Christian's Birthday

On March 4th, Christian turned 11 years old! He is really growing up. He was particularly excited for this birthday because it matches when Harry Potter received his invitation to attend Hogwarts. So of course he wanted to have a Harry Potter themed birthday party. 

He invited a few friends over and we sorted them into houses, picked out wands, played a game we made up called Don't Eat the Bogey (like Don't Eat Pete, but with jelly beans instead of M&Ms), had cake (made by Julia to replicate the cake Hagrid brought Harry) and butterbeer, and watched the first Harry Potter movie. I think they all had a blast.

Christian is definitely growing up well. He really excels at school and the piano. He also loves to read and loves archery and Legos. He is quick to be a peacemaker in our home, especially as he plays with his brothers. He is really good at setting meaningful spiritual goals in his life and following through to achieve them. We are sure glad he is in our family. I can't believe that he will be in middle school next year though. They are all growing up so fast.

Here we are at Texas Roadhouse celebrating with him the weekend after his birthday. He was pretty embarrassed when they gave him a "Texas sized yee-haw!"

Angel Moroni on the Pocatello Temple

Last week on Wednesday I went for a jog about 30 minutes later than usual. I have been jogging from our house to around the temple and then back again. It takes me about 40 to 45 minutes depending on how cold it is and how fast I am motivated to go. This time as I approached the temple, I noticed a few more people looking at it than usual. I will usually see two or three cars driving around it slowly when I jog by, but this time I saw several cars parked and a dozen or so people walking around it. I even jogged by one house that had 8 or so kids just looking out the window at the temple. I was thinking that was odd, but then I turned the far corner around the temple and I saw the Angel Moroni laying on its side in the parking lot. They were getting ready to put it on. I was really happy to be there just at the right time to watch them do it, but also sad that Rebecca and Asher were at home and would miss it. I felt like there was no way I could be able to jog home in time to get them, so I just stayed and took pictures and videos of it to show them later. 

Here are the pictures. It looks kind of small because I was trying to stay in a spot where I would be out of the sun. It was a great view for me, but I probably should have gotten closer for all of the pictures.

And here are the videos. Home builders were working on a home behind me, so ignore the music. There were also a few other people around me talking, so you can hear their conversations in the videos too.

When they finally had it on the top, I was excited to run home and tell Rebecca all about it. As I was running, I noticed how many people had shown up. They hadn't made any announcement about it due to COVID-19, but when people started posting pictures of the angel, word got out and people started to come. I am guessing there were maybe 500 or so people there by the time I was leaving.

When I got home, Rebecca and Asher were gone. I guess Tianna saw a picture of it from a friend and was kind enough to pick up Rebecca and Asher and bring them. So they got to see it after all. The rest of our children missed it because they were in school, but we were excited to show them the pictures and videos when they got home.