A Week Of Up And Down

This week has been great and sad. I admit I was sad when Pres. Hinckley died. But there was lots of happiness in my family this week- we added two more babies! We added Ashlynn Ann Phippen, shown here, chubby cheeks and all.



She was born this past Monday- weighing in at 8 pounds even. I wish they lived closer (her family lives in Iowa). I can't wait until they come to visit!


Then, neice #12 was born yesterday morning. Baby Girl Cole came in at a healthy 8 pounds, 5 ounces. She was the biggest baby in her family. They haven't decided on a name yet, it changes every few hours.



I love my big, crazy family! We've added 5 babies in the past 4 months (3 girls, 2 boys) and have one more little boy on the way in June and then it will probably be a while before more babies. Oh well, I guess I will have to make do with what I have.

Then on Friday, I was working- it was almost the end of the day, and so naturally my office was a mess and my hair was mildly disheveled, so of course, the boy I would like to date came in to see me at work! He lives in Nibley City, where I work, and the City was doing registration for youth soccer this past weekend. Well, he came in to get a form so he could register his daughter for soccer and decided to stick around and say hi to me and see where I work. When he walked around the corner, I was super excited to see him- hopefully not too excited. Anyways, we talked for a little bit, but he had to go pick up his girls from day care. It's been his weekend with them. I had called him earlier in the week and we talked for a while, so it made me really happy that he would come see me- it would've been really easy just to come in and get the form and leave.

Saturday, I was torn between whether or not I wanted to watch Pres. Hinckley's funeral. In the end, I decided to watch it, but I made sure not to put any makeup on, knowing I would cry it all off. I cried through most of the funeral- the part I thought was the saddest was seeing Pres. Monson and Pres. Eyring sitting in their chairs with an empty chair between them- that chair hasn't ever been empty. I teared up when they were taking the body out and it showed people in the Conference Center waving their white hankies and the organ playing "God Be With You 'Til You Meet Again". Oh, and when Pres. Monson was talking about that hymn at the end of his remarks- I bawled.

Then I watched the internment at the Salt Lake City Cemetary. The dedication was pretty nice- nothing other than what I have heard at other funerals. But, what was really neat was as soon as the prayer was over, bagpipes started playing "Danny Boy" "Amazing Grace" and "Praise to the Man" in a medley. The man playing the pipes walked up a path towards the grave, stood at the grave and played and then walked back up the path away from the grave. It was incredibly moving, at least for me. If you want to watch it, copy and paste this link: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=2576590&nid=553. Select the video that says "Pres. Hinckley's Interment" and then skip to 6:00 into the video. It's neat.

So, it was a great week, full of lots of emotions, ups and downs, but definitely one of the better of life.