Our Picture Perfect New Years

This year we decided to spend our New Year holiday in one of the most happening places in the whole world-- Rexburg, Idaho!! :) As most of you probably know, the temple in Rexburg was recently finished and has just begun the open house. Ross and I have been excited for this beautiful building ever since it was announced. We were actually in the conference center when it was announced by President Hinckley, and Ross and I both broke down in tears. Rexburg may not be somewhere we will ever live again, but the years we spent there have shaped our lives and put us on the path we now tread. There are countless memories that will stay in our hearts and I am so grateful that we both followed the spirit (and a girl in Ross's case) to BYU-Idaho. It will always hold a special place in our hearts, and we share in the joy of it's receiving a temple of it's own. We wanted to try and go to the dedication, but since it is being dedicated a few days before my due date, that seemed a little foolish to try and plan. Instead we decided to attend the open house over the New Year's holiday as a good kick off to our year.

The trip started out very well!! Emma fell asleep the minute we got to the free-way. Ross and I had purchased the book on CD for The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman the night before, so we popped that in, and enjoyed some marriage counseling as we rode along. This is something we really enjoyed and highly reccommend for all you couples out there. We had some good realizations, some great talks, and we both set some good goals for strengthening our relationship in the new year. Emma woke up about 20 minutes outside of Idaho Falls, so we sang songs with her until we got to our hotel.

The first thing we did when we got into our room was to change into our swimsuits and head to the pool. Emma, our little Pices, LOVED the water. She started giggled and kicking the minute we got her in there.

For the last few months, Emma has been doing really well at sleeping in her own bed and has even started adapting to a good bed-time. She really enjoyed being able to sleep with us again in the hotel. She snuggled up right in the middle of us- her favorite spot! She also enjoyed being able to watch a documentary about bears while laying in bed. She is all about luxury!!

After ringing in the new year fairly quietly last night (we just snuggled up to a movie in our hotel room), we got up early to attend the open house. It was really beautiful. I was choked up the whole time, and I didn't even mind all the stairs. There were some really fun moments with Emma there too. She really liked the moo-pool. :) She kept asking Ross if she could go swimming in the font. The creation rooms were fantastic! They were painted by Leon Parson, an art professor at BYU Idaho. It was neat to see his work in the temple because both Ross and I worked as art models for some of his classes back when we were starving college students. Emma started to get a little squirly in the Celestial Room, so I knelt down next to her and whispered that, "We need to be quiet because this is where we think about Jesus and how much he loves us." and she resonded with, "I love Jesus!" and gave me a big hug!!

It was very cold for these pictures, and I was trying to use the timer while it sat propped on our car. Between freezing in the 2 degree weather, and not quite knowing when the picture would flash- we just couldn't get a very good one.

After we warmed up a bit we hit the road to head home, and very quickly remembered why we always used to plan our trips down to Utah after the sun had set! The sun was very bright and reflected extremely well off the lovely blanket of snow. We both ended up with big headaches and grumpy attitudes! All in all, it was a good trip and and we are glad that we went. We are also happy to be home and to have Emma in her own bed at a reasonable hour. Happy New Years!!!!