Provo City Center Temple Open House

Yesterday we were fortunate to be able to tour the Provo City Center Temple during its open house. Before the tabernacle burned down, I went there many times for stake conferences and for some concerts. I was so sad for its loss, but I was so happy when it was announced that it would be re-built as a temple. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing how the tabernacle has been transformed into a peaceful and beautiful temple full of skillfully executed woodwork, masterful paintings, and lovely stained glass.

This was taken of us in the visitor's center with a super-imposed background

Nate and Austin in the pavillion

Valentine's Day Activities

Austin really got into Valentine's Day this year. He had a lot of fun making valentine cards to mail to his grandparents and uncles, and he also enjoyed writing out valentines to his friends. During pre-school, he got to make a valentine for his parents and decorate sugar cookies.

Austin spent Saturday evening with a babysitter while Nate surprised me with a dancing date. He wouldn't tell me anything about what we were doing prior to the date. He just told me to prepare by putting on a nice dress for the evening. I love to dance, so I was delighted when we stopped at a dance studio for an hour of instruction followed by another hour of open dancing and light refreshments including a chocolate fountain with marshmallows. It was such a fun evening!

Sunday morning when we got up, Austin promptly presented us with a fun hand-shaped card he had made with the babysitter's help the night before. Later on, he also gave us the card he had made during pre-school.

Austin obviously thoroughly enjoyed delivering valentines to his friends and our neighbors. In fact, this morning he asked if we could go deliver more cookies today and was disappointed to find out that we were finished giving out valentines until next year.

Of course, Austin was also delighted to receive some valentines. He got some from grandparents, great grandparents, and one from his mom and dad that came with a box of chocolates. We made sure to include trucks on the valentine we made for Austin, since Austin drew vehicles on many of his valentines to others.

Before church, Nate also presented me with a unique necklace to wear. It had three miniature corked bottles on it, each filled with something different. One had a miniature love note, one had tiny prints of a dozen red roses, and one had an itty-bitty chocolate bar molded. from some clay. I love miniature things, so it was a really fun necklace!

I made my valentine dinner Sunday evening. Unfortunately, we only had about half of the meal I originally planned. (We were missing a couple of the main ingredients for the other dishes due to a grocery shopping mishap.) I was disappointed I wasn't able to make the strawberry almond poppy-seed salad or the chocolate cheesecake Oreo parfaits that evening, but the honey glazed lime salmon and the Lion House rolls turned out well. I even made some special heart-shaped napkin rings to use with dinner too, which made things more festive.

Before bed, I tried to surprised Nate with a special chalkboard I made. It is hardly original idea, but I designed one that had scrollsaw-cut lettering that says "I love you because." Someone can then write whatever they want below. I routed a groove in the top to hold the chalk, and a wooden dowel sticks in the back so it can stand up on any flat surface.

Originally, I left the chalkboard in our bathroom with a note saying, "I love you because you make me smile!" Nate didn't say anything when he found the board though. He just changed the message: