Bye McKayla! and Draper temple trip

Earlier this week I got a call from Erin Baxter, the mother of one of my 2 piano students . . . McKayla. She let me know that she had a good deal come up with her sister to trade for piano lessons and so McKayla would no longer be taking from me. I was understood but could not help being very bummed. (Justin was even bummed when I told him, because he had been home and heard the lesson with her the week before.) I hung up the phone and cried. And to top it all off, the girl came to her lesson that afternoon and she had cut her finger nails!!! We had had a little battle over her need to cut her nails so she could learn to play on the tips of her fingers, and now when she was leaving me she listened!! I couldn't believe it.

So, this is my little tribute to McKayla. :) I am so excited to hear what comes out of her heart on the piano and through her voice in the future. She is a very fast learner and really has a lot to give through her music. She has the passion for it that I know will get her very far. (She loves classical music too and you know that will make her my favorite forever.) She lives next door and she told me she'd come over sometimes and play for me. She better! :)

Well, the Lord in his tender mercies brought me two more potential students that same night so I'm excited about them and I hope they start soon. Once they get past the first few weeks it becomes really fulfilling to watch them progress.

Yesterday my little family and our friend Marianna and her baby went to the Draper temple open house. (Mom watched Austin which made it SO much easier.)

This is obviously not the cutest picture ever of me, but that's all we got! It took forever to actually get into the temple, but once we did it was wonderful! As soon as we walked in the doors I felt the spirit so strong and wanted to talk to Jayden about the sanctity of where we were. I pulled him aside, crouched down by him and immediately started crying. I told him that I knew this was the house of the Lord, that He appears to people in temples and that I wanted him to pay attention to how he felt here. It was a pretty special little experience walking through and telling Jayden about every room. He said his favorite room was the baptismal font room. That temple is amazing and I'm excited to attend it. It also helped me realize how cool the temple is to be explaining it to Jayden and Marianna along the way. Just the symbols of the rooms in the endowment and this amazingly gorgeous building that we dedicate to the Lord. Last week we talked with a neighbor who is not a member but is working on the new temple near South Jordan. He mentioned how picky they are, how everything has to be perfect, and how crazy expensive just the wallpaper is. Yet, while we put all of this money and effort into temples to make them the best, BECAUSE we KNOW who's house it is, there is still plenty of money to go around to help support those in need around the world.

I'll tack on a few pictures for fun of the shrimpiest kids.