Bekah's mission call and temple day

Time sure does fly!!

It's been two months since Bekah opened her mission call!

 I've finally got my digital ducks in a row and a few moments to spare to make this post happen.

We've been reeeaaally busy!

Bekah has been really patient through it all.

I can remember the night last Spring that she decided to go on a mission.  I was working on my computer when she came into my office.  I could tell by the tone in her voice that this was an important conversation, so I stopped everything and listened as she poured out her tender experience with the Lord.  From that day on, there was no looking back.

As it turned out, she and Rachel turned in their mission papers at the same time.  We fully expected Rachel to leave before Bekah since she was older and ready to go.  Bekah couldn't leave until her 19th birthday in December.  So it was a surprise to us that Rachel's call to Mongolia had her leaving in January!  That was a long time to wait!  Of course we figured that had to do with passports and visas and such, but now we see that it was time enough for Andrew to come into the picture and sweep her off her feet.

We thought that the girls would get their mission calls in the mail the same week too, since they turned them in at the same time.  But Bekah had to wait another week to get hers.  It actually turned out to be a good thing so that each them had their own 'opening' time.  We continued to tally guesses and put pins on our map.  Yellow are Rachel and blue are Bekah.

(Nobody guessed right)

We invited our friends to come back and we set up Skype for all the family 

who couldn't come (that was an ordeal all its own).

Drum roll . . . . .

I think Dad knew before Bekah

OHIO, CLEVELAND MISSION!!!

January 6!!  Same as Rachel!!

I love this picture of my girls excited to go where the Lord wants them to go.
Of course Rachel is unaware that her mission will be changing from missionary to wife.

Thank you Lindsey and Kim for taking pictures for us!!

After that, everything got really busy!!

We took Rachel and Bekah up to Brigham Young University, Idaho (BYUI), I started homeschooling Esther; a week later I flew back to Utah for the funeral of my uncle; then a week after that Joseph and I flew back to Utah to take Bekah through the temple for the her first time.

She chose the Logan, UT temple which is one of the older temples in Utah.

The temple is not only a refuge from the world, it is a place of learning, service, and inspiration.  It's here that we make sacred covenants with God that will bring us great blessings. 

Those who have been called on a mission are encouraged to go to the temple

before their mission as much as possible so they can build their faith and 

strengthen their relationship with God.

It was great to have Uncle Rob and Aunt Heidi with us as well.

She'll be a great missionary!!
Such a sweetie!!

What you don't see is that Andrew drove Bekah and Rachel down from Idaho to the Logan Temple. It was a our chance to meet him.  Although he didn't come to the temple with us, he spent time with us as we attended General Conference of the Church and went thrift shopping in a cool vintage store.  

It didn't take long for him to get our stamp of approval.

I'm so very proud of my girls and the choices they've made!

Bekah's mission call!!

Deja vu!!

There's another mission call in the Whitaker home!!

I'm just getting the video up because of technical difficulties.

Sorry for the blurry video, technical problems. again.

And the winner is......

Bekah's Sr Prom....she wore red!!

This last weekend seemed to be THE prom weekend.  All my friends were posting pictures of their kids going to prom.  I wasn't any different, but only posted one picture from my phone.  I feel I just have to share more from that night.

Bekah was gorgeous of course!!  She picked a dress that was modest already so we didn't have to do any altering except for the length (nothing new here).  What was surprising was that she chose red this year, with sparkles no less!!  She never wears red!  I think her dress is the only red thing in her closet!  I guess she's getting bolder in her "old" age.  Her date was a sweet kid who was a friend of a friend.  We all met at Bekah's friend's house to take pictures before they took a "party bus" to the prom together.  Not that we worry about Bekah's choices, but the bus is great to help make sure the kids stay smart and safe.

The girls were all "gangsta"

And the boys were high kicking.  A little backwards, maybe??

Two of her closest friends Katie and Janica.

Isn't she beautiful!!!

3 surgery invalids

We have a house full of invalids this fine Memorial Day.

I only dare show you this picture of Roxie since she is the only one who won't 

object to having her condition immortalized in a photo.

She was spayed last week.  Not fun.

She cried all the way home.  And I mean cried.  She sounded just

like one of my kids.  It totally broke my heart.  We've done

everything to make her comfortable but those first couple of days were tough.  

Her "cone of shame" was the worst.  She kept running into things because she couldn't see.

Then she wouldn't eat and kept throwing up.  The vet fixed her up with subcutaneous water bubbles (you can see the two bumps on her back in the pic) to keep her hydrated and medicine to keep her from vomiting.  It was all downhill from there.  She started to eat and we took the cone off with the

intention of making sure she doesn't mess with her surgery site.

Voila!  Our Roxie came back to us.  

Although she acts normal we have to keep reminding ourselves that she had major surgery.

Dad's being cautious today so we found a much better collar.

The other two surgery victims were Bekah who got her wisdom teeth out and Dad who had a tooth pulled as well (a root canal gone bad).  In our kitchen, we have 6 bottles of medicine to go around.

Although we got a fabulous video of Bekah on the way home from the doctor's office, 

I promised not to share it.

But....

Here are a few of my favorite Bekah quotes:

"My hands are so small"

"Why were we here?" (to get your wisdom teeth out)

"Did we do it?" (yes)

"Where's the sun?"

(We need to get you some medicine)

"But drugs are bad!  I'm not supposed to take drugs"

commenting on the traffic:

"Why aren't all these cars at the school?" (Their grown ups)

And of course she asked "Why?" for every explanation.

It was quite the entertaining conversation.

I'm just grateful today that each of them are feeling better and that we get to

have a quiet peaceful day at home.

I'm also grateful for all those who have served our country in defending our freedoms.

America would be quite different if it weren't for their selflessness and bravery.

Thank you!

kid happenings

Lots has been going on with the kids lately.

We are very fortunate to have really good schools for our kids.

Recently, the elementary school the girls attend, was able to communicate with the astronauts on the space shuttle.  Very few schools were chosen and ours was the only one in LA.  Pretty cool!

Then the 5th graders had a special social studies project concerning the birth of our nation.

The kids were put into teams, given parts to memorize, and game rules.

Me and other parents watched as they acted out their parts and cheered for their team as they answered questions.  The kids had a great time.

There were extra points for dressing colonial.

 Me, Rachel and Bekah had New Beginnings for the Young Women's organization at church.

 Jacob had his first baptism on his mission.

I'm still waiting for a picture, so this will have to do.

You have to look really close because you can barely see Jacob in the back.

This picture was taken on the missionaries "preparation" day.

Basically it's a day to do everyday things like laundry and ultimate frisbee.

Looks like their laundry is done!

Joseph's acapella   group is getting more requests to perform.

Don't they look sharp?

And just tonight, Rachel had her opening night for her last high school musical called "Curtains".

Although I think they should have rated the play PG-13, it

was performed well and Rachel was fabulous!

  She was also supported by her friends from church.