Color Me Rad 2015

Today my sister Laura and I got to do the Color Me Rad run in Salt Lake. This is my second year doing it and it was just as fun as I remember… although the mud did make it difficult. We had a great time!

Brighton is Two

Our baby boy Bright is TWO!!! Wow does time fly! It did with Lila, too, but I feel like now that we have two kids it's just going even faster. This little man is such a light in our lives. We love him more than he can imagine.

My little man has such an amazing personality. He is such a little dude, aggression and all and I just love it. He cracks us up all the time. He knows several letters including (only when they're capitalized) A, D, E, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, P, R, S, T, V, and W. He knows a few shapes like circle, square, triangle, and rectangle.
He's so good about saying thank you. He speaks so well and I credit a lot of it to Lila. He is very imaginative and likes to grunt and groan, but also he likes to be scared. He's also incredibly smart, sweet, kind, thoughtful, stubborn, independent, clingy, loving, brilliant, surprising, and I just don't know what else to say because he's so amazing. 

He loves his sister Lila to the end of the world. He makes us as parents feel so loved and adored, too. We are so grateful he is a part of our eternal family. 

For his actual birthday we had a wonderful evening together as a family. (We'll be having a combined party for the kids later.) Right after work I headed home and we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. The kids loved it and it was so relaxed because it wasn't crazy busy and they could just do a little roaming. Then we picked up pizza and soda, headed home, ate a big dinner then had ice cream cones. We gave Brighton a whole ice cream cone to enjoy, of course he couldn't eat it all, but it was awesome to watch him be so excited about it. :) 

I promise my kids were happy to be there.

Brighton really wanted to reach the things above his head.

We love this kid! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIGHT BOY!

Payson Temple Open House

On April 29th, we had the privilege of taking our kids to the new Payson Temple. It is a BEAUTIFUL temple! I felt very strongly about taking my kids to this open house and was determined to be able to do it. Thankfully my awesome mother and sister made sure that we got evening tickets so that I wouldn't need to take off work (although I was willing to do that). 

On the way down both of our kids fell asleep in the car. Brighton gets TERRIBLE car sickness and so we didn't want him throwing up before we went in the temple so we gave him a little dramamine. We only gave him half of the pill so we gave Lila the other half. It worked like a charm. 

We hung out for a little bit before our turn started. 

It started with a video about the temples in the chapel next door. I love hearing the testimonies of others, especially the general authorities.

Then we were able to go inside. The dark African wood was so different and so beautiful. I loved seeing the apple blossoms throughout the temple and, oh my goodness, the stained glass was absolutely gorgeous! There were also A LOT of stairs, telling me that this temple is huge! 

Other than the Manti temple (for obvious reasons), it may be my favorite. The outside is just as beautiful as the inside. The spirit was so strong and it was so great to go through the different rooms watching my children be excited to see everything that was going on.

After you finish going through the temple you could go into a tent and see pictures and a miniature Christus. I was really happy that we saw the Christus, because Lila actually asked about the nail holes in Jesus' hands and I got to have a beautiful moment explaining some things to Lila and sharing my testimony with her. 

At the end they had a place where you could take a picture by the temple that they would then email to you.

I'm so grateful to have temples on the earth and that families can be forever because of them!

Happy Mother's Day

Today has been a wonderful day. I have felt very loved and appreciated. For a few reasons I was excited for this year's Mother's day. I knew that Lila would be singing in church and since she's only done this once before I was really looking forward to it. I just love when the primary children sing, but I especially love it now that Lila is in primary. 

I knew that Micah was making a gift for me for Mother's day. He actually ended up doing two things. He built shelves in our garage, hallelujah!, and he made me a growth chart. I have been wanting one for  a few years. He did such a beautiful job! I love it, love it, LOVE it.

The kids also gave me cards this morning and made me breakfast.

Both of my kids have a cold, but it was really important to me that we all go to church together so we were all together for sacrament meeting. Micah then went home with Bright on and Lila and I finished church.  I really felt the spirit today and just loved everyone's lessons and testimonies. They weren't even just about mothers. It was a really spiritual day and a great day to reflect on my many blessings. My main ones being of course Micah, Lila and Brighton. 

After church I came home to an amazingly delicious dinner of steak, potatoes, and asparagus. It was so good! I can still taste it. :)

I love this day and not just because it's a day focused on mothers, but because it's a day where people are very open about appreciating others. I'm grateful for my blessing of being a mother and I hope to continue to become a better mother, wife, daughter and sister to those that I love.

7th Anniversary

Today is our 7 year anniversary. It's been quite the adventure together. In our first 7 years of marriage, we have both finished school, had multiple jobs, moved many times, bought our first house, had two children, started a career, and had many other unforgettable experiences together. 

7 years may not seem very long, but it's been the best 7 years of my life. I love my husband, I love my children, I love my life. Thank you Micah for a wonderful marriage! I am grateful for temple blessings that make it so that I can look forward to the eternities with you. 

My everything.