Taryn wrote a poem for the PTA Reflections contest in our school. The theme was WOW! She won third place back in November for it and it moved on to the Regional level. We got to go to an awards ceremony for the regionals in which she got a certificate. I thought her poem was really good and would like to share it with all of you.

After A Storm

by Taryn Wolfe

It's raining outside but I'm not gonna cry.

Because when its done I can go outside

and see what it's left us behind.

When I step outside I can hear a bird singing high up in a tree.

It's song is as happy as busy little bees.

I walk down to the garden.

Down there there's so much pollen.

I feel like I'm going to sneeze but who cares.

It's so colorfull down there the flowers are as happy as me.

Can't you see?

The sky is bright blue,

and even though I feel mud in my shoe,

I'm still not going inside.

I look up in the sky and there is a rainbow, blue, yellow and red.
Now I am tired and ready for bed.
WOW, can't wait for another storm!

On Wednesday, January 21, the kids and I went to the Draper Temple Open House. Todd stayed home feeling sick. There is not a lot of parking next to the temple so when you print off your reservations they assign you to a chapel in the area and you go there and ride a trailways bus to the temple. The kids loved being on the bus because no seat belts and we were way taller than anyone else. Because of the amount of people they have going through they don't have formal tours. You walk through the whole temple on your own and at the end they put a group of you in a sealing room and share their testimonies of the temple. Then on to the adjoining church to have cookies and water. They have heated,tented walkways from the bus drop off to the temple, from the temple to the church and then from the church to the bus pick up so you never have to walk in the cold. The only bad thing about that was that you couldn't see any of the temple grounds or get a good picture. The ones I got were taken from the bus window. The temple was beautiful. Smaller than the other ones in the Salt Lake Valley but bigger than the Twin Falls temple that we recently visited. Taryn loved the beautiful crystal chandeliers and lights that hung through most of the temple.

These are pictures of the kids riding on the bus to the temple.

The kids and I went bowling during the vaction. Todd didn't come because of work. This was Max and Cecily's first time. The computers were down when we got there and we ended up waiting about 45 minutes until we finally got to start bowling. It turned out good though because they gave us 5 free game passes and free french fries and a picture of sprite. They have ramps now for the little kids to use which enabled Cecily to win the 1st game with 133 points, Max came in 2nd, Taryn 3rd and Mom 4th with 87 points. The 2nd game I won with 87 points but that was because Cecily and Max tried not to use the ramps. We had lots of fun and the kids are excited to go again sometime.

Since I received a digital camera for Christmas I thought I would try my hand at this blogging thing. I can't guarantee this will be the most exciting site. I love catching up on everything my family is doing through their blog sites so I thought they might enjoy one from me. We had a fun and quiet Christmas. I canceled piano lessons for the two weeks we were out of school and the kids convinced me to relax the chore schedule as well. We had fun sledding several different times, going to "The Tale of Desperaux" and bowling plus lots of game and movie nights at our house. Max slept in with the girls several nights for a slumber party and for New Years all of us but Todd slept on the floor in the family room. We watched movies until midnight and then promptly fell asleep. G&G Wolfe took us out for lunch the next day. We had so much fun that none of us were excited for school to start back up again.