8 is great!

Sunday Sept. 9th, 2012 marked the 8th anniversary for Jason and I. We celebrated by going to church and having a birthday celebration for Emma. Not very romantic but still a good day. Our first anniversary was celebrated by the arrival of Emma a few days before so we have come to the realization that our anniversaries will just have to wait on the romance while we are in the process of creating our family. But isn't that what marriage is all about? The joining of two people to create a loving family...well let's just say a family :)

Normally we would at least go out to dinner but with it being on a Sunday this year we didn't do that. We did, however, go to our friends house the night before and they surprised us with a steak dinner and grilled veggies with fresh homemade bruschetta. They didn't know it was our anniversary they just wanted to serve dinner but we counted that as eating out anyway.

So much has happened during these past 8 years that it feels like we've been married a lot longer than that. But I can honestly say that it has been a wonderful 8 years. We don't really fight or have arguments. Our ups and downs have been with life and not with our marriage and for that I am grateful! I'm glad I have such a wonderful man beside me to help me along the way and support me and love me. I hope I do that for him too. Half of our married life thus far has been me pregnant and having children which really doesn't put any woman into a good mood all the time, but I try not to get too carried away with my emotions.

I love ya Babe and I look forward to what the next 8 years will bring...(hopefully half of it won't be more pregnancy and babies :) )

More of Em's B-day

We had family over for cake and ice cream on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012. We had everyone come to Grandma Childs' house because our house is in the middle of some remodeling of a few rooms. Em wanted a Lalaloopsy Doll birthday. This was kind of hard to find because oddly enough they are really popular right now but there aren't any decorations or anything you can buy at the store. I didn't want to pay for downloads so I had to improvise a little.

The cake is just a strawberry cake mix. For the buttons around the cake I used bottle cap candies and added two little black dots for the button holes with black icing. As I searched online for ideas I noticed that everyone had used some form of a button in everything because these dolls are "sew" cute. So, this was my version of buttons.

The top of the cake is the most exciting thing for me because it actually worked!!!! I never have things turn out the way I want so I was so proud when this came out perfect! The details about how to do it are on my other blog fibbermigee.blogspot.com.

The cupcakes are leftover strawberry cake and a yellow cake. I just used leftover frosting and then added a few buttons.

I printed off some images of Lalaloopsy dolls and cut them out for cupcake toppers. This way everybody could see what a lalaloopsy doll looks like and they would understand the theme. Pretty simple but still took a lot of time. I'll be happy when I don't have to keep up with all the other "super moms" out there and I can just go back to normal homemade cakes in a pan with a little frosting that says "Happy Birthday!" But doing it this way teaches me new things and sharpens my cake decorating skills...if I had any :)

Em got lots of cool gifts and some fancy clothes and shoes. She had a pretty good day with her grandparents and cousins and family.

Emma is 7

Emma turned 7 on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2012. She wanted a Lalaloopsy doll for her birthday and they are hard to find! They have so many cute ones available but you can't find them anywhere! She wanted a Silly Hair Jewel doll but the only one I could find was on Amazon and it would take a month to get here and it cost a small fortune so opted for the mermaid doll whose hair changes color. She was very pleased as it was her second choice.

I checked her out of school and took her to McDonald's for lunch. It's tradition and the kids love it because I buy them a Happy Meal! She wanted Weiner Bean Pot for her birthday dinner. After dinner we went to Trafalga and played miniature golf. She had a fun time and I think she had a pretty good birthday. The family will be coming over on Sunday the 9th for cake and ice cream. She can hardly wait!

Brigham City Temple open House

Saturday, Sept. 1 2012, our family took a little trip north to Brigham City to attend the new temple open house. I love that the church gives everyone an opportunity to be able to walk through parts of the temple before it is dedicated. My kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Nathan always gets upset when Jason and I go to the temple because he cannot go with us. This time he had the chance to go inside with us. He was so excited when I told him we were going and asked with enthusiasm,"do we get to wear our church clothes?"

The drive wasn't too bad. The kids all fell asleep and I did too. I tried to hang on as long as I could but just couldn't make it. It was a cold rainy day...the first we've had in months! But that didn't stop us from going. Brigham City is famous for it's peaches and the architects and designers had incorporated peach blossoms and peach leaves into the designs. It is a very beautiful temple. Olivia was not as happy to be there as the other kids were. She just whined the entire tour about being "firsty" and wanted a drink. It was hard to divert her attention to other things. I was finally able to do it with mirrors, pictures on the wall and "sparkelies" which are the chandeliers. When we got to the baptismal font she asked what it was and I told her this is where we do baptisms for the dead. I think that freaked her out a little because she seemed afraid of it and kept saying, "No! I don't want be baptized." Normally she loves entertaining the thought of being baptized when we are looking at Maddie's baptismal scrapbook or looking at pictures of the Savior getting baptized. Then I realized what I had said and I figured she probably thought that if you do get baptized you die or something of that nature. Kind of amazed me that at such a young age she would put those two together like that.

On the way home we asked the kids what their favorite part of the temple was. Nathan said he liked the "wedding place". He especially liked the place where "married people kneel down," and the large mirrors where he could see a lot of Nate's and daddy's. Emma liked the dressing rooms and Maddie, of course, liked the baptismal font. Olivia once again expressed her disdain for that. We got talking about things and I realized that we hadn't asked Livvy so I said, "Livs, what was your favorite part?" "Cookies," was her reply. "What else?" I asked. "Drink of water," she added. "What else?" I asked once again. "Sparkelies." I don't know what Jason's favorite part was but I always enjoy the Celestial Room. It's so beautiful and peaceful in there. I also loved all the peach blossoms and leaves incorporated. Some of the architectural design was so intricate and beautiful.

As I mentioned before, it was raining outside. Sometimes it was just a little drizzle and sometimes it was raining harder. Unfortunately, it was raining harder when we were leaving the temple. So I didn't get a picture of our family in front of the temple. I just took one underground while we were waiting for the bus to come take us to our car.

I was able to take a few pictures of the temple outside right before we got on the bus.

And then I stuck my head out the window while we were in the car driving past and snapped a few more. On the way home we stopped off at our friends the Howell's house to have a BBQ and see their new home. They just recently moved to Clinton. Outside was a beautiful double rainbow that reminds us of the Love of God. It was a wonderful afternoon and I am so glad that we have these opportunities to do this as a family and share the wonderful blessings of the temple with our children! This year Maddie will be able to attend the dedication and I am so excited to have her join us. I hope she will appreciate it as much as I did my first time. I believe my first dedication was the Bountiful temple and I remember going to the tabernacle with my mom. What a special memory. I hope it's special for Maddie as well.