The Duff Family: March 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

Provo City Center Temple

Due to a fire in the Old Tabernacle building in Provo on December 17, 2010, President Monson announced that it would be rebuilt as a temple.

"The Provo City Center Temple will recapture the historic beauty of the former Provo Tabernacle through meticulous preservation and careful study of the design of the original structure. Interior components that survived the fire including wood moldings, newel posts, and balustrades, will be used as models for the production of rich woodwork and other design elements used throughout the temple."

"On Monday, March 31, 2014, the traditional gold-leafed figure of the angle Moroni was hoisted into place atop the central tower of the Provo City Center Temple."

"Perhaps the most remarkable discovery made among the ashes the day after the fire was a giclee print of The Second Coming by Harry Anderson, which depicts Jesus Christ coming through the clouds with heralding angels on either side—a picture frequently featured in LDS temples. The tabernacle painting, which sat inside the east front door, was completely blackened by residual fire except for the untouched figure of Jesus Christ himself with hands outstretched. Those who saw the painting in person were awestruck. Officials directed the print to be removed immediately for conservation and stabilization. It was handled with the greatest care, wrapped in plastic, and loaded into a waiting truck. The extraordinary occurrence was dubbed by some to be a "Christmas miracle."

The temple is anticipated to be completed in late 2015.
(http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/provocitycenter/)

Sunday, March 30, 2014

The House

So, we are in the process of building a house in Eagle Mountain. We are really excited and have been looking forward to our first home for a long time. We have really liked the Eagle Mountain area for awhile and looked around at existing houses but we didn't really like anything. Then we started looking into building and found a floorplan that we really loved. It's in a really cool neighborhood and it's been really fun and exciting and a little stressful to pick out all our own things and put our own touches into the house. It should be ready by the end of summer.

This is the model home of the floor plan we are getting.

A picture of the inside

And this is the lot where we are building.

And the street, there are no houses on the street currently but they are coming!

The Princess Party

One of Mikelle's birthday presents was a ticket to a princess party at Cravings Cupcakes shop. The princesses Elsa and Rapunzel were there and the girls had their hair and nails done, they had lunch and got to decorate cupcakes and sing and dance with the princesses.

One of my roommates from college happened to be there too with her daughter. It was fun to catch up and we had the two girls take a picture together.

March Pictures

Mikelle played two violin songs in the Utah Valley Strings Festival. There were three judges there and she was pretty nervous but did a really good job.

Jonah has "shark teeth" as we call them. His adult teeth grew in behind his baby teeth. He has a dentist appointment in a few weeks and sadly I think he'll have to get the baby ones pulled.

Jonah playing with Kenzlee. She likes to copy what the kids are doing.

Kenzlee on St. Patricks Day

And look what her hair is long enough to do now: pigtails in the back!

Ty and Oliver watching a movie together

Mikelle

Looking at the stars one night

This girl is a big fan of frozen

I told Mikelle to watch Kenzlee and she set this up for her.

How many kids can you fit around a computer?

Jonah has been sick this last week. You can tell how sick he is by the fact that his favorite show ended and it switched to the cooking channel and he hasn't changed the channel. He watched it for about 30 minutes.

We got to go up the The Grand America Hotel and hang out with some of the Utah Jazz players. They signed some basketballs for us. After this night, Tyrel also changed his mind from working at In-N-Out when he is grown, to playing in the NBA.

The kids got to take their report cards in to Krispy Kreme and get some free doughnuts. They liked watching how the doughnuts are made.

Tyrel was running and tripped and bite his tongue and it bled quite a bit; but he's a tough kid and he is fine now.

Someone stole Matt's spot.

Holding Kenzlee's hand

Late night bike riding....

...and late night movie night.

Mikelle's Rad Kids Graduation

Mikelle recently graduated from Rad Kids. It's a three week program the school does to help teach children safety and information about kidnapping. It helps teach them physical skills to escape an attack or abduction. The graduation included a demonstration where the kids showed what they learned. They had a police officer pretend to get them and the kids showed how they could get away.