I really don't have anything to add to dad's idea beyond what Jeff and Rebecca already said. I agree with them. I am excited to hear more from everyone else, both spiritually and just day to day stuff. I am excited for everyone getting ready to move. Katherine is the only one not in transition mode. I am really sad to see mom and dad moving. I'll probably still call mom a lot and bug her but now I won't be able to jump in the car and drive down for a day to hang out. It was always nice for me when I needed to get out I could go to mom's and hang out or she could do some sewing for me. I don't know what I'll do now.
Thanks for posting some pictures of your houses. That was fun for me to see them. They are both nice. The house next door to us that we're moving into is scheduled for May 12. We're hoping they can push it and get it done by May 1.
Also I want to hear of anyone's ideas for things to do with their kids. Like when Kaynel made play dough with her kids maybe posting the recipe for everyone. I need some ideas to keep my kids entertained and things. Ryan found a product called miracle music. They have a cd that first tells you what daily task you need to do and then plays a song. If you accomplish the task before the end of the song you get a sticker on this board. Once you've filled up the board you get to go on a date with mom or dad. It's costs $30 and I didn't want to pay for it so I've been trying to make one myself. I'm having a hard time getting it done with Benjamin sleeping in the same room as the computer. I rarely get on it anymore. Anyway, I want to hear about others ideas and stuff. That was just one I was going to try out.
Benjamin is getting so big. He loves to eat and he's rolling all over the place. He can get from one side of the room to other now. It's crazy. Charles and Joseph have such great imaginations. Joseph is working on his abc's and 123's. It's pretty cute. Charles is asking a lot of questions, sometimes too many but I'm glad he's curious and wanting to learn.
We love all of you and look forward to when we'll see you at baby blessing time.

Here are some pictures of our new house. We should be moving in Easter weekend if not sooner and then we will finish the basement the first of June. Hopefully we can put in sod and a fence soon and actually have a yard for our kids to play in (probably only a yard, no toys, but at least a yard). Our kids are excited for a new house and their own bedrooms but not as much as we are!! Emma is getting a queen bed and when I ask her if she likes some bedding she says no because it doesn't have enough pink so it's a good thing she won't be sharing with Edison.
We found mom and dad a house and are putting an offer in tomorrow in case anyone doesn't know so that is crazy exciting. So pray for them to sell their house quick.
Not too much else happening here. We are just excited to move and be able to come see everyone in May. Emma needs to have surgery to have her tonsils and adnoids removed and we will probably do that right after Maurens blessing. It doesn't sound like a fun process but at least we will have comfort that she shouldn't stop breathing during the night.

As all of you know it is not a good thing for me to have too much time to think about things cause I get too many ideas flowing. I just sent an e-mail to all and am following thru by putting the challenge I made in the e-mail here for all to comment on.
Will each of you committ to take a turn reading and putting your thoughts on the blog from the April conference talks?
Will each of you take the challenge to each week make a few comments on what was posted by a family member so that each week each of us have the opportunity to put our thoughts about the talk for the week on the blog. I am hoping that this way each of us get the opportunity to be involved and grow and to internalize what the Lord has sent us through his servants.
It is important that you do this as a family. That means that husbands and wifes will sit down and talk together and then make comments. Jana and Margaret and I will need to do the same. Obviously the idea is to keep the gospel and its importance as an active part of our being here in mortality.
Here comes the too much time on my hands part. I have wanted to for a long time do something together as a family with family history. After reading Jeff's post and hearing him bear his testimony a few weeks ago I thought that I would throw this idea out for some input as well. I think it would be fun to work towards working on some family names and then arrange a time to go to a temple together as a family and do the work for those names. I know that this will be a lot of work and will take a ton of coordination to make it happen. Please let me hear from each of you on this matter also.
Ok dad is thru for the time being. Oh how I love each one of you and how I pray for your happiness now and forever. Share my love for each of the grandchildren and feel free to give them each a big love and kiss from grandpa.
God bless, dad

Well, this is from Mom. It has been a tough week since Margaret wrecked her car again on Tues. Today she found out she didn't get on at Starlight this summer. Bummer. We will have to work on getting in state tuition so she can go to snow. Then she will at least be closer. We hope that we can get her car fixed but I haven't heard anything yet. I'm not even sure if it made it where it was supposed to go. We are looking forward to Hawaii soon. I had a couple of nice days doing endowments with Jeff. We were the witness couple today in the 8:30 session. Last week there were a couple of painful days with the reaction I had to the sulfa drugs. I'm glad my skin isn't covered with rash and swollen now. One thing or another, life goes on. I love all of you and I'm very blessed to have such an awesome family. Love, Mom

