Feeling the Spirit

I took the kids to the SC temple for a visit.
I wanted them to feel the Spirit of our beautiful temple.
We walked into the waiting room to look at pictures and just enjoy the quiet reverence.
JuJu screamed--her incredibly loud scream twice so I decided we would enjoy from outside.
It was a quick trip but worth it just to be near the temple.

Ella Joy is 4!

Ella Joy turned 4.
We celebrated with a Princess party. She loved all the decorations.
David joined us via Skype. It was so funny having David's head sitting on the table as we celebrated. It reminded me of Benny the talking book from Ella Enchanted. It was so funny when Ella Joy kept telling David to "look here" as if he could just turn and see what she wanted to show him. The best was when she asked him if wanted a piece of cake.

Happy Birthday to our spunky, dramatic, imaginative princess!
We love you!!

Our little ballerina

July 4th in the Mountains

For the 4th of July we went to visit the Proctor family who live in the beautiful mountains of NC. It was so much fun to see them and get to meet their newest addition, Ivy. Between Jenny's 5 and my 3 the house was definitely full. We did our best to get a picture of all 8 together but Henry was on strike and Julia was desperate to join him.

Thank you Jenny for a wonderful weekend!

Happy to be Home

So happy to be home and have

cousin time
grandpa time (especially with his new Ipad)
uncle time
sister time
bubby time and best of all
daddy time

We have been in SC for about 2 weeks.
We have passed the time swimming, crafting, reading, and playing with toys that have been in storage for a year. The kids felt like it was Christmas when I started opening storage boxes with toys that we had left here. We have had a lot of fun and are going to stay a little while longer so I can make a little money teaching swimming. David was here this past week and will come again for EJ's birthday. I am really loving these lazy unstructured days of summer.

Always

Ella Joy makes up songs to everything.
This one is called "Always." Enjoy, if you can.

School Awards and Scouts

Noah woke up early on awards day.
He tucked in his shirt, wore a belt, and put gel in his hair.
It was so cute.
I love his teacher.
I'm pretty sure she must have said something about looking your best and he took it to heart.

JuJu clapped for everyone.

EJ whined and complained that she couldn't see the entire time.

Some love for JuJu.

Noah received AR medals for reading and was also on the honor roll. In the morning before the awards ceremony he had talked to me about what awards he thought he might get. He knew AR because you keep up with that throughout the year. He didn't think he would get honor roll which is mostly A's and all 1's for behavior. He got a 2 in Spanish so he thought he was out. When they read the requirements for honor roll it was mostly A's and one 2 was allowed. So he was on the honor roll. When he got home from school he looked different. He told me that as soon as the ceremony was over he untucked his shirt, took off his belt, and went to the bathroom to put water in his hair. I guess you don't want to look nice for too long.

Later that night we went to the end of the year Cubscouts ceremony.
Noah completed his Wolf and also received some new belt loops.
All I could think about was 5 guys fries and dumping vinegar all over the top of them.
We stopped on the way home.
Noah shares my love for 5 guys so it made us both very happy!