chris

Hey everyone,
I'm so excited , I figured out how to put a picture on my profile. Aha! Now I'll have to get pictures of the demolition going on in our home . Yep, Stewart is tearing up lots of stuff and I just hope it all makes it back in place within a reasonable amount on time. We are counting down days till Paden gets home-34!!! Hope you are all doing well.
Chris

C & C Hightlighs

This month we have some great news to report! No, it's not that Christian won the costume contest--although, this golf outfit is pretty darn good.

Christian has been interviewing and going through the recruiting process with the big 4 accounting firms. It has been quite the experience and very time consuming. But it definitely paid off. Christian has been offered and accepted an internship at Price Waterhouse Coopers. He'll most-likely start in January and get a taste for "busy season" which will last til about May. I think the only downside of the internship is that Christian won't be able to enjoy March Madness like he loves to.

Marianne and The University of Utah SINGERS

Marianne is in a wonderful, if not fabulous choral group at the University of Utah. A few weeks ago on a Sunday night we were treated to a concert in the Libby Gardner Concert Hall on campus where the "The University of Utah Singers" did their thing! They sang songs from their new CD that is just being released (some of you may be getting it as a Christmas gift)- it is a wonderful collection of Christmas music, as well as a variety of classical, gospel and even some pieces from Oklahoma! the musical. John was the first one in the audience on his feet at the end to give his praise of the event. It was really a wonderful evening of music. We were so happy to see Deanna and Jim there that night and as their special guests Aunt Helen and her friend.

I taught Chris how to blog!!

She learned so fast and I am so proud of her for learning. Let me know if anyone else wants a lesson--Jeanette--we gotta get a time scheduled!

Hi

Hi , I've joined the Mabey Blog! With Candace's help I may move into the computer age! HAHA! This will be so fun to stay in touch with all of you. So, new news- I got two calls today from Canada . The first was a lady that is a stake missionary and working with Paden and she just loves him and the second was a lady that's an investigator and a widow and Paden has been teaching and helping her. It's so good to hear that he has so many people that love him and are going to miss him. Anyway, it made for a wonderful Sabath Day for us!

Chris

Uncle Sherman

The funeral of Uncle Sherman was sad especially when Steve's kids exhibited intense emotion at the loss of their Grandfather. Funerals are strange, I feel deep sadness at the loss but am renewed spiritually.

The funeral brought many memories back about my Uncle Sherman. I have fond memories of hauling hay with him, watching him repair his tractors and trucks on multiple occassion, and watching him irrigate.

The farm yard was a magical place when I was a kid. It was a place to explore, play basketball and softball. It was fun to see the animals especially the new baby colts and calves.

This is priceless...

I captured this video when Christian and I were out in CA. I'm pretty sure mooing is a genetic trait. I know my dad got that gene, too!

Brigham Young's thoughts on technology

Well, after reading Candace's entry I was thinking about why we have technology and was reminded of this quote that Grandpa gave us in the temple a few weeks ago. I love it and have used it before in talks, I just wished that I lived the principle it teaches better . . .


Sister Susa Young Gates . . once asked her father (Brigham Young) how it would ever be possible to accomplish the great amount of temple work that must be done, if all are give a full opportunity for exaltation. He told her there would be many inventions of labor-saving devices, so that our daily duties could be performed in a short time, leaving us more and more time for temple work. The inventions have come, and are still coming, but many simply divert the time gained to other channels, and not for the purpose intended by the Lord.
Archibald F. Bennett (Improvement Era. Oct. 1952, 720)

technology for a reason

I've never doubted the importance of technology to the church. Spreading the gospel, having General Conference available to so many members across the world, the genealogy library, and of course easy access to the gospel truths on resources like lds.org for members and non members to learn more. so why shouldn't it play an important role in keeping in touch with family? Whether it's using the still evolving email list or posting on here, I'm glad we have technology to help us stay in touch!