Wow, this has been fun tonight to catch up on everyone's posts. We need to hear from you Margaret. I thank everyone for wanting to press forward with this. My testimony has been strengthend already. It is also very fun and I think it will be very good for us to let each other know what is going on in our day to day efforts. I do want each of you to know that I pray in your behalf and put your names in the temple each time I go there. I have been trying to get to the temple each week while I am so close to the Manti temple. It has been good for me. Liz I need to start reading the Book of Mormon again myself.
I am nervous about my efforts with October conference of 2005. I worked on it some more today but it is fairly long. I hope that everyone will forgive me for this. I still feel that it could be worthwhile for each of us to review and decide what will be of most value in our individual families. If you have already done this exercise then maybe you can share how things went with the rest of us.
It will be an interesting race between the Chase's and the Hodges to see who gets into their house first. I think that I will still reserve my opinion for a latter date. I am excited for both families, they both need to have their own space and place for the kids. Katherine I am happy that the car is sold.
I would let you know more on what Mom and I are going to be doing but I have not figured that out yet. It appears that I may have a new project to work here in central Utah in the near future. There are too many un knowns for us to make decisions at this point.
Mom you had best get me a ticket home for May 7th. Maybe the Hodges and the Jenkins can let me know if they can make this event and I might want to catch a ride with someone. It will be fun to be together for another important event for the family.
A lot of things happened today that lead me to realize what a great blessing the Holy Ghost is in our life. I am certain that there is not a single thing that we need to sharpen and become more proficient in; that is more important than to learn how to use this gift. We have been promised that we can have the comforter to be with us always while here in mortality. As we learn how to use this gift I know that we can know all that the Lord would have us do and that we will always chart a course by decisions influenced by him that will lead us home to our Father. I know that he really will tell us in our hearts and in our minds if we but have the faith.
Know of my love for each and everyone of you. Let your sweethearts know that includes them. Tell your children that grandpa loves them and is proud of them and happy to see the light of the gospel in their eyes. It is late and your eyes are most likely getting heavy so I will close for now.
God Bless, dad

I think that this is so cool. Dad, I am glad that you are interested in all of us and that you are trying to keep us all close because I feel like I am always in the dark. And I hope that we can all share our spiritual experiences and feelings too. I was thinking it would be easier for me if I had a specific goal in mind. Maybe an assignment. Either read a talk or study a topic or really focus on reading the Book of Mormon, prayer, or something like that that I could report back on. I just know that focusing on something really helps me and sometimes I don't know what to focus on. The last while I've focused on reading the Book of Mormon. Since I didn't read the Book of Mormon last year I felt extremely guilty. So I have made a special effort the last month and it has really lifted me. I am happy and I know that the Savior loves me and I know that being a mom is the greatest thing I could ever do. I just feel the Spirit in my life more and I know that I never want that to go away. And sharing it now has given me another boost to be the person I really want to be. Thanks dad.
Maybe an assigment or something like that is asking too much, I don't know I just thought that would help me.
Also, since everyone is talking about moving into houses. Ryan and I are looking at the house next door to us. It would be a lease to own kind of thing. We're hoping that everything works out the way we want it to and buying a year from now will go like we're planning. But you know how planning works. Anyway, it isn't as big as I wanted but I'm learning as we're looking around that we're going to have to stay in what we can afford and get some equity built up before we can get what we want. I'm really excited though. Since they're still in the building process the guy is going to let us do a bunch of things we want done.
I love you all and I know I talk a lot.

The Hodges Family:
Since I said I wanted to hear what everyone else was up to I will write one first. We had a blast on our cruise and Kimball wants to go every year now. I am curious how the entertainment on Carnival was (Katherine?) because they say Carnival is more of a party boat and some older friends just went Carnival and said the entertainment several nights was crude and disappointing. We thought the Royal Carribbean cruise we took (Splendour of the Seas) was pretty family friendly and would recommend! Every week is the week, but this week we are supposed to have a completion rig out to finish the two wells we drilled the end of last year and are anticipating some news from those. We also have several companies interested in the Keystone project (Ephraim leasing) and are winding down here and excited about that. The Jackson's (home we are living in) are coming home in May so we are finally looking for a home. It has been exciting and depressing. Everything is more expensive than we expected so we are having to come to terms with our current budget and look for something less desirable that I wanted but it is a step up (probably many steps up) from our current situation and I am very grateful for that. I was sick with tonsilitis two weeks ago and Kimball is home sick with it now so we hope the kids don't catch it. It hasn't been fun. Emma lives for gymnastics right now because I don't take her to do anything else and she always talks about getting all her stuff when she moves into her new house. Edison is moody and pushes my patience and we hope he makes it to the new house with us!!!
Hopefully my next entry won't be so long. Love ya all,
Rebecca

input on Father's Thoughts:
I thought that was a very nice letter and touching to feel how much you care about all of your growing family. Of course I think we all are trying to move in a direction that brings us back to our Heavenly Father without too many bumps and bruises. And I think it is a wonderful idea to share insights and just what is going on in all our lives. I call home and ask how things are going and get off the phone and Kimball asks "how's your family" and all i have to say is "fine". He gets off the phone and can tell me what is going on in his second cousins husbands brothers life and it is just nice to know how family is really doing, day to day stuff and spiritual things, struggles, whatever. Sometimes I feel like I want to pray specifically for some of my family but I am not really sure what they need. So I would like to see posts weekly or monthly from all families and hear what everyone is up to and I hope people aren't afraid to share problems (not all!) and have family prayer and support on their behalf.
Lots of love,
Rebecca

To Jeff & Kay:
I hear you are behind the middle of March now so we are really having a race to see who can get into a home first. Let me know if you want to put up any wagers on the matter!!