Matt's 22nd B'day. . .

Today is my baby's 22nd birthday.

Oh, how I remember that sweet little boy.

If I close my eyes, I can almost feel him in my arms.

It seems like just yesterday.

We are so proud of Matt and all his accomplishments.

It's an honor to be the parents. 

We love you Matt!

 Yesterday, Matt spent the day with us.

Here he is opening a present from his friend Bridger who

is at BYU Prove.

 Such silly, silly boys.

They were silly in High School and I kind of thought they

would grow out of it but, I guess not.

I guess it will keep them young.

 All our kids came for dinner last night.

We had pizza, salad and Ice cream cones for dessert.

Matt brought his new girl friend, Kayla Tippits.

She is so cute and Matt is head over heals for her.

She served in his mission and they were in the same

Family Home Evening group last semester.

We played the game where you unwrap the saran wrap ball to find

treats and treasures.  Here Kayla is sporting her new mustache she got

in the game.

 Matt sporting the same mustache.

 Matt and Emily showing their smiles. . . 

 Cute Jenna with Matt and Hailey.

Not to sure about that owl shirt.

 The birthday boy opening presents.

 Matt and his new hard drive!

 Sunday, I made this huge pot of chicken Noodle soup.

Matt and his roommates came for dinner.

This is what Matt requested.

 We played the unwrap game again.

The sister missionaries stopped by.

Of course, they had to try on the mustaches!

Such a fun couple of days.

So blessed that we could have all our kids together to 

celebrate Matt's birthday.

Temple Day for Sarah

Yesterday, my niece, Sarah Funk, went to the temple for the

first time.  It was a wonderful day!  I was so proud of her

for making this important decision in her life.

It was a beautiful day and the spirit was so strong.

I know she made the right decision, it was 

so evident to me.  So glad that Natalie got to

be her escort.  I just felt bad that her Mom 

couldn't be there but I hope this will help

in getting her back on track.  

Cutest girls in the world!

Next step:  Getting Nate and their kids there so

they can be an eternal family!

Primary Activity Day at the Temple. . .

Today for our Activity Day we went to the temple visitor's center.

I just love to go there.  I love it when the sister missionaries show us 

around and it seems that almost instantly I can feel the spirit.

Oh,  how I love that!

I love seeing these young girls and their reaction when the missionaries

talk about Christ and introduce them to the Christis.

I love seeing the art work on display and explaining that the

artist is showing her testimony through her art work.

Simply beautiful!

We viewed a movie about the importance of families and how

they can be together forever.

I took the opportunity to teach the girls that the warm feeling they

were feeling was the Holy Ghost witnessing to them that

what they just saw and  heard was true. 

 We went on a scavenger hunt and because of that,

we got to see and notice so many more things 

about the temple grounds. 

These are the cutest girls in the world.

I simply love them!

Hailey's Birthday. . .

On Sunday, Oct. 6th, we all gathered to celebrate

Hailey's birthday.  Even though her real birthday was on

Friday, we celebrated anyway.

We feel so blessed to have Hailey as part of our family.

She fits right in and we love her totally and completely!

We had sweet and sour meat balls,

rice, green salad, jello salad and luscious 

bread sticks.  For dessert we had blueberry cheese cake.

One thing about the Monk family, we always eat well!

Hailey would of liked pizza but my oven is not working

so we settled for meat balls.

 Blowing out the candles!

 We had to relight several times so each of the kids could blow out the candles.

Sam with his two sweethearts:  Jenna and Hailey

Fall colors and SNOW

Last Saturday, Sept. 28th, Wynn and I had the best Saturday ever!

We got up super early and went to the Rexburg temple to do

baptisms for the dead with the kids in Wynn's ward.

What a delight it was to see these kids arrive at the temple

at 6:00 a.m.  to do this service.  

After that, we went to breakfast at Smitty's with the 

Mortenson's and the Dutson's.  

We decided to go on a drive up the country!

Fall and drives go hand in hand in my book.

We went up to Palisades and then on to the Hoback Junction.

The colors were simply beautiful as you can see by the following 

pictures.  

We went on up to Granite Hot Springs and enjoyed a soak.

There is just something about sitting there in the hot

pool with those huge granite walls around us and seeing

the snow that just warms my heart.

Two words:

SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL