I think this is what the Celestial Kingdom is like

     "Amy came home off her mission December 2012, we had everybody home for about two and a half weeks. What a glorious time that was! Making a list of all the things we wanted to do – we wanted to have a nerf gunfight because we like to do those, we wanted to read storybooks together, we wanted to play Clue, we wanted to play Risk, we wanted to play Settlers of Catan. 

      "We wanted to go get together with the Bairds and the Raiders and the Culps and we did that. We wanted to go to the temple – Kylie had turned 12 in September and so we were all able to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and it was a glorious, glorious happy mom moment to walk into the baptistery to see all four of my children lined up in the temple. I will never forget that moment as long as I live. To have them all there was a glorious experience. We made sure we had strawberry waffles while they were home, we baked bread, we made chocolate chip cookies. We had a lot of German pancakes, a lot of things we like to do. 

      "We were just making a list of all these dumb things that we wanted to do – just everybody could do. We went and saw a movie together, we went and just did things together. You know it wasn’t anything fancy but – “What are we going to do today?” “We need to do this.” It was just – it was so fun. For Christmas morning the kids woke up and they came on in and piled on our bed and got Ralph and I out of bed. I said, “Well I’ve got to go take my shower.” So I went in found a couple of the books that they had enjoyed so much as children. While taking my shower I could hear my children reading stories to each other The Red Ripe Strawberryand the Big Hungry Bear and the Napping Houseand King Bidgood’s in the Bathtuband they were laughing and giggling and they were all piled on the bed together – oh my gosh – I think this is what the Celestial Kingdom is like to have us all there to be laughing, giggling. It was true joy for those two and a half weeks. To have everybody there was just such a surreal experience. 

     "They were then split up when Kristy at Utah State and now this fall it’s going to be different – Kristy’s on her mission right now and she’s been gone for a month in North Carolina, I’m not sure which mission. She was thrilled with her call. So, so happy! She had arranged a surprise – she was going to be coming down here for Spring Break in March, she figured that’s when her call would be coming and so she arranged for her call to be sent down here. She took the train down here. We had been waiting, waiting, and waiting for her call, and it came the day that she was coming into town. It was on a Saturday, it was in March and Eric was over at the temple at Youth Conference in the Interstake Center. 

     "So we picked up Kristy from the Train station, we had her call with us, we handed it to her and she held it and we drove immediately over to the temple, we called Eric, he came out of Youth Conference gave Kristy a hug, and then we went over to the Visitors Center and we opened her mission call. We called Amy on the phone so she was there. Kristy turned so that nobody could look over her shoulder and see the call. She started reading it to us and she blocked it so our eyes wouldn’t glance down, she wanted to read the whole thing. So she read down, “You’ve been called to serve as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ in the North Carolina Charlotte Mission. You’ll be speaking English, You will begin your service on June 26^th.” 

     "It was – oh my goodness what joy! Come to find out she did not want to go foreign, she wanted to serve somewhere in the Untied States. She was hoping to use her sign language skills but if not that’s fine too. But oh my goodness, what a joy of having a child who is worthy to serve a mission receiving a call and being so excited about it. I’m so happy for her! So at the end of the week – that happened on Saturday – and the very next Friday, Kristy wanted to go to the temple and the temple was opened on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday – and she going back on Saturday.  

     "She really wanted to go and I said, “Well you know I’ve got this doctor’s appointment this day, and I’ve got this, this day, and the best day for me to go is Friday.” “Really mom?”. I said, “Yeah.” I took her over to Joann’s so she got some material and started sewing some skirts and – when Kristy sews a skirt she doesn’t just go get a pattern, she looks online finds some styles she likes and then she starts cutting and making it, so she kind of makes us a pattern, kind of figures it out as she goes – she’s just very talented at sewing and figuring things out. I said, “this will be an early birthday present, lets get some material so you can start sewing.” And she did. She made some really, really cute skirts. That was really fun for her during that week. 

     "Unbeknownst to her, Amy got on the train Wednesday night and got in Thursday after school. So I had gone to school to pick up the kids and got Kylie home and said,” I’ve got to do an errand, I’ll be back in an hour.” “Ok bye mom.” So I went to the train station and picked up Amy. I walked in the door with her, we are coming in the garage door – and Amy – Kylie was the one sitting at the table and saw Amy and kind of shrieked a little bit and just bear hug so tight, and we’re trying to tell her to be quiet. Kristy was down laying on the family room floor, she wasn’t feeling so great, she’d been having some cramps but she wasn’t feeling so great so she was laying on the floor but she’d been cutting some things out.

      "Amy walked down the stairs came around the corner, Kristy rolled over and saw her sister and she started crying – she knew that Amy had made this great effort to be here when she was going to the temple. Amy really didn’t have time for this trip, she had finals coming up, she was busy with trying to get things done for school and she needed to study and she really couldn’t afford it and we couldn’t afford to pay for it, but she wanted so badly to come and be with Kristy when she went to the temple for her first time. 

     "So that Friday morning we let some people in the ward know and unfortunately Debbie couldn’t be there, Ann couldn’t be there, Deidra couldn’t be there but we had several sisters from the ward that were there. So it was another glorious happy mom moment to be in the temple with Kristy. Kristy had wanted so much to go to the temple. She’s wanted to for years, she been preparing herself, and she really, really wanted to go to the Oakland Temple because its her temple – it’s the temple she has grown up with and she wanted to go there for the first time and so that is why she had come for Spring Break. 

     "We were happy that the timing just worked out perfectly, the call came, she already had her recommend from her Bishop, and she was under instructions until that call comes you can’t go to the temple, but the call came, so she called her Bishop and he said, “Ok, you’re all good, go ahead to the temple.” It was just – oh my gosh – it was glorious to have our two girls in the temple with us. So happy, such a huge blessing, huge blessing. 

     "Kristy’s birthday was going to be coming up, so while she was here that week, I’d taken her to temple hill at the clothing store and got all her temple clothes for her and gotten a temple bag for her, so she had all of her temple clothing – while she’s been up at Utah State, since right before she went on her mission she was able to go about once a week – just so thankful that she wants to go to the temple. 

     "You know so much of a fulfillment of prophecy – it was  Spencer W. Kimball that said, “so much of life’s later rejoicing is a reflection of a woman’s work done at the headwaters of the home.” Or something like that. I feel like so much of the joy that’s come into my life during the last several years is just a blessing from Heavenly Father and also just a huge wonderful opportunity because the fact that I was able to be home, able to take care of my children and raise them such a huge blessing."