Oh happy day, Oh happy day! He reunited with his wife whom he LOVED so much.... I want to share my testimony about prophets, especially in the passing of a GREAT prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley.  I am so grateful that we have living prophets today and know that God loves all of his children.  His doctrine teaches that he is the same yesterday, today and forever... there were great prophets in the former times and there continues to be great prophets in our modern day lives. Throughout time, prophets spoke God's words, taught His teachings and were able to guide His church through each dispensation. How neat it is to know that we live in the last dispensations of the fullness of times, how neat it is to know the Gospel will never be taken again from the earth and we will always have it here with us.  I am so grateful for Pres. Hinckley's love and devotion to Christ's church and to His people.  I can't imagine a more energetic person than Pres. Hinckley... He truly represents what Christ is all about and did it with love, with a great sense of humor and with such a sweet admiration for his wife Marjorie. Wow... can you just imagine the happiest reunion... it gives me chills to think about who must have all been waiting for him to come home.  I am ever so grateful for the plan of eternal families and that we will see our loved ones again.  I look forward to a another great prophet and I am ready to learn much from him as I did from Pres. Hinckley.  As I part this evening... I am filled with Christ's love and think of this song...

Where love is, there God is also.

Where love is, we want to be.

Guide us, His truths to follow

Help us obey Him faithfully.

Where love is, there God is also

We think of Him reverently.

Teach us to pray,

To talk with Him above

And know that He will bless us with His love.

The comfort of, loving arms around us.

A song that makes us want to sing.

The happiness we feel,

When love has found us.

Tis love we get, when love we bring....

Tis love we get, when love we bring.....

Tis love we get, when love we bring......

My favorite line as you can tell.... Tis love we get, when love we bring.... Tis love we get when love we bring.... Tis love we get when love we bring...  I can sing this line for hours.... I love my Savior and I know because He is not on earth with us, he speaks through prophets today so that we may know His will for us and His way for us to return back to Him... Tis love we get when love we bring... Tis love we get, when love we bring... Tis love we get wheeeen looooove weeeee briiiiiing.......

Brooklyn enjoying the game with Grandma

and Grandpa Kelsch

 My friend Sarah and I (she's a cutie isn't she!)

         Not so happy!

  Dude! I totally wet my pants!

Go UTES!

Go UTES!  Oh no... I am never going to here the end of this from Matt. You see he is a BIG UTE fan and I normally go for BYU.  This year, I was rooting for Utah women's basketball team! Matt usually gets on my case about cheering for the Cougars...hahaha I had been waiting all year to watch this rival game between Utah and BYU and Utah came away with an easy WIN! Now don't you fret you BYU fans, I still root for BYU football and and BYU mens basketball team but I will always root for Utah swimming! Swimmers ROCK! Matt's body says it all! (Not that looks are everything). Anyways, I invited my mom, dad and my friend Sarah Parker to go with us. As you can tell they were all BYU fans but sat in the UTE crowd! You might ask, why the crummy face coming from Matt? During the game Matt looked down to see he had a huge wet spot on his pants! Brooklyn had leaked through her diaper! It was pretty funny! I was able to see some basketball friends and their family at the game. I sure miss days of road trips traveling to play ball against other teams.... Sometimes I wonder if I will ever go back and help coach a basketball team. If I ever do, it would be with a college team.... Basketball Rocks! 

What will Brooklyn like to do?

Lately I have been thinking about what Brooklyn's interest will be as she grows older. Of course I can see her playing basketball or volleyball but lately I am not so sure. I know things change over time but I just always wonder... She seems to like to dance (hence the video of her shaking her hips to the music, I got it from my Momma). Anytime music is heard she's doing some sort of cute movement. She loves to wear daddy's swim cap and goggles and often times Grandma Bailey takes her swimming, teaching her how to float on her back and put her face under the water. Brooklyn loves bath-time! She goes right on her back and likes to lay that way as the tub is being filled with water. Rarely does she ever want to get out of the tub, she just wants to SWIM. I also wonder if she will be an interpreter as she is signing close to 50 words and is one Little Miss Chatterbox (wonder where she got that from... her Daddy!) Will she be a flute player? She loves to blow that flute away! Will want to model? She loves to walk around in my shoes! :) There are so many things she can do and I just wonder what her interests will be! Whatever she decides Matt and I will give her full support! :)

Blind Date Out On the Streets of SLC

This past week I had a good friend, Jessica Salisbury, visit for a photo shoot I was in charge of at work. Jessica and I played together in China for the World Deaf games this past summer. We instantly became friends and knew we would always keep in touch. Matt and I wanted to set her up with someone and we thought of Matt's friend and swim-mate Cody Rempfer. Matt and Cody both swam at the U of U together and have been great friends since. Matt used to worship Cody before they even met. For those of you who know Matt well enough, he is so into swimming and knowing who all the swimmers are and their best or worst times. He's just like the Rain Man! Now Cody is from California so we asked if he wanted to take a trip back out here to Utah.  It all worked out and we went on a fun date to Red Rock in SLC (GREAT FOOD) and had some dessert at the Dodo (ya gotta try it, they make the best desserts there.... so Matt says... when we lived in SLC we went there every Tuesday night since it was two desserts for the price of one... he sure misses that deal!) We also walked around Gateway and shopped for some pants for Cody. It was a great evening.  We love having friends stay at our home and stay up all night chatting. Matt and I couldn't get Brooklyn to look at the camera but we thought this was a cute picture of Jessica and Cody.  There is also a picture of Brooklyn look pretty chick in the glasses. She just loves to model glasses and hats!

On The Slopes

Shari got me a lift ticket to Solitude as a Christmas present, and just as luck would have it Loni also got one for Danny! We went on December 27th and had a blast. Aside from a few minor crashes it was a great day. Being the good brother-in-law that I am, I gave Danny a nice snow shower right after he crashed. I thought it was all fun and games till I realized that he was a little more banged up than I had thought. I felt like a jerk! Thanks for the fun day Danny (and Shari and Loni for providing it)!

Merry Christmas!!

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was all spent with family, just as it should be. We slept over at the Kelsch's house on Christmas Eve and had a great time hanging out with the family. Surprisingly the kids didn't wake us up till 8:00 the next morning. When I was younger we used to wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning from the excitement. Whayt are kids thinking these days? Brooklyn was so cute opening her presents, especially when she opened up the stuffed animal dog she got.

After we were all finished opening presents we went to Grandma and Grandpa Groen's house to hang out. They were going to come to the Kelsch's for Christmas Eve but the weather was too bad. They are such a wonderful couple! I pray that Shari and I can grow old together like they have.

We finished up the day over at the Bailey's house where we had the nerf gun war of the century! My parents got everyone a gun and we all opened them up at the same time, and then the war was on! We ran around the house shooting each other for about 20 minutes before we were all worn out. It was such a fun idea! That pretty much sums up our Christmas and we are hoping the next one comes quickly!

Matt Graduated...Finally!

I finally did it! Walking out of class after taking my last final on December 11th felt so good. It was nice knowing that I didn't have to go back! I will probably pursue a masters degree at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, but for now though it feels great to be done. After I finished my last final my family met up with me at The Pie for dinner and had a lot of fun hanging out. My happy evening abruptly ended when I backed into a car on the way out of the parking lot. Stupid me...oh well though. Live and learn right? It's a good thing that we can always continue to learn, even when we are college graduates :)