All I Want For Christmas is a New Front Tooth!

For years, Ken has been self conscious about his front tooth- a crown that has never matched his other teeth.  He developed a habit of not smiling with his teeth showing: 

I love his smile and often gently reminded him that I liked it better when he showed his teeth in pictures.

Sometimes I would talk him into a toothy grin, but he felt self-conscious.

Knowing how he felt, Shonna and Blake gave him a new front tooth for Christmas!  They gave him a coupon for a new crown for his front tooth.  Blake is a dentist and does the whole process right in his office.
We were going up to help while Shonna had and recovered from oral surgery, so we scheduled Ken's crown during the same trip in February.  We drove up Friday and Ken went in that afternoon.  About 3 1/2 hours later, he came out with a beautiful new tooth and smile:

I think this was the first picture taken after he got his new smile.  What a difference!  He is willing to smile and show his teeth!

Thank you Blake and Shonna  for the best Christmas gift ever!  Well, maybe second best! (The Savior's birth is still first!)

Our Framed Portraits

While in Japan, we became very good friends with Sister Gotoh and helped her remember her testimony and reactivate her.  As a thank you gift, she painted our portrait.  We finally got it framed and hung in our living room.  It is now one of our greatest earthly treasures, as it reminds us of a beloved friend and of our sacred mission experience.  

We also framed the sketch that she did of us first.  It now hangs in our bedroom.

My Favorite Things- Satin Pillow

This post is about one of Ken's favorite things.  Ken loves soft things (I think that is one reason he likes me!) and loves the feel of satin.  Years ago, when Michelle was a teenager, she made him an all-satin pillow.  It was one of her first sewing projects.  Ken has loved his pillow and the daughter who made it for him.

It has been wearing out for a long time, but recently, it sprang a leak and proved it was time to throw it away.  But before we did, we had to a get a picture of the giver and receiver together (plus a few recent additions to the family!)

It didn't take baby William long to start to form an attachment to Grandpa's pillow.

Anybody want to make him a new satin pillow for his birthday/ Christmas?

To view others of our favorite things, click here.

Ken Teaches Introduction to Birding to Neighborhood Home Schoolers

We have a group of moms in our neighborhood who homeschool their children.  I think about once a week, they have special classes together.  They asked Ken to teach the older kids about birding.  

Ken showed them the birds at our feeders, then took them downstairs to view his power point presentation on Introduction to Birding.

We were amazed at all these kids knew about birds.

In their next class, he will take them out on a birding walk.  I think they will have fun, and I know Ken will!  These are eager learners.

Caleb Blake is Baptized

We had such a nice weekend February 2-4.  We drove to SLC on Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel, then went out to dinner at Café Rio.  Then we did something we don't do very often.  We went to a movie in a movie theater.  We had heard so much about "The Greatest Showman" and wanted to see it on the big screen.

We loved it!  The story, music, dancing, and rhythm throughout were absolute genius!

Afterward, we went to Arctic Circle for milkshakes.  It was the perfect "date night."

The next morning was our grandson, Caleb's baptism at Brandon and Kim's ward in Riverton.  Brandon is Blake's brother.  Their daughter Kate and Caleb (cousins) have birthdays just a day apart, so they decided to have them share their baptismal.

There was a mix up on the time.  We had been told it started at11:30am, as had Michelle and Brian, who came up from Las Vegas for the event.  About 10:15, we got a call saying it started at 10:30.  Luckily, we had left early and were on our way.  Michelle and Brian made it in time for the baptism itself, after getting a similar call.  I led the singing and said the closing prayer.  Ken gave a beautiful talk on baptism.  The guy should be the Primary president.  He did such a good job with those kids.  The other grandparents also participated- Donna played the piano and Mark gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.  All of the cousins sang "I Love to See the Temple."

Gabe and Grandma

Grandpa with Gabe and Kenny- His arms full of boys!

Our baptism boy, Caleb with Grandma and Grandpa

How we love this boy!

The Cameron family

The picture didn't turn out well, but these are notes Gabbi wrote on the back of her program.  She has seen her mom and Grandma write down notes while people are getting a blessing, so she did that during Caleb's confirmation.  That really touched me.

After the service, we went to Brandon and Kim's house for lunch and visiting.  This is Kim and their youngest.

They have an amazing yard with a playhouse, sandbox, and chicken coup, plus lots of room to play.

This picture brought back memories of how it all started.  These four were all dating at the same time at BYU.  Blake and Brian were good friends since junior high and roommates at BYU when they dated the Hinton girls.  We decided we needed to photo shop out Gabe and it could be from those happy days.  Both couples now have four children!

Blake (fighting Gabe) and his dad, Mark- such great guys!

The Baptists?   Kate and Caleb.

I snapped a few pictures as we left.

That evening, we had planned to go out to dinner, then maybe to another movie.  But we had full court pressure from Aubrey and Matthew (Matthew is Brian's brother.  We set them up on a blind date several years ago.  Aubrey was a voice student of mine and Matthew is Brian's younger brother.  Aubrey was just moving to SLC to work, so we suggested Matthew take her out and gave him her number.  The rest is history!)  They were having a birthday party that evening for their four year old son, Nathan and invited us to join the family at their home.  We felt like party crashers, but only before we got there.  They made us feel so welcome and part of the family.  We were very glad we went.

Heavy, heavy hang over thy poor head is Prince family tradition.  This is Aubrey with their two sons, Nathan and Andrew.

That cake was so cute

Grandpa got some good pictures of me with baby William.  How I love this precious little guy.

The next morning, we attended church at Gary and Cynthia's ward in SLC (Brian's parents.)  They invited us over- along with all of their family- for a delicious Chinese feast after church.  Gary knows how to cook delicious Chinese food.  Man, was it good!

We always feel welcome and loved in the Prince home.  

Brothers: Brian and Matthew enjoying dessert.

Cynthia, her daughter, Michelle and daughter-in-law, Aubree. In the Prince family there are two Michelles and two Aubreys. This Michelle just returned from a mission to Tennessee.

We drove home, and Michelle and Brian came through St. George about an hour later on their way to Vegas.  The boys ran around the house to get energy out and we fed them scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and orange Julius before they headed on home to Vegas.  We LOVE when they come!

It was just the perfect weekend of fun, worship, friends and family